Originally Posted by
Pangolin
Sound cards are made to drive speakers. If "shit happens", nobody is going to be blinded as a result...
For example, let's say you make laser software that is driving a sound card. And lets say that Windows decides to "beep", or that some generic sound software decides to output a sound. Although Windows provides the ability to select the default sound card for "beeps", what if something goes wrong? What if the selection doesn't stick, or is forgotten??? After all, we're talking about Microsoft Windows here! In such cases, at best you get scribbles on the wall. At worst, the beam is projected into an audience area...
I can't speak for the way anybody else designs their laser controllers, but one very important role of *our* software is that it "serializes access to the hardware". It means that it prevents two pieces of laser software from accessing the same laser output controller at the same time. In fact, we've made BEYOND be a kind of arbiter. Now we don't have SDKs that directly access the hardware any more. We have BEYOND. Want to talk to the hardware? Talk to (or actually through) BEYOND! The benefit is that BEYOND is able to prevent "scribbles on the wall" by serializing such hardware access. Another benefit is that right now, people who "talk to BEYOND" are able to use any connected laser hardware (QM2000, FB3, FB4, and in the future other hardware), and so this is a hardware agnostic approach. Another benefit is that BEYOND can effectively apply additional things on top of their input -- for example, additional effects or even safety-related features such as BAM, beam-velocity monitoring, feedback and such... But enough about BEYOND... (I just mentioned this to answer the question why we don't allow direct access to our laser hardware any more...)
Another thing is that we make our laser hardware to be "fault tolerant". It means that if something goes wrong inside the box, it won't result in an unsafe exposure. For example, if the negative power supply goes away in a sound card (or interface box), good luck holding the color outputs low! (Heck, from what James wrote, good luck holding them low anyway!!!)
Anyway, there are huge differences between sound cards and the laser controllers manufactured by us (and I hope other laser companies do similar things). But what people use in the privacy of their own homes is their business. Scribbles on their walls or blinded (or at least visually annoyed) pets or family members are not our business. We do hope that people will "drive responsibly" when the sound cards are used with lasers outside the confines of homes...
Bill
God I wish your controllers where cheaper I would love an FB3, my employer uses them but they are still out of my price range as I don't do any for profit shows on my own, my home made stuff is just that, made for my home.
this has been a great thread and the Laser Dock DAC is doing the best it can from USB and now I do know it is working correctly, it will never hit 5 volts as it is powered by USB and I think on my current computer is about 4.2-4.6 volts give or take.
I ended up getting my Laser Dock DAC on sale when they first came out so I bought it for half of what they cost now, too bad I can't get an FB3 for 100 bucks, that would make my year and maybe next year as well
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