Great sepcial offer for Jan 2013

[ImageLight]

Hey All,

I shot a video of the LK-PD1 running the Mike Dunn lasershow Tom Sawyer. The scan speed is set to 18k at 100% size
using Pangolin LD2K.
The projector is approx 9 feet from the screen. Unfortunatly, my video camera really sucks and was going in and out of focus but, the laser looks as it should and much better in person. At least you can get an idea how it scans. Because of
Music copyright, you can only watch the video on a PC.

Mark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxtj5m3jS_E

[ImageLight]

Errrrrrrrr
Time to buy a real video camera...

[daction]

Thanks bro, nice to see something new.

[Laserhobbit]

Hi Everyone,

As promised and a little late here is my review of the LK-PD1. As I explained in an earlier post my projecotr arrived over a week ago, however I delayed the postt as it had a couple of minorissues, which I thought it was only fair to let Linna comment on and resolve before posting the review. More on this later

First things first, Linna has been a pleasure to deal with, always being very responsive and helpful, even considering the Chinese New Year Holiday. She also seems quite knowledgable, but as with many suppliers, always check the validity of any technical information. Many times on this forum we mention the difference this makes and I can really give Linna an A* in this respect. For anyone who is looking at the "budget" end of the market I really feel it is key to find someone who is helpful and does not "run away" if their are problems, although not ideal Linna has earned her stripes as far as this is concerned.

The unit arrived very fast via DHL, with tracking numbers supplied, although don't forget this will mean that you will get charged customs clearance fees etc, so many people forget this and get a surprise as to how much this can be for a cheaper projector, as the actual handling fee is often fixed.

My first impression when the unit arrived was how compact it was. Nicely made and in a strong aluminium moulding and sheet style case. all the metalwork is of a reasonable thickness and even the "optical bench" housing the lasers etc is of quite a thick gauge. Some of the parts showed the usual lack of care and surface damage which is often common of the Chinese projectors, but all was cosmetic and really just an observation. But they key thing here to remember that this is a budget projector . In this hobby/profession you get what you pay for. But I can only agree with Brad, this projector is excellent value for money, far better than any other I have seen. You will see from the enclosed pictures the build quality is astounding, considering the price. All the wiring was neat and tidy, although be aware that this does not really show in the pictures as some of the cable ties have been clipped.

Now for the initial testing. when I unpacked the projector I immediately came across two issues.

1) That the RGB alignment was slightly out. But this had been shipped half way around the globe and so I was not surprised. The good news was the almost total lack of hot melt glue, as Brad mentioned earlier. The only place I found this was glueing the dichros to the flex mounts. yes I did say flex mounts! Compared to the usual sheet steel or poor aluminium mounts these are adjustable. although not quite up to Dave's standard, more than adequate and re alignment was a breeze. In fact I would rather have adjustable mounts slightly out than hot melt which offer not adjustment any day. See below.





2) It was obvious when the projector was first powered up that there was an issue with the green laser, it was very dim and I would estimate it less than a few mW. But these things happen and I don't think we should see this as anything else other than a casualty of a long drive and mass production. The unit had just come in from a very cold delivery van and it was -3 Celsius outside, so I gave it a full 12 hours to get up to temp, in case this was the issue. But no joy, in fact it got much worse. Linna was very supportive and suggested various remieial actions, but to no avail. I also tried external modulation and various multimeter style test. But the upshot was I was unlucky and the head was faulty. But the good news is Linna has shipped me a new one, yet to arrive due to New Year etc, but I have checked with DHL and its on its way. So although annoying and the reason for the delay in the review, the good news is that their customer service seems good, not that I really wanted to test it this way


Now to the actual performance, bear in mind this is really only on red and blue, but all I can do is echo Brad's comments and say wow. I have not fully tested the scanners yet and obviously they are not CTs, but from what I have seen, even untuned they seem to be a very respectable 20k if not bordering on 25k. I will post pictures once I have replaced the green and also had a chance to work out tuning. But as a basic RGB projector and considering the cost it is really good value for money

But that is just part of the story, with the addtion of the effects wheel this little projector will blow your mind, again yes you can see much better, but sub $500? The effects are quite literally better than projectors costing much more, due to the added depth of effects the extra effects wheel adds. I will post more images and a review of the effects once I have replaced the green. But I think Brad has done a great job with the videos etc, thanks. But in real life there is another added dimension.

Now more to the practicalities of the projector:

1) The interlock is a quite unusual mini round connector, see below. This could be inconvenient, as most solutions use 9 pin D style connectors, but this could be changed via a simple patch cable or by changing the socket on the projector. Changing the socket would be my preferred options , but is obviously a bit of work.




2) All the lasers are mounted on vibration spacers and also with heat conducting sheets, this makes adjustment very easy and this level of detail is really refreshing for a Chinese projector, not just simple bolted in place or worse more hot glue. The brackets also seem quite heavy gauge and up to the job, another plus:





3) The effects wheel has been intelligently designed with a home datum as per Brad's post, but also with gap in between effects to make effect switching more seamless. It also means that you could add further wheels if you like. All in all the various effects are all very good and the construction of this is also of quite a high standard, see below





4) The only real shame is that the effects wheel can only be run form DMX, not in conjunction with the ILDA port. Obviously I am looking at ways of hacking this and it should not be a problem to get around it, but a shame none the less. I have fed this back to Linna and I think she has passed this back to the design team. Simply put, all I will do is drive the scanners and modulation directly off the ILDA connector and then just use DMX for the wheel control. But more of this later, as I plan to start a new thread on this mod and also looking at using Beyond and DMX, plus an APC40 to control this. Part of the next big project, more later, watch this space

Conclusions

Well my 5c is for the money this seems a very good bit of kit, yes its not a really high end projector and lacks some of the safety considerations and variances etc to make it really legal and useful in some areas. But most of these things can be fixed and really for UK use it just needs the laser start to have the delay, which as we know most projectors don't do anyway. The construction is solid, the hanging bracket adequate and all in all the design is very robust. As a basic projector it is better than most, but the addition of the effects wheel makes it a real temptation for any addict. It has definitely catalysed me enough to get on with my next build. So you do get what you pay for, don't expect the earth, but value for money, in my mind very good.

Plus as posted earlier the manual is really quite good, with a refreshing emphasis on safety.

I will post more once all is back together and the green in place, but in the meantime here are some more pictures:






The wiring is normally neater, but I had to clip a few ties to get the green tested and removed.

Cheers

Steve

[Bradfo69]

Very nice job Steve. Once you get the green in and working, I think your impressions of this projector will likely increase even more. I'm trying to visualize using this with only red and blue and, you ARE missing an awful lot without the green. Has Linna ever mention the relative powers of each of the three lasers? Or even wavelengths? I've never seen them listed anywhere. It's a nice white when you have all three colors.

I'm anticipating doing one more video with the cover removed and running in auto where you will hopefully be able to see both the output on the wall and the internal movements/scanning at the same time. I'm also waiting to hear from Linna about a possible extention of the January pricing. I've gotten a couple of people interested if I do another order. I forgot that I may get a bill from DHL after the fact for customs clearance Yes, there is more to this than just the sales price of the projector. They don't take Paypal for example so funds need to be wire transferred or sent Western Union. In my case it was $45 for a wiring fee, adding about $15 to the $435. Plus in my case, one of these was shipped to another member and we had an agreement involving that so, in reality, there is a little more to this than sales price but, as mentioned, it doesn't affect the incredible value this is.

[Laserhobbit]

Hi Brad,

the relative powers and wavelengths are as follows, from their website:

Red 650nm, 300mW
Blue 450nm, 400mW
Green 532nm, 100mW

Not sure if the blue is really 445nm, I will measure it when I get a minute. I am also looking today at analogue modulation and also the "hacking" of the ILDA and DMX connections to run these independently. I will post details of this once I have found the best way to do it with minimum disruption. I think the best way maybe a simple breakout board, with connectors so that I can have a few made for anyone who is interested, they would just solder up the connectors, re patch the various cables and hey presto a whole new range of possibilities. It would seem easier than each of us getting a solder iron out. I think maybe Linna will sell enough of these projectors to make the fabrication worthwhile and I think the bare board will cost a couple of $ each.

Once I have the info I will maybe start a new thread for those interested to discuss hacking the projector and alos share ideas for control etc. I am really excited about this and am already planning how I can incorporate this into my old school analogue and digital prtojector project. details of which I plan to post on the forum.

Maybe if anyone else is interested they can post here so I can see the level of interest. I really think this could be the next level of fun builds and mods, and i'm looking forward to it

Cheers

Steve

[ImageLight]

@ Steve.. I'm certain the effects wheel is controllable via DMX when using ILDA signals.. I do not have a DMX controller
yet to test this. Analog modulation would be a really cool mod for this projector though.. I've been kicking
around the idea of putting in some DT40s but, I'm going to kill the scanners that came with it first..

@ Brad.. Let me know the total of all the associated fees and I'll put in more cabbage to help cover the outlay. I
totally forgot about that those costs..

Mark

[Laserhobbit]

Mark,

I can only go from the manual and also the initial tests I have conducted. There is a list of functions which work when the ILDA and DMX are connected in the manual on page 19, they are quite limited but include:
DMX Channels Chart When ILDA is connected

CHANNEL VALUE DESCRIPTION

CH1
Grating Rotation
000-004 No grating rotating
005-127 Clockwise grating rotating
128-133 No grating rotating
134-255 Anticlockwise grating rotating

CH2
Grating Effect
000-031 Laser 3D Effect
032-063 Scanned Beam Effect (Pattern Effect)
064-095 Laser Lumia Effect
096-127 Scanned Beam Effect (Pattern Effect)
128-159 Burst Grating Effect
160-191 Scanned Beam Effect (Pattern Effect)
192-223 Laser Universal Effect
224-255 Scanned Beam Effect (Pattern Effect)

So this should be enough. But on hooking the unit up to my DMX desk I could not seem to get these to work when I had a valid Ilda connection. I checked with Linna and she said it would not work, so I thought I was wrong. But I will try again and see, thanks



Steve

[Bradfo69]

@ Brad.. Let me know the total of all the associated fees and I'll put in more cabbage to help cover the outlay. I
totally forgot about that those costs..

Mark

Unless I get some crazy bill for DHL, I'm not worried about it. I would have had to pay the wire transfer fee whether I got 1 or 3 projectors. You hooked me up with the BlissLights, and fixed my lumia projector so, again... I'm not that concerned.

[ImageLight]

So this should be enough. But on hooking the unit up to my DMX desk I could not seem to get these to work when I had a valid Ilda connection. I checked with Linna and she said it would not work, so I thought I was wrong. But I will try again and see, thanks

Steve

Wow, that would really suck if we can't get that solved..