Got a SCANPRO30 scanner set up today... 56K warning, I got BIG pictures...

:rock: And I thought it'd be plug an play but... I may need a small degree in electronics to set it up... :huh2:

Here's a few pics...

PSU



Driver board cable



Scanners and driver boards



Close up of scanners in mount



another with flash



Seems the PSU may be wrong. The seller hangs out at another forum and quickly pointed me to the manual, which isn't really comprehensive, but it's OK, and has quickly answered a few questions. May have to see how well we get the PSU fixed. The set up is sold by someone down under but shipped from the manufacturer in China. We'll see how it goes. Anyone know anything about ILDA controllers?

Re: Got a SCANPRO30 scanner set up today...

What do you need to know about controllers?

Re: Got a SCANPRO30 scanner set up today...

did it include a dac? and how much?

Re: Got a SCANPRO30 scanner set up today...

Lasernerd said:

What do you need to know about controllers?

Click to expand...

Everything I guess. I though the driver board WAS the DAC... So...

dr_lava said:

did it include a dac? and how much?

Click to expand...

Nope, no DAC included... I'm trying to find one of those cheap now... There's a guy on another forum that has one he made for popelscan, which given my budget, is my software of choice. If I knew anything about electronics, building them anyway, I could do it my self. I have seen several schimatics, but it's all Greek to me... O, it was $614 with expidited shipping. I bought it Friday morning EARLY and was told it would be shipped on Monday. It got here Wednesday... :rock: which really impressed me. I think it got shipped the same day Friday, but I could be wrong.

Well, we got the PS issue settled. It's labled wrong, and I got a green LED to light up when I plugged it in... Green is good... The seller is very helpful, I think he indicated I would need something else but I missed it.

Until I get a DAC I'm going to look at popelscan and see if it will let me attain my goal of making a laser ossiliscope. After looking at some of the laser show control software I don't think I can do it the way I had first imagined and somehow input sound into the DAC. I think I will have to map the soundwave from a visual representation into frames. Which may be a pain. Getting a picture of a songs waveform and then rasterize it into an animation frame WITH points...

Re: Got a SCANPRO30 scanner set up today...

The dac is only a digital->analog converter. In the mean time you can use a PC sound card as a dac (it is one, only AC coupled). I even think there is free software to do so, but not sure what it is.

You should be able to create an oscilloscope effect easily. Put the output of one channel of the sound card to the Y-axis and, generate ramps for the x-axis. The second part may be harder for you. See this:
http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_6/chpt_6/8.html

Re: Got a SCANPRO30 scanner set up today...

Mmmmm, more Greek... I haven't really seen a schimatic of electronics that I can make heads or tails of... It's amazing I can make computers work at all...

I don't even need ramps, just the X to scan back and forth at some speed. The ramps will distort the soundwave wouldn't it? It's is the speed of the x axis I don't know about. My motorized first surface mirror almost does it but it moves WAY too fast. Even when I try to use just a little bit of voltage it seems to take too much and starts spinning too fast which make a line that bounces not an osilliscope.

I think the seller advised me not to hook up sound to these scanner boards. I may be wrong. May shoot him a PM... :thinking:

I have pretty much secured an ILDA DAC, just waiting on the paypal invoice. Now I have to sit on my hands for 5 to 10 working days... :sweat:

Re: Got a SCANPRO30 scanner set up today...

ILDA standard is +- 10volt differential 0 V being center position

Re: Got a SCANPRO30 scanner set up today...

I am soon going to have a complete wireless laser controller with software available soon,I will keep you all posted

Re: Got a SCANPRO30 scanner set up today...

allthatwhichis said:

Mmmmm, more Greek... I haven't really seen a schimatic of electronics that I can make heads or tails of... It's amazing I can make computers work at all...

I don't even need ramps, just the X to scan back and forth at some speed. The ramps will distort the soundwave wouldn't it? It's is the speed of the x axis I don't know about. My motorized first surface mirror almost does it but it moves WAY too fast. Even when I try to use just a little bit of voltage it seems to take too much and starts spinning too fast which make a line that bounces not an osilliscope.

I think the seller advised me not to hook up sound to these scanner boards. I may be wrong. May shoot him a PM... :thinking:

I have pretty much secured an ILDA DAC, just waiting on the paypal invoice. Now I have to sit on my hands for 5 to 10 working days... :sweat:

Click to expand...

I wouldnt hook up any sound to true scanners,,there are mods you can do to the amiga 500 computer simple mod to convert it to differential voltage

Also you can try a Sine-square wave gen. to creat effects

Re: Got a SCANPRO30 scanner set up today...

Yea, that's what the seller of the scanners just replied to me. I guess I'll have to wait. I was given a sinewave generator schimatic but it looked a lot like a DAC scheme and in that arena... I paid for the DAC early this morning and the seller is also from down unda, so hopefully it got in the mail today. :sweat: He said it should take 5 to 10 working days... I guess this will give me a few days to sell a few computer parts so I can get some optics and mounts.

Does anyone else out there have a blue argon laser? Possibly a Spectra Physics 161c. Craig does... Is this beast "blankable"? I know my GBS100 is, but I'm not sure about that argon or my red diode. Axis, since I got it from you... Is the 10 to 40mW adjustable red diode "blankable" also. It has a little "pot" screw to adjust it with. I was wondering if I replace that "pot" with a blanking... circuit, will that blank the laser, or maybe even modulate it? This may be wishful thinking but I have no idea.

need any computer parts? Mainly AMD socket 939 CPUs... :huh2:

This laser stuff seems much more addictive than computers... atleast now. :lolsign:

Re: Got a SCANPRO30 scanner set up today...

Gas lasers are not blankable,most cases a 3rd scanner is used to blank the beam or AOM
unit which is faster,most Diode type lasers are blankable

Re: Got a SCANPRO30 scanner set up today...

Argons are modulabe, but not directly, you need an AOM (Acousto-Optic modulator). It's basically a crystal that changes optical characteristics when electricity is applied to it. Not something everyone has in their junkbox, though .

As for the red, it all depends. How many wires does it have?. If it has two for power, and an extra pair, then it's more than likely modulable. Otherwise, you probably need to build a circuit, or get another one .

Re: Got a SCANPRO30 scanner set up today...

Thanks ya'll!!!

I was hoping the hook up on the from of the argon PS marked controller had a couple of pins I could blank with... Probably have to get a shutter for it.

The red diode has a wire, probably two in one, that goes to the plug and two wires that go to a little box with a screw on it that you turn to adjust the power. I was hoping to take the box off and have it be ttl... I'll have to shoot Axis an email or PM and ask. I need to look into some optics also... Off to eBay..,

Re: Got a SCANPRO30 scanner set up today...

That "little box" on the adjustable laser from Azxis is just a pot; I don't believe there is anything more sophisticated in there. You could probably cut that off (leaving the wires long enough to reattach later) and insert your own pot into the circuit. Red wire to the center connector and black to either of the two end connectors on the pot is a good place to start.

The argon-ion is modulatable or blankable only via mechanical or electromechanical means after the beam aperture; it cannot be modulated or blanked by modifying any of the electrical signals related to causing the tube to lase. Once the tube is on and lasing, the only possible condition that can be generated is "off" with a minimum dwell time of several seconds - far, far too long to be useful as blanking for laser show graphics. And if that method were employed, the components and wiring need to be able to carry at least 16 amps - for safety sakes anyway.

Re: Got a SCANPRO30 scanner set up today...

:bow:

Thanks Craig!!! Even if it is not really "good" news... I think I need to sell/barter my computer stuff AND maybe the argon(s) to get this projector going right... I really need less green, and at least ttl or anolog modable red and blue. Damn... I had it in my head that if I could blank the green and red I could shutter the blue and get a nice array of 6 colors... Never works out as well as I hope... :candle: I have to limit my use of the argon too. It's a power hungry beast. I'd be happy with a 25 to 30mW blue dpss but I can't find one of those either. I figure 30mW red, 20 to 25 blue and 10 to 15 of green would make a nice show for the room I'll be working in. It's only 75 to 100 square feet. Even a 20mW blue'd be good. Anyone want to trade a 100mW green for a 10mW green and a 20mW blue? :lolsign:

Re: Got a SCANPRO30 scanner set up today...

Interesting... looks like knock offs of cambridge 6800's.

The cheapest way you are probably going to be able to drive those and get graphics is with an amiga running the early version of pangolin, which is free.

Did the scanners come tuned? Are they supposed to do 30k?

Re: Got a SCANPRO30 scanner set up today...

Yea, they're rated at 30k at 8° and I have no idea if they are tuned. Each scanner is matched with it's driver board. The manual says to make sure you mathc the serial #s up. I hope they are good knock offs...

The amiga set up doesn't allow for blanking though does it? I have a DAC on it's way anyhow and have been looking at popelscan and a few other demos. Ot's kinda funny, there be NO software for laser control on the peer to peers I have searched. :lolsign: Nobody sharin those. I have found a demo for Mellennium that seems cool. You can "project" your frames before you actually build the show. As a REAL noob I don't know it that is possible with other software, and since poplescan is in german... I don't really know what it is capable of. I guess it'll be about practice. :candle:

Oh!!! 500th post, I get a lil star!!! :rock:

Re: Got a SCANPRO30 scanner set up today...

The problem isn't that the software isn't out there... it is that you have to have hardware that can output a fairly accurate DC biased signal for vector graphics. I don't remember if the old pangolin system did blanking or not... never played with it. Here is a link for it: http://www.pangolin.com/products/pricelist-lsd1000.htm

There was an ILDA frame editor out a while back called Anarchy, might want to look for that.

Also have one other solution... PM me.

Re: Got a SCANPRO30 scanner set up today...

:huh2: Antoher solution...

Re: Got a SCANPRO30 scanner set up today...

YAG said:

The problem isn't that the software isn't out there... it is that you have to have hardware that can output a fairly accurate DC biased signal for vector graphics. I don't remember if the old pangolin system did blanking or not... never played with it. Here is a link for it: http://www.pangolin.com/products/pricelist-lsd1000.htm

There was an ILDA frame editor out a while back called Anarchy, might want to look for that.

Also have one other solution... PM me.

Click to expand...

On the LSD1000 there was no option for blanking,just simple X-Y outputs