Hi Greg, sorry I've gotten myself totally involved in a different project, and I just don't have the bandwidth for laser stuff at the moment.
Hi Greg, sorry I've gotten myself totally involved in a different project, and I just don't have the bandwidth for laser stuff at the moment.
"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
Understood. I have projects taking bandwidth from laser too. Hopefully we'll talk again over future specs or past data.
I intend to continue to post development reports to this thread as they occur. There's plenty of unrevealed points of interest in the information that has been provided, including the Danube board build, exploration of the spiral board with data, and updates to the 351 visualizer software.
...looking forward to seeing more on this!
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Everything depends on everything else
Thanks for posting, TheHermit. It is exciting to hear news from other sojourners on the quest to bring pro quality show control to the living room laser show enthusiasts.
I recently ordered and received a BELA starter kit with the Multiplexer board that multiplexes 8x16 bit 22k analog I/O lines into up to 64 analog I/O lines. Blast it! My wishful thinking influenced my reading comprehension. The Multiplexer only expands the signal inputs, not the outputs. It was too good to be true. I thought I had the solution for a 4 channel iteratively programable laser show with synchronized audio AND show control signals which augment a live analog console based performance, each channel with XY-RGB.
So the the Multiplexer is useless for this purpose. The BELA platform with its 8 analog I/O lines should make possible the parts about iteratively programable, show control signals, audio synchronization, and DC offsets.
There are a few different ways the device could be used. It could replicate the 351 scheme for a four channel system, but that would limit choreography options to what was possible with the enables / gains / fixed offsets of that scheme. It could provide control signals to a one channel system, and thus include full XY for that channel, which the 6b couldn't do. Or, it could take one XY-RGB ILDA source and simultaneously record, process, and output the signal. The second option will require the least external circuitry to be built, so this is probably the approach to be tried first.
I recently got a Teensy development kit and am looking forward to working with it. What a powerful little dude.
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Everything depends on everything else
Here is the BELA "low latency audio" device connected to some LEDs, pots, and push buttons in order to verify that signals and data are propagating through all the analog and digital I/O lines as expected.
What I'm happy about here is the ability of this device to simply and tightly synchronize audio with enough I/O lines to be useful for laser show choreography, and that DC coupling is there from the outset.
How this works is that the user writes a function that renders audio in 16 frame blocks, and all the sensing, processing, and outputting is done during that call. The analog and digital I/O lines all operate at exactly half the audio frame rate which of course is 44.1 kHz.
The button panel shown is from a controller I made in 1991 to operate an Amiga. The buttons are these gold contact things from from some old keyboards, of which I still have a couple. The keyboards each have a quartz window EPROM within. Anyone know what system they are from?
Thank you, those on the Laserium documentary thread, without whom I would not have known that that excellent production exists, nor that it could be seen immediately and with out effort or expense.
Congratulations Brian and Ron. Great, great work.
The video brings into focus something that I can't help but develop a hunger for: knowledge of the use of the two studio decks to create the 351 data, examples of which have recently been explored.
What I am currently trying to do using BELA Beagleboneblack is to create a situation as described in the video whereby at least two choreographers are performing together, thus giving the soloing laserist a far more musical band like structure to ride on, than (as addressed in the video) what is easily done using current systems. As well, the project goal is to develop editing options that give users the ability to iteratively compose show data.
The word iterative, introduced by Brian in the context of show choreography, I interpret to mean non destructively overlaying and recording new performance elements during playback.
Unfortunately knowledge of the consoles shown in the attached stills from the video is likely to remain lost, and with it the answers to how choreography was done.
TheHermit: Thanks! I'm interested in what you are doing with Teensy and, as well, what lasermaster1977, swamidog and others are doing. I think it's great to push the envelope using a variety of hardware options.
I confess to being wary of graphical programming languages, though the cyc application I developed is basically one. I looked at videos about playing audio and GUI creation in True Data, and it seems like an alternate path to the same end as what can be done in C++ which I have used for many years.
A single BELA device needs an ILDA connector or two since simultaneous ILDA compatible input, recording, processing and output is possible on this platform. But also voltage scaling and conversion between unipolar and differential circuitry is required.
I'll re-phrase the How it works statement: While a group of 16 audio samples are being output, the next 16 are being prepared. 16 audio samples at CD quality goes by in a very short amount of time, so when a control is adjusted, the effect on the output is near immediate. Always.
Yes, the two pots shown on the panel could easily be a joystick.
I'll have to look back through this discussion and see what you mean by ILDA conversion amps, and if it is something that would solve my chore of ILDAfying the BELA.
Your system handles synch to music through midi? Do you have DC coupled output?
I feel certain ILDA conversion amps refers to op-amp circuits used for converting single-ended (unbalanced) XY image signals to differential (balanced) XY image signals.I'll have to look back through this discussion and see what you mean by ILDA conversion amps
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Everything depends on everything else
Right. I did a round of that when I built the color mod signal to ILDA board. I'm wondering if single-ended DAC output to differential for ILDA is a common enough thing that someone here has offered a module that would save me wiring a bunch more op amps for each ILDA channel.