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Thread: My first of A Million questions

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
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    Thumbs up My first of A Million questions

    Hello All!

    I am new here and find this place fascinating. Here I am thinking im the only laser - nut around.. This place is full of them!!

    I feel right at home!

    I have just completed my soundcard-DAC laser show setup and am using laserboy to convert ilda to wave. I have some questions for James. Take a look at the test pattern below. Notice how the green square has kind of a hook on the top left, and there are gaps in some lines. I was wondering what adjustments in the laserboy settings that could help me make this look a little better. The galvos are scanpro/20k. I am assuming they are in tune, meaning the display looks ok with the DMX board that comes with it. My wav's are 48Khz using default laserboy settings. Any comments are more than welcome. 999,999 more questions forthcoming





  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
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    Knoxville, TN, USA
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    Default

    Welcome to the forum!

    You can get most of your general laser questions answered here - however, there is also now a separate forum completely dedicated to Laserboy and other independent developer projects. You can probably link up with James there:

    http://www.akrobiz.com/laserboy/forum/index.php

    Good luck with your project, and keep us posted!!

    BTW -
    You definitely need to tweak some scanner and software settings - but the colors look GREAT!!
    Last edited by Stuka; 03-31-2009 at 14:54.
    RR

    Metrologic HeNe 3.3mw Modulated laser, 2 Radio Shack motors, and a broken mirror.
    1979.
    Sweet.....

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2007
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    Orlando, FL
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    Default

    Welcome aceman... I'm sure you'll find many nuts around here willing to answer your every question

    I have a question for you though... What colors are you using there? The photo makes it look a little weird (or is it my monitor freaking out?) but it really looks like a green hene, bluray, and 635...

    --DDL
    I suffer from the Dunning–Kruger effect... daily.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
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    Default colors

    Yes, it is a little weird, camera saturated. It's HeNe red 633 Argon green 515 and Argon blue 458.

    And while I got you on the phone... I have an aom question. My 1st order beams are kinda sloppy; its like a rectangle and not a dot. Looks like [] or even : not o, nice and round and I spent alot of time adjusting them (crystal technologies 3200 series) and they still make a messy beam. Is the beam too wide? Humm dunno.


    Ace

  5. #5
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    Default

    WOW!

    Care to show more pics of this setup? I'm interested now

    I'm sure DZ or mixedgas can help you better with the AOM issue...

    --DDL
    I suffer from the Dunning–Kruger effect... daily.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Central Florida
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    Thumbs up

    Greetings Ace; welcome to the forum. Definatly head over to Laserboy's site, http://www.akrobiz.com/laserboy/forum/index.php; James should be able to set you up with your software settings and might be able to talk with you about the AOM. It sounds like your projector is very similar to his.

    that 458 blue looks very nice! I just got a turn key projector from Kvant with 455 in it and love the deepness of the blue. I have wondered about the color pallete with a lower wavelength green.

    Where are you located? Anywhere near one of the upcoming LEMs?
    Love, peace, and grease,

    allthat... aka: aaron@pangolin

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Posts
    14

    Default Me again

    Thanks for the info. I am in New York. Where are the LEMs?
    I just tried to join James laserboy forum, but the new user register page is broken.. It keeps says to fill in a username. I did, many times. It's broken.. James are you getting this?
    Anyrate, I'll hang here for a while and drop him an email later.. So below are some more photos. The lights off photos are blurry because of no tripod and long exposure time, I'll try later when I find my tripod. The big ass HeNe is a SP-127 (35mw) I just won on ebay for $200, all it needed was a power supply which I cobbled together.(Thank you Sam Goldwasser!) The argon is a uniphase multiline currently running ~80mw. There too is my amplifier board. I'll etch a permenant board next week. Which reminds me of a sugestion. I see alot of you tacking wires to your sound card. I found it much easier to just short out the coupling caps and then you can use the normal jacks on the back. Just remember it's DC-coupled! Perhaps some dipswitches? Humm.. It's easy to reverse. The last photo is kind of off topic - my 40 watt home-build CO2 laser, but it was there and figured I would throw it in. Humm a light show with that will be a real crowd warmer
    http://billyname.com/sandbox/IMG_0223.jpg
    http://billyname.com/sandbox/IMG_0230.jpg
    http://billyname.com/sandbox/IMG_0231.jpg
    http://billyname.com/sandbox/IMG_0243.jpg
    http://billyname.com/sandbox/IMG_0254.jpg
    http://billyname.com/sandbox/IMG_0269.jpg
    http://billyname.com/sandbox/IMG_0270.jpg
    http://billyname.com/sandbox/IMG_0271.jpg
    http://billyname.com/sandbox/IMG_0276.jpg
    http://billyname.com/sandbox/IMG_0279.jpg

  8. #8
    mixedgas's Avatar
    mixedgas is offline Creaky Old Award Winning Bastard Technologist
    Infinitus Excellentia Ion Laser Dominatus
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    Default

    Tell me about your AOs. Analog or ttl / digital driver? Are you trying to pass all lines argon through the crystal? Does it happen to the single line of the red hene as well? Need more details. The square spreading has a few different possible causes. One or two of them are curable. What part of New York?


    Steve

  9. #9
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    Default

    Now that's a really cool and unique setup!
    First thing to notice is that your blanking offset needs to be adjusted (delayed) so that the blanks line up with the corners. That will remove most gaps and tails. But beyond that, the ILDA test frame isn't supposed to be 'optimized' in laserboy, it's supposed to be displayed as-is. But there's an issue with that.. if you turn off optimization in laserboy, you will get the test frame at 48k, way too fast for your scanners! So you must also set the sample rate in laserboy (for the ilda test frame) to 20k. For other frames, you can keep optimization on and keep the sample rate at 48k.
    Download and install Spaghetti free while you still can:
    http://harperingenuities.com/Spaghetti.aspx
    This works with the sound card DAC using my EzAudDac interface DLL and will allow you to set whatever point rate fits your scanners for the ILDA test frame to be displayed properly. There are free shows available for Spaghetti.

    Also, are you aware that you can play asteroids and pong for free with your setup?

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
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    14

    Default aom's

    They are Crystal Technologies 3200-147. Analog 0-1v signal input. RF is 200Mhz 2 watts. I am separating the 515 green out first. All 3 , including the HeNe exhibit this behavior. I tried to lower the input signal level, it just dimms the beam. There is a rf power level adjustment on each of the drivers, but did not want to mess with it.. <yet>

    Thanks,
    Ace in Poughkeepsie

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