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Author Topic: IShow DAC hack attack  (Read 129476 times)

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Offline Fanny Pack

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Re: IShow DAC hack attack
« Reply #45 on: December 28, 2009, 06:03:49 pm »
Received my DAC today.  Excellent service via the Hong Kong express!  Came with a CDR with no label.   LOL.

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Offline Fanny Pack

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Re: IShow DAC hack attack
« Reply #46 on: December 28, 2009, 06:04:07 pm »
Quote from: meandean on December 28, 2009, 12:41:25 pm
How fast can TTL color be switched?

With each point.
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Offline James

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Re: IShow DAC hack attack
« Reply #47 on: December 28, 2009, 06:40:20 pm »
Quote
You're missing the big picture.

That's one of my favorite activities, you know.

Over the years, I've gotten pretty good at it too!  ;D

James.  :)
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Offline Fanny Pack

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Re: IShow DAC hack attack
« Reply #48 on: December 28, 2009, 07:49:56 pm »
I am kind of impressed with the physical portion of the Ishow dac.  It comes in a nice metal case that I could probably run over with my car.  I opened it up and it has a 7 segment LED for debugging.  Nice.  I did a search on all the IC parts and it is apparently only 8bits for X&Y and TTL for the colors.  It has some points labeled DMX but they aren't connected to anything.  Hopefully I can get this working.  For beam shows it would be a nice little gadget to have.  Also, I noticed on Ebay the going price is now $132 with free shipping and it has a "Make Offer" button so who knows how cheap it will go for.  I bet they are dirt cheap from the manufacturer.  As a DAC, not too impressive, but it's perfect for satellite projectors that might use only one or two TTL lasers and a set of 12K galvos.
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Offline James

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Re: IShow DAC hack attack
« Reply #49 on: December 28, 2009, 08:03:00 pm »
Quote
It comes in a nice metal case that I could probably run over with my car.

Hmmmmm.

I guess that explains why stomping on it and putting it in the mocrowave had no effect.

Oh well.

James.  :)
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Offline meandean

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Re: IShow DAC hack attack
« Reply #50 on: December 28, 2009, 08:39:15 pm »
  Now I'm getting curious about analog color to TTL conversion...
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Offline James

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Re: IShow DAC hack attack
« Reply #51 on: December 28, 2009, 11:29:02 pm »
This is the classic 7 color palette;

red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, magenta, white.

You might get some cool effects by switching between these colors as fast as every point, but it's not going to ever give you fades and blends.

What is the highest frequency of the DAC clock?

James.  :)
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Offline Fanny Pack

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Re: IShow DAC hack attack
« Reply #52 on: December 29, 2009, 06:38:15 am »
Quote from: James on December 28, 2009, 11:29:02 pm
What is the highest frequency of the DAC clock?

I don't know. 
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Offline Fanny Pack

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Re: IShow DAC hack attack
« Reply #53 on: January 06, 2010, 09:52:11 pm »
Phase I of operation hack attack is complete!

I have the source code for the USB driver and am able to compile it with my own code inserted.  So, using debug statements I am able to tell what is happening as the IShow program runs.  Unforunately, I am not able to step into it so I have to do OLD SCHOOL!

Once I capture all of the details I should be able to make a Spaghetti driver that mimics the same sort of thing and those people who buy Ishow DACs should be able to run my software.

A funny thing... my ISHOW Dac came with some prebundled ilda files and laser shows.  One of the laser shows is a Pangolin demo.  LOL.  It's kind of a goofy show, though.  It's a graphics show about some dude who has his laptop computer crash and uses Disk Doctor to repair it in time for a business meeting.  WTF?  It's not even interesting.
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Offline drlava

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Re: IShow DAC hack attack
« Reply #54 on: January 06, 2010, 11:58:07 pm »
good job.  it should be good for your cust base looking for a cheap dac.  where did you get the source code for the usb driver
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Offline James

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Re: IShow DAC hack attack
« Reply #55 on: January 07, 2010, 12:59:10 am »
Hmmmmmmm.

A Pangolin show featuring a crashing laptop......

Subliminal message?

Perhaps!

James.  :)
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Offline Fanny Pack

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Re: IShow DAC hack attack
« Reply #56 on: January 07, 2010, 06:46:14 am »
Quote from: drlava on January 06, 2010, 11:58:07 pm
good job.  it should be good for your cust base looking for a cheap dac.  where did you get the source code for the usb driver

It uses the EZ-USB chip from Cypress and they provide the source code their free development kit (free).  So, it was just a matter of installing that and the Windows DDK and figuring out how to make it compile.  I didn't really do anything so special.  The hard part comes next.
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Offline Fanny Pack

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Re: IShow DAC hack attack
« Reply #57 on: January 07, 2010, 07:22:30 pm »
Phase 2 - Complete!  I figured out the sequence of calls and just about know what the data format is for the frames. 

I should have a driver written for IShow DACs in no time.  :)

While doing this, I have been playing with the IShow software some.  It has a decent frame editor.  For the price, $135 (shipping included) I think that this is definitely a nice little package.  If you have a cheap projector and you are just a DJ that wants to project some frames and goof around then it is all you need.  Considering that I got a DAC, some laser shows, a ton of ILDA frames, and some half decent software I am really happy that I bought this thing.
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Offline Fanny Pack

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Re: IShow DAC hack attack
« Reply #58 on: January 08, 2010, 06:17:41 am »
I pretty much have it figured out.  There are some weird parameters being passed to the DAC.  One of them is blanking delay that is sent at the start of each frame.  There is also a value sent with each point that I am not sure what it means.  It can be 3, 2, or 0 as far as I can tell.  3 is start point.  2 & 0 are used differently depending on what I draw.  There is also an extra bytes for X & Y.  Not sure what it is for.  Color is standard 1 byte RGB. 

Anyway, I have enough info to build the driver now and I can play with the missing pieces to see how it responds.

Oddly, there is no way to specify the point rate or frame rate from what I can tell, yet, each frame is passed in as a group so that means that the computer (me) doesn't clock the points.
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Offline Fanny Pack

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Re: IShow DAC hack attack
« Reply #59 on: January 09, 2010, 06:59:13 am »
Success.  I'm controlling the IShow DAC with my own code now.  :)

Who will be the first to hack attack the Pangolin FB3?
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