SELEM 2013 (7th annual!) August 16th-18. Sign up now!

[Bradfo69]

Heck with seminars we eating anything.

Now you're talking. Awaiting word on the use of the commerical kitchen. That will have a large bearing on what we can accomplish food wise but, yes... most definately we'll be eating well.

[hakzaw1]

HELLO fellow LEMers-

Just a quick note about a great person who will join us for his first SELEM-
I have been inviting Jeff for many years but he now is coming and you all will enjoy meeting him.

- His expertise is in lathe and mill work- he does custom work at reasonable prices- is almost as old as me- a seasoned VET of 'Burning Man' and good friend of Platinum (Jeff did NWLEM)-- If you enjoy a mix of laser and pyro Jeff is one to talk to. He AFAIK will be bringing his lady= and he also invited another first timer too.
'Flaminpyro' has kin in the area so they will be lodging elsewhere. He has a store and is a great source for many items most significant would be the 'White Fusion Time Machine'(WFTM) this extremely small projector MUST be seen in person to be appreciated-- You may remember Mr. Willing wining the 'Smallest PJ" award for the one he carried and demoed at SELEM 2010- it makes incredible spiro efx- and now is offered with RC. There has always been a waiting list for these RGBs so know that upfront--AND although I think they are a bargain they are not cheap--

be sure to see the one Jeff will bring.. If you want to do something nice for Jeff- bring all your empty sleds or other mag items as Jeff turns them into powder and uses this powder in his Pyro mortors. if there is enough time you may want to discuss items in need that Jeff can fab--custom Labby Heatsinks- combiner kits- custom baseplates or enclosures are just a few. I imagine Jeff will have the best grade silicon wire and shrink to sell at SELEM-- he makes the best diode presses and removal tools- if you can draw it Jeff can fab it.



Originally Posted by polishedball
Anyone ever hear from 300Evil?

I caught him at FB- he uses his name there- this was a few weeks back-
sorry to say but I do not think 300E will be at this years SELEM ditto for Platinum.
Jonathon is in contact moreso than any other with 300E..if you want a message relayed- you can chat with him at FB- just send Plat. a friend request and after he accepts you can get him at FB Chat..or... I can reply messgs for you.

For many that do BM the fact that SELEM is so close on the calendar doing both is not likely.

hk

thanks for reading this--Len

[telmnstr]

Another year already!

Count me in! I'll be paypaling soon!

James - I don't know you but I found Laserboy is the tool that seems to be able to take dxf data from the free sketchup and rotate it then save as frames that I can pull into LSX, as free sketchup can't export a view to DXF -- just an object. So awesome! Thanks for writing Laserboy!

I've got some ideas I'm hoping to build before SELEM. Now that the date is set, I have a mission or two!

Can't wait to see everyone there again and talk the hobby.

Guess I should ping my carpool buddy Cfavreau!

(Confession. At Selem 2012 I scored a Pangolin shirt. It was a really proud moment!
http://users.757.org/~ethan/lasers_1/pics/pangolin.jpg )

[buffo]

Registration fees sent in, can't wait to get there.

Hi Jeff;

Got you on the list, buddy! Looking forward to meeting you in person at SELEM.

Seminars....
Where are we at so far and what do people want to see/hear about? so far we have Swami with an LSX demonstration, buffo on scanner tuning and cleaning up images/tails etc. Hopefully coupled with that is a in depth look at DZ's color correction board.

Swamidog is definitely up for an LSX presentation, and if Dr Lava (Andrew Kibler) decides to attend, he may also be willing to do a demonstration of LSX. (He's done this in the past when he has attended.)

As for the scanner tuning and color-board chat, DZ and I will probably do that together. I think this will probably be done on-stage, behind the curtain, rather than in the classroom. And if there is a lot of interest, we may repeat it once or twice. (It's not all that complicated, really.) We can certainly incorporate palette adjustment tips into that.

I've already asked Dan Goldsmith to repeat his projector certification presentation. However, there is a possible snag. Dan recently fell off a stage while volunteering at a community theater and broke his leg rather severely. (Tib-Fib, multiple breaks, not pretty.) He's OK, and he's actually getting around on crutches a bit, but he may not be healed well enough to handle 3 full days of being on his feet by the time SELEM comes around. Stay tuned for updates.

I'm pretty sure that Pangolin will be available to do their annual update meeting, and with any luck they may have some new scanners to show us! Also, I'm sure everyone will have lots of questions about their recent acquisition of Phoenix laser... I need to firm up a few details with Bill, but I'm reasonably sure he will be able to attend again this year.

I still need to contact Patrick Murphy (ILDA Executive Director) to see if he's available, and depending on whether or not we get enough people signed up for the LSO class, we might also have Greg Makhov with us. But beyond that I'm still open to other ideas for presentations.

it would be nice to have someone volunteer up a projector and starting from scratch, say "Here is what I look for, here's how you adjust it, and here are the results of making the adjustment. Here is how you save and load it so, any time this projector is hooked up, the software knows what to do."

Assuming the "PL-Spec Projector project" is far enough along by the time we get to SELEM, I can supply a projector for this. I can show anyone how to adjust the palette using Pangolin's color wizard for Showtime, but I will defer to someone else if you want to learn how to do it using Quickshow, or LSX, or any other software.

I'd also like to learn what the benchmark or reference is. With the ILDA test pattern it's (at least initially) the circle in the box. With color correction, who is to say what's right? Or, say what the maximum amount of improvement is...

Are you still talking about color balance here? Or are you referring to color timing (tails)? The "circle-in-the-box" portion of the ILDA test pattern is for scanner tuning only - it has no bearing on color at all. But yeah, we will cover these basics during the scanner tuning and color adjustment tutorial.

Truthfully, DZ has some other ILDA frames that make color timing adjustment *much* easier. And when it comes to palette adjustments, if you don't have an automated wizard like Showtime does, then there are some classic ILDA frames that should help you adjust you color balance manually. But we can go over all that at SELEM.

I would like to encourage EVERYONE to do what Brad just did though... Write down the questions you want answered. And if you don't feel comfortable posting them here in public, send them to me in a PM. I'll try to make sure there is a time and a place where you can sit down with someone to see and hear the answer explained to you. Because SELEM is definitely a good place to learn about things, but you need to remember to ASK!

Count me in! I'll be paypaling soon!

Will be great to see you and Chris this year dude... Stay in touch!

BTW, love the picture of the 1084S... I haven't fired up any of my remaining Amigas in a long time, but I still have lots of fond memories. Let me know if you get that original Pangolin software running on a set of galvos. If you've got a spare A500, you can do the Gary-chip mod and get non-blanked monochrome output for next to zero cost, and I think it would be cool to see that running at SELEM just for nostalgia's sake.

Adam

[telmnstr]

BTW, love the picture of the 1084S... I haven't fired up any of my remaining Amigas in a long time, but I still have lots of fond memories. Let me know if you get that original Pangolin software running on a set of galvos. If you've got a spare A500, you can do the Gary-chip mod and get non-blanked monochrome output for next to zero cost, and I think it would be cool to see that running at SELEM just for nostalgia's sake.

That was how I achieved graphics, although I'm thinking I did the pass-DC mod on an Amiga 2000? I can't remember -- I used to get them from thrift stores and had a number of A500s and one 2000. I can probably borrow a 2000 system. I have a friend's 3000 I need to try to finish repairing (battery acid damage), but no quadmod. I was never a big Amiga user -- I preferred VGA to those ratty 1084 monitors.

My original setup was two Accel 124's, two G124 general scanning galvos (from ebay, before anyone knew there was laser stuff on ebay :-), a $900 15mw argon laser and the Pangolin LSD1000 software. Good times. Somehow I let my laser hobby down, there is no excuse for lack of multiple white light, diode based projectors right now.

Cool that swami is gonna be there! We chatted on IRC back in the day -- seemed cool, dig his lumia stuff!

[mophead]

I've been really busy at work and don't visit PL daily like i used to. having said that, I'd like to weight in my .002 on page 3 of this thread - about paying people's expenses to get to SELEM.

My first SELEM, I cooked many hours, drove many hours, paid our way in, and fed the crowd the best we could. All out of our pocket, actually, my credit card. We did it because we wanted to.

Second year, we cooked again, with Len's help, it was some kickass food. SELEM funds paid for the meat - just the 70lbs of meat which i managed to get wholesale. Not the buns or anything else we brought or went and bought (again on the credit card). There was a tip jar (which shouldn't have been put out the second time) which still did not cover the expenses of the food, much less our room, ride, gas or time. That is/was ok. We chose to. We wanted to. It was a labor of love for the group.

HAVING SAID THAT:

SELEM is a labor of love. We wouldn't have done what we done if we didn't want to or could afford to. It was fully our choice, our free will, that we missed most of the event in the kitchen. SELEM *is not* a money making event. It isn't a money maker for anyone involved. Sure, you might sell a few items to put a few bucks in your pocket, but it is not, in my opinion, about making money. It's not even about getting there free. Best I can figure the math, everyone goes in the red (especially if you consider the hours/time put into it). I would wager Adam doesn't even cover his expenses. I bet every single time, he ends up out of pocket.

Hell, I'd love a free ride, but I'm with Brad on this one. There are scant few that even deserve to get in free, much less get donations to get them there. Yes, there are a few people I would kick a few bucks to make sure they could make it, if I could afford it, BUT, Where's the part about getting me from home to SELEM and back again? What about me? What about me? Yes, I'm being sarcastic about me. I'd love to scheme a free ticket in, but i bring very little to the tech table.


As for James...... I agree with Adam, that was a darkspot on everyone involved. I'm holding a let james in sign. I'm holding a "let everyone that acts like they ought to, IN" sign. We all have differences of opinion on the best way to do X, or the best DAC, or the best DPSS, or the whatever the discussion may be. In the end we all love laser light, regardless of the manor it (safely) exits the aperture.

[swamidog]

seemed cool?

<zaphod>i'm so cool you can keep a side of beef in me for a month</zaphod>

i also got my laser start with amigas. although i was using catweazels and a 5mW red diode from meridith instruments. those were really fun times. i always like feeling close to the tech. everything is so abstracted these days.

That was how I achieved graphics, although I'm thinking I did the pass-DC mod on an Amiga 2000? I can't remember -- I used to get them from thrift stores and had a number of A500s and one 2000. I can probably borrow a 2000 system. I have a friend's 3000 I need to try to finish repairing (battery acid damage), but no quadmod. I was never a big Amiga user -- I preferred VGA to those ratty 1084 monitors.

My original setup was two Accel 124's, two G124 general scanning galvos (from ebay, before anyone knew there was laser stuff on ebay :-), a $900 15mw argon laser and the Pangolin LSD1000 software. Good times. Somehow I let my laser hobby down, there is no excuse for lack of multiple white light, diode based projectors right now.

Cool that swami is gonna be there! We chatted on IRC back in the day -- seemed cool, dig his lumia stuff!

[buffo]

That was how I achieved graphics, although I'm thinking I did the pass-DC mod on an Amiga 2000?

The Gary-chip mod would work on any Amiga with the stock Gary chip. So, A1000, A500, A600, A2000, and A2500. Not sure if it would work on the A3000 or not though. And if you were clever, I'm sure you could figure out how to re-create it on an AGA-chipset Amiga with the super Gary...

I used to get them from thrift stores and had a number of A500s and one 2000.

I've had every Amiga ever made (at one point or another) with the exception of the original A1000 and the A2000. But I was also president of the Charleston Area Amiga User's Group for 3 years, so I was pretty invested in the platform. I sold my A4000 back in 1999, but I still have a CD-32 and an A500 with the GVP A530 turbo add-on.

I have a friend's 3000 I need to try to finish repairing (battery acid damage), but no quadmod.

It would be cool to see a quad-mod 8 at SELEM some year... But I don't know anyone that still has one.

I was never a big Amiga user

Heresy!

I preferred VGA to those ratty 1084 monitors.

I agree with you there. That's why I upgraded to the Cybervision 64 graphics card and a 21 " Mistubishi multi-sync monitor when I got my A4000.

My original setup was two Accel 124's, two G124 general scanning galvos (from ebay, before anyone knew there was laser stuff on ebay :-), a $900 15mw argon laser and the Pangolin LSD1000 software. Good times.

So at one point you did have a QM-8 then, eh? Pity you don't still have it. But yeah, back in the day that would have been a sweet setup. Just needed a 5 mw hene for red!

Somehow I let my laser hobby down, there is no excuse for lack of multiple white light, diode based projectors right now.

Maybe SELEM will re-energize your laser passion. For sure it's a lot cheaper to put together a nice solid-state system these days!

And Doug, very nice post. I didn't multi-quote it because really there isn't anything more to say. You hit all the points.

But I do want to emphasize that I agree with your statement that we should "let everyone that acts like they ought to, IN".

As for costs - eh, if I was worried about my wallet I wouldn't be involved with lasers in the first place, right?

Adam

[telmnstr]

In no way did I mean it in past tense! :-P

I tried to mod a cheap PC soundcard with the similar DC type mod as the Amiga used, but I don't recall it if worked.

Then came John Voltz's DAC -- and what I think might have been something of a clone of it and some software written by a local guy that went by the name DJ Ethernet. BOXX Laser System and Dot Monkey were his projects IIRC.

Now it's LSX, 30kpps chinese galvos, RIYA interface (ethernet!), and a projector needing a red solution (working on it!) I've been eyeballing the Etherdream with the idea of eventually doing two more RGB projectors.

Damn pinball and arcade stuff keep getting in the way ;-)

[buffo]

I understand about other priorities interfering with the laser hobby! But even so, it sounds like you're well on your way to full RGB. Maybe ready by SELEM?

Also, I received your PayPal payment earlier, and I've added you to the list of attendees. See you in August dude!

Adam