Photon Upgrades and LSX Target World Fun

[dkumpula]

Hey folks!

After some years of disappointment with underpowered and/or TTL projectors that I purchased years before starting to build my own, I finally got off my butt and spent a few months doing major upgrades to five RGB projectors. The end result was doubling or tripling output, some galvo improvements, better cooling and of course, they are all analogue modulated now.

Thanks to the recent price drop in this field, the price tag for eleven laser modules, four sets of optics, two scanners and miscellaneous parts resulted in bill of under US$4K. Wow, that's less than I paid for a single (cheapo) projector 6 years ago. However, note to self: Daughter must now get scholarships for college or learn to retread tires . . .

The upgrades didn't result in anything terribly impressive looking from the black box perspective so I won't bother attaching those pics, but it can produce some cool photon-yumminess.






Some fine tuning to the projectors and my skill-set is still required, but I'm having a lot of fun exploring LSX's capabilities. After adding in a bunch of bounce mirrors and setting up over a dozen target worlds in LSX, I managed to give the updated environment its first real workout. (Note: I am still on the LSX learning curve and have neither the knowledge of Colouredmirrorball nor the artistic sense of a Swamidog . . )



-David

[ImageLight]

Wow, that room is totally awesome.. You must have some wicked house parties.

Mark

[Displaser]

David,

Amazing media room. I'd likely lock myself inside, never to be seen again...

Well done.

Greg

[dkumpula]

Thanks, guys! There is always room for new projects and improvements, though!

Amazing media room. I'd likely lock myself inside, never to be seen again...

Well, Greg, it would be an interesting experiment on how long one man can survive on a steady diet of wine, water and photons!

Cheers,

-David

[JasonB]

After adding in a bunch of bounce mirrors and setting up over a dozen target worlds in LSX, I managed to give the updated environment its first real workout.

dkumpula,

Can you please explain a bit more about how you applied your target worlds ? I'm trying to get educated on this part of the craft AND how it works in LSX. Did you just use them for the static beams or is their functionality involved than that ? My understanding is the 'screen' area is for graphics and target worlds are more for beams ?

P.S. I really like how you combined triangles to create a star towards the end of your work. Nice show!

... I aspire to approach your level of knowledge ...

P.S. LSX screen shots for world setup, .RTD snippets are welcome! (A man can hope, right ?)

-Jason

[dkumpula]

Can you please explain a bit more about how you applied your target worlds ? I'm trying to get educated on this part of the craft AND how it works in LSX. Did you just use them for the static beams or is their functionality involved than that ? My understanding is the 'screen' area is for graphics and target worlds are more for beams ?

Hey Jason! Target worlds in LSX are simply a means for defining what portion of the projector's possible projection limits you wish to project to. They are applicable for both graphics and for hitting bounce mirrors with beams. Targets can be as simple as defining a reduced square size to project onto (e.g. For higher scan speeds or to hit a bounce mirror). You can also define several parameters (eg pincushion) to compensate for when you want to project onto surfaces that are at odd angles compared to your projector. This allows you to make sure graphics like a square are still square when projecting onto that target zone. Targets in LSX can be extremely precise with decent scanners and I have had great success defining reliable targets down to a millimeter or two with the projector being 15+ feet away. They really are easy to define and update as needed so I doubt you will have any issues. You can even project onto multiple targets simultaneously and use any defined target zone for any projector and/or show you want.

P.S. I really like how you combined triangles to create a star towards the end of your work. Nice show!

... I aspire to approach your level of knowledge ...

That's really generous of you as this was just my first attempt to do a show in LSX. There are very talented people doing fun stuff with the software and it's always nice to get to have new 'additions to the LSX family'! Feel encouraged to hang out on the PL chat room as there is almost always some fellow LSX users hanging out there that are happy to share ideas.

P.S. LSX screen shots for world setup, .RTD snippets are welcome! (A man can hope, right ?)

-Jason

Sure, will do when I get back off the road in a couple days!

David

[JasonB]

Thanks, David. Your precise definition of the target zones helped [for example defining projection area, geometric correction, etc]; I read another post by you that defined where some of your target zones were in your media room (for example the bar, overhead beams, bounce mirrors, etc). I'm hoping it will become clear when my LSX upgrade from Lite to Basic arrives, because I can't even really play with the scanner setup for these features yet. Its almost like 'indirect addressing' meaning we can change the locations of the targets without having to go back and edit the show...

Safe Travels, and I look forward to seeing an example!

-Jason

[dkumpula]

Its almost like 'indirect addressing' meaning we can change the locations of the targets without having to go back and edit the show...

Great analogy. So imagine if you were changing locations but had standard target world names across a couple hundred shows like "screen" and "bounce x"? A little fine tuning of the target worlds before the show and you are done. I think all of the pro level packages have this functionality - or at least they should.

David