Programming LASER shows

RE: Programming LASER shows and animations.

I have an idea of how to build an inexpensive projection system for LASERS...but that's the hardware side. How is the software side handled? I mean, I could just hand code a series of points by X and Y coordinates, and have it translate that way...but that seems a bit crude. It'd take a long time, too.

A quick web search turned up plenty of information on Pangolin software, which costs a pretty penny.

It's been my experience that most every other hobby, regardless of cost or complexity, has at least 1 freeware offering for basic control...does something similar exist for LASER show projections? My design outputs each axis as step/direction pulses out the parallel port. Given some work, I could generate GCode for CNC machines (also step/direction driven, and there is a shareware inerpreter available) and do it that way...but I was hoping for something more elegant.

Anyone have any ideas about the programming side? Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, guys.

-- Chuck Knight

Have you tried popelscan yet? That's the only free one I know.


Cheers.

I haven't even found it yet...I tried googling free laser show programming, and that sort of thing, and the other ones came up. None actually seemed free, though all included "free samples" of shows, or some such thing.

Thanks, I'll check it out when I get back from Church.

-- Chuck Knight

Thanks for the link. Wish it wasn't LINUX based, though...I'd have to set up a LINUX machine just to run it. I was hoping to use an old 486 laptop I picked up the other day, for next to nothing.

About the software...it all seems so complex...maybe I'll just design something simple. X and Y coordinates, blank or no blank, in a text file, run it through a BASIC or C++ program, and output it to the parallel port. A software timing loop, too, so I can control persistence of vision...why make it complicated?

I mean it's just scanning a beam across a simple set of coordinates. I do like the interactive design screen, though. Hmmm...oh wel, graph paper will work, as a starting point.

Gotta' include something to limit the movement to a predefined arc, too. This is getting more complicated as I continue on.

Oh well, mine will work perfectly as a test bed, at the very least. Won't be too hard to program, either. An hour, maybe 2...it's been a few years since I did that kind of programming, though, so maybe a bit longer.

At the very least, it should prove to be fun.

-- Chuck Knight

chuck, try over at photonlexicon.com, there's a few more laser show posts, even a few talking about working on their own software. Actually, mostly all the post are about shows and projector based lasers.