Laser hardware setup, ILDA, DMX or just CV any advice?
I'm setting up a laser installation, but I'm puzzled about the different possibilities. Maybe somebody can guide me a bit.
Was thinking of driving the XY axis and intensity from the output of my MOTU soundcard (which has DC output) using MSP
So I checked at Thoman and saw pretty decent prices for the Lasers. Problem is they tell me you need to have DMX or ILDA protocols
the latter the easier. And it costs 430 software + hardware box. Lokking at the software seems like a timeline thing, pretty much like
adobe premiere or finalcut, which worries me, cause I want of course real time control from some sensors data. Probably I don't need much
as I can do the maths by myself, so I woudl like to avoid buying something that I don't need. But maybe I'm wrong and that software accepts streaming of OSC
fro example... anybody can help? for example you have the "Laserworld" brand which seems like good hardware for a start...
cheers
If the laser has ILDA input you can use your audio/DC signals. No need for other interfaces or software. Though the input voltage range has to match the output's more or less. Robert Henke explains:
Hi micron, ILDA is an anlog protocol, ( +-10 Volts for X/Y, 0..10 V for intensity of the lasers ). Some sound cards ( Motu, RME ) offer DC output. All you need to do is having some sort of conversion from what ever max. output volume they deliver to that range. This can be done via a simple OPAmp circuit per channel.
However, I figured out that the Motu Ultralite generates a peak volume of around 7 Volts and that is more than enough to drive the galvanometers ( X/Y ) and the lasers I used where strong enough to be very bright at 70% of their maximum output. Bottom line, I did omit the OPAmp stage and drive the lasers directly from the Motu. It is worth noticing that 96kHz is quite essential here, both for the control of the movement and for the blanking / intensity control. If the soundcard would have supported 192k and my mac minis were faster I would have gone even higher.
ILDA is really just a bunch of analog signals that you can generate with Max and MOTU. Your regular Thomann employee doesn't know this.
you probably want to get a set of scanners like this and an rgb head
make sure you can import the laser though
HI thanks all, yes I talked also to Robert and you just can solder a jack to the necessary ilda pin and you get a cable to interface the motu. That seems very easy and cheaper than conversion boxes and pre cooked software..
Using a etherdream box and have openframework app with opencv contour tracking made by memo a that receives syhpon from max. This is a stable and easy setup i use all the time for laser mapping. No soldering involved :D
Double post
I would cut off an arm to know more about this software!
Have tried to use ofxilda for stuff, but not been able to. Will rob bank(s) to get something working..
Yes, just straight analogue signals from your interface will work. The voltage levels are pretty well matched, even if not quite right on paper. The thing to watch is frequency (and this is really the only reason to go for a specialist solution as they'll often limit this in some way - eg the LZX Cyclops Eurorack module). This is -as far as I can tell - impossible to calculate exactly because it's really a factor of distance travelled as well as frequency (and also applies to harmonic content as well as base frequency), and there's no easy way to map this against the Kpps specs listed for lasers. But you need to be careful as it's quite easy to melt the galvos - I learnt this the hard way!
If anyone else has more thoughts/info on this then I'd love to hear. I'm still feeling my way in myself.
Was hoping for revolutionary news here :D
Must get hold of Pure D :)