Alphalite problems.

[Diachi]

Hey Everyone,

I think I found possibly why my computer won't detect my DAC - looking at the power input one of the AC leads is going to *one* of the rectifier pins on the board, which is then shorted to the other AC rectifier pin. The other AC input lead is going to GND along with the cathode of the LED.

If I understand this correctly, the LED cathode should go to GND while the AC+ and AC neutral should be going to the two holes which say 12V on the board?

Please someone correct me if I'm wrong...

[TechnoCrafter]

Hey Everyone,
I think I found possibly why my computer won't detect my DAC - looking at the power input one of the AC leads is going to *one* of the rectifier pins on the board, which is then shorted to the other AC rectifier pin. The other AC input lead is going to GND along with the cathode of the LED.

If I understand this correctly, the LED cathode should go to GND while the AC+ and AC neutral should be going to the two holes which say 12V on the board?

Please someone correct me if I'm wrong...

Diachi,
LED cathode? That's just the power light showing you power is on. You can hook it up either way and it will light, it's 12VAC, no DC involved. And with the 10K resistor I use with it, it won't ever draw ~power or cause any wiggle problems.
Yes, that is wrong. What's going on is that the board was designed for use with a 24VCT Xfmr. In that case, the center tap would go to ground and the other 2 leads, both 12VAC, would go to the 12VAC board pads, both labeled 12V. This is AC, there is no + or - 12VAC, both are plus and minus. OK, so I made the board but then realized that a 12Volt walwart is very easy to use, you just plug it in. A 24VCT transformer with 3 wires would have made things difficult. You can't get 24VCT with a walwart cause they have only 2 leads, not 3, so the way it was connected gives you a full wave rectification with just 2 leads. One goes to ground, the other to BOTH terminals (shorted together) labeled 12VAC.
Your ID problem, system not detected is not related to that. Did you click on the secret ID bypass button, I think I mentioned that? And did you get a dac output then? Let me know.
Good luck!
Rick

[TechnoCrafter]

Been trying to get in touch with you Rick so using some Googling I luckily found this thread.

I have your controller and software. I had originally purchased it with a melles griot from NuSalt. The original controller Tim sold me had a problem controlling the X axis scanner. It would always wiggle.

I got in touch with you and as the awesome person you are, you sent me a new one to replace it! It worked perfectly! I didn't actually do that many shows...mostly a few art installations but when I did your software/hardware combination was really great and fun to use.

I finally got some new scanners as one of mine got fried but I cannot tune them correct and I realize that its the same issue I had previously.

Any suggestions or ideas? I would love to get this bad boy running again!

Best Regards Always!

Kevlar

Hi Kevlar!
I remember that. Seems that Tim wrote me saying he needed me to get an Alpha system going quick for you... He had one from a few years before, never tested it :-)
Anyway, I have almost never had a board actually go bad, maybe 2 or 3 in 4 years. I have had a lot of people assume the problem was with them though. A lot of people have systems that really couldn't be gotten into to trouble shoot.
For example, your X axis wiggles? If you switch the X and y wires coming from the Alphalite output connector, the yellow wires from pins 1 and 2, then you could easily see if the problem was your scanners or the Alpha outputs. If it was the alpha, the problem would change axis. The problem not changing means the problem is after the Alphalite outputs, so it could be scanners, connector, or wiring.
I don't recall if the original Alpha was returned and I tested it (and found a problem).., or if I sent a transformer with the system I sent to you. The transformer is 12VAC by default and you should have a good clean plus and minus 12 volts from the power supply. If you don't, that could be a problem. I use a scope to determine that.
So check anything there that you can. You can always send the system to me and I'll check it out and fix it for you if need be, no charge for doing that.
You can email me at RickGebhardt at bresnan do t net.
Good to hear from you again!
Rick

[Diachi]

Diachi,
LED cathode? That's just the power light showing you power is on. You can hook it up either way and it will light, it's 12VAC, no DC involved. And with the 10K resistor I use with it, it won't ever draw ~power or cause any wiggle problems.
Yes, that is wrong. What's going on is that the board was designed for use with a 24VCT Xfmr. In that case, the center tap would go to ground and the other 2 leads, both 12VAC, would go to the 12VAC board pads, both labeled 12V. This is AC, there is no + or - 12VAC, both are plus and minus. OK, so I made the board but then realized that a 12Volt walwart is very easy to use, you just plug it in. A 24VCT transformer with 3 wires would have made things difficult. You can't get 24VCT with a walwart cause they have only 2 leads, not 3, so the way it was connected gives you a full wave rectification with just 2 leads. One goes to ground, the other to BOTH terminals (shorted together) labeled 12VAC.
Your ID problem, system not detected is not related to that. Did you click on the secret ID bypass button, I think I mentioned that? And did you get a dac output then? Let me know.
Good luck!
Rick

Yeah I clicked the little button, I didn't get any output though. I think the dot moved slightly, but that's all.

[TechnoCrafter]

Yeah I clicked the little button, I didn't get any output though. I think the dot moved slightly, but that's all.

Diachi,
Well that's a start, but you need to try a couple more things.
For your computer to be able to send displays to the Alphalite, you need this:
1: a 25 pin printer port connector on the computer. A USB adapter will not work
2: printer port output address must be set to LPT1 at address 0x378.
3: you must run Alpha.bat with winXP, AllowIO.exe and porttalk.sys must be there also
4: The alpha software must detect the computer (or click that ID bypass button)

Some computers require the file Porttalk.sys to be copied to Windows/system or system32. If so, the alpha program might try to start and just flash a dos screen at you for an instant without actually starting the Alpha program.
If you still have problems, run that simple test program. It is called Tester.exe. Make sure it's in with the other laser files and run Tester.bat for WinXP.
Good luck and let me know,
Rick

[infredible]

Hi Rick,

I was one of the crazy guy who brought one of your first Alpha 2000 DAC and software back in 200?. ILM guy, do you remember?
Thank you for my first He-Ne in home show, it made my G120 groovin' at an amazing 12kps with "original" GS amp copies developed in France back in the late 70's. Honestly, last time I tried to run the soft, it was a failure but I don't know where to get all the legacy stuff to run it again.
Thank you for putting out such a really affordable solution back then.

Fred.

[Diachi]

Diachi,
Well that's a start, but you need to try a couple more things.
For your computer to be able to send displays to the Alphalite, you need this:
1: a 25 pin printer port connector on the computer. A USB adapter will not work Check!
2: printer port output address must be set to LPT1 at address 0x378. Check!
3: you must run Alpha.bat with winXP, AllowIO.exe and porttalk.sys must be there also Check!
4: The alpha software must detect the computer (or click that ID bypass button)Check!

Some computers require the file Porttalk.sys to be copied to Windows/system or system32. If so, the alpha program might try to start and just flash a dos screen at you for an instant without actually starting the Alpha program.
If you still have problems, run that simple test program. It is called Tester.exe. Make sure it's in with the other laser files and run Tester.bat for WinXP.
Good luck and let me know,
Rick

I'll try moving the porttalk.sys to system 32 and see if that does anything. if not, I'll try the test file.

[TechnoCrafter]

Hi Rick,

I was one of the crazy guy who brought one of your first Alpha 2000 DAC and software back in 200?. ILM guy, do you remember?
Thank you for my first He-Ne in home show, it made my G120 groovin' at an amazing 12kps with "original" GS amp copies developed in France back in the late 70's. Honestly, last time I tried to run the soft, it was a failure but I don't know where to get all the legacy stuff to run it again.
Thank you for putting out such a really affordable solution back then.

Fred.

Fred,
Good to hear from you!
I was just thinking the only Fred I remember was a guy from some big hollywood company that did the amazing movie effects, then I saw the ILM in your message here, Industrial Light and Magic, yes I remember very well, back when I lived at Seeley lake. Seems I forgot to get you a power cord.. sure hope you don't remember that :-)
Thank you for the kind words. So where are you at with it now? Can I help with anything? The Alpha2000 boards had a dac problem. It wanted to burn up on startup. I ended up making some kin of slow power turn on for it, later found that the problem was in the dac design, the SP9204. Sipex never said a word to me despite my requests for help. The Dac soon vanished, never to be seen again.
I'd be glad to help with anything, if I can. You can even send me the board to check out for you if you want.
Rick

[TechnoCrafter]

I'll try moving the porttalk.sys to system 32 and see if that does anything. if not, I'll try the test file.

Adam!
If you would be so kind, please check for +- 12VDC on the board- that is a huge board test, it tells if the problem is the board or not because my Alpha boards are perfect and never go bad (dear lord, please forgive that last sentence..). An easy place to check is the LM324's, there's 3 of them, lower right side. The 324 center pins are plus and minus 12V. Specifically pin 4 = -12V, pin 11 +12V. The pins next to those 2 are grounded, so be real careful, don't short them out.
If you have those voltages, then the thing just has to work unless the computer signals are missing or wrong.
If you have a scope, look for signals on all the pins on the left side of the 74HC574 ic's (these are latches). Or just take a headphone or speaker and connect it to them with a 100 ohm resistor, listen for a bunch of noise on all 8 lines, pins 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, connect the other speaker wire to ground. If you don't have any sounds there, the computer isn't talking to the board at all. So:
1: the cable is not right, or not connected.
2: the Alpha program is not getting any data to the printer port.
I guess we could go from there. Good luck!
ps, you do have an AlphaliteXC Pro correct?
Rick
So

[infredible]

Fred,
Good to hear from you!
I was just thinking the only Fred I remember was a guy from some big hollywood company that did the amazing movie effects, then I saw the ILM in your message here, Industrial Light and Magic, yes I remember very well, back when I lived at Seeley lake. Seems I forgot to get you a power cord.. sure hope you don't remember that :-)
Thank you for the kind words. So where are you at with it now? Can I help with anything? The Alpha2000 boards had a dac problem. It wanted to burn up on startup. I ended up making some kin of slow power turn on for it, later found that the problem was in the dac design, the SP9204. Sipex never said a word to me despite my requests for help. The Dac soon vanished, never to be seen again.
I'd be glad to help with anything, if I can. You can even send me the board to check out for you if you want.
Rick

I do remember the missing power cord
After 12 years at ILM I now work for PDI/Dreamworks.
I think I'm going to leave the Alpha system in its box, now I'm running an FB3 and a Mamba so that's enough to play with.
Good to ear from you.

Fred.