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Thread: Laser Visuals

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
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    Under a rock in Cambridge UK
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    Default Laser Visuals

    After reading my thread about nightmares trying to get my Poly 20 Kit working James Stewart contacted me and provided an amazing level of support. He suggested which components to get and where to get them, how to connect them up and how to calculate the DMX values.

    I now have a working poly 20 on my test bed and am about to start mounting it in my RGB. <----------Very Happy

    Big thanks to James for all your help and patience with me.

    Mark

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Knoxville, TN, USA
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    Default

    Would you be willing to share & post any of the info James gave you?

    I'm getting ready to hook up my Poly-20, and certainly wouldn't mind a few tips and pointers before I start connecting wires! Posting & reading here would be MUCH cheaper than an international phone call

    Thanks!
    RR

    Metrologic HeNe 3.3mw Modulated laser, 2 Radio Shack motors, and a broken mirror.
    1979.
    Sweet.....

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
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    South Lincs, UK
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    Default

    Mark - What sort of price is the Poly-20 Kit with stepper motor?

    Save me filling out the form and troubling James?

    Thanks

    Jim
    --------------------
    My Brain urt's!

    Continuously in Awe! of (H)Al, the Photonlexicon Font of Complete Knowledge - The (H)Al'PL Database of complete puss that no one needs to know or ever trusts as he ain't really got a Scooby doo about now't!

  4. #4
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    Default Poly 20 wheel

    Hi,

    Stuka

    I am out of the country on business until Friday. When I return, I intend to complete the projector and then post what I did with pictures.

    I can tell you what I did to get it all working now, but you will have no DMX mappings yet.

    I have it all working out of Pangolin Showtime, not had chance to look at the new Live Pro version yet.

    So, all is running on DMX channel 1 on a DMX - Analog converter. What I need to do next is work out what DMX mapping provides which voltage to the wheel motor. I intend to log all of this and create a spreadsheet of mappings and maybe even send out the DMX frames I created

    So, once done, there will be a pictoral post showing the connections, the voltage divider (for those that need it) And a spreadsheet full of DMX - analog mappings, which will save a lot of calculation.

    Smogthemog

    From memory, the poly kit was somewhere in the region of £250, but that was some time ago and has probably changed one way or another. The DMX - Analog board was £50 and I just got 100Mtrs DMX cable for £30 finally, the DMX terminator was £4, I believe you need this for the last or only device in the DMX chain. However, I am not and don't claim to be a DMX expert, in fact I am just a mere novice when it comes to DMX

    However, I only know how to make it work in Showtime or Live (NOT Live Pro) on the QM2000

    Hope that helps
    Mark

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
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    South Lincs, UK
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    Default

    OK Mark, I does help

    Thanks for the info.

    Jim
    --------------------
    My Brain urt's!

    Continuously in Awe! of (H)Al, the Photonlexicon Font of Complete Knowledge - The (H)Al'PL Database of complete puss that no one needs to know or ever trusts as he ain't really got a Scooby doo about now't!

  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Sherbrooke, QC
    Posts
    17

    Default Poly-20 price

    This thread might be a couple weeks old, but I got the May 2008 price list from Laser Visuals yesterday and figured I'd share:

    The Poly-20 grating is 55£
    The Poly-20 grating with stepper motor and driver is 165£

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
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    Thumbs up Gratings now working

    After a fair bit of experimenting I have finally got the Poly Wheel working.

    So for those that wanted to know how, here you go:

    The DMX - Analog board is a Milford Instruments part# 1_559. This board has 4 analog outputs and sends out 10volt signals. I connected a 10k resistor to the voltage and ground connectors on channel 1 and linked them together, this formed the voltage connector into the LV Driver Board, I connected the ground of the LV Driver to channel 2 ground on the DMX - Analog board. This reduced the output signals to 5volt.

    I put the LV Driver as far away from the PSU's as possible and instead of connecting the actuator to the LV board, I connected it to channel 2 of the DMX - Analog board. That way you can select an effect and then then steer the beam into it, rather than having the beam on while the effect is selected.

    The Driver Board, Actuator and DMX - Analog board are all connected to the same PSU supplied by LV.

    To get the positions correct is a case of trial and error, but here is the formula James gave me. There are 256 DMX Values and 5v divided by 256 is 0.0195v. Therefore if you want 1v, 1v divided by 0.0195 = 51 (The DMX Value).

    As there is no specific voltage given in the manual it's a case of trial and error to find the positions. I then found at each position the wheel twitched. This one had me stumped for some time, until today when by accident I found that DMX value 208 locks the wheel.

    So, to display the Machida grating I did the following:

    Made a DMX cue that selects the position for the Machida grating and then a cue which cuts in the actuator, locks the wheel and switches the beam on. This is a two channel cue.

    Now the only issue I have is that the wheel never resets to the same place. So that's the final crease to iron out.. If anyone has any ideas it would be well appreciated

    As you can see in the pics, the wheel needs to be real close to the aperture, almost touching. That way you can use the smallest, safest apperture possible. I still need to bring mine forward a tad.

    So, there you go.. Enjoy the pics... In some of them you can see leakage to the scanners. This has now been fixed...

    And James, if you read this, Massive thanks for all your help and support..

    Mark
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  8. #8
    Join Date
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    Default

    looks amazing mark, cant wait to see it at the next meet.

    im assuming you are coming?
    Eat Sleep Lase Repeat

  9. #9
    Join Date
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    Default

    You try keeping me away

    Got a couple of little beauties to bring along this time...

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Essex, UK
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    Default

    sweet.

    ive got a friend coming to do photos this time, so i have lots of fb3 questions. and this time ill have time to ask
    Eat Sleep Lase Repeat

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