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Joined: 29 March 2005
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    Posted: 12 April 2009 at 12:36am
Do any of you use the LaserWorld usb dongle to control your lasers.
 
I have some laser which I was hoping to run via my laptop, to do text etc. But I can't get the laser image very steady. When the lasers are used in stand alone mode or with my dmx desk they are perfect, But with the dongle and the LaserWorld software the images are too unstable.
 
 
If anyone can help or point me in the direction of a good laser forum I would much appreciate it.
 
Cheers.
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norty303 View Drop Down
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Points: 8806 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote norty303 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 April 2009 at 11:56am
When you say unstable, can you describe it a bit more please?  If its stable on DMX or stand alone then it sounds like noise could be getting into the system somewhere.  If you are finding the images are getting curly loops and rounded edges than this is a good indication you are scanning too fast/too big.  If you slow the scan speed down or make the image smaller you should see the image sharpen up although you may then get flicker that is too bad for you.  Really depends on what quality scanners you have fitted.
 
If you want a good Laser forum try photonlexicon, but they aren't huge fans of Laserworld over there due to some dubious marketing tactics.  There are threads about the LW software iirc tho, as its a rebrand of an old piece of software by someone else I think.
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Joined: 29 March 2005
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It's not the scan speed, I have been adjusting that and have seen the curly edges when I scan too fast.
 
The problem is more like there is more than one image being projected at slightly different possitions, creating an offset flickering image.
 
Will check out the other forum. Cheers.
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Hi Norty, thanks for the heads up for photonlexicon. Someone else has exactly the same problem. And apparantly I need to ground pin 25 of the D sub connector to the laser caseing.
 
 
Do you have any idea what is the best way to do this.
 
Cheers.
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norty303 View Drop Down
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Does your projector have a proper db25 connector on the back of it? Or is it like the Laserworld one in the photo?
 
If it's a DB25 and you use a regular 25 strand cable (rather than a piece of cat5 attached to the required pins) then you can just open the case and take the ground off pin 25.
 
 
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If only it was that easy,  ha ha.
 
It has a cat5 connector on the back of the laser.. The adapter cable that goes from cat5 to DB25 has no connetion from pin 25 to the cat5 connector.
 
The guy on photonlexicon says he has fixed his by grounding pin 25, but I don't know how, as he has the same cat5 socket as me. I have pm'd him and asked for a photo to see what he has done.
 
I am sure this is the answer to my problem, I just have to find out how to go about implementing it.
 
Thanks again for the help.
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IF you have one of the short cat5 to db25 jumpers then you could just tie a single piece of wire from the db25 part to the projector case.  There must be a screw on the back panel to fix it to.
 
First off, I'd test it with a piece of wire to see if that is the reason for the image instability, then work out the neatest way of fixing up the ground
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Had a go at doing exactly that earlier, but couldn't get the wire in the pin 25 hole and get the socket to go together.
 
This solution is ok, just to see if it fixes the problem, but I can't see it as a long term solution, as it would mean running an extra wire back to the DAC dongle thing every time I use the lasers. Or running a very long usb cable to the DAC dongle thing. I was hopeing there was wire I could solder inside the projector.
 
I will have another go tomorrow.
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Points: 8806 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote norty303 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 April 2009 at 8:01pm
When i got a CS projector from LW I still continued to use 25 strand parallel cables, I just used the supplied jumper at the projector end.  This way, pin 25 terminates right by the projector, rather than at the DAC.  All it would then need is a short extra wire which you could prob tie to the existing cable.
I was assuming you were doing the same thing but it looks like you run cat5 from the adapter at the DAC end.
 
BTW, which pins are connected in the adaptor?  There might be a spare you could re-route as for a TTL blanked single colour you should only need 4 if the scanners are single ended.
 
Single ended will normally just have 1, 2, 3 and 25 (X, Y, blanking and gnd respectively)
Differential will have 14 and 15 also
 
 
Connection:

+X - pin 1 Connector P1 (DB25F)

-X - pin 14 Connector P1 (DB25F)

+Y - pin 2 Connector P1 (DB25F)

-Y - pin 15 Connector P1 (DB25F)

+ Blanking - pin 3 Connector P1 (DB25)

- Blanking - pin 16 Connector P1 (DB25)

+ Red - pin 5 Connector P1 (DB25)

- Red - pin 18 Connector P1 (DB25)

+ Green - pin 6 Connector P1 (DB25)

- Green - pin 19 Connector P1 (DB25)

+ Blue - pin 7 Connector P1 (DB25)

- Blue pin 20 Connector P1 (DB25)

Shutter pin 13 Connector P1 (DB25)

Ground - pin 25 Connector P1 (DB25F)


Edited by norty303 - 13 April 2009 at 8:09pm
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Points: 2094 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote super-hero Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 April 2009 at 10:43pm

Earthing pin 25 to the projector housing does the trick, but it's not practicle to run and extra cable.

What I have now done is put a jumper cable between pins 19 and 25. This works a treat, I'm just not sure if it's the right thing to do.
 
I want to keep the USB and splitter cables short, and run long lengths of cat5, to keep costs down.
So I have jumped pins 19 and 25 at the DAC box.
 
I can post a picture if that doesn't make sense.
 
It just seems strange that the lasers and usb DAC and software are all from the same manufacurer and are meant to work together.
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Joined: 18 August 2004
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Points: 8806 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote norty303 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 April 2009 at 1:03am
I think you'll find the LW lasers in that range are simply rebranded Chinese stuff like lots of other manufacturers.
 
They probably don't meet the stated outputs either.
 
Have a read in the reviews section on PL for some views about LW and their trading practises.
 


Edited by norty303 - 14 April 2009 at 1:05am
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