I'd like to present the latest news in IDN.
IDN (ILDA Digital Network), as many of you know, is ILDA's open standard for streaming laser data over networks. IMO this kind of protocol is sorely needed in the industry, to standardize the various different protocols, many of them proprietary, currently used to communicate laser data to projectors and between software. But so far IDN has seen limited adoption in the wild. There are software that supports it, like LaserShowGen, Spaghetti, HE-Laserscan, Excalibur Paint Alchemy and more, but on the hardware side there are very few options.
But now we have taken a step toward making IDN more accessible by making the OpenIDN project public:
https://gitlab.com/laser_light_lab_u...-DAC-Framework
- OpenIDN
OpenIDN is a fully open source implementation of an IDN server that can receive data from IDN clients (software etc), and output it to DACs or projectors. The software framework is modular and can be adapted to many purposes, mainly being used as a base for IDN-compatible network DACs.
OpenIDN is released and managed by Matthew Frank at the Laser & Light Lab at the University of Bonn, with work from students Christian Windeck and Leander Schickhaus, Dirk Apitz from DexLogic, myself, and others.
- OpenIDN adapter for the Helios Laser DAC
I am releasing the first product based on OpenIDN: A network adapter for the Helios Laser DAC:
https://bitlasers.com/openidn-networ...he-helios-dac/
The Helios OpenIDN adapter is a small box with an Ethernet port, Wi-Fi antenna, and USB port. You can plug a Helios Laser DAC (sold separately) into the USB port, and then use either Ethernet (recommended) or Wi-Fi to reach the DAC from your software on the same network.
The adapter is $109, so even together with the Helios itself which is an extra $109, I believe this makes it one of the most affordable ILDA network DAC setups on the market.
But wait, there's more, because this adapter is actually built from off-the-shelf hardware, namely a Rock Pi S microcomputer with case, so if you are savvy enough you can actually buy the hardware yourself for even cheaper, and simply install the OpenIDN software on it.
This also means that the product is very flexible, it runs regular Linux so you can install any kind of custom software on it. Extra features that I plan to add at some point include support for playing .ILD files from the device without the need for a host computer, as well as running multiple Helios DACs from the same adapter.