buffo
HAHA! Awesome. Always nice to see first light out of a new projector.Originally Posted by pspence
Well, that's going to be a lot of information, unfortunately. You're going to need a variance from the CDRH (Center for Devices and Radiological Health). This is a branch of the US FDA that is charged with regulating all laser products, be they medical lasers, industrial lasers, or "laser display devices" like your projector. In all cases, the requirements are fairly strict. Fortunately, there are numerous members here on PL that have already completed the process and can offer you advice on how to go about applying for your variance.Any and all info on what I’ll need to do to get my system certified would be awesome!
First though, you'll need to make sure that your projector conforms to all the safety requirements spelled out by the CDRH. Have a look at some of the older threads (search for "CDRH" and "Variance" for a good start) here on PL, and that should point you in the right direction. And yeah, you're going to have lots of questions... Don't worry - we'll help you through it.
No. You need to purchase some laser safety goggles. They can sometimes be found on E-bay for less, but even a brand new pair shouldn't cost more than $100 or so. It's a small price to pay to protect your eyesight though. LaserWave sells goggles, and they have a couple distributors that are members here on PL. I'd check with one of them first and see if they have any goggles that are rated for IR (1064 nm) and 532 nm green... (GottaLuvLasers is the US distributor for LaserWave.)I have been using an old welding helmet… is this sufficient?“Also, I assume you've got some laser goggles that are at least OD 4 at both 532 nm and 1064 nm, right? (If not, you really need to buy a pair.)”
That is a clone of the standard GM-20 that most people use. I suggest you send a PM to David Zurcher (DZ here on the forums) and ask him to send you the schematic he uses to drive his GM-20's. (It's a very basic circuit.)I have a small actuator that I ordered from OSLS… (See picture bellow) But i'm not sure what else I need to build to implement it… I knew I’d need one, so I drilled and tapped the mounting holes, but I have yet to hook it up… you mentioned driving it with “small transistor…” could you give me the specifics?“'d add a shutter (pin 13 on the ILDA connector - it goes high when the shutter should open. Drive it with a small transistor), and a remote kill switch.”
Hmmm... Curious... Are there any other signals on the RJ-45 jack, or is it only used for the interlock?My laser power supply does have a “interlock” connection on it via an RJ45 jack… currently I have just looped the + & - back into in to override it… If I am understanding you correctly I just need hook that into pins 4 and 17, and that take care if the interlock issue?
Either way, yes - you can connect pins 4 and 17 in series with that circuit and this will satisfy your interlock. Also, by putting a normally closed, push to open switch in series with this loop, you can satisfy the requirement for a remote kill switch. (This assumes that the switch you select locks in the open position when you push it...)
Hmmm... That sounds like you have the Peak-to-peak voltage set too high. Go into the config menu and select +/- 5 volts and see if that fixes the problem.I can’t get alpha to work at all… I finally got the SW to run without freezing, but the interface still doesn’t work when I view the cards output on my scope it just looks like noise i.e. square waves smashed to 1dBfs… not pretty…
THe Alphalite *can* display clean images, it's just that - being a parallel port controller, it's always going to be freezing whenever your PC decides to do something more important that feeding data to the parallel port. Things like mouse clicks, disc accesses, etc will all "freeze" the port (and thus give you a static beam!) for a short period. This fact alone makes it completely unsuitable for commercial use. Add to that the fact that there is no way to choreograph a show to music, and you see why the Alphalite has fallen out of favor. Still, it's better than nothing at all I suppose.
Yeah, well, Full Auto is getting a bit long in the tooth these days. It's really aimed at laserists that need to perform live, such as in a nightclub playing along to a live band or DJ. It also lacks the ability to build a choreographed show set to music, but it is leaps and bounds ahead of the Alphalite. I thought Fred was working on some updates to that software, but maybe he's gotten side-tracked.As I mentioned at the top of this post, Fred at OSLS sent me a Full Auto rig for testing purposes, which seems like a pretty cool, somewhat limited, extremely overpriced app…
Hehe.. DING-DING-DING! The Flashback 3 is probably the best value for your dollar these days. It comes with a full featured software suite, top notch hardware, and excellent customer support. Many budding hobbyists here are running the FB3, and they love it. (Do a search for FB3 here and you'll see all kinds of posts talking about it.)What are your thoughts on pangolin flashback system? Or could you make any other recommendations?
If you want to play along to live music (in a nightclub environment, for example), then I strongly suggest you purchase a license for LivePro, which is a piece of software that will run with your FB3 and will give you even more control over the look and feel of a live performance. It also allows you to beat-sychronize all your effects automatically. (Yeah, it's that cool!)
On the other hand, if you have the money to spend (and I understand that not everyone does), the Pangolin LD-2000 system, even the intro package, is just about the best controller money can buy right now. It comes with over 100 pre-made laser shows (all choreographed to music), plus it comes with 3 CD's worth of artwork that you can use to make your own laser shows with. You can add extra features to the software ala-carte if you need them. Some of the extra features include a conversion tool that will convert Shockwave Flash animations to ILDA files and plug-in for 3D Studio Max that will allow you to render 3D objects as ILDA frames in real time!
Well, there are converters like that, though they don't use the aiff format. (Are you an old Amiga fan?Someone needs to create a file format converter to convert .ild to multichannel aiff… then someone could buy any $100.00 sample playback software and trigger the samples (images) with a midi keyboard or pad bank… I feel that the price of most of the laser control software currently available is just insane!Not many others know about aiff, and we old Amiga geeks need to stick together!) There is the Laserboy software that will convert between .dfx, .ilda, and .wav files. The 6 channel .wav files can even be played back through a PC sound card (wired to bypass the output filter caps so they will pass DC) and a correction amplifier and fed to a set of scanners (and lasers) to produce images! This is the absolute cheapest way that you can get started in the hobby, and while it does work, it suffers from a few growing pains in my opinion. But there are people out there running this gear in their homes, and there are a few different playback tools available if you want to experiment with it. Contact Keeprex here on PL for more details about this if you want to pursue it.
I agree that the prices for commercial laser controllers and software are high. But it's a limited market (very limited), and the development costs are high, so naturally the end price is also high. With Pangolin, though, a lot of what you are paying for is content. You get so many shows that are ready to run right out of the box... If you had to buy them yourself, you'd spend tens of thousands of dollars. (A decent 3-minute show sells for anywhere from $150 to $500.)
Also, because the Pangolin LD-2000 system supports a secure (encrypted) file format, content creators can sell shows to people without fear of copyright infringement. So there is a *lot* of content available for the LD-2000.
Plus it's a very popular controller here on PL, so you've got people here that are creating free shows for it as well. (I've made 6 of them so far.) But it *is* expensive... No doubt about that.
Any chance you'd be interested in attending a Laser Enthusiast's Meeting, where you'd get a chance to see some of these different controllers running side by side? We're planning one for the middle of May, but it's going to be in Florida (near Orlando). Also, we've got a larger event planned for August 15th and 16th in Newton, North Carolina (near Charlotte.)
If either one of these two destinations will work for you, let me know! (The one in Florida hasn't been set in stone yet, so we can adjust the date to match your plans, if you think you'll be able to attend.) Yeah, I know it's a long haul from Wisconsin, but last year we had a guy fly all the way from New Zealand (really!) to attend. They're that much fun!
Adam
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