I'm a student, very new to this, and need help. Want to build my first scanner.

[JohnYayas]

Very very expensive compared to what?

You can find all sorts of sound devices made for pro audio applications that are designed to be compatible with ADAT technology. They have been around for so many years that there are tons of them available used. A lot of them are designed to have both unbalanced, single-ended -10dBv outs AND balanced +4dBv outs that require no correction amp at all. I have an Echo Layla 24/96 that has the first 6 channels' decoupling caps shorted out and that's it! It works just like a modified ADAT. It IS a hard drive based ADAT!

Using an ADAT to record a show made on a proprietary laser controller back in 2003 is exactly what gave me the idea to do it all in software.

DigiSynth is a laser software package that costs thousands of dollars.

[james]

Oh.

LaserBoy is free.

Double your money back if you are not completely satisfied!

[mixedgas]

Yes and no. The pain you speak of is mostly associated with the cheap CM106/108 USB sound cards due to driver issues and voltage drift. There are some soundcards that would be a dream to work with and in fact the VERY VERY expensive DigiSynth software does exactly that. Streaming abstracts to a sound card is much more natural than to a frame based DAC, especially when streaming at 96khz. But otherwise, I agree that sound card DACs are more trouble than they are worth.

I forgot about some of the high end ones.

Echo Laya, Echo Gina second Gen.... Which are going about 150$ used right now, and at that point you get a Riya USB..

Steve

[james]

It's all a matter of what you want to do with it.

Getting a modified sound card puts you into a well established area of laser display. You can use a lot of applications, open source and not. You can also write your own with a very good amount available resources. Think of how many applications and software libraries are out there that were written to work with waves and audio streaming. Plus you can play laser shows that have been digitally transcribed from ADAT recordings..... with synchronized stereo sound!

You can get in for about $20 for the card and another $25 for parts for the correction amp. If you really like it, you can get a pro audio device.

Recognizing the connection between laser signals and audio streams will open up a whole area of possibilities that can emulate just about anything you might do with any particular "brand name" proprietary laser DAC.

Any improvements to computer digital audio devices and technology will benefit you well into the future.

~ AND ~

More than one of the newer DACs out there now can play LaserBoy waves! What does that tell you?

There is some real irony for you: a specially designed laser DAC that can double as ....... wait for it .......

.............

A SOUND CARD!

.

[mixedgas]

And in the interest of 100% disclosure, James should tell you that once you create your wavs, you then have to go edit your show in something else. Like a audio editor. This makes additional steps, and restricts you to to certain types of effects and animation. This technique makes it very difficult to "snap" a animation to varying spots in a show timeline. Yes, it will get you up and running. Yes, you can do some really cool things, some of which are not easy to do in low end software. Is it a efficient use of your time and resources?, compared to a full blown unified, software package, not really.

WAV is also horriby inefficient for file transfer, compared to just storing a few ILDA files and manipulating them.

Laserboy is a well-hung tool horse in the stable, but it is very time consuming to do things that way.

CM106X family based chips are getting to be a PITA with Win 7.

Steve

[james]

Not exactly. Yes. You can edit audio tracks in another app like Audacity. That just makes it more flexible. But you don't have to. You can import a show as ild. Set the frames per second for output. Generate a 6 channel wave. And then use LB to splice in the stereo audio making it an 8 channel wave. This has been done with great success from ild exports from other pro laser software, with all of their special effects transforms intact.

LB imports and exports ild, DXF, wave and even formatted ASCII text tables. So sharing your art is pretty easy. You can even use the text tables to import / export to spread sheets and math CAD apps. You can also use the wave file format as a stripped, un-optimized storage medium and LB can read them and tell you that they are not ready for scanners. LB can also import raw waves made from ADAT transcriptions and other pure analog sources and in some cases do a very good job of re-framing the art based on examining the blanking patterns.

The point is that you can make one wave file with laser signals and stereo sound that will play from any OS with nothing but an ordinary wave player; no laser software required what so ever. And that wave can be re-opened in LB and converted back into perfectly framed color laser vector art.

The C-Media CM6206 is their current supported chip. It is the one found on USB devices that are on boards with full 8 channels populated. Note: If you are reading this post and have a CM106 with a kit correction amp and you want to change to the newer CM6206, you should contact me for an upgrade to the correction amp. The fixed 5v regulator or the 5.1v zener diode will not give you enough range to correct the offset. There is a variable negative voltage regulator retrofit.

When I wrote "In any event, choosing a DAC / software solution is a lot like choosing a religion. You'll figure it out." I wasn't kidding.

And the "You'll figure it out" part doesn't mean you'll figure out what DAC to use. It means you'll figure out that the choice is like a religion!

[echelon]

Sorry I've been gone everyone. I appreciate your help so much! Tomorrow is pretty busy with a bunch of projects due and a presentation to give, so I'm still not able to respond to all this great advice.

I'll try to come up with a complete build sometime within the next few days. I started this spreadsheet; you're more than welcome to add/edit/correct: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...kh1T1c1SUlVNnc. (I am pretty certain I want the Etherdream DAC, though.)

Feel free to recommend anything that is missing--there's a ton of stuff that I know I must've missed. (Remember, I'm an electronics newbie!) I'll read up on galvos soon and try to decide on a set very soon.

Thanks everybody

[james]

WRT Etherdream DAC:

One more vote for SD Card support of ILDA plus LaserBoy WAV file playback would be nice.

It already has SD card and WAV playback support. J4cbo can correct me if I am not.

[dsli_jon]

Merry Helium-Neonmas..

...I even 'old-skooled it up' for ya.. just lookit the size of that 'emission-indicator', will-ya?!

Welcome to the Official End of your Retirement Fund..
PM me your addy, I'll be back in the office later this week...

ciao
j

[echelon]

Jon!!! Holy -- that is -- so freaking awesome!!!!!

You are _not_ sending that to me. There's no way, that's too freaking sweet.

JUST NO WAY. NO, NO WAY.

Really???

...

Thank you so, so, so, so, so much!! I do not deserve this much kindness. I sent you a PM, but I had NO idea this was what you were sending my way. If I had, I don't think I could've contained my excitement or gratitude. This is too kind of you!

I promise I'm going to do my darnedest to make you proud. I've got one more week left, then finals are finally over. I'm going to work really, really hard this summer on my build.