Old and new ILDA cable Standards

[jhutsby]

Hi Guys,

I'm just looking for a little help from people in the know!

I work for a company that primarily deals with temporary lighting installations and hire for stage and events, but has a stock of some small lasers, most of which are just DMX-512 controlled, but two that can be controlled by 25pin ILDA standard as well.

I'm don't really have much experience with the use of lasers, particularly through computer systems such as Pangolin Live and so forth, but I'm willing to learn and would like to do things right!

In rooting around the back of our yard I came across an old laser and computer control system that is at least 10 years old. The Laser simply has 'Beambox' written on it and is about 1.5m long. The control system is, from what I gather from the software is 'Vivid Innovations Zion 1 Laser Control System' circa 2001

I would like to see if this software will run the two lasers that have ILDA/Pangolin inputs on them but my problem is this:

The hardware on the old computer Zion 1 system is a 37pin D connector and, obviously, the new lasers are 25pin D connectors.

Could anyone shed some light on this matter? I realise that the age difference may have a huge impact on whether it will run or not, but not being experienced in lasers I don't know how much things have changed over the years.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Cheers,

Jazz

[sugeek]

The first thing people are going to ask for is pictures... The 'ilda' db-25 connector pinout can be found here: http://www.laserist.org/StandardsDoc...finaldraft.pdf The 37 pin connector on the 'beam box' probably has all of those or could be a bunch of things, pictures will help.

-Adam

[jhutsby]

Hi,

Yep, got hold of the ILDA Standard configuration, which I expect that the newer lasers we have use, so now I guess that I need to find out how the control hardware is configured, then match them up with an appropriate 37pin to 25pin connector cable that I will make up.

Its all starting to make a bit more sense now, the old Beambox laser uses pins 1 - ground, 3 - digital ground, 5 - blanking, 20 - x, 21 - y. So thats a start. I managed to track down the manufacturers who are dusting off their old manuals and may be able to help.

Will update soon on how I get on... or bug people with more questions!

Cheers

Jazz

[gashead]

Gidday!

I work out in East Kilbride, I'd be happy to pop in with my Pango kit and also check out the funky sounding "Beambox".

Please let me know, always nice to find another Laser Enthusiast in the area!



Cheers,

Nige.

Hi,

Yep, got hold of the ILDA Standard configuration, which I expect that the newer lasers we have use, so now I guess that I need to find out how the control hardware is configured, then match them up with an appropriate 37pin to 25pin connector cable that I will make up.

Its all starting to make a bit more sense now, the old Beambox laser uses pins 1 - ground, 3 - digital ground, 5 - blanking, 20 - x, 21 - y. So thats a start. I managed to track down the manufacturers who are dusting off their old manuals and may be able to help.

Will update soon on how I get on... or bug people with more questions!

Cheers

Jazz

[jhutsby]

Hey, didn't know there were so many people in the surrounding glasgow area that were laserists!

Fired it all up and got the beambox working, pretty sure its a 500mW green laser. Fairly basic but it looks like the galvo's aren't in good nick. its definately not producing the right images and the geometric test image is pretty bad. not too sure if its just been damaged over the years of sitting idle or whether it wasn't that good to begin with!

Just waiting on the manufacturers to come back with a pin configuration for the hardware and I'll try the control system with our newer lasers.

I don't know if you can get the right galvo's anymore, its a shame cos the laser itself is working fine, just needs rehousing and some different galvo's possibly.

Jazz

[gashead]

Hi Jazz,

Yeah we are out there

Sounds like the galvo amps could do with some tuning, and in worst case you can just replace the amps and galvos with some newer cheapies. (under £300)

I've got a power meter if you fancy measuring the output of the greenie, just let me know.

Cheers,

Nige.

Hey, didn't know there were so many people in the surrounding glasgow area that were laserists!

Fired it all up and got the beambox working, pretty sure its a 500mW green laser. Fairly basic but it looks like the galvo's aren't in good nick. its definately not producing the right images and the geometric test image is pretty bad. not too sure if its just been damaged over the years of sitting idle or whether it wasn't that good to begin with!

Just waiting on the manufacturers to come back with a pin configuration for the hardware and I'll try the control system with our newer lasers.

I don't know if you can get the right galvo's anymore, its a shame cos the laser itself is working fine, just needs rehousing and some different galvo's possibly.

Jazz

[VJ AIWAZ]

hey when you get the pinout from the company who made the software

check it against this as i have about 300 of these cables (db37 to db25)
its the cables from our old software


but make sure its the same pinout or you could always cut the cable and make it work