Scanner Upgrade

[Pedrolaley13]

hey guys okay so i just got my new scanner set and the guy just provide "basic" set up for the galvos.. but it only shows how to put the power supply cable in the right places lol.. i need help with the whole thing.. the laser is a laserworld ES-50G and here are a few pics.. if you guys would help that would be awesome! here are the pictures of the laser show and the new galvos

[KGB]

If all you are doing is swaping the scanners then there are only 4 wires you need to touch(plus power).

x-,x+ and y-,y+

x+&- go from the ILDA connector (pin 1 and 14) on the back of the laser to the X galvo amp

y+&- go from that same connector(pin 2 and 15) on the back of the laser to the Y galvo amp

Then you need to apply power from the PS that came with the galvos to the X and Y amps.
Pretty simple

Try reading this if you are still having issues...
http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...EASE-HELP!-%29

[Pedrolaley13]

Problem is.. my laser doesnt have any ilda connections..just dmx

[LaNeK779]

if you have a DAC, then all you need is wire the scaners directly to your dac output, or use a cheap ilda breakout board to keep everything tidy

you can find one with around 10usd on eeebay

if you don't have a dac.. well, hook everything similarly to what the dmx connections were in your projector

[Pedrolaley13]

okay i just ordered the ilda break out board.. but what about the laser?? how will i get the power for it? is it gonna get it from the power supply that came for galvos or do i need another power source? and what USB to ILDA software and hardware would you guys recommend?

[colouredmirrorball]

OMG, the internal parts of that laser look just like my old one. The case is different, but I had a green cheap laser from Koollight, called Performer (only 40 mW though, if it is really the same laser it is just typical for Laserworld to add another 10 mW to the specs). On mine the scanners broke so I just threw it away and built a better one (still busy on it though xD - always improving). That stuff was dangerous as hell.

I wonder why you had to replace your scanners, did they just stopped working like mine?
I'm not sure if the DMX board is exactly the same, but they sure don't follow the standards. Those are probably cheap boards fitted for cheap scanners...
In fact, I guess I have bad news for you. The scanner outputs on the DMX board are probably directly connected to the scanners, right? That leaves your board useless I'm afraid. The outputs are probably somewhere between -5 and +5 volts (or whatever) and your board needs input from 0 to 5 volt (if I'm not correct then please someone correct me! Been out of lasers quite a while, what is the voltage of the input modulation on the X and Y ilda channels? )

If you want to keep using this laser then you have to buy a decent DMX board which outputs signals conform the ILDA standard (between 0 and 5 volts). You can connect those to your scanners without any problem but the laser head is another case. How is it connected to the DMX board? I suppose it receives both power and modulation signals, right? If I remember correctly there were two wires from the main board going to a smaller one which was the actual driver for the laser, unless yours is different from mine. You might want to check which one is the power wire and measure how much the laser needs and which one is the modulation signal and verify it is between 0 and 5 volts. Also, plug out the modulation signal and look if the laser is lasing if it doesn't receive the modulation signal. If this is the case, you have to find a way to somehow invert the modulation input from your DMX board and I have no clue how to do this.

You could also just skip the trouble and buy a new, proper laser with analog blanking which has no problem with the signals from the DMX board.

Long story short: scrape out every electronic part in that case and buy everything new.

Late christmas wish list:
- Proper laser with driver and power supply
- Proper DMX board which will also accept ILDA input with a lot of better patterns
- Now you're buying stuff anyway, buy a decent DAC to control the laser with your computer
- Why not add some red and blue?
- You also need some dichroic filters for that
- And mounts for those filters of course

Welcome to the money pit. Been there, done that.

[Pedrolaley13]

Dear colouredmirrorball,

all the things you said about the laser were the same lol i ordered the ilda breakout board and im planning to buy the DAC soon, im not too worried about DMX right now cause i dont use it at all. and the power and modulation signals do come from the dmx board but on the ilda breakout board i ordered it has them too.. here the link for the breakout board....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...#ht_607wt_1139

and i was hoping i could use the smaller board thats connected to the laser with that breakout board, would that work?

[colouredmirrorball]

Hi,

There is one big problem with that setup, and that is to power the laser. Since you are throwing away the crap DMX board which also powers the laser, you have to find a way to power the laser another way.

We need to know first how much volt the laser needs. I suspect this will be around 5 V but I am definately not sure. I hope the cabling on your laser is still intact. If so, look for the two pairs of wires that are connected to the mini driver for the laser. Power up the board and measure which one has a steady output and which one has a variable. If you can, use an oscilloscope for this because a multimeter will not be able to display correcty the variable output.

I have never measured them myself so I don't know, but I guess both will be something like 5 V (at least, that's the standard). You need to use a power supply that powers the laser with the correct voltage (another item for the wish list).
If you have an oscilloscope you have to make sure the modulation signal is varying between 0 and 5 volt. The breakout board will output a signal between 0 and 5 volt, so if the mini driver for the laser needs another input, you're screwed.

It's much simpler to buy a new, decent laser, but that depends on your budget I guess.

[Pedrolaley13]

everything is still intact but is there anything else i could you other than a oscilloscope? I was looking the price range for them and they seem to be $200+!

and i was actually looking at other lasers but I have a limited budget.. that's why I decided to modify this old one I have... but since I'm a noob at this its kinda hard lol

[colouredmirrorball]

A multimeter will do fine but a scope is always better :-)
I don't have one either and as long as you don't really want to get into electronics you won't need one.
You just need to tell which cable going from the DMX board to that mini laser driver is the power input and which one is the modulation input (if the board is labeled, which I doubt, that is no problem) and how much voltage is on them.

The power input on the tiny laser driver is stable so there is no problem measuring that with a multimeter. The modulation signal is however variable so the multimeter is unable to measure this correct.

If you could locate where you have to plug in the power and the modulation signal, you can look out for a power supply which can provide power to the laser driver instead of the old DMX board.

I guess you can connect the modulation signal input directly to the breakout board output and change the software settings to TTL (maybe you have to inverse the signal too, it is common with this cheap kind of lasers to be on when there is no signal, contrary to the ILDA standard!).




I'm sorry I can't help you with telling how much power you need, I can't measure it anymore myself because I skipped this step and bought a decent laser ;D