Oh, I forgot the most important rule when driving a laser from a soundcard:
Stay off of Snapface or Instachat or whatever!
Oh, I forgot the most important rule when driving a laser from a soundcard:
Stay off of Snapface or Instachat or whatever!
Check out my free software!
SpiroDAC: https://www.photonlexicon.com/forums...938#post352938
LWave: https://www.photonlexicon.com/forums...288#post353288
Parametric5: https://www.photonlexicon.com/forums...ht=parametric5
Color Code: https://www.photonlexicon.com/forums...ght=color+code
What should be stressed in the world or laser entertainment (professional or personal) is safety, safety procedures and best practices. For any given situation there may be appropriate, calculated minor deviations as long as safe practices are observed. It is great to have inherent, automatic, built-in safeguards is any product, but it doesn't amount to anything if the operator is not educated in how to deal with best practices in setting up, starting up and use of laser projectors and equipment.
This forum to me has shown to be a place where valuable knowledge is shared and exchanged generously, including laser safety. The key is and has always been to seek, learn or develop a safety best practice for your given situation, one that protects you and others. We used to always have a goddamn mechanical, or better still, an electro-mechanical shutter that blocked the output aperture of any and all laser beams to be output by projection devices that defaulted to blocking the aperture whether device power was on or off, regardless whether there was subsequent high-speed blanking devices up or downstream. Only when the shuttered device's electro-mechanical aperture was energized was an output beam allowed to exit. This is old school, yes, but still a best practice.
In the news last night, a story of a man charged with a DUI who was driving a self-driving Tesla. The only way the police could stop him since he was asleep at the wheel was to pull in front of him and stop, so the self-driving car would stop. Just because safety is built-in doesn't mean it will work as needed for all situations.
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Everything depends on everything else
You can kick around Microsoft Windows all you want. Although if your choice of DAC only works in Windows, I'm not sure how that bolsters your case. You can pick on an individual sound device if you want. But you can't denounce the general idea of using digital audio hardware to produce laser control signals.
James.
Creator of LaserBoy!
LaserBoy is free and runs in Windows, MacOS and Linux (including Raspberry Pi!).
Download LaserBoy!
YouTube Tutorials
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All software has a learning curve usually proportional to its capabilities and unique features. Pointing with a mouse is in no way easier than tapping a key.
Um... Uhhhhh ..... ummm..... where's Bill?
James.
Creator of LaserBoy!
LaserBoy is free and runs in Windows, MacOS and Linux (including Raspberry Pi!).
Download LaserBoy!
YouTube Tutorials
Ask me about my LaserBoy Correction Amp Kit for sale!
All software has a learning curve usually proportional to its capabilities and unique features. Pointing with a mouse is in no way easier than tapping a key.
Check out my free software!
SpiroDAC: https://www.photonlexicon.com/forums...938#post352938
LWave: https://www.photonlexicon.com/forums...288#post353288
Parametric5: https://www.photonlexicon.com/forums...ht=parametric5
Color Code: https://www.photonlexicon.com/forums...ght=color+code
HEHE, the question is how the game is over. If Windows fails and you have a laser controller made by a responsible company, then the beam is blanked immediately. (FB3 has zero internal memory, and requires a constant stream of data fed to it. If data stops, FB3 blanks the beam immediately. Similar story with FB4, but it does have a tiny amount of memory...) On the other hand, it is easy to imagine a scenario that will allow sound card dacs to remain in a constant state in the event of problems.
Bill
This is like saying "you can't denounce standing on a bunch of boxes to change a light bulb located on a really high ceiling". Well, it might work (and I'm not saying I've never done this), but safety-minded folks would not only denounce this, but would also just bring out a ladder!
Dude, we have laser control hardware to produce laser control signals! It's not like laser controllers don't exist! Use the right tool for the job!
Bill
Check out my free software!
SpiroDAC: https://www.photonlexicon.com/forums...938#post352938
LWave: https://www.photonlexicon.com/forums...288#post353288
Parametric5: https://www.photonlexicon.com/forums...ht=parametric5
Color Code: https://www.photonlexicon.com/forums...ght=color+code
No it isn't. It's just a matter of using a ladder with a different name brand on it.
We've been over this before. There is a huge advantage in recognizing that laser control signals are digital audio. There is a whole world of hardware and software dedicated to digital audio. It just takes a bit of imagination to leverage its use for laser projection. And whether you like it or not, it's been going on pretty much ever since laser projection was a thing.
Oh really? Then go ahead and image that for me. Exactly how would that happen?
Last edited by james; 12-02-2018 at 10:54.
Creator of LaserBoy!
LaserBoy is free and runs in Windows, MacOS and Linux (including Raspberry Pi!).
Download LaserBoy!
YouTube Tutorials
Ask me about my LaserBoy Correction Amp Kit for sale!
All software has a learning curve usually proportional to its capabilities and unique features. Pointing with a mouse is in no way easier than tapping a key.
If soundcard DACs would send 0V to all channels when nothing is sent to them then I think they would be as safe as anything. But, that isn't the case, at least for some of them. It's a shame and something that the soundcard manufacturers could easily fix but I don't think they expect them to be used in this manner.