Optimization Settings Woes in LSX

[dkumpula]

I love LSX, but I spent this weekend trying to figure out why my LSX shows are running dimmer than my Mamba MIII shows on the same DACs and same projectors. I think I understand the problem, but I can't find an easy fix.

As background, my projectors have a mix of low to mid range analog modulated diodes in them (DHOM, Laserwave, CNI, home-builts). I see the same thing on all of my projectors and have tested output of two projectors so far. Scanners range from 20K low end to DT-40Pros. Only one of my projectors has Stanwax's color correction board in it and unfortunately I haven't measured the difference there yet.

Here is what I have done so far. I created a standard ILDA frame (using both ILDA 2.0 and 5.0) with four full strength beams (white, red, green, blue) - nothing else other than the associated blanking points. Beams in LSX are usually 6 blanks and 15 on but I've reduced the number of blanking points in testing and increased the number of on points to work around the issue. With the 6:15 ratio, the same frame outputs is about one third power per color in LSX as compared with Mamba. I did some due diligence for what I think are all the likely suspects - safety zone attenuation, max intensity settings, color linearity settings, palette color scaling limits, and scanner optimizations and even animation optimizations.

There are only two things that I can find in the software other than manually manipulating the frames that help make up the difference in LSX. First is enabling soft-blanking on the animation playing the single frame (this is used to fade the last two points before the blank instead of a an abrupt termination at the first blanking point). This increases the output about 30%, still leaving a significant (~100%) difference between the two. The other setting that I see impacting it is the ExtraPostBlankingONPoints. If I increase this setting for that DAC to the max of 31 points, the output for each static beam increases almost to the output levels of Mamba MIII (about 20% less). This extreme postblanking DAC setting is really inappropriate for graphics though.

The results I'm seeing lead me to believe that my diodes are slow to ramp up when called for. In Mamba, I repeat the first point 6 times and that works well for all of my projectors. For LSX, even with the extreme extra blanking points setting, it still doesn't compare. I suspect that the low threshold voltage on the diodes isn't set high enough to keep the warmed up when called for, but I'm not sure. The greens seem to be the most extreme variance which I believe further confirms this, but again, I'm no expert.

Can anyone suggest other things that could account for this difference? Alternatively, I could install a bunch of color correction boards to increase the stand-by threshold voltage, but I'd prefer using a software solution if I can find one. For beams, I've also optimized the frames/pictures to repeat the beam points longer, which works, but again, I'd rather not have to update the frames frequently to accommodate for slow diode ramp up performance.

Any help is appreciated!

-David

[norty303]

In my experience, diodes generally don't suffer from modulation issues the same as DPSS heads do.
It would be interesting scope the 2 DACs on the same frame and see how they differ.

[dkumpula]

In my experience, diodes generally don't suffer from modulation issues the same as DPSS heads do.
It would be interesting scope the 2 DACs on the same frame and see how they differ.

Agreed. The green is the worst, but followed shortly thereafter by 445 blues. I haven't measured any responses form my 473s, but I'll do so. I have worked around it today by simply tripling the red and quadrupling the green and blue repeating points. Small circles also do the job.

I suspect the best answer is to install Stanwax's color correction board in the rest of my projectors and continue to adjust my frames as needed. Maybe Dr. Lava can add a repeat first point to LSX as that is an easy workaround for others with slow modulation/response from their heads.

I agree with your DAC question as well, but all I have at the moment are Medialas DACs.

Thanks!

-David

[norty303]

Sorry, I meant scope the frame on each software.
You mention 473 blue there as well. This is also DPSS and will probably modulate as badly, if not worse than the 532.