cheap sd card projector, software and ild formats

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Originally Posted by lockjaw

Hi,

I'm just getting started on this laser trip and hoping someone can offer some knowledge. I just picked up a small, cheap laser projector with SD card reader.

I'm satisfied with the power of this little guy for testing some ideas. A lot of the more complex animations it comes with flicker a lot but that's ok. I'd like to design some simple custom animations of my own. The supplied software 'laser v1.0' is pretty flaky and uses a .ctn format, but it can import .ild also. The problem is exported ild files from laserboy, monchaDraw and bmp2ild don't load into this software, whereas some other ilds I've downloaded do. Is anyone aware of the different versions of ild and what might be causing compatibility issues?

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I don't know if this thread is dead or not, but I recently bought the exact same laser, called the "My Effect II", and I experienced similar frustrations in trying to program it. Basically, forget about being able to use the "Laser Show v1.0" software that comes with the laser to create custom animations for it. HOWEVER, that same software nonetheless turns out to be the key in getting the thing to work. Let me explain.

After a lot of trial and error, and very little progress, I read about LaserBoy and contacted James Lehman to see if he thought it could create code for the "My Effect II", as an alternative to using "Laser Show v1.0". James patiently led me through the process required to generate code in a format that might work on the laser. With his help, I was able to get LaserBoy to create ILD 0 formatted code. However, it turns out that the laser itself does not recognize this format, it only responds to CTN formatted files on the SD card. This is where "Laser Show v1.0" comes back into the picture. It turns put that this program has one redeeming feature. It can read the ILD 0 formatted files coming out of LaserBoy, but ONLY if you save them using the "chil" option in LaserBoy. Once you read the resulting ILD 0 file into "Laser Show v1.0", you can use the program to save the animation in CTN format. Then you copy the CTN-formatted file onto the SD card, pop it into the projector, and by golly it works! At least, it is working for me. So I am finally able to achieve custom animations with this very affordable, and fairly bright laser!

The only other advice I can give you is, don't make the animations too complex, because this little laser isn't able to get around at high speed with blurring the features pretty badly. To compensate for that, you have to lower the scan rate, and this makes the picture look clear enough, but then you get this "painting" effect where part of the image disappears before the final part is drawn by the laser. I chalk that up to this being a pretty inexpensive laser to begin with. If I find this is working for me (I am using it at band shows), then eventually I may upgrade to a brighter laser that accepts SD cards and can also be controlled via DMX (the "My Effect II" does not have a DMX port). That would give me the extra control I need to fully integrate it into my band's light show, instead of just leaving the laser running all night long on its own.

Cheers, Pete

If you don't want to convert each ilda file to ctn, here's a batch convertor ;)

http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...atch-convertor

Let me know if it actually works, not a lot of people use it...

A CTN file is really just an Ilda file but with some small changes.

(*) In an Ilda file the first four bytes would be 'I' 'L' 'D' 'A' but in a CTN file they are 'C' 'R' 'T' 'N'.
(*) Frame and company name appear to be all zeroes
(*) Points are in format 0 with no palette attached

So most ilda file parsers can easily be modified to process CTN files.

James has always been very nice and willing to help people out. There are lots of hidden gems in Laserboy, if you can get around the clunky UI. Have fun!

Okay, that is good to know, I may try the batch converter if I have a lot of files I need to convert. For some reason, I am not able to directly edit the ILD formatted files using any of the editors I have tried so far on my machine, but maybe the batch converter you mentioned would solve the problem. In the meantime, I am using the workaround I described above. It's a clunky procedure, albeit with some extra steps involved, but it does generate reliable CTN code that runs the laser, which is what I was after. It's nice to have the power of LaserBoy available to program this cheap little laser now! Here is a shot of the band logo taken with my iPhone, it looks razor sharp in person, lol!

Attachment 49389

I understand why you would want DMX control, since you already use DMX. But don't discount the importance of an ILDA port.

You never know when you might want to use that!

James.

If I wanted to buy one of these SD card reader laser projectors to reverse engineer the file format(s) and modify LaserBoy to be able to output good looking CTF files, which projector do you think I should get?

Are there any out there that have a real blue laser instead of the violet?

How are the scanners?

I'd like to spend as little as possible to get a good example of this tech.

Thanks! :)

James.

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Originally Posted by james

If I wanted to buy one of these SD card reader laser projectors to reverse engineer the file format(s) and modify LaserBoy to be able to output good looking CTF files, which projector do you think I should get?

Are there any out there that have a real blue laser instead of the violet?

How are the scanners?
James.

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I'm just a newbe, but this is what I got and it seems to be the cheapest halfway decent SD driven laser out there,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...9SIA3SE18A0568

I am using it now at all my band shows and it's working like a champ, and pretty bright.

I saw that one. That looks pretty nice.

I had a My-Effect for digitizing in my suitcase for a while, when I was on the road for a year. Bought it at a Spenser's gifts in Bozeman, Montanna. I was stuck in Bozeman for two weeks on business. Only downside is the laser diode drivers cannot be easily hacked to an ILDA connector. They use weird -1.3 V current sinking logic on the microprocessor color outputs. That and 100 mW of IR in the green on mine. However the scanners were, well, decent, for such a simple, low power, scanner amp. You can hack the scanners to a ILDA connector, but the diode drivers were not hackable, and I spent a few hours trying on the bench with level shifters and a very good digital waveform generator.
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DOG-P couldn't hack the RGV either..
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You also cannot set the diode currents easily, it uses a tiny 406 sized SMT fixed resistor to set the current. The diode driver is a Chinese 100 mA LED driver chip with On/OFF, and the DPSS green one is three such chips in parallel. Its not TTL, its a current sink, and not to sinking to ground, either. At least on mine. The Diodes default to on if you disconnect the microprocessor.
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Two boards inside, microcontroller and diode driver on one, scanner amp is the other. Power comes from world's largest wall wart, which is more like a laptop psu.
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The color dichros are hot melt glued down on a thin aluminum plate, no mounts.
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I liked it, it did a good job for a miniscule projector with a 405 diode for the blue, a 670 nm diode for the red, and world's crudest DPSS green. Not too much problem with tails on the green, either... Speeds, file sequence, and repeats are a ASCII text file that is not hard to edit. No on hacking the diodes, really pressed in hard, and overcoated with epoxy.
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The bitchin part is how to figure out how the 8051 derivative used as a controller guesses what is blanked, violet, white, green, red, or yellow. That is going to take a lot of experimentation.
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I'll spare you the time and post the SD Card files as a zip here, tomorrow if I remember...
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Not sure why you'd want to waste your money on one of these, the only thing well built is the power supply, and its not +/-24.
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It's just something to play around with. I don't have any intention of hacking it. I just want to be able to get the best performance out of it from LaserBoy made files. It might be a while before I get one. I've got some other time syncs on my horizon.

James.

HEY! Some very kind person just sent me one of these projectors to play around with! :)

My first question is am I limited to using a 1GB SD card in this thing?

I have some 32GB cards sitting here not doing anything. I also have some micro SD cards with an SD card adaptor that would get me 16GB.

Is that going to work or not?

I just got it today, so I haven't had much of a chance to do anything with it. All I got was the projector, the power supply and a 1GB SD card. No instructions.

Looks like the SD card has been altered a bit. It's not factory original at all.

James.