Laser Show Scanners and Scanning, the truth, the lies and a Review.

[swamidog]

What about the chinascanners that can do 2MILLIONkpps at 500 DEGREES

yes please!

[ZeroPoint]

What about the chinascanners that can do 2MILLIONkpps at 500 DEGREES

Only $99.99 with FREE ePacket delivery from Shenzen!

[mixedgas]

I'm working on the paperwork for this... I need to request some things on intra-library loan, that takes time....
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I actually want a bit of a shootout... Of the 23 parameters, 6 of them really shine in evaluating a Galvo at a glance. A few I tacked in to reduce dependence on the ILDA test pattern. Basically we're recreating a really solid data sheet that would be sent by the original developers of this technology. I actually doubt that some of the Galvo makers have the hardware to do these tests themselves...
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Steve

[mixedgas]

Steve, I'll test those things before breakfast. Anything else?
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What scanners are included in your test?

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Ryan, Looks like Andy has been playing Secret Santa Shopper and bought two pairs each of something like six models over the past six months... I have no idea what he has yet..
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I'm curious as to what he has bought, myself... See the first post..
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I know you can do that stuff in an hour, but it would not hurt the hobbyists and pros here to learn a little bit about something we are so dependent on.. I basically do a version of the late 90s early 2000s Cambridge Initial Tuning document for my own testing... The one they used to hand out in their "Scanner Tuning Classes" at Laser-FX conferences..
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However if you have suggestions to what He/We can do with a digital scope, test jig with fairly precise angle measurement, an inductance meter, precision audio signal generator, an honest source of the ILDA pattern that is not "vectorized", and a few other widgets, I'm all ears.... Granted these tests will not be ran on something like the "Hard Disk Actuator Analyzer" that Pangolin has, but we can learn a few things.... Technical Input from corporate contributors is welcome as long as it does not become a PR slugfest. We'll try to keep this based on "Scientific Method" as much as possible.
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Steve

[mixedgas]

Andy, If you don't have a DDS Function Generator, I'm happy with this one, have one at work, and one at home on the bench, chosen for its economy, ease of use, and very reasonable accuracy. As well as having a nice DC offset and attenuator control which is very useful when aligning/testing scanner amps.. I have the version without the voltage display, and I suggest paying a few Dollars?Euros more for the one with the Voltage Display, the Model 1013.
!
http://www.testequipmentdepot.com/in...df/sfg1003.pdf
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If you want to splurge... A Siglent SDG1010 10MHz 2-Ch DDS Function Generator Does quite a bit more for about the twice the price..
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http://www.saelig.com/product/sdg101...FZSEaQodj7QBIw
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We need Sine and Square waves for evaluating frequency response and resonances, and a Triangle or Sawtooth/Ramp for roughly evaluating linearity... If we have a pulse waveform, or a quadrature square wave, that is better yet. Preferably outputs at least 10 Volts peak to peak...
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There is a reason that second generation scanner amps often came with a ramp/pulse generator installed. In fact, one of the first Laser Show test patterns was a little board that output a ramp with a square pulse as the second output. The square pulse was in the middle of the ramp... Thus you could tune a Galvo pair to be roughly standardized by sweeping one axis with the ramp, while outputting the pulse to the other axis for adjusting Servo and Damping visually ... I have a few of the Image Engineering tuning boards in my collection... I need to post a picture of one.
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So Andy, do you have an oscilloscope? Its a "must have" for these tests...
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Steve

[andyf97]

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So Andy, do you have an oscilloscope? Its a "must have" for these tests...
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Steve

Yes Steve, I am well kitted out thanks. I will post all the tests and how they were done and with what equipment when I am ready with the data.

Cheers

Andy

[mixedgas]

Next Up.... Another publication...

Scanning speed and accuracy of moving magnet optical scanners

Pierre J. Brosens

Proc. SPIE 1987, Recording Systems: High-Resolution Cameras and Recording Devices and Laser Scanning and Recording Systems, 234 (December 29, 1993); doi:10.1117/12.165198

Steve

[andyf97]

Considering that I am going to write the tests in a way that reflect what you have, may I have a PM with what you have?
I'm going to sign out a nice camera from work and shoot a testing video Saturday...

Steve

No need, we have all we need to do the tests. Thank you for your input.

[mixedgas]

No, I'm going to teach everyone to test... Single point evaluations that are not peer reviewed or reproducible elsewhere are not valid..

Steve

[andyf97]

No, I'm going to teach everyone to test... Single point evaluations that are not peer reviewed or reproducible elsewhere are not valid..

Steve

It will be interesting to see how your results compare to ours, indeed I say ours because I am not alone doing this. feel free to post your results here too.

All the best Steve.





Andy