Review - Moncha USB DAC + software

Ok this is the Moncha USB DAC from www.showtacle.com

the DAC is usb power which is pretty good and fits in your hand, so its small.

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j1...1102007539.jpg
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j1...1102007540.jpg

you can select which ever colour laser(s) you have, if you only have red, or red and green.

so far it seems very easy to use, it comes set for 20k but can easily be changed for 30k.

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j1...a/untitled.jpg
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j1.../untitled1.jpg

more info to follow.

good info, what is the price?

ive noticed something.

when using the moncha running an animation at 30k the galvos makes a like loud ticking noise.
when playing the same animation on my pangolin fb3 at 30k, roughly the same size, it makes no noise at all.

why???

cost is about 490 euros

ok now not the greatest but listen to these.

the fb3
www.laser-man.co.uk/test/fb303.wav

and the moncha
www.laser-man.co.uk/test/moncha04.wav

why would the galvos make alot less noise when being driven by the fb3 than the moncha???

are you using the same software for both DACs? if not it could be in the way extra points are added by software for blanking, sharper corners etc.

no different software.

im using the fb3 liveq software and what ever software the moncha comes with.

both play frames fine but one is noisy one isnt??

That's not at all uncommon. Jian reported similar results when testing his DT-40 scanners with Mamba Black verses Laser Design Studio. The LDS software made his scanners run a lot cooler, and they made less noise. It's all to do with how the software interprets the ilda file before it sends the data to the controller. Good software will optimize the signal to ease the stress on the galvos. My guess is that the Pangolin software is smoothing out the signal a bit, causing the galvos to run quieter. (And probably cooler as well.)

Adam

Now would be a good time to break out the ole oscope. :)

so when you saying not running as smoothly as it could, does that mean it could be bad for the galvo's???

Unless the frames are just very poorly laid out, it is unlikely that the software would be displaying them in a way that bad for the galvos. It is possible that some software/hardware might act kinder to them, though.

It would be a good experiment to take the frame that makes the noise and manually optimize it by adding more points at key points and see if it quiets down when displaying it with the Moncha software and DAC.

Also, take note of the blanking settings. Moncha does some blanking optimization to the frames before they are displayed. I think Moncha actually strips out all blanking points in the Ilda file and replaces them with based on the blanking settings. Unfortunately there is no way to turn off this feature to display the raw file for testing purposes. I guess it is possible that if a blanking line had a lot of points and the optimizer replaced those points with just a few points that it could cause some noise. However, when I displayed the frame on Moncha and my software (same DAC but with my own software) that doesn't do blanking optimization I had the same noise levels.

Anyway, I think I probably said more than you were asking for.

Did you ever get a response from Michal at Showtacle about it? It might be worth sending him the noisy ilda file to see what he can come up with.

The different sound of scanners is caused by automatic blanking point optimization in Moncha. As every automatic thing, it is good, but it's not always perfect. Maybe the sound is because of blankig lines - Moncha doesn't put any blank points on these lines. But we've developed this optimization for several reasons:

1. I always hated to draw picture to every single blanking point. It took too much time.
2. When I finished drawing some image for one laser and I wanted to project the show on another one, I had to go through all blanking points and add more, because the image was not correctly displayed on this second laser.

Now in Moncha you just set correctly 4 sliders and all(!) the frames are looking good(maybe not perfect) on your laser.

And another issue - I haven't seen any destroyed scanners by Moncha(or Fiesta) software. But I have destroyed some scanners using another software. And this is thanks to automatic scanrate adjustment - Moncha doesn't allow to run the scanners faster than it is neccessary.

Is the only difference between Moncha and Moncha lite, the restricted scanspeed - 30K - 12K?
Can Moncha Lite be upgraded to the full Moncha?

yes, its a hardware mod so cant be changed at a later date.

they both run on the same software

In your honest opinion and bearing in mind I can't afford £400 odd quid at the moment, do you think the Lite version is worth £150 Andy?
Also, am I correct in that the SWare has an abstract pattern generator incorporated into it as this would be handy + would that feature really require all of a 30K scan speed? Thinking here that 12K would be OK for that type of feature??

Thanks mate

Andy, when I try access your site I get: You don't have permission to access / on this server

in FF.

Looks good to me, hopefully the lite version works well too, I dont have that amount of money lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by smogthemog

In your honest opinion and bearing in mind I can't afford £400 odd quid at the moment, do you think the Lite version is worth £150 Andy?
Also, am I correct in that the SWare has an abstract pattern generator incorporated into it as this would be handy + would that feature really require all of a 30K scan speed? Thinking here that 12K would be OK for that type of feature??

Thanks mate

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its hard to say about lite version, moncha is worth the money its a very good dac.

the only one down side i have with it, is you cant draw your own shows.

ive not seen the abstract generator???

Quote:

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Andy, when I try access your site I get: You don't have permission to access / on this server

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yeah i know i have hosting issues at the moment

Sorry I meant pattern generator :o :)

Does the DAC have balanced or un-balanced outputs?

Thanks

x & y are balanced.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by smogthemog

In your honest opinion and bearing in mind I can't afford £400 odd quid at the moment, do you think the Lite version is worth £150 Andy?
Also, am I correct in that the SWare has an abstract pattern generator incorporated into it as this would be handy + would that feature really require all of a 30K scan speed? Thinking here that 12K would be OK for that type of feature??

Thanks mate

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I recently picked up Moncha lite and I'd say it was worth every penny! :)

I'm only interested in beam stuff, and am only using a single colour projector at the moment so the reduced scan speed of the lite version really isn't a problem.

The simplicity and ease of use of the software is just fantastic. it's just great results really quickly, and so far it's the only piece of laser software I've ever used that hasn't crashed, stalled or produced any errors, it's absolutely rock solid!

It seems to have all the features I've ever wanted from a basic live player, these being keyboard shortcuts (Function keys change pages, nice!) beam targetting for mirrors, and easy scene positioning.

I haven't really had that much time to play yet, but I'm loving it so far! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by carmangary

x & y are balanced.

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Thanks.

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I have since purchased Moncha lite and I agree with you Yag - it is excellent. So easy to use especially with a touchscreen monitor!
I too am using it just for the beams and at 12K it's just fine :)

For those using Moncha with touchscreen - it is possible to increase size of bank buttons. Edit Moncha.ini file (located in installation directory, typically C:\Program Files\Moncha 2.1) and locate:

<TabButtonsHeight>18</TabButtonsHeight>

18 is size in pixels. You can increase this size to 30, it is then easier to select the banks. Enjoy ;) ...

Question:

Can the moncha DAC be used to extend Fiesta 2?

what do you mean?

Fancy this:

I own Moncha. But as I obtain my second laser projector, I decide to buy Fiesta 2.
The question is, can I use my old Moncha DAC as second DAC in Fiesta?

no i dont think so.

you can use two or more fiesta DACs using the fiesta software, but not moncha.

No, as Andy has written, Moncha DAC will not work with Fiesta. As well as Fiesta DAC will not work with Moncha.

Its worth noting the 2nd DAC for Fiesta is also cheaper than the inital outlay for the first unit. I am sure some one can provide pricng for you closer to your location that me in Australia. I understand there is a new fiesta.net on the way which should adda few bells and whistles it will be interesting to see what it adds to the existing hardware.