A new breakout board?

[DZ]

Hey guys, regarding the ground connections, there are so many ways this can be done and for the most part they all work. However, the "best practices" way is to use the star ground scheme. I put together this drawing while making the original breakout boards, hope this helps. Ideally, you should have 1 ground wire attached to the breakout board, like I said though, however you choose to wire it, it will likely work fine. I see ground loop issues pop up on wiring that's several dozen feet long, not so much in a projector with only a few inches of wiring.



In light of the other new breakout board on the block, I've backed off on a couple changes. I think it's best that I don't offer this board with a molex pin option as it just wouldn't work very well in my opinion. So this is likely the FINAL layout for this board. I want to try and get the traces done today and place the order. Will let you guys know when it's ready! Thanks again for all the recommendations with this board!

[steve-o]

Welcome back Dave! Glad you came back. Yeh, the drama seems to have died down for the moment .. Good lookin' boards you've got there.

[Elektrotechniker]

So when can we expect these?

[DZ]

So when can we expect these?

Hi Silvershot, I finished all the traces last night and will be going over them again today or tomorrow to make sure everything is correct. I plan on placing the order this week as well as the component part order. I figure it's about another 3-4 weeks away from being available.

[edison]

I agree with losquared. The idea behind an breakout board is for easy wiring a projector. If you need to tie al ground together yourself that is quite allot of work.

It would make it allot easier if the screwterminal would be like this : +x gnd -x +y gnd -y R gnd G gnd B gnd Db gnd ye gnd Cy gnd

If the screwterminal would not fit then i would loose the screw terminals for Db , Ye and Cy and replace that for 1 screwterminal output with 1 extra color that you can choose yourself by setting a jumper.

I think there are not many hobbyists who has more then 4 colors anyway. Just my 2 cents opinion

[DZ]

+x gnd -x +y gnd -y R gnd G gnd B gnd Db gnd ye gnd Cy gnd

If the screwterminal would not fit then i would loose the screw terminals for Db , Ye and Cy and replace that for 1 screwterminal output with 1 extra color that you can choose yourself by setting a jumper.

Hi edison, thank you for the input. My concern here is that you shouldn't be running ground from the breakout board to the signal input side of your scan amps. So having +X GND -X I think would add a bit of confusion.

Regarding additional color lines (Db, Ye, Cy), think about this; what if you have two projectors and one DAC and wish to display two different things on either projector. You could wire one projector for RGB and the other projector to Db, Ye, Cy. With some fancy magic in the color palette, you could have both projectors scanning the exact same thing, yet the output images would be different. That is one of the main reasons I wanted to have all 3 additional color lines available.

[norty303]

Whilst that may be clever and handy, how much of your market actually need/want that?

Personally, I'd buy a couple of the old ones again as they did (pretty much) what I wanted of them. The only significant addtion is the interlock relay accommodation you've made. Otherwise it worked just as I wanted it to. TBH, its a toss up between yours and Robs. He has the Molex headers, you have the relay. I could add the relay external to his, but I like my things neat. I for one could really do without the extra colour channels, but be able to have a signal and paired gnd for each colour channel, rather than having to take one of the mod lines off to a central grounding point for each head.
That said, I'll put up with most things

[Elektrotechniker]

Sorry if this has been already suggested but I'll throw it out there anyway. My galvos use 3 wire molex connectors, meaning they are placed like that: G +X -X . Not sure how most galvo sets come, but it would be neat if there were 2 pairs of 3 pins for X and for Y respectively. G +X -X and G +Y -Y . Just a suggestion though in case it comforts some. What do you think DZ? On a picture above I saw that only for X and for Y to be , +Y -Y and no ground next to +Y. Again, I'm just throwing it out there just in case..

[taggalucci]

Sorry if this has been already suggested but I'll throw it out there anyway. My galvos use 3 wire molex connectors, meaning they are placed like that: G +X -X . Not sure how most galvo sets come, but it would be neat if there were 2 pairs of 3 pins for X and for Y respectively. G +X -X and G +Y -Y . Just a suggestion though in case it comforts some. What do you think DZ? On a picture above I saw that only for X and for Y to be , +Y -Y and no ground next to +Y. Again, I'm just throwing it out there just in case..

According to good wiring practice for projectors, you should not wire your amps this way. DZ also mentioned this just a couple of posts above...

My concern here is that you shouldn't be running ground from the breakout board to the signal input side of your scan amps. So having +X GND -X I think would add a bit of confusion.

[DZ]

Sorry if this has been already suggested but I'll throw it out there anyway. My galvos use 3 wire molex connectors, meaning they are placed like that: G +X -X . Not sure how most galvo sets come, but it would be neat if there were 2 pairs of 3 pins for X and for Y respectively. G +X -X and G +Y -Y . Just a suggestion though in case it comforts some. What do you think DZ? On a picture above I saw that only for X and for Y to be , +Y -Y and no ground next to +Y. Again, I'm just throwing it out there just in case..

Silvershot, when you have a few minutes, read over this document - http://www.pangolin.com/resguide12.htm

I think this will answer your questions regarding ground. When I was selling DT-40's one of the first things I would do before I shipped out a set was remove the ground wire from the 3 pin signal input connector. It is essentially a redundant connection, though it can cause problems in some configurations. The document above explains quite a bit and in my opinion should be a sticky here on PL.