If we are going to throw safety in, any safe laser operator will have a scram system in place and have his hand on the button in case of a faliure that could cause any harm to the audience. We are here to talk about iShow; I have much faith John here thinks about safety.
"John", I assume this is Spagetti you are using; are you able to make shows that has a separate track for each DAC?
Love, peace, and grease,
allthat... aka: aaron@pangolin
Gents, quite right, we are talking about iShow. I have seen this system in action with some cheap Chinese projectors and witnessed a number of stationary beams when iShow froze between animations. Now I'm not sure whether this was down to the software alone, the hardware alone or a combination of the two, but I am recommending anyone looking to use iShow to consider the safety issues that are considered and built-in by more reputable manufacturers.
I am not asking to be assured, or here to provide you assurance, I am asking whether you have been assured and feel assured (by the manufacturer and/or other users) about the safety aspects of these components.
Scanner failure would be best left to be discussed in another thread, though it's worth mentioning that I personally would not like to rely on a scan-fail system to protect the audience during regular normal operation of my laser display. This is because I expect each component to perform in a safe manner.
I hope that you understand that my intention in raising these points is to prompt good solid debate in the reliability and safety of these components which are often left out of cheap Chinese systems because they do not have to abide by the same quality controls and are not subject to the same risk of litigation that Western manufacturers are.
Yes, well, for $89 for software and a DAC what do you expect? The solution is obvious. Don't point the beams into the audience when using these DACs if you are worried about safety. Everyone knows Volvos are safe cars but that doesn't mean you can't be careful and get by with a Yugo. So, although your point is taken, I don't think it is reason enough to completely ignore these DACs if all a person wants is a very low cost solution.
John, please remember that half the planet audience scans, at 10-100X the US MPE. Whats keeping them safe is the average position of the effect is moving. When a beam goes static, the MPE gets popped instantly.
With the I-Show hardware tending to freeze, no matter what is talking to it, its not a good idea to suggest I-Show hardware.
As for the scanners, the MTBF is a very large number, compared to real time software reliability. Even for the 450$ Chinese clones xy-pairs, such as DT20 or DT40, your talking a MTBF of 1000-2000 hours.
However, the stripped down scanners in a 500$ projector, MTBF (guessing) of what, 200 Hours?
What your saying may be true with the at 2 meters horizontal and 3 meters vertical, from the audience, per the US rules, but does not quite work in the rest of the world.
I-SHOW is junk, he'd be much better off with a sound card in terms of run time reliability.
Steve
Qui habet Christos, habet Vitam!
I should have rented the space under my name for advertising.
When I still could have...
What is your experience with the IShow DAC Steve? In what ways did you experience the freezing beams? Personally, although I know that there are display issues do to flaws in the firmware, my IShow DAC has behaved rather well for me. I have not had a problem with freezing beams during normal operation. For the purposes of what I suggested above, the IShow DAC is completely adequate and I am willing to demonstrate it.
thanks for the replies.as a beginner to projectors, i wont be doing any shows.in house only for my own entertainment.this is why i am only looking at a basic set up.total of 260mw.if ishow will do the things i an after then thats all i need.looking at using 20k galvo kit.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it only supports ttl blanking. That's a show stopper imo. Perhaps not for a single colour projector.