Topic: The Evolution of one Laserist

[Alfa Romeo]

First off, I like to say thanks to James for his outstanding creativity and motivation.

My name is Pat Allen, from Tacoma, Washington USA. I am going to share with you all, my progression in this field, from start to current day. I am new to this forum, but in no way new to the field.

The first time I bounced a light off a mirror to see the effects, was back in 1980. I used a spot light through a pinhole onto a mirror suspended from a 12" woofer, with rubber bands, modulated by audio. nice effect for what it was. little did i realize where that would lead. no picture, use your imagination!

Next time was much later, In 1993, after my brother (bass player), introduced me to the band, Mid Life Crisis, I became the Audio-Visual guy. I put together an x-y scanner using two 4" speakers. It was modulated by audio, using a red laser module. This was useful for projecting the bands audio into a x-y beam on a screen above the drummer. It was way cool and a big hit. This setup stayed with me until several years ago. No pictures available.

Within the last 2 -3 years:

Then the hard drive scanner with torsion rods, better than the speaker scanner, but still missing detailed control.

Then the galvo scanner, hand wound, machined neomag rotor, centering supplied by external magnet. No position feedback. This was the major problem with it. Nice results using x-y wav data through a modified sound card into a decoupled car stereo amp (to allow 1hz response). Still no graphics display, bummer. The lack of pos feedback and proper amp was realized. Too much time would be involved to create the requirements, thus the purchase of components to assemble what I envisioned I wanted:

usb sound card 8 channel
Compensation amp 8 channel
scanpro 20k scanners and amp
Red 100mw laser
Green 50mw laser

I am currently waiting for the 8 channel compensation amp to be released and the parts (above) to come. I’m really excited to see the results of descent hardware using Laserboy software!!

Later
Pat

[BlinkenLights]

welcome.. you are SOOOOOOOO in the right place....

[James]

I am blown away. 

That is some awsome stuff.

I hope you like to post!

You have a LOT to add to this forum!

I'm glad to see you have a camera and you know how to use it! 

I really enjoyed our phone conversation.

Just in this thread, I put you and Alfa Romeo together!  :

James. 

[Lazerjock]

Thats impressive stuff.
I started the same way building rubberband, spearker and light bulb projectors. It evolved into doing laser shows for a living, recently I jumped to government work building laser range finders for the military.

It's funny how many people there are out there that have the same creativity and passion. For years I thought I was alone. Not anymore.

Welcome Alpha Romeo.

[Alfa Romeo]

Ok, here is the update on the progress and parts I ordered

These are what have come in so far:

usb sound card 8 channel
Compensation amp 6 channel
scanpro 20k scanners,amp and DMX controller
Red 100mw laser
Green 50mw laser


still waiting on these to arrive:

blue 405nm 150mw laser
Norms triple laser diode driver board w/modulation
USB2DMX JMS USB Interface for 512 DMX Channel
Dichroic Mirror kit w/mounts for RGB dpss laser combining

soon i will need to order:

box for USB DAC
case or box or ? for scanner
mounting plate
key switch / kill switch /interlock stuff
scan fail board
power switches
misc indicator lights
Etc.


and finally I need to put all this in a case, any ideas??


still to do is:
figure out the current draw specs on the green and red laser.
no documents as they were shipped with a driver PCB. which i'll be swapping out for a triple driver board.
my red laser beam diameter is almost 5mm, would like to reduce that some.
the green is ok at 2mm dia.

FYI
the scanpro20 came with a dmx board. specs says it auto switches to ILDA mode, Wrong! only way to activate the ilda input is connect the

interlock A (pin4) and interlock B (pin17) together on ilda connector at the usb controller. i will use this as a remote shutdown switch  on the usb interface. 

sound card channel numbering was a little problem to figure out. its not sequential as i thought. also when you plug it in to the computer it is not in 8 channel mode!! even though that's where i left it set to. Must reset it every time to 8 channel. why?? work around??

compensation amp was a breeze to setup

have to wait for the rest of the rgb stuff to finish the laser end of all this.
here are some pics, comments welcome

later
Pat

[James]

Forgive me if this is a dumb question that you have already answered, but....

What did you do to get the 6 channel correction amp kit to work right with the 8 channel USB DAC?

Did you switch out all the pots for 50K?

I think there are a few other people on this forum who would like to know what you did and how well you think it works!

James. 

[Alfa Romeo]

the pots were 50k already, as shipped from drlava. the 8 channel sound card is only sending 6 channels to the comp amp. left the last 2 channels as audio outputs. notice the pcb wiring pic. call it future expansion!! hehe

Pat

[James]

So, all 12 pots were 50K?

I think that is what drlava had suggested as a quick fix to make it work with the 8 channel USB DAC.

On the original correction amp, the trims for offset were only 10K and didn't have enough range to go down low enough to correct for a 1.2-ish DCV offset.

The DC offset on the other 6 channel USB sound board are more like 2.25V.

James. 

[Alfa Romeo]

yes all pots were 50k. offset and gain adjustments went great.
i did not realize the 8 ch had required larger pots. guess i lucked out on that!! 

pat

[Alfa Romeo]

Here Goes another land mark.
been a few since my last post (as usual)

the usb remote interface controller is pretty much done.
features include:
1. 8 ch sound card stripped and decoupled
2. compensation amp 6 channel
3. USB2DMX controller made by JMS
4. USB hub (powered) to eliminate the variance in the compensation amp between computers and to allow an additional
port for my DMX controller to connect to. all on one usb cable to the PC.
5. Spare USB Input port
6. Select ILDA or DMX Mode of operation.
7. Visual DMX Data LED
8. Visual ILDA Data LED
 
Need to finish, in various stages of completion:
9. Shutter Control from remote. linked to interlock
10. interlock trip and reset from remote
11. Laser Emission monitor LED

here are a few pics, stay tuned for more!
pat

[Alfa Romeo]

My RGV Scanner is on the last stage, waiting for the enclosure.
it has a few things to finish:
1. shutter to interlock
2. emission indicator
3. evaluation of the ilda test pattern
4. deal with those crusty lossy galvo mirrors. (idea- portable HD platters,silica, lighter, better reflection amount?)
5. beam diameters are kinda big on red, maybe violet also.
not much more.

Going to analog modulation from TTL, was like so Awesome!!! mass colors!!
used norms triple laser driver w/ analog modulation, was a good call.

I'll post some pics on separate postings to follow.
think scanpro20k mirrors replacement and scanner final tune with new mirrors!! comments?
later
pat

[Alfa Romeo]

20k test

[Alfa Romeo]

color wheel

[Alfa Romeo]

lossy galvo mirrors

[Alfa Romeo]

mocked up on board to get an idea of size for layout on top and bottom of the enclosure