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Thread: CYGN-B

  1. #51
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    I'd guess the controls marked CM are what Laserium called color modulation and there should be a unique output for that signal...
    "There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." Pablo Picasso

  2. #52
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    Default That is one interesting console...

    I agree with Brian that the oscillators are probably simple op-amp quadrature oscillators. They seem to be using the same type of dual pots we used on our analog cycloid boards (CYGN-A) to vary frequency and amplitude. Very interesting that they thought that thumbwheel switches were a good choice for live performance. Our "fixed cycloid" selector was a rotary switch that allowed us to select (help me Brian - it's been 2 decades):
    1 - Circles
    2 - Squares
    3 - Triangles
    4 - Stars
    5 - KQO (Keyed Quadrature Oscillator)
    6 - DOG (Digital Offset Generator) or was it the DYNADIG?
    7 - Digital Cycloids (CYGN-B)
    8 - ??? but I think that 7 was the max...

    This was another card in the 352 rack that generated patterns 1-5, yet another card to generate pattern 6 (DOGN card). I think that the Fixed Cycloid card was called FXCY.

  3. #53
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    DYNADIG
    Danube rotation
    Danube rotation with CYGN-B (used in Rocket Man)
    "There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." Pablo Picasso

  4. #54
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    The FXCY also did PDM (simply summing a variable gain square wave from the spiral card to the fixed cycloid output in one axis) It was first used in Summer Madness in Laserium II.
    "There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." Pablo Picasso

  5. #55
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    Quote Originally Posted by laserist View Post
    The FXCY also did PDM (simply summing a variable gain square wave from the spiral card to the fixed cycloid output in one axis) It was first used in Summer Madness in Laserium II.
    Ahh... Summer Madness. Thanks for that memory. I just went to my iTunes library and listened to it. What a great song.

    Now I remember that tuning the spiral rate to match the fixed cycloid (we used the circle for Summer Madness) was extremely difficult because the spiral rate had a single-turn pot. I think I later modified mine to add a 10-turn pot that I could select with a switch.

    Ron

  6. #56
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    Glenn Thomas gave me his patented "I just can't believe you're hacking perfection" act (He knew that I was far from contrite) when I replaced the in/out dual coaxial modpot with a ten turn. When I showed him a lick where I cut the spiral rate in half to match the 1/2 beat of the bridge in something in the Beatles show he insisted it couldn't be done with a ten turn - with a smile - I don't remember my response...
    "There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." Pablo Picasso

  7. #57
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    Steve, Ron, and Brian, I'm not sure which amazes me more: the depth of your collective knowledge, or your generosity and willingness to share your time and long lost secrets. With the yarns you are spinning (and the data spec posted by Ron) I realize there are many more details of circuitry I never expected to know with certainty, and yet might. I will attempt to pace my inquires over time as to not wear out my welcome.

    Also, thank you immensely for the material that has been sent privately. The quality of my commutes on public transit has just been improved with this most welcome reading material.

    Regarding the Magic Mountain console, I may have confused jog with shuttle. The knob turns with out an endpoint, like the spinner on Atari's Tempest or one axis of an old opto-mechanical mouse. Is there such thing as a potentiometer that turns without stopping eventually? My guess is that it is using a magnetic mechanism to create pulses. One of the boards has rows of trim pots, and the image rotation does appear to occur in steps. Also, the enclosure beneath the knob is bigger than seems necessary for a low power pot. By the way, I don't have much use for this console at this time. If someone else does, you are welcome to contact me.

    Now, to pick just one thread from the wealth of info revealed here recently, I understand from Ron's data spec that the Triggered Popcorn was invoked by toggling a bit, one for each color. Something(s) I have always wondered: Was this effect a random sample and hold, or something else? I remember it was used in the drum solo in "Red" and in a couple of parts in "Phobos and Deimos go to Mars". Does someone remember, was this the same effect used to represent the "Rainbow Makers" in Crystal Odyssey, but at a high sample rate? If so, I don't think it could have been a random sample, as I remember the nodes to which the beams jumped appeared to be evolving in some pattern, and not just appearing randomly.

  8. #58
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    Default Of Knobs and Dogloids and Popcorn

    Quote Originally Posted by Greg View Post
    Regarding the Magic Mountain console, I may have confused jog with shuttle. The knob turns with out an endpoint, like the spinner on Atari's Tempest or one axis of an old opto-mechanical mouse. Is there such thing as a potentiometer that turns without stopping eventually? My guess is that it is using a magnetic mechanism to create pulses. One of the boards has rows of trim pots, and the image rotation does appear to occur in steps. Also, the enclosure beneath the knob is bigger than seems necessary for a low power pot. By the way, I don't have much use for this console at this time. If someone else does, you are welcome to contact me.

    Now, to pick just one thread from the wealth of info revealed here recently, I understand from Ron's data spec that the Triggered Popcorn was invoked by toggling a bit, one for each color. Something(s) I have always wondered: Was this effect a random sample and hold, or something else? I remember it was used in the drum solo in "Red" and in a couple of parts in "Phobos and Deimos go to Mars". Does someone remember, was this the same effect used to represent the "Rainbow Makers" in Crystal Odyssey, but at a high sample rate? If so, I don't think it could have been a random sample, as I remember the nodes to which the beams jumped appeared to be evolving in some pattern, and not just appearing randomly.
    Greg, that "jog/shuttle" knob may be connected to a selsyn motor. It would have had a twin in the projector that matched it's motion twist for turn. We had a similar pair in our projector with a diffraction grating attached. Spinning the knob (or any motion of the knob) was matched by an exact motion of the grating. To my recollection - which could be faulty - this was only used in one number - Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun - in Laserium 1. The small diffraction wheel had a small sector cut from it to make a clear area where you could get the raw beam when the console knob was set to the right position. Is that your memory, Brian?

    The popcorn pseudo-random motion was produced by the "DOG" card (Digital Offset Generator). This card also allowed shapes to "pong" around and "fly" around (can't think of a term for this motion - kinda swooping slow lissajous motion). and fly from the center to a random point outside. It also generated some beautiful digital shapes - "Dogloids" (see below), and had a couple eproms on the card where you could store a logo or 2 (like the Laserium Logo - see below with a lumia).
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Laserium Logo.jpg  

    Dogloids.jpg  


  9. #59
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    Your Dogloids photo. Yes, That is exactly what I was talking about.

  10. #60
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    Originally popcorn was done on the popcorn/rotator card. The popcorn rotator card likely used some high speed counters with latches and resistors on the outputs so when the latches fired it looked like a random result. On the popcorn rotator card there was no popcorn gain, and on the DOG card an existing 351 value was retasked as gain. And that little change illustrates one of the things Laserium could have done better. The earlier shows had a value for what became popcorn gain present, but probably not 255. The rub, 351 data channel had to be set down "all or nothing". If you wanted to change just the popcorn gain, you had to do everything else in that part too. I'd like to think that if Laserium had realized early enough that it was their marketing model that was failing instead of believing in the conventional wisdom they would have gotten around to making a more iteritive approach to choreography a reality. But who knows, small business is hard.
    "There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." Pablo Picasso

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