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[Laser Wizardry]

" 15 characters"

[colouredmirrorball]

You may not LIKE it, but looking at the list of laser control software worth owning, it looks as if you NEED to spend at least a reasonable amount to get something worthwhile.
The total price of any worthwhile software/DAC combo is at least $500, and some of the others are equally up there with Pangolin.

An Etherdream is <$200 and LSX Pro is $350 which allows you to use up to 8 DACs. This means for $1950 you can control 8 projectors. Using only FB3's that would cost you $4000 with Pangolin. (Disclaimer: Ballpark prices here). That's another way to look at it. But you are right: for just one projector the price difference only comes down to about $100 (LSX Basic + ED = $400).

Why does nobody bitch about those super expensive ones that makes Pangolin look like penny sweets in comparison?

That is a good question. I assume because nobody ever uses them because too expensive. Look at Digisynth, the price is prohibiting for nearly anyone but the most succesful laserists... and it more or less got abandoned.

[masterpj]

LOL. Good point. I've yet to see anybody bitching about DigiSynth or LaserGraph DSP, or the custom LOBO one that nobody outside of LOBO and a few of its installation clients has ever seen....

Sorry to interupt the thread a bit unrelated but man I should have asked you to show the lasergraph dsp interface.
The stuff done with it looks really cool and It just makes me more and more curious everytime.

I believe DigiSynth is not being sold anymore.. or at least the DAC is not.. Chuck told me DigiSynth made the mistake of letting a third party take care of the DAC which made things very expensive (from memory).

[swamidog]

I believe DigiSynth is not being sold anymore.. or at least the DAC is not.. Chuck told me DigiSynth made the mistake of letting a third party take care of the DAC which made things very expensive (from memory).

what's so complicated about the dac. isn't it just a lightpipe to ilda widget?

[SaltyRobot]

what's so complicated about the dac. isn't it just a lightpipe to ilda widget?

Serial Garbage In = Analog Garbage Out = Pretty Lights. Simple

[masterpj]

what's so complicated about the dac. isn't it just a lightpipe to ilda widget?

To be very honest.. I don't know.. let me check back up


"A few years back we announced it at the ILDA cruise, but it was a pretty poorly attended event and while some people thought it was cool, no one was really interested. Thinking that was the state of the industry, we haven't pursued it much since, with a very small customer base. We probably could have tried harder, but have had other successful projects paying the bills.

As with any significantly different software, people have to be willing to take the time to learn it, and adapt their operation to accommodate the new tool. Some people hear "light-pipe" and immediately think that means they need to run all of their shows on ADAT tape, but that simply isn't true.

It also didn't help that all of the light-pipe devices that we would recommend became discontinued. It is still possible to find some on occasion from Ebay and other sources, and there are probably a couple very expensive ones available new, but relying on a 3rd party device put us at the mercy of those companies. We even tried to work with one of our favorites to keep it going, but as there was little interest, the volume just wasn't there, but we've been looking at some options at this end for direct output to ILDA. We intend to revise the Optical Showlink Transcoder design to take another digital protocol directly, removing our reliance on sound card companies, so I am hopeful that a little more DS development time is on the way.

While I would be happy to sell DigiSynth, I'd like to be very honest with you about the state that it is currently in, and what we see as great uses for it. We don't go out of our way to try to sell it, but hope to have a resurgence in our efforts in the future, as it really is capable of making some great images."

This is a quote of an email from chuck I recieved on Thursday, December 26, 2013 9:34 PM

[swamidog]

i would guess that the digisynth software would work with a 100-150$ usb lightpipe streamer and the 350$ dz/ek lightpipe to ilda interface.

this forum is stuffed full of incredibly brilliant people. i'm convinced there's no problem they can't solve given sufficient lattes or high powered lasers.

To be very honest.. I don't know.. let me check back up


"A few years back we announced it at the ILDA cruise, but it was a pretty poorly attended event and while some people thought it was cool, no one was really interested. Thinking that was the state of the industry, we haven't pursued it much since, with a very small customer base. We probably could have tried harder, but have had other successful projects paying the bills.

As with any significantly different software, people have to be willing to take the time to learn it, and adapt their operation to accommodate the new tool. Some people hear "light-pipe" and immediately think that means they need to run all of their shows on ADAT tape, but that simply isn't true.

It also didn't help that all of the light-pipe devices that we would recommend became discontinued. It is still possible to find some on occasion from Ebay and other sources, and there are probably a couple very expensive ones available new, but relying on a 3rd party device put us at the mercy of those companies. We even tried to work with one of our favorites to keep it going, but as there was little interest, the volume just wasn't there, but we've been looking at some options at this end for direct output to ILDA. We intend to revise the Optical Showlink Transcoder design to take another digital protocol directly, removing our reliance on sound card companies, so I am hopeful that a little more DS development time is on the way.

While I would be happy to sell DigiSynth, I'd like to be very honest with you about the state that it is currently in, and what we see as great uses for it. We don't go out of our way to try to sell it, but hope to have a resurgence in our efforts in the future, as it really is capable of making some great images."

[ekeefe]

Hello,

If I could find a time limited or demo version of Digisynth, I could give the ADAT->ILDA converter a try.

I have other things I could try also.

ED

[absolom7691]

While I would be happy to sell DigiSynth, I'd like to be very honest with you about the state that it is currently in, and what we see as great uses for it. We don't go out of our way to try to sell it, but hope to have a resurgence in our efforts in the future, as it really is capable of making some great images."

And Pangolin definitely doesn't to that! In fact, when beta testing, Pangolin will often give software for free to people who will review it, try to break it, and will give honest feedback to them.

Thanks for posting that, PJ.

[DZ]

That's very interesting. I don't see any reason why the MiniDSP USB Streamer wouldn't work with Digisynth as it uses ASIO. Then output to the ADAT to ILDA Converter. I've sent Chuck an email, I wonder if he knew of the USB Streamer or not.