LF: Kvant Clubmax disassembly guide/photos

[Melgarh]

Hello everybody!

I'm looking for photos or video of Kvant Clubmax (ideally 1800, 2016/2017 model, not the latest & greatest one!) of its disassembly.

Reason: hardware disable of scanfail safety
Why?!?: Mamba 3 DAC does not send the correct signal to laser to open the safety block
What?!: Yep, tried all of the options in SW, works correctly with Laserdock DAC..
But.. safety!: Safe graphics projection, no audience so no need - its actually kinda annoying as some of the parts of graphics are small and move slowly, making the safety fire unnecessarily. If the safety can be disabled via some other option without opening the projector, that would be marvelous! But as far as I've understood and checked the manual, this is intentional as likely everybody wants safety over the roof!

It was a costly projector, especially for us Middle/East Europeans So if I'm going to disassemble it, I want it done with all of the available research on hand! Other solution is to buy Pangolin Quickshow, which is in the works... but can't justify that expense just yet plus transferring all of my shows from Mamba to QS would take some precious time

Thanks for any suggestions and info!
-Mel

[Bradfo69]

A suggestion is to touch base with DZ here on the forum. I know his splitters have included the ability to switch on or off a bypass that make the projector think it's getting the necessary signal from the DAC to keep a shutter open. Don't know about bypassing their scan fail but may work in a similar fashion. I know I have some 8 channel wav content that causes my ClubMax 1800 to go nuts and putting the splitter inline corrects it. You don't need a full blown splitter but maybe an inline box making it think it's getting the signal would work.

[rns0504]

Put a jumper on the pins shown on your ClubMAX to bypass the scan fail.

If you choose to do this it is at your own risk. Always take proper precautions when using your laser as the environment requires.

Bypassing this may violate safety laws in your region, especially for public or hired use, so this should only ever be done for personal use, in a controlled environment at home. Scan fail should be enabled when projector is being used publically around others

THE COMMENTS AND OPINIONS ABOVE ARE MY OWN AND NOT THOSE OF MY EMPLOYER

[dkumpula]

I ran into this shutter signal issue a couple years back when I took 5 Medialas DACs to SELEM and had them hooked up to projectors with working shutters for the first time. Its odd that this hasn't been corrected over the years as shutters are relatively common for professional projectors.

In this case, the software was LSX, so we simply switched to Etherdream DACs, which thankfully its developer, Jacob (j4cbo) had brought with him.

[Melgarh]

@dkumpula: Did you get in touch with Mamba support, if they plan to even remedy it or provide some workaround? Its definitely a surprise to me, as the Mambas are the latest version (3) and silly cheap LaserDock works with Kvant just fine, although it has limited bandwidth.

@Brad: Thanks! Got in touch with DZ about that.

@rns504: Thanks! I've already similar picture from my reseller, although I presume opening Kvant will void my warranty, so will wait till I've ideally response from all sides

[dkumpula]

@dkumpula: Did you get in touch with Mamba support, if they plan to even remedy it or provide some workaround? Its definitely a surprise to me, as the Mambas are the latest version (3) and silly cheap LaserDock works with Kvant just fine, although it has limited bandwidth.

No, I didn't bother. Instead, I just switched over to Etherdream DACs when using projectors with shutters. I rarely play any Mamba content through Mamba as I migrated most of it to LSX when I acquired that software. I do still use my Mamba DACs at home with my projectors that do not have shutters, though as they are supported by LSX. I'd be interested to hear what Medialas had to say, though!

-David

-David

[Melgarh]

Thanks for info, I've shot em an email explaining the situation, hopefully they will pick on it, it would be a simple tweak in SW I could imagine, as long as all the pins in DAC are connected to processor to actually be able to send the signal..

How hard was to migrate all of your shows from Mamba to LSX, as that is something that awaits me as well??

[masterpj]

You cannot export ilda.. In the past some manufacturers/developers had tools which allowed you to send a file (phoenix) and upon request they'd do the ilda conversion for you making sure you really own it.. they stopped with that and many developers have dropped out supporting the ilda format with true color or ILDA at all to keep their content and it's users within the software range.

Anyway it can be done with an ADAT.. you play back the show and basically record the audio to 6 channel Wave files which you then play back through your new DAC... or you have to convert them using laserboy afterwards or LC-ADAT.. while this "kinda" works .. for one: The resulting files will be huge and the timing isn't perfect.. on the preview screen you will most certainly see flicker and don't even get started about changing scanrates anymore then

The best way would be to ask another user to do the conversion for you.. he needs to make sure the audio doesnt clip and the volume levels are right... LC-adat can correct for too low volume but that's where things end.
@melgarb I have a discord channel where you can ask channels like this: https://discord.gg/7kV7Vqj. I am online 24/7

[carlos3621]

I've done this mod on my Clubmax lasers, it works!

[Melgarh]

@masterpj: Actually I've been able to export to ILDA yesterday from the Mamba Elements V3, both the objects ( as seen here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8...3czejBIanExOGs ) as well as ILDA show as a form of framelist (the resulting files are quite big, hundreds of megs) but they have to have precise FPS timing, otherwise they are indeed out of sync with the music

DISASSEMBLY - I've attached the picture, based on what I can see (don't have the projector in UK but at CZ location), the top plate is U shape and can be removed by the highlighted screws? Is this correct please?