Topic: Laserboy ILDA to Laser Projector Not Working

[thefabricator03]

Hi all,
I have just brought a laser projector that comes with a SD card with stored images and I can get the stored images to work fine but when I create a image using Laserboy, it will not display the image.
I have tried importing a ILDA file from the SD card into Laserboy and exporting it again and the image will not work. I am thinking I need to change some settings for my projector?

[James]

It is most likely that the images are 2D but stored as 3D on the card that came with your projector.  Are the files .ild or .ctn? If they are .ild they are most likely ilda format 0. That will open just fine in LaserBoy but if the image is actually 2D when you save it from LaserBoy it will be ilda format 1. If you look in menu x from main you can force LaserBoy to save 2D images as 3D. Try that and let me know.

[thefabricator03]

Thanks for that James, it was indeed the issue.
Also thanks for your hard work in creating this software. It is a pretty neat program!

[James]

Thanks!


Have you checked out any of the YouTube tutorials?

[thefabricator03]

Yeah I have, they are very helpful.
My goal is to set up my projector to project DXF templates for marking out steel assemblies. I will need to have custom software written for my application, as in to simplify the workflow from our CAD program to the workshop floor. I am sure Laserboy will help my programmers out with an example of how the software should be done. I plan to make my completed program open source as well. I have benefited from the open source community of LinuxCNC for many years and I want to give something back.
Thanks again for your software!

[James]

I'm assuming you are aware that LaserBoy reads and writes a reasonable subset of dxf.

[thefabricator03]

Yeah I have been trying to get Laserboy to export one of my DXF files to my projector but cant figure out why the projector wont project the image.

I cant even get the default Laserboy DXF files to export and show on my projector,  I can output ILDA files and view them on the projector but not DXF. Do you have any idea of what I could try?

[James]

Your projector only displays ilda format 0. So you import dxf into LaserBoy and save it as ilda. I could be very helpful in getting your project to work. You need to know how to size and align the projection for it to make any sense.


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[thefabricator03]

Thank you for your offer to help with my project,  when I need help I will post on this forum, that way others will get to share the information if they need it.

I have tried to import the dxf files then output a ILDA but it still wont work on my projector. How can I make sure that the exported ILDA file is format 0?

[James]

When you import or export ilda LaserBoy gives you a list of sections in the file. Like I said, you need to set LaserBoy to save all ilda as 3D format 0.

[thefabricator03]

Attached is a screenshot of my x menu settings,
I have set save ild 2D frames as 3D,

When I output the ILDA file I get a option to select the directory output location and then option to select the effect output. After I type a file name and export it then shows the ild file stats which I cannot do anything with.
I must be missing something because I have tried most things I can think of and still cannot work out how to get it to work.

[James]

You don't want to call any effect on your frames. You just want to save them. I think I could clear a lot of things up with a voice conversation.

[thefabricator03]

Hi James,
I would do a voice chat but I live in Australia and from what I assume you live in the US? And I have been mucking around with this when I get a break in my busy schedule so I dont know when I might have a time that would suit both of us.
When I get to the output menu "laser art output options" I select number 1, ild save current frame.
From what I see I am doing the correct things but not getting the DXF ILDA output to work on my projector. I can import and export ILDA files without issue but importing a DXF and exporting as a ILDA seems to cause some issue with my projector.
This projector is just a unit I brought to test out my idea of laser template projection. If I can get it to work, I will look at building a much better projector. The projector has a dial on the back that I can change the size of the image, am I correct in thinking that I can project a image and scale it to a known object and the whole frame will be to scale?

[James]

Well, I am on FaceBook so you could call me from there.

DXF has nothing to do with laser display so it needs to be modified before it can be scanned.

Scanners are magnetically driven mechanical devices that have mass, acceleration, deceleration, etc...

In order for an ilda file to work properly on your projector, it must be optimized. That means that all the vectors need to be rearranged to be in the order of the shortest path through all of them. They also need to have points added along the lines to control the scanner velocity. A scanner can only rotate so far within one clock cycle of your DAC. Sharp corners in your image need to have added dwell points so the scanners can come to a complete stop before ripping off in another direction.

LaserBoy can do all of this.

Menu h allows you to do these things individually or all together on one frame or the whole frame set. You can adjust all of the parameters of optimization in the [Tab] menu to suit your projector system. The default values of these factors are for using a modified sound device as a DAC, so they are setup for a 48KHz clock.

If you import the ctn.wtf file, it will change all the settings to be more appropriate for your SD card reader DAC.

When you save optimized art as ilda, you need to make sure that automatic minimization on save is not enabled in menu x, otherwise your optimizations will be stripped out.

[thefabricator03]

Thanks James, have managed to make some progress,
I created a simple DXF square drawing that I imported then optimized and I can get it to display on my projector. Does this mean that the other DXF files I am trying to view on the projector are beyond the capabilities of the projector?
I have tried optimizing my other DXF files and I cant get them to display.