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Ilda laser,,, diy dac ? software ? arduino control ? dmx?

#1

A friend will buy a Full color laser, 1w total output, its TTL,

I wish to have control of problems to do it…

All the softwares that im looking at are verry limitated… mambablack, i-show, Fiesta2, all of them use a diferent dac, and the only one with midi is fiesta2, but its the most expensive one.

The ideas tha i have are the following.

  1. Control windows mosue/keyboard with vvvv. Is this possible ? is there any way to tell vvvv to move your mouse and to click on a specific area of the screen?

  2. midi imput. This one is simple, using midiyoke and vvvv midi out node, but only fiesta2 have midi imput :(

  3. dmx control. Besides the entec usb-dmx with other usb-dmx is available ? If i use the laser via dmx its still very limitated. i can draw a few lines and move it around, but im looking something more complex.

  4. arduino analog outputs… i think this is the best one, but i have no idea the output rate of arduino dac… but i know that is “easy” to control arduino trough vvvv, and the only limitacion here will be the arduino fps.

  5. this is the most complex, but powerful solution. To create my own dac from a 7chanel soundcard.
    http://laserpointerforums.com/f47/sound-card-dac-tutorial-40569.html
    is there any node on vvvv to have full control of the soundcard ? if this is possible, a new world is open here!

any other ideas are welcome ;)

pd: i saw the lumax thread, but the file its not present

#2

you don’t need no files for Lumax (Devices) because it is already part of vvvv!

anyway my rants:

1.) see Cursor (System)

3.) if you want to go DMX i recommend you NOT to go USB but DMX.Artnet. no drivers necessary, will also work with future OS. see Enttec ODE

#3

hum. why do you think you will be limited with dmx ?
as kalle suggested to you, going on an artnet dmx device will increase the fps of dmx sended.
all what you have to do is to design in VVVV your set and send it in dmx artnet. very fast and powerfull, and has you noticed, completely adapted to your needs.
of course, you are limited by physical restriction of the dmx signal, if you are on a 3 or 5 XLR plug.
Best would be to search an ethernet laser and send it proper orders from VVVV. That would be really the most quickand powerfull.

about rates of the arduino, if you dont send too much orders to the usb serial port to arduino, you dont see any difference between arduino job and other devices.
arduino is a very reliable solution for palying with any devices, if you have electronic skills or patience.
about your link, its more easy and quick to do such figures inside VVVV than coding them in C in arduino sketch. such patterns are needing a high level in maths, that vvvv will let you do quite easely once your system to pilot the laser is done.
but, of course, this obliges you to have a pc connected. i would say an arduino solution is only for a non-pc based application, an electronic standalone

#4

diy laser project: http://marcansoft.com/blog/2010/11/openlase-open-realtime-laser-graphics/

as @kalle said,
cursor-(system)
for mouse, and
keyboard-(system-global) for keyboard

dmx can’t handle the same amount of data as eg. ILDA. in other words, no vector graphics, only control over presets and a couple of parameters (depends on device).

but, on the whole i would recommend the lumax (no personal experience… yet) ;)

#5

also see SourceBuffer (DShow9) which was specified by @eno with lasercontrol via soundcard in mind.

#6

@dEP: oh oh… Learning a lot !
got it. where can be downloaded ILDA spec and protocol ?

#7

Wow wow wow, to much to start with, tnks!!! :)

Great to know about the mouse and the keyboard, a new way to play mario with kinect is about to be done! :P

any place where i can orden the Lumax interface to be sent to the uss ?
and about the Enttec ODE its fully funcionable with vvvv to do dmx control as simple as that ? i read a few things about pipet + led pipes… and i close the chome tab righ away, i want to keep focus on one thing at the time, im amaze how many things can me done! :)

im, just, :)

#8

Yes art net ode like every art net compliant interface works perfectly.

#9

i have the laser and the open dmx interface! :)
im verry happy with the equipmet, its a 15kpps 1.2w rgb, i though it was only 7 colors, but after figuring out the dmx chanels ( chineese laser, no instruccions at all ) i was able to find the color chanel, and i have like 20 colors.

With freestylers works great, now its time to vvvv :)

i folowing the documentacion on https://discourse.vvvv.org/t/407
but most of the links are broken

any help here ? i guess i need the SoftNode 1.2.0 ? any example of how to use it ?

another opcion its to run the Art-Net to DMX that came with freestyler, but im getting this message…
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/820/capturazg.png/

#10

If you have an open go to my user page karistouf and use little cat engine. ;-)

#11

karistouf please show me where i can find little_cat.exe im finding old links only :(

#12

if you had chosen the Enttec ODE instead of the Open DMX USB you simply could use DMX (Network Artnet Sender) without any trouble.

i found a patch by @west in my folders but i don’t remember where he posted it.
so for this reason i attached it here.

DMX (Devices Enttec_USB_Pro).v4p (20.7 kB)

#13

kalle i found that one, but i guess its not for the hardware that i have here…
i have this one http://www.enttec.com/index.php?main_menu=Products&pn=70303&show=downloads

its not the “pro” … but anyways, im able to run the laser just fine with freestyler, by moving chanel 1 i shoud be able to turn it on and with chanel 2 i shoud be gettig diferent draw lines… ok , nothing hapens.

i check the com port under windows control panel, its seems to be COM5 , and nothing, i also try to match the rs232 node setiings with inspector, to match the baud rate and stop bits, but no output at all.

any idea ?
ahh please let me know if this is the rigth way to use it

blabal.v4p (23.0 kB)

#14

Wait tonight i will check the dead link for little cat

#15

Great, tnks for the help guys! :)

i was able to do “something” a few minutes ago, freestyler dmx seems to be the bridge to another workaround. it came with a soft called “Art-Net to DMX” and it does just that. i can “monitor” the output so check what im seending to all the 512 dmx chanels supported by this cheap interface. The only trick its that you network card must be on 10.x.x.x , I changed that and it work, well, i made a simple DMXarnet sender . i switch that to enable and by moving the imput pin i was able to send values to all the chanels at the same time ( ergo, turn the laser on! :) ). I need to keep checking the ArnetDMX documentacion to understand how to put the data into that node, but im happy with the samall contribution :P

hope to hear from karistouf, tnks again :)

#16

ok. something is broken with editing userpge actually. so here is little cat

about artnet:
universe is from 0 to 15, but just keep 0

about littlecat: doing the job, running on usb key also

there is a doc folder. take the last version , wich is taking art-net if i remember well

cheers

little_cat_dmxengine.zip (3.1 MB)

#17

Great, tnks for the files karistouf !
but i have some problems with the files, its doing something because im able to turn it on, but if i dont keep sending a dmx signal its turns off, and if i left the “send” bang on 1 it wont take the changes.

i was able to run it 100% fine with the Art-net to dmx that came with freestyler

the patch that i use its verrrrrryy simple.

i´m verry happy with the response time of the laser, but still, i really need a ILDA interface. DMX its not fast enough for that i want… well the protocol yes, but the laser response time over dmx can be use for drawing.

laser.v4p.v4p (15.5 kB)

#18

hum… try it with RAW udp despite ethernet, that should work

there is also my whitecat you can attack in artnet and use with opendmx also:
http://www.le-chat-noir-numerique.fr/index_eng.html

#19

Yes DMX and laser is not making much sense. Your ‘simple path’ works, but please mind that if you have motion, and you use a slider, vvvv will freeze and your motion will stop too. Figure out how to make a GUI or use a cheap ass MIDI device, like the Korg Nano Kontrol or something.

I used to do your roundabout with artnet, but now you can use the Enttec open with vvvv.

Check this thread, on the bottem, I attached a patch that uses karistouf’s little cat and should work right away with a correctly installed Enttec Open.

https://discourse.vvvv.org/t/6770

@Karistouf, any change that we can see this as a plugin some day? (and by-pass the UDP) ;) ;) ;)

#20

hi west, there will be, it s in my plan. just rushing with family life / work / personnal projects. I promised, i will

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