Announcing ILDAC-32 - an ESP-32 based DAC for ILDA projectors

[HankLloydRight]

Hank - I'm looking to buy a power bank on Amazon to run the ILDA-32 for short periods. How many mAh would you suggest as a minimum, based on the draw of the ILDA-32? I see everything from 6000 to 30,000 mAh units available.

I've measured ILDAC-32-WAV while playing a WAV file with audio as well as the Wifi and Bluetooth radios active, and it pulls about 150mA.
So if you have a 6000mAh battery, I think that means it would be able to power ILDAC-32-WAV for about 40 hours (in theory!).

I have a couple of 5000mAh USB batteries here, I'll run some tests and let you know.
But even without testing, I'm sure a 5000mAh or 6000mAh would run ILDAC-32-WAV for several hours.

[Bradfo69]

I've measured ILDAC-32-WAV while playing a WAV file with audio as well as the Wifi and Bluetooth radios active, and it pulls about 150mA.
So if you have a 6000mAh battery, I think that means it would be able to power ILDAC-32-WAV for about 40 hours (in theory!).

I have a couple of 5000mAh USB batteries here, I'll run some tests and let you know.
But even without testing, I'm sure a 5000mAh or 6000mAh would run ILDAC-32-WAV for several hours.

Cool! Thanks! The one in my cart is 10,000.

[james]

Rendering a wave from an ilda file is quite a process. If you really want me to get into the specifics, I can. It involves stripping out all superfluous points and adding dwell, span and transitions from the end of a frame back to the beginning for repeats or to the beginning of the next frame. All if this is done with parameters that can all be adjusted for best performance on a particular projector.

What is the max clock rate on your DAC?

[swamidog]

how long can you run one from your tesla?

I've measured ILDAC-32-WAV while playing a WAV file with audio as well as the Wifi and Bluetooth radios active, and it pulls about 150mA.
So if you have a 6000mAh battery, I think that means it would be able to power ILDAC-32-WAV for about 40 hours (in theory!).

I have a couple of 5000mAh USB batteries here, I'll run some tests and let you know.
But even without testing, I'm sure a 5000mAh or 6000mAh would run ILDAC-32-WAV for several hours.

[HankLloydRight]

Rendering a wave from an ilda file is quite a process. If you really want me to get into the specifics, I can. It involves stripping out all superfluous points and adding dwell, span and transitions from the end of a frame back to the beginning for repeats or to the beginning of the next frame. All if this is done with parameters that can all be adjusted for best performance on a particular projector.

Or I can just play the ILDA file and use WAVE-USB to convert it to a WAV file.

Or, since both ILDA and WAV are just sets of integers representing points, I could probably just read in an ILDA file and write out the exact same XY points and RGB colors (with an invert) in a WAV format.

In fact my code that sends points to the DACs doesn't even know where they came from.. ILDA or WAV file.

What is the max clock rate on your DAC?

70kpps.

[james]

An ilda file is really just a generic way to get color vector art from one system to another.

Typically when it's loaded into an application, the app can do all kinds of math on it and send it to a DAC, which is likely to have a runtime adjustable point rate.

The idea of driving a projector directly with an ilda file with not much processing comes from those SD card readers. And it takes a bit of finesse to get them to look good.

Wave is a completely different target. It's all baked in the cake. There is no processing at all when you play an ADAT wave.

So you can make a wave by recording a laser DAC in real time. Or you can render directly from ilda to wave.

But, it's not trivial. That's why I got into this conversation.

70KHz is impressive. If you have room on your storage device it would be best to render to that rate. This gives you a finer time granularity and everything comes out just that much more accurate.

[HankLloydRight]

how long can you run one from your tesla?

Let's see if my math is correct.
-- My battery has 100kWh (* assuming 100% of the battery is usable)
-- That's 100,000 Wh
-- At 5volts, that's 20,000Ah (P = V*I )
-- That's 20,000,000 mAh
-- At a 150mAh draw, that's 133,333 hours
-- Divided by 24 is 5,555 hours
-- or 15.2 years.

[dchammonds]

The idea of driving a projector directly with an ilda file with not much processing comes from those SD card readers. And it takes a bit of finesse to get them to look good.

I'm not so sure of that. Some or the stuff on PLFTP has been there quite a while.

[HankLloydRight]

I'm not so sure of that. Some or the stuff on PLFTP has been there quite a while.

I totally agree. Like I've said, I've been testing the PL FTP repository and I've only found a few mal-formed ILDA files that won't play, or play incorrectly.

And ILDAC simply plays ILDA file frames/points with **no processing** whatsoever.

Let's say that's five bad ILDA files out of 1,400 files.

And the X-LASER Gobo library also included with ILDAC-32 (thanks, AdamR!) also display beautifully with ILDAC-32. That's 400 more ILDA files that play perfectly.

Even all three versions of "The Riddle" found here on PL play perfectly.

So I'm not sure what extra processing is needed.

[Bradfo69]

how long can you run one from your tesla?

You had to ask, huh? Now I'm thinking about getting a Tesla, rather than a power bank.