Need some help planning/building RGB scanner

[steve-o]

F'ckn A. I also have YORG. (like to emphasise the yellow orange 1st )
Waitin' on the blue- quality/ price issues to go down. -Waiting to see what ends up being everybody's favorite blue473. So far It seems to be Lasever, CNI, Viasho, and.. (cant remember the rest-too early in tha a.m.) (-not necessarily in that order. )

[buffo]

Mliptack;

*Very* nice pics! I'm surprised you got everything aligned so well with everything just sitting loose on the optical table. Good job!

Re: the shutter. It's a requirement of the CDRH. Beyond that, there are a few special cases when you might want the lasers to be on but have the output blocked. But mostly its for CDRH compliance. It's also a safety... It's a second way to block the output in case a relay sticks and your lasers don't shut down.

Re: the output window. Yeah, I remember the thread you are talking about. I think this is it. It started out with Dave (or maybe Aijii) talking about buying some AR coated glass to use as a projector output window, and ended up with someone (Stanwax? Mecheng3?) suggesting some camera filters that would do the same job...

Steve-o;

I already let the cat out of the bag in an earlier post, but I'm currently reviewing a very nice DPSS blue laser. When I'm done you'll definitely want to check it out. Details to follow in a week or so.

Adam

[steve-o]

Adam-
I can't afford one now but I'm looking forward to your review.
I wish I was rich

[mliptack]

Hey guys,

thanks for all the support! Without PL I would never have gotten this far so fast, I really appreciate all of your help. I'm thinking the next stop with this set-up will be building it into a road case. I'm going to start communicating with R&R out of Chicago and see what kind of deals they can get me, they have some incredibly tough cases! Sometimes too tough, but thats what I would like since I am investing so much into this.

Thanks again,
Max

[mliptack]

Ok, so I have been doing some thinking as far as control goes. I would like to have two computers operating the system, one as the Operating desk, the other with all the components (ie QM2000, once I get that far) what would be the best way to link the two computers together?

I'm not that experienced when it comes to networking so detailed explanations help. Or if you know of a good website direct me towards it.

Thanks again!

Edit:
I just also wanted to ask about the case, can a laser projector only be varianced if its case is made out of aluminum? I was thinking about making the actual enclosure out of plywood with a few layers of some high quality paint (probably truck bed paint or something similar). Of course there would be an issue of aligning the lasers and causing a fire or something similar. But I would like your input. Wood is just easier for me to work with, however, aluminum isn't out of reach...

[buffo]

Hi Max;

It depends on which software / hardware combination you end up using. If you do decide to go with a Pangolin QM-2000 setup, then you're all set. You can mount a small computer with the QM-2000 board inside (or near) your projector, and then run Ethernet cable (Cat-5e) between that PC and the "control" PC. You run Showtime on the control computer and it will communicate with the QM-2000 board inside the computer at the projector over the Ethernet link. (You need to install the .net software from Pangolin in order to do this. It's free.)

You can either use a cross-over cable and connect the two PC's directly, or you can buy a cheap switch (or even just a hub) and then plug a standard Ethernet cable from each PC into that. No need for a router, because both machines will be on the same LAN segment. If that doesn't make sense to you, don't worry about it. Just know that a router is more than you need. A switch or hub will work just fine. Should cost about $30.

Note that *wireless* Ethernet is not officially supported. Some users have gotten it to work sucessfully, while others have experienced problems. I suspect the problem lies with the "heartbeat" signal from the QM-2000 board that the software looks for.

Now, if you want to get rid of the second PC altogether, Pangolin also sells a QM-2000.net adapter. Basically this is a PCI slot that connects to a power supply inside a small housing. You plug the QM-2000 board into this thing. It's also got an Ethernet controller that allows you to connect the box to the control computer. This way you can easily install the QM-2000 board right inside a projector. They're kind of pricey, but it is an alternative to having a second PC...

If you are using other hardware and software to run your laser show, things become more complicated. Off the top of my head I don't know of any other product that is designed to use multiple PC's... There are several products that will allow for multiple projectors, but all the controllers connect to the same host PC. But if your projector is a long way away from the PC this may mean that you have a long run of USB cable between the PC and the controller, or a long run of ILDA cable between the controller and your projector, or both. Since network cable is better suited for long runs, I'm guessing this is why you were originally thinking about using two PC's...

As for problems with the CDRH variance if you have a wooden case - I have no idea. I can't see any reason why a wooden case would be an issue, but I honestly don't know for sure. As far as keeping the lasers aligned, that can be solved by mounting all the optical components on a metal plate inside. The wood may warp and swell a little, but that won't matter because all it can do is shift the overall position of the entire metal optical table a few mm one way or another. So long as your output window is large enough to accomodate any slight shifts, you should be fine. (Just make sure that *all* your optical components, including your shutter, are mounted on that plate and you'll be fine.)

Adam

[mliptack]

Well I have the FB3 controller, so I figured I would run some sort of network. Not sure if I would want to do a really long USB run, I would rather use a cheaper network cable, then at the least do some sort of remote desktop connection. I just find that I have problems with Remote Desktop, and I think I would have a harder time doing it just over a LAN, I just dont have much experience with stuff like that.

On another note I have been researching Relays and other equipment I will need for interlocks. But I have a few questions...

First of all, those of you with larger projectors that have cases with casters do you always remove the projector from the case, or do you have locking casters? I would imagine for safety reasons it would be impractical to leave it on the wheels (especially for beam shows where a slight misalignment could be dangerous).


Does anyone have a power-on delay circuit they would be willing to share with me? I've been looking at timed relays, but one that is capable at switching on at 120v with a 3 second delay is about $47. I am also trying to find an easy way to get an LED lit up as a power indicator, but I dont want to add another power transformer. Is there any easy way to get either 9v or 5v down to 3v?


Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Also by the way, today I spent about 6 hours bolting everything down, tapping holes, aligning, and cleaning all the cables up, I'll post some more pictures very soon (probably tonight) once its dark and I can take some good pictures.

-Max

[dave]

Have you thought about those usb - cat5 usb extender boxes you can get?

I hear they work well

http://www.kvms.com/usb-extender.asp

edit:

As for the led, a simple dropping resistor will allow you to run the led off 9v or 5v

[buffo]

Hi Max;

If you're having trouble with the relay, I can think of two possible solutions.

1) Buy a cheaper relay that has a built-in delay but only switches low voltage / low current and slave a larger, non-delay relay to that one.

2) Build a simple R/C timer circuit. (Series resistor prior to the load, and a large capacitor in parallel with the load.) Time delay (seconds) = Resistance (ohms) times Capacitance (Farads).

Depending on what relay you buy, you may be able to energize the relay directly (remember that the resistor is going to lower the voltage available to the coil), or you may need to use a small transistor to act as a voltage sensitive switch. Here is an example of such a circuit, though the darlington pair is overkill in my opinion.

Adam

[dave]

2) Build a simple R/C timer circuit. (Series resistor prior to the load, and a large capacitor in parallel with the load.) Time delay (seconds) = Resistance (ohms) times Capacitance (Farads).

That will give you the RC time constant(time to charge the cap to 63.2% of full charge), not the time delay.