Modulation issues with RGB Analog projector

[ReaperZ]

Hey all ..Long story short I bought a Laser Projector from a Chinese company about three years ago, and have only just gotten around to getting software/ILDA control as previously I'd been fairly amazed with the auto/music features with it. Now I want more !

Analog modulation was promised, however they told me they shipped the green as TTL, and sent me a replacement driver for it which I swapped out a couple of weeks ago.

Upon firing it up with Quickshow, and trying to setup beam attenuation, I get some strange outputs as shown below

I set the bottom half of the zone to 30% output .. the blue reduces to 30%, the red stays at 100%, and the green just cuts out entirely! See examples below




As the laser is out of warranty now, im really miffed how I should approach this kind of scenario. I just want analog modulation to work as it should

I spoke with the company in China who said send it back and they will fix it, but as I live in New Zealand, shipping something that size in a flight case and back is probably going to cost hundreds of dollars.. so why not take things into my own hands and try to fix this myself, and potentially upgrade!


Where do I begin to troubleshoot this ? What options do I have.. its running 300mW 532nm, 300mW 638nm and 800mW 450nm

Thanks in advance

[VDX]

... I'll search or build three analogue-to-TTL converters, which converts the control voltage into fast PWM ...

Viktor

[ReaperZ]

I'm afraid I'm not really sure what you mean by that comment this is my first projector and im quite new to all of this.

How would I go about building such a thing, and would it go in series with the driver boards I've already got? or would it be a direct replacement

[kecked]

post a picture of the insides of the projector. Are you at all comfortable with soldering? What I am going to say with either make sense or you shouldn't do it.

Cut out the existing laser drivers after measuring the full on current for each diode. You will not use the existing drivers. Replace the drivers with something else like say the ones dave sells setting the current for each diode. Make sure the supply voltages for the drivers are appropriate for the new drivers. IF not add in the required power supplies. This will convert the drivers to analog drivers and it should be solved. It's actually not a lot of work. Also make sure to heatsink the driver FETS.

If I'm speaking greek leave it alone.

[kecked]

one other thought. Try adjusting the bias on the existing drivers. That might also fix it. Looks like the threshold is set wrong.

[ReaperZ]

post a picture of the insides of the projector. Are you at all comfortable with soldering? What I am going to say with either make sense or you shouldn't do it.

Cut out the existing laser drivers after measuring the full on current for each diode. You will not use the existing drivers. Replace the drivers with something else like say the ones dave sells setting the current for each diode. Make sure the supply voltages for the drivers are appropriate for the new drivers. IF not add in the required power supplies. This will convert the drivers to analog drivers and it should be solved. It's actually not a lot of work. Also make sure to heatsink the driver FETS.

If I'm speaking greek leave it alone.

I'll post up some pictures in the next few days .. and I'm not comfortable soldering unfortunately, it might be best if I didn't attempt what you're suggesting!

one other thought. Try adjusting the bias on the existing drivers. That might also fix it. Looks like the threshold is set wrong.

I don't remember seeing a potentiometer on the driver boards themselves, however I remember the green driver looking like very similar if not the same as this product..

http://odicforce.com/Analogue-Laser-...des-1000mW-12V.

[ReaperZ]

post a picture of the insides of the projector. Are you at all comfortable with soldering? What I am going to say with either make sense or you shouldn't do it.

Cut out the existing laser drivers after measuring the full on current for each diode. You will not use the existing drivers. Replace the drivers with something else like say the ones dave sells setting the current for each diode. Make sure the supply voltages for the drivers are appropriate for the new drivers. IF not add in the required power supplies. This will convert the drivers to analog drivers and it should be solved. It's actually not a lot of work. Also make sure to heatsink the driver FETS.

If I'm speaking greek leave it alone.

Heres three photos I took, I wasn't exactly sure what you wanted to see

Picture 1 - general front shot .. red and blue drivers at top left - http://iforce.co.nz/i/3eym5bzi.kpt.jpg
Picture 2 - photo of the green driver - http://iforce.co.nz/i/uz0bwm3s.tfn.jpg
Picture 3 - photo of the red and blue drivers - http://iforce.co.nz/i/ztoibum1.xm3.jpg

I don't get why they look different to each other.. the blue and red ones have that extra 3 pin plug in the centre, which the green one doesn't have, and three connections as opposed to 4

[kecked]

Heres three photos I took, I wasn't exactly sure what you wanted to see

Picture 1 - general front shot .. red and blue drivers at top left - http://iforce.co.nz/i/3eym5bzi.kpt.jpg
Picture 2 - photo of the green driver - http://iforce.co.nz/i/uz0bwm3s.tfn.jpg
Picture 3 - photo of the red and blue drivers - http://iforce.co.nz/i/ztoibum1.xm3.jpg

I don't get why they look different to each other.. the blue and red ones have that extra 3 pin plug in the centre, which the green one doesn't have, and three connections as opposed to 4

The last picture is he scanner drivers. Can't tell anything else from the pictures. That looks pretty solid packed. I could not guess from here. I'd have to have it in my hands. It looks to be a bit of work to convert if you can even fit it in there. I'd build new before messing around. That looks to be made from different kinds of parts from different sources. I doubt they made this but instead just assembled cheap and quick.

[kecked]

Fresh message here. So I reread your original post. Does the problem only occur with beam attenuation map? If so I was way off. It's not your laser. That's software. Try something different like putting the green signal line on a different color and see if the problem follows. If yes then you have an issue with your dac. If not then I am out of easy ideas. Look at grounding.

[ReaperZ]

To be honest im totally new to this game, so I wasn't aware of any other ways to alter the power.

I need to play around with QuickShow some more and see what I can find, I didn't see anything in the manual, I sent Pangolin an email two weeks ago and never got a response either.

When you mention the green signal line onto a different color, you're talking about re-wiring right? if so i'll trace the wires from the laser and see what I can figure out as I really have no idea what cables go to a module! I'm guessing its purely source, and that power is fed to it via the driver