Laser Visuals

[Stuka]

No doubt - the quality of the grating wheel itself is VERY nice!

It's a shame a reliable stepper motor / dmx driver combo didn't get worked out...

[Insanity]

I am interested in anything that can get this thing working, my knowledge is way too limited at the moment... I have had the wheel over two years and never got it to work properly...

I think I might have damaged the gratings as well, they are all badly blurred and I can't seem to clean them... So I will go to creative laser and get a new one if there is a way to get it working efficiently... If not, I will sack the idea off and replace it with a rotating Machida grating...

I can easily make a little box that controls the stepper motor and set the displayed diffraction via USB. In fact, I have all the necessary hardware already to test it. I'm sure the same can also be applied to a PIC microcontroller to decode the DMX signal into stepper motor movements. A feedback loop (not all too expensive) can be added to the stepper motor, and some motors already have the position feedback built in.

This sounds interesting, if only I had some understanding

Thanks
Mark

[Stuka]

Mark -

Using a DMX servo driver, with the wheel mounted directly to the ouput of a hobby servo motor, looks like it's going to work pretty well.

Unfortunately, with a servo motor you only get about 180 degrees rotation max (9 or 10 of the Poly-20 effect sectors), so to get to ALL of the effects you would have to redirect the beam to two sides of the servo motor.

Not ideal, but I think that's the route I'll take - besides, I blew up my stepper driver trying to get it to work....

[Displaser]

Randy,

Did the positioning with the potentiometer work as expected?

I'd like to get a Poly 60, controlled via DMX - too bad this didn't work as expected. Maybe another project in the works? Hmmm

Greg

[Pitts]

HI Randy & guys..

There is a crowd in Australia that I have used that stocks all sorts of stuff.
Some of which are stepper motor controllers etc. This is a mix of kitset and surplus stuff.

I have had good success with their various kits over the years.... may be worth a look.

You won't beat them on price.. (Australian dollars remember about much lower than US$ only thing thats lower again is the NZ$)

They are here

www.oatleyelectronics.com

Maybe you may find something that can help... let me know as I want a diffraction wheel or two myself.

Cheers

Ray
NZ

[Stuka]

Randy,

Did the positioning with the potentiometer work as expected?

I'd like to get a Poly 60, controlled via DMX - too bad this didn't work as expected. Maybe another project in the works? Hmmm

Greg

The driver board with the potentiometer seemed to work fine, but it flaked out pretty quick under DMX control, even when the DMX decoder was putting out nice steady voltages (according to my digital multimeter).

SO -
If you're willing to go with "manual" control only, the kit, as is, works fine.

[dave]

The driver board with the potentiometer seemed to work fine, but it flaked out pretty quick under DMX control, even when the DMX decoder was putting out nice steady voltages (according to my digital multimeter).

SO -
If you're willing to go with "manual" control only, the kit, as is, works fine.

TBH, a multimeter really isn't going to show you much at all. You really need an oscilloscope to see whats happening.. The fact that it works with a pot should mean you shouldn't have issue running it off a DMX board...

[Stuka]

Unfortunately, I don't believe either Mark or I are very well versed using 'scopes to troubleshoot what was actually going on

The interesting / unfortunate thing is we were both having essentially the same problem, using DMX decoder boards from completely different manufacturers. For now, at least, it looks like any more "official" troubleshooting with the issue from the original supplier is probably on hold.

Bummer

[Insanity]

I think I could possibly locate the power switch and switch the O'scope on... Other that that, I'm afraid you lost me after 'O'

Mark

[Stuka]

Yep, me too - AND - I blew up my driver board trying to get it to work!