I received my LK-PD2 from Linna today - just 6 days after making payment! Breaking down the unit demonstrated the same workmanship described by Brad and others on the LK-PD1. It is the first projector from China that I've seen that demonstrates pride of workmanship. It looks better than nearly all of my builds/rebuilds - not that I'm a master craftsman though.
Even after the long journey, the dichros were positioned accurately. Taking the the dichros out to measure power levels was easy as there is no hot glue and the mounting bolts weren't overly tightened. Reattaching the dichros and re-aligning was easy with the brass dichros which somewhat resemble Dave's.
My trusty Laserbee told me that Green is producing 126mW average, Red is 107mW and Blue is coming in at 394mW. All lasers above spec! (Another first with my history with Chinese manufactured projectors.) The combined white looks quite good to my eye - slightly cool as the blue is more than 30% above spec. Beam overlap looks surprisingly good for an inexpensive unit - at least over the first 10 feet or more. I haven't had time to look at the divergence at greater distances yet, but this unit obviously isn't intended to replace a high power beam box.
A couple more observations:
DMX mode works as described and then some. Some of the movements are adjustable slow to fast that aren't listed in the directions which is appreciated. More importantly, if you hook the LK-PD2 to a DAC/ILDA cable, the DMX mode automatically changes so that channel 1 allows you to adjust the grating rotation speed and channel 2 becomes the grating selection option. Everything else is ILDA as it should be.
The optical deck is only large enough for the lasers. The galvos and effects wheel are mounted to the bottom of the case itself. As the case is surprisingly small, there doesn't seem to be enough give to make much of a difference when hitting the ~5mm mirrors.
When using ILDA, DMX values for channel 0 and 1 of zero default you to a static 3D lenticular effect. I would have expected that it would default to an open slot. I remedied this in a couple minutes by drilling new mounting holes in the effect wheel to ensure that it defaults to open (no effect) if no DMX signal is received. This change will effect the auto and sound modes, but I personally never use those modes.
The effects wheel has four open slots in addition to the 4 rotating effect wheels so you CAN add a few more effects to the wheel as Brad pointed out earlier. Unfortunately, these open holes do not have rotating mechanisms and there is not enough clearance to install more to the effects wheel as it is currently designed. This obviously isn't a problem if you are happy adding non-rotating effects. Also note that upon power-up, the effect wheel resets quickly causing a loud rattling for about a second as the effects vibrate. It does not make any noise to speak of when adjusting the effects wheel after that.
All in all, my first impression is this is a great buy. I'll probably work on replacing the diode drivers with an analog driver in the near future. I'd also like to change the galvos out, but the galvos and amps that come with it appear to be of Lilliputian manufacture. Considering how tight everything is, you'll likely have to buy a larger case for that upgrade.
Thanks to Linna and company for delivering (even more than) what was advertised!
-David
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