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Thread: Lists of current laser DACs & Control Software

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Ilchester Somerset UK
    Posts
    60

    Default Lists of current laser DACs & Control Software

    Hi all, I came across a pair of posts ages ago that tabulated the then current list of Laser DACs & Control Software. I bookmarked them, but it now seems that they are not on the server any more. I tried to search for them, but to no avail.
    Does anyone still have copies of these resources? It might be a good idea to maintain them as a 'sticky' or similar? Sorry if I've posted to the wrong forum, or if I've missed something obvious.

    I have a parallel port DAC & a copy of Popelscan. My 2W RGB laser should be delivered soon, which has a standard ILDA interface, but I don't have a DAC/Control solution to control it! Are there any freeware or low cost solutions? I've heard of iShow & Helios DAC. Also one which is based on an Arduino, but it would be great if there was a central resource to list them.

    The last controller I used was the Laser Systems (Wales UK) Magnum hardware controller back in 1987. This setup was on the roof of a nightclub in Spain, & used standard General Scanning Galvos & a nice 20W Coherent Argon laser. So it's been a while!

    Many thanks, Simon B.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    UCSB
    Posts
    715

    Default

    The current state of that art for free is using a modified sound card (to remove the dc blocking caps and amplify/scale to match ilda levels--just takes a few opamps) with laserboy http://laserboy.org/ (also has details on the sound card modifications) openlase https://marcan.st/projects/openlase/ or LFI player https://sourceforge.net/projects/lfiplayer3d/ Of those three I find LFI player to be the most straightforward to use, with the ability to directly generate abstracts or play back ilda shows (note - to get the demo files for abstract generation you need to go to the downloads page for the older 1.1.5 version).

    More recently lasershowgen http://pages.bitlasers.com/lasershowgen/ added the ability to work with laser dacs and while it is not free ($30 for full version) it is open source and even the free version is more capable than the aforementioned 3 free ones.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Akron, Ohio USA
    Posts
    2,197

    Default

    There is a really nice kit available of the LaserBoy Correction Amp to build a modified sound device.

    http://laserboy.org/forum/index.php?topic=561.0

    I also provide very good tech support for you to build it.

    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.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    My momentum is too precisely determined :S
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    Default

    That page was probably the Wiki. It yet needs to be resurrected.

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