Looking for someone who can create a basic light show for us

[colouredmirrorball]

I'm very glad the projector could read my files! It means my program is now capable of producing useful files.

Do you need to enter the filenames in a file somewhere? Normally you can specify some additional settings, is one of them animation speed? Maybe that can slow 0_to_64_optimised down. I'm not sure how I can slow them down myself, need to add that option to the program.
It's great that you can see all (or most) numbers in that file since that means colour index doesn't matter. Are you sure you can see 1X? All frames between 25 and 62 have blue in them so it's most likely you can only see those. Though, it's possible the manufacturers had the sense to connect the modulation wires of the laser to intensity instead of blue...

So, it's possible files with no output just need to get another palette index and they're set. That wouldn't make much sense since white is colour number 56 in the 64Ilda palette... so it should be visible. Try this file, it now has palette colour nr 41 on all points.

[mixedgas]

[QUOTE=egghead27;297845]Hi guys,

Software says this new file is square to within 1%.
Could be image size pots in galvo amplifiers are incorrect if its not.
Try this, its square, and its BLUE.
Also attached some Blue text.

Now you need to play with "speeds" in the command text file. It might help if you copy/paste the original command file into your next forum post.


If I have to, I can resize images with more or less points and add anchor points at corners.

See attached.

Steve

[egghead27]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the responses, I can play individual files with this projector, there is a basic LCD screen and menu system and I thought this was less risky than a programme file with speeds set and the like. As mentioned earlier I will redo the testing tonight against a larger surface and check the distortion is not being introduced due to the laser hitting walls, floor and roof simultaneously.

I also tried the ilda viewer recommended, it appears to be only bundled with 64 bit library files so I had to install on another machine. (the machine I am lasering on is XP 32bit as this was the only supported hardware platform for the DAC, although since I am not using the DAC the point becomes moot)

It loaded the files OK so I have more of an idea what they should look like

I will create a programme file later tonight and play with display speeds if this is what you think is making the non optimised 0 to 64 play silly buggers

I am also fairly sure I could see the 1-10 in optimised file , although the whole file plays through in somewhere between 1 and 2 seconds so its a bit difficult to be 100% sure.

Will update you all with the next lot of testing

Regards

Kurt

[colouredmirrorball]

Don't bother with the non optimised 0 to 64 file, it will never play right. See if you can slow the optimised file down.

Yes, IldaViewer only works on Windows 64 bit, but compiles on 32 bit and OSX. There are instructions in the opening post, if you're comfortable with that.

[egghead27]

Hi Everyone,

We ran some tests last night , below are links to the video we took. Ignore the background sound, it was raining

CMYRGB - heavily distorted
http://youtu.be/yvRZGdofmfs

blueswirl - plays fine
http://youtu.be/72gQggbSyyo

1to64 optimised - some numbers appear upside/reversed
http://youtu.be/_C3Y0rL8ruc

ildatest - crosshairs in middle only half displayed and circle incomplete and offset
http://youtu.be/HiDp7_fBtgQ

7bluecircles - not particularly circular however reasonably close
http://youtu.be/-Kvib29i6UU

bluesquare -slightly distorted
http://youtu.be/yFhDqRyjl_k

I also downloaded the ilda file here
http://laserpointerforums.com/f47/wa...lda-89325.html

and it played fine

I also tested rain.ild - it scrolls what look like hieroglyhics from left to right. The output looks kinda similar and just as illegible as the CMYRGB video above
bluetest looks fairly square with diagonals and central circle looking OK. the central circle appears to be two arcs that dont quite meet and the square corners are slightly rounded

from what I understand of the files, the ones that are multiple frames such as 1-64 and blueswirl play OK, others that appear to be a single frame such as 7bluecircles, ildatest and cmyrgb distort ?
is that a reasonable statement ?

they all appear to play OK in the ildaviewer software

[egghead27]

Hi Guys,

I have tried a quick programme file on the device to play with speed settings

contents of file are

ildatest.ild,5,100
ildatest.ild,20,100
ildatest.ild,40,100
ildatest.ild,60,100
ildatest.ild,80,100
ildatest.ild,100,100
1_to_64.ild,5,10
1_to_64.ild,20,10
1_to_64.ild,40,10
1_to_64.ild,60,10

first field is file name, second field is speed, last is number of loops
going above about 40 didnt seem to have an impact on the display speed that was obvious to my eye


basically I was trying to see the impact of speeding up/slowing down

what was interesting was the ildatest looked a bit more coherent at moderate speeds and the 1 to 64 is definitely showing numbers upside and backwards
it also does not display numbers above about 55 suggesting the top part of the palette cannot be displayed

The video will be online in an hour or so at http://youtu.be/Zq3a-eHd1j8 so hopefully this may give you all some clue as to what is going on
its a little more purple than what was actually visible to me however I suspect it was the camera in my phone not coping well

[egghead27]

OK now I am really confused, since running the programme file the laser is now doing the following

swirlblue seems to run very slowly so it looks more like a slow moving snake
cmyrgd is now legible (although upside and backwards)
bluetest looks nice and square
rain works fine although upside and backwards
bitban1 is still OK
0to64 optimised is still the same
0to64 non optimised now plays, a lot faster than the optimised one but is now legible (backwards)
ildatest circle and square not line up and look like normal shapes
7bluecircles loooks better
bluesquare - nice and square, writing legible upside and backwards

video will be online later - http://youtu.be/o7WHo33cZio

this is seriously making my brain hurt, perhaps it default speed is wrong and the it has remembered a more sensible speed ?
strangest controller programming I have ever seen

[masterpj]

That scanspeed looks like 10~15kpps or so (but hard to tell because of camera exposure).
It looks like you need the files inverted in both x and y axis.
It might be a setting on the projector and you have toggled on invert.

Or if you mind opening up the projector you need to swap wire to pin 1 on the ilda connector with wire to pin 14
and wire to pin 2 with wire to pin 15

It's interesting to see it reads the color pallete but seemingly doesn't draw it all.
No problem just using the color pallete but only in blue will make that work from what I'm seeing.

I can't 100% confirm this is 15kpps but if the circkle is touching the squares and looks fairly decent to proper round inside of the square I can provide help.

I have made graphics shows for projectors with stepper motor scanners (to be exact it was a 3D animation of domino's falling with real physics)

If the circkle is properly inside of the square where the circkle touches the square with its ends close to almost exact *or exact* then you are good to go!
The speed should not be increased more then that or else the square starts shrinking. It grows if you slow the frame down (you don't want either).

[White-Light]

Just to add to what PJ has said, the ILDA Test pattern should be projected at 8 degrees otherwise it's meaningless in determining speed.

You can work out how large to project it with some basic maths, if you're unsure how to do trig, there's a calculator to try here:

http://www.pagetutor.com/trigcalc/trig.html

Treat X as the projector aperture point and Side A as the wall. B is the distance from the projector to the wall.

Angle X should be filled in as 4 degrees (1/2 of 8 as you're only calculating 1/2 the projection in one go)

If you fill in B (the distance you measure to the wall in centimetres) and then X (as 4 degrees), it will calculate distance A for you (in centimetres).

Double Distance A once calculated and that is the width you want to project the pattern.

To project it, adjust the size in your software ie X, Y down VERY SMALL ie maybe 10% or even less - BEFORE projecting as the ILDA test pattern has the ability to damage scanners if projected too wide as it's very taxing.

Set the scanner speed in the software to 12K and make sure you're using the 12K ILDA pattern.

Project, then measure the size of your projection on the wall (- large outer square NOT the inner square - keep the ruler above or below the projection to avoid reflection, and watch your eyes are not at the same level as the projection when turning around to walk back to the projector to make further adjustments). If its less than width of twice length A, then start to increase the size controls slowly until you have the outer square at the correct size (ie twice distance A in width).

You will then be at 8 degrees.

If I've over simplified that I apologise, I wanted to make it easy to understand.

[mixedgas]

PJ, This project is All yours.....

Steve