Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 28

Thread: Review - Moncha USB DAC + software

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Essex, UK
    Posts
    8,648

    Default Review - Moncha USB DAC + software

    Ok this is the Moncha USB DAC from www.showtacle.com

    the DAC is usb power which is pretty good and fits in your hand, so its small.




    you can select which ever colour laser(s) you have, if you only have red, or red and green.

    so far it seems very easy to use, it comes set for 20k but can easily be changed for 30k.




    more info to follow.
    Eat Sleep Lase Repeat

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Netherlands
    Posts
    983

    Default

    good info, what is the price?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Essex, UK
    Posts
    8,648

    Default

    ive noticed something.

    when using the moncha running an animation at 30k the galvos makes a like loud ticking noise.
    when playing the same animation on my pangolin fb3 at 30k, roughly the same size, it makes no noise at all.

    why???

    cost is about 490 euros
    Eat Sleep Lase Repeat

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Essex, UK
    Posts
    8,648

    Default

    ok now not the greatest but listen to these.

    the fb3
    www.laser-man.co.uk/test/fb303.wav

    and the moncha
    www.laser-man.co.uk/test/moncha04.wav

    why would the galvos make alot less noise when being driven by the fb3 than the moncha???
    Eat Sleep Lase Repeat

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Netherlands
    Posts
    983

    Default

    are you using the same software for both DACs? if not it could be in the way extra points are added by software for blanking, sharper corners etc.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Essex, UK
    Posts
    8,648

    Default

    no different software.

    im using the fb3 liveq software and what ever software the moncha comes with.

    both play frames fine but one is noisy one isnt??
    Eat Sleep Lase Repeat

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Charleston, SC
    Posts
    2,147,489,446

    Smile

    That's not at all uncommon. Jian reported similar results when testing his DT-40 scanners with Mamba Black verses Laser Design Studio. The LDS software made his scanners run a lot cooler, and they made less noise. It's all to do with how the software interprets the ilda file before it sends the data to the controller. Good software will optimize the signal to ease the stress on the galvos. My guess is that the Pangolin software is smoothing out the signal a bit, causing the galvos to run quieter. (And probably cooler as well.)

    Adam

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Pflugerville, TX, USA
    Posts
    1,977

    Default

    Now would be a good time to break out the ole oscope.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Essex, UK
    Posts
    8,648

    Default

    so when you saying not running as smoothly as it could, does that mean it could be bad for the galvo's???
    Eat Sleep Lase Repeat

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Pflugerville, TX, USA
    Posts
    1,977

    Default

    Unless the frames are just very poorly laid out, it is unlikely that the software would be displaying them in a way that bad for the galvos. It is possible that some software/hardware might act kinder to them, though.

    It would be a good experiment to take the frame that makes the noise and manually optimize it by adding more points at key points and see if it quiets down when displaying it with the Moncha software and DAC.

    Also, take note of the blanking settings. Moncha does some blanking optimization to the frames before they are displayed. I think Moncha actually strips out all blanking points in the Ilda file and replaces them with based on the blanking settings. Unfortunately there is no way to turn off this feature to display the raw file for testing purposes. I guess it is possible that if a blanking line had a lot of points and the optimizer replaced those points with just a few points that it could cause some noise. However, when I displayed the frame on Moncha and my software (same DAC but with my own software) that doesn't do blanking optimization I had the same noise levels.

    Anyway, I think I probably said more than you were asking for.

    Did you ever get a response from Michal at Showtacle about it? It might be worth sending him the noisy ilda file to see what he can come up with.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •