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Thread: How to tune your scanners

  1. #31
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    Adam,

    Big thanks for taking the time to upload this invaluable tuning guide.

    My scanners (Laserworld 45k) have never been perfectly tuned, but I have always been afraid to adjust them after ruining my first set of 15k scanners.

    I am pleased to say that after reading your post , I plucked up the courage to have a go. The results are far better than I expected.

    I know there is a load of glare on these pics, but you get the idea.

    The last picture is of an effect I designed in Pangolin Live Pro and I seem to get this wierd line appear on the top left. I am guessing that this is to do with my blanking settings but I have no idea how to get rid of it.

    If anyone knows how to fix this/what causes it I would be glad of the help.

    Cheers
    Mark
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails DSCN0948.JPG  

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  2. #32
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    Jan 2006
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zoof View Post
    Would really like to know if Pango users can open the skull file and second peroni version.
    Hi Zoof;

    OK - I checked the Skull file and the second version of the Peroni logo. They both open just fine in Pangolin's Laser Show Designer 2000. They also open just fine in Anarchy.

    So whatever you changed between the first version of the Peroni logo (which I can't open at all), and the second version (which, it would seem, everyone can open) is the key.
    Quote Originally Posted by Insanity
    Big thanks for taking the time to upload this invaluable tuning guide.
    You're welcome Mark! Glad you were able to use it to get your scanners dialed in.

    As for the line in the bottom picture - I don't have Live Pro so I can't help you there. Might want to shoot a message to Pangolin via their help page.

    Adam

  3. #33
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    Ok, this might be obvouse but I'm not 100% sure on this...

    Where do I set the optical scan angle....is it the 'focus' slidy in LiveQ?

    How do I set it to 8 degrees and how do I set it to maximum degress?

    Cheers.
    Graham

  4. #34
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    Cool

    Not sure there Graham; I don't have Live Quick.

    However, I'm sure one of the other FB3 owners here will chime in with the correct setting. (It should be labeled something like "image size", and there should be a separate one for x and y.) To set it to maximum you just move the sliders to 100%. To set it for 8 degrees you have to get out a ruler and measure the distance from the projector to the wall and then the width (or height) of the pattern.

    This page on the Pangolin website will show you how to calculate the scan angle from those two measurements.

    Adam

  5. #35
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    Cheers Adam










  6. #36
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    OK, so I spent over an hour on retuning my scanners today and ended up with a decent result (considering it was my first serious attempt at this). The circle in the middle of the ILDA test pattern didn't really look like a circle (more like a spiral, is this normal?), but apart from that it was pretty good.

    A few hours I fire the projector up again and notice the graphics don't look that great, so I take a look at a few test patterns and they certainly didn't look anything like what I had previously tuned them to. The ILDA test pattern showed about 10% overshoot relative to the square size. WTF?!

    Now I've had the projector running for a few minutes and it's starting to look a bit better, but still nowhere near what it should look like. I highly suspect it's a temperature problem, but I never expected the temperature to have such a huge impact. What are your experiences with this and does anyone have a fix for it? I'm running one of those LW45k scanners.

  7. #37
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    Quote Originally Posted by laserLips View Post
    Ok, this might be obvouse but I'm not 100% sure on this...

    Where do I set the optical scan angle....is it the 'focus' slidy in LiveQ?

    How do I set it to 8 degrees and how do I set it to maximum degress?

    Cheers.
    Graham

    Hi Graham,

    The best way to adjust the scan angle is in the projection zones window. Adjust the size in the geometric correction bit.

    Dave
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  8. #38
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    Quote Originally Posted by tocket View Post
    The circle in the middle of the ILDA test pattern didn't really look like a circle (more like a spiral, is this normal?)
    No, that isn't normal. It means you are over-driving your scanners.

    Reduce the scan angle. See if you can get the circle to look round again. Remember that the ILDA test pattern is designed to be displayed at 8 degrees, no more. If you have the pattern stretched larger than that, you will soon reach the limit of your scanners, and that causes the spiral effect on the center circle that you reported. (Since you have 45K scanners, if you tune to 30K you *might* be able to get away with a scan angle as wide as 12 or 13 degrees, but you don't want to push it!)

    If reducing the scan angle changes the "spiral" to something that looks more like a circle, then tweak the scan angle until you get a *good* looking circle. Then re-tune your scanners at that new, narrower scan angle.
    A few hours I fire the projector up again and notice the graphics don't look that great, so I take a look at a few test patterns and they certainly didn't look anything like what I had previously tuned them to. The ILDA test pattern showed about 10% overshoot relative to the square size. WTF?!
    Sounds like you're also getting some thermal effects. You are probably loosing a tiny bit of performance when the galvos get hot, and since you are already well beyond what the scanners are designed for, a tiny change due to thermal effects makes a big difference in image quality.

    Measure your current scan angle and post it here. Then adjust the scan angle to 8 degrees and re-tune your galvos. I'll bet you'll see a huge improvement.

    Adam

  9. #39
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    Oops... turned out the scan angle was actually closer to 14°. I never bothered to actually measure it, but I didn't think it was that wide. I just set it to a size that I thought gave a decent image size.

    I set the scan angle back to 8° and retuned to 30kpps. It was not that hard to get a nice circle here, but I had to turn the gain way down (had pretty much maxed it at 14° ). Getting all the test patterns to look good with the same tuning is hard though! I change it to look good with another test pattern, then switch back to the ILDA one and it looks like crap.

    Now I just need to find the maximum angle I can use at 30kpps... joy! Manual says 25-27 kpps at 15° (which I doubt considering how it looked at 14° and 30 kpps) and 37-40 kpps at 5°. One might wonder what they thought when labeled these as 45k scanners...

    Thanks Adam

  10. #40
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    I hear ya Tocket... Part of the problem is that 45K isn't really a standard. There's 30K, and then there's 60K. Everything else in-between is really a crap shoot.

    As far as getting the tuning right, you may want to walk the amps all the way down to near the bottom and then work up from there. That's one way to really tune them thoroughly. But it also takes a long time!

    It's a tedious process - even if you start with a set of scanners that are already really close to begin with. It just takes time and patience.

    As for the scan angle; I recommend you start at 8 degrees and tune them as best as you can. Then increase the scan angle slowly and WATCH THE CENTER CIRCLE. As soon as it stops getting bigger (and way before it distorts into a spiral), stop! Back off on the scan angle just a tad from that point and then re-tune your scanners one last time. That will give you the absolute maximum angle. (This is time consuming for sure, but it will allow you to push the scanners right to the limit while still keeping the performance up, though admittedly they will probably perform better at 8 degrees.)

    Adam

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