HELP

[Skeetszoid]

HELP hello everybody I’m new here and don’t know what I’m doing. I have a Lightspace Venus 2 - 2900RGB. 40k scanners. Quick Show 2.0 I have several questions. 1. I replaced the Y scanner. I loosened the bracket and also took the scanner out of the bracket. Put the new one back in and to line it up tried to put the mirror at 45 deg angle and lined the mirror so the lasers hit it in the middle. Is there a video showing how to line it up. 2 It seams like I’m getting a low FPS 15 or 25 on the simple text scrolling what does setting or any actions determine your frame rate. 3. Some not all of the fan lines have hooks on them and some of the beams have tails on them they had them before I changed the scanner. 4. Is there anywhere I can download shows besides the Pangolin cloud. Thanks.

[buffo]

Welcome to PhotonLexicon! Please fill out your user profile so people know where you are located. Often if someone is having a problem and another member lives nearby it's easier to just get together in person to fix the problem.

1. I replaced the Y scanner. I loosened the bracket and also took the scanner out of the bracket. Put the new one back in and to line it up tried to put the mirror at 45 deg angle and lined the mirror so the lasers hit it in the middle. Is there a video showing how to line it up.

I'm not aware of any videos showing how to do this, but you did it correctly. Once you have the projector running (with the output from Quickshow centered in both projector and zone settings) you can loosen the mount for the Y-galvo and adjust it's position and rotation to make sure it's in the optimal position in the mount. I would strongly suggest that you turn the power *way* down in Quickshow before you attempt this, however! (Do you have any laser safety goggles?) If you move the galvo too far you might get a flash as the beam reflects off the polished barrel of the scanner. Be cautious!

Note that the rotation angle isn't all that crucial, as you can normally compensate for being slightly off from the ideal 45 degree point by simply adjusting the position offset in software. Likewise, the linear position (in or out) can also be adjusted for in software. However, you do want to make sure that the Y-galvo mirror is capturing the full scan of the X-galvo with no light spilling off the edge of the mirror.

2 It seams like I’m getting a low FPS 15 or 25 on the simple text scrolling what does setting or any actions determine your frame rate.

There is a scan-speed setting in Quickshow. It should be set for 30,000 points per second. If it is set to a lower value, this will increase the flickering effect of the scanned image. The other thing that can cause a lot of flickering is a frame that has *lots* of points. Once you get up above 1000 points in a single frame, you will start to notice the flicker. 2000 points will look awful! Scrolling text will often flicker due to an abundance of points. Using a simpler font will help this! Stay away from outline fonts, or fonts that include serifs, as these will have much higher point counts for the same number of letters.

Note that you *can* increase the scan speed above 30K if you want, and this will reduce the flicker a bit. However, to get the best performance you will also need to re-tune your scanners for the new speed. Here is a link to a tutorial that will walk you through the process of tuning your scanners if you want to try it. Note that you *must* identify the proper tuning potentiometers on your scanner amps before you attempt to tune them! Check your user manual or contact the manufacturer if you are unsure.

3. Some not all of the fan lines have hooks on them and some of the beams have tails on them they had them before I changed the scanner.

This is usually caused by having the scan speed set too slow or two fast or by scanners that are not tuned correctly. Trying to scan a complicated frame at maximum size can also lead to tails or hooks. In rare cases it can be caused by a problem with the color modulation timing, but unless you've been playing around with advanced settings in Quickshow I don't think that applies here.

Normally when you change a scanner you have to re-tune the set. True, the old tuning will be "close", but that might not be good enough - depending on how much variability there is from one scanner to the next. If you have already verified that your scan speed is set for 30K and you aren't trying to scan at maximum size then you probably need to re-tune your scanners.

Before you do this though, it would be good to post a picture of the ILDA test pattern first. Make sure you are scanning at 30K and adjust the size down until you are between 5 and 8 degrees. (The test pattern height and width should be between 9 cm and 14 cm for every 1 meter between the projector and the screen or wall.) Then take a picture and post it here. That will tell us a lot about what is going on with your scanners.

4. Is there anywhere I can download shows besides the Pangolin cloud. Thanks.

I think the PhotonLexicon FTP site is back up and running now. Check this thread for details. Another suggestion would be to attend a laser enthusiast's meeting near you if possible. (Look in the meet-and-greet sub-forum for discussions about LEMs in your area.) It's my understanding that Pangolin now does everything through the cloud, but they used to have the Pangolin Show Portal back in the day. Guess they've taken that site down though.

Adam