A quick hello, intro, and maybe a question about software :)

[T0mmm]

Hey all! i did a bit of an introduction whilst i commented on something else in the tesseract thread, but thought i'd say hi again in the appropriate place

Lasers are a bit of a hobby (fast growing obsession however!) and yeah buffo, i can see how my feeble wallet is being drained I'm in swansea uni studying materials science and engineering, but i'm originally from near brynmawr in south wales.



my first 'proper' laser arrived 2 days ago!
i got it off of ebay (yes i know...but im a student ) it was advertised as 150mW and i think its about that, as i have a 50mW pointer and its much more powerful i dont have access to a power meter, and the men who work in the labs in uni are about as helpful as... cheese.

i got it to complete my first computer controlled projector as i couldnt modulate my pointer, and didnt really want to build a new driver just for a 50mW diode...

I'll be getting an enclosure from maplin on around the 12th of jan, cos my new student loan is through then and i'll be putting up a load of pics for you all i think i'll build a bit of a no-frills beam table from a portion of this huge 1/4" aluminium sheet we have in our garage at home.

The 20k galvo's and drivers ive got are from spacelas, i'll also be posting up some pics to see if you guys know which pots are which; the manual i was given must be for a previous board layout as they're in different positions on the board!
but i guess i'll see how they perform before i go wrecking them with my screwdriver (ive read just about every tutorial on the web on tuning them, and figured i'd wait until i HAVE to do it, if at all the manual said they're factory tuned anyway.

...or if any of you chaps live within a reasonable distance, i'd be more than happy to pay you / donate beer to give me a hand?? i really dont want to send my shiny new galvo's into the self-oscillation station in the sky.

i know the galvo kit works at least, as there are some built-in effects on the control board, which was a nice surprise!


so on to the software/DAC side of things....

Today, i reincarnated my laptop with a broken one off ebay that had a good screen & battery & wireless card, so after 50 mins of tinkering i had a beautiful new laptop with the motherboard from my present one (i dont know what relevance this has.... im just chuffed i saved £££ from buying a new one )

so i will be able to go just about everywhere! two people from up my local pub at home asked if i could do something with my 'ray-gun' as they call it, on june 15th. i live on the side of a mountain when not in uni, which has a huge quarry on the opposite side of the valley which will be ideal for projecting on to!

At the moment i'm going to be looking more towards the animation side of things, at least until i can afford a laser in the league of your 10 watt-a-tron lasers at least for doing beamshows

It'd be awesome to have a program with a bitmap tracer, as im pretty handy with photoshop kinda thing

i've been reading about the newest mamba software (is it the 1.9 version which needs the dongle serial number putting in to activate it?)
ive been considering this USB box and software on ebay;
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=360117039534

what do you lot think about this? i'm a bit on-the-fence, as i know its got an i-show type DAC, so i'm doubting its bundled with the new mamba black? (and do you think i would still have to input the serial number? :S)


either way i think its either mamba black or moncha lite for me, i just cant find for the life of me the difference between moncha lite, and the full version.

I'm going to steer away from i-show for now, as i can't get on with it at all! plus ive heared its pants.

and i emailed the people for the price of 'zion' software, but they never emailed back, so bugger them! i think zion would be a bit out of my price range anyway to be honest.


and i'm about as far away from owning pangolin as i am a ferrari


looking back up this post.... WHAT a big post! sorry lol, i promise future ones wont be this big...

Tom

[ljk]

Welcome Tom looking forward to your pictures and posts!

[buffo]

Hi Tom;

Nothing wrong with long posts there, pal. Trust me - I've elevated long posts to an art form. (Yeah, I suffer from verbal diarrhea...)

Anyway, about your choice of a controller - that auction makes me wonder... At one point in the listing he says it's just the controller you are getting, and then he says that he's including Mamba Black (which normally sells for around $400 all by itself.) So I have my reservations. (Plus a lot of his previous purchases were for cheap items like "hello kitty" stockings and stuff...)

As for the thought that Pangolin hardware is out of your reach - fear not! Have you looked at the Pangolin FlashBack 3 Evaluation Kit? For just $500 you get the controller and an entire software suite to go with it. Check it out; there are a lot of happy FB3 owners right here on PL.

Also, it may still be out of your price range, but for the next few days at least, Pangolin has some very special prices going on for the LD-2000 system. (This is the cat's meow of laser controllers!) You may want to contact them via their web form and ask them about the special holiday pricing... You might be surprised at the deals they are offering!

Adam

[T0mmm]

yeah cheers for that, i saw mamba black with DAC go on ebay just before christmas for £90! a dj was selling it and wanted a quick sale.. but my mother wouldnt lend me the money! if only she knew...

i might give the FB3 a look then in that case; i suppose its better to have a good software that i'll be happy with for a long while rather than making expensive steps up the ranks!

i'll let you all know if i have a crazy moment when i have some cash, and let you know what i've bought

[allthatwhichis]

Welcome T0mmm. I hate to tell comeone to smack his Mom... but... that is the best price I have heard for a DAC/software kit... ever. At least one to start out with.

+1 on the FB3 for a lower budget.

[carmangary]

That DAC may or may not be an EasyLase. I contacted the maker of one of those generic looking DACs to find out that it indeed was an EasyLase.

Also, there is a Chinese company that sells a rebranded version of Mamba and ML DAC. The software doesn't say Mamba anywhere on it but it is in fact 1.90ish Mamba and it doesn't even require a dongle. Very strange. That's all I know about that.

So, bottom line is that things aren't always what the seem.

If you can get an EasyLase cheap I strongly recommend it. It supports more software than any other DAC I know including LaserMame, Zoofs games, my own Spaghetti, and practically every other software package except Pangolin. So, even if you do decide to go with Pangolin, an EasyLase is a fun extra DAC to have around.

[allthatwhichis]

If you are electroniclly skilled you culd make a sound card DAC and use several of those software also.

[heroic]

I'm in swansea uni studying materials science and engineering, but i'm originally from near brynmawr in south wales.

Cor!

I live in San Francisco now, but I'm from Cefnbrynbrain. Moved to Neath after that, and then lived in Swansea for more years than I care to admit. How's the Uplands doing? I miss that place.

[T0mmm]

Cor!

I live in San Francisco now, but I'm from Cefnbrynbrain. Moved to Neath after that, and then lived in Swansea for more years than I care to admit. How's the Uplands doing? I miss that place.

Yeah i live in uplands, together with just about every other student! im on marlborough road it hasn't changed much at all since ive been here: its a ghost town during the holidays, and then there's nowhere to park when everyone returns it's all cool though, i love it.... or 'loves it' as the locals seem to say haha

[heroic]

Yeah i live in uplands, together with just about every other student! im on marlborough road it hasn't changed much at all since ive been here: its a ghost town during the holidays, and then there's nowhere to park when everyone returns it's all cool though, i love it.... or 'loves it' as the locals seem to say haha

Haha yeah, they do say that. I used to live on Ernald Place.