CL-16RGY scanner review

congrats!! how long did it take? it's not the brightest thing, but it's bright enough for a room! i'm taking mine to an event my cousin is putting on, my laser is going to be shining over 800 people DMX is not very hard to learn, but the controller is a bit expensive here's a screen shot of the program i use. The blue boxes up the top, you can write in them what the channel does. the little numbers underneath show the value of that channel, and the sliders let you choose the values. if you look in the instructions that came with the laser, you will see that channel 1 controls the mode, channel 2 controls the pattern etc: in the screen shot, you will see that i have set it in "static pattern" mode, and in channel 2, the value is 62, and if you look in the laser shows instructions, you will see, that values 60-64 is a horizontal line.
channel 3 controls where the pattern is on the X axis, channel 4 is "supposed" to control the Y axis, but i have found that channel 5 does that. Channel 6 controls the "scanning speed"(how fast the laser scans)which is full speed on the screen shot, and channel 7 controls how big the pattern is, but in static mode only(on the screen shot, it's set so the pattern is maximum size). Channel 8 is "supposed" to control colour but channel 9 does that on mine, and you can see that it is set to the colour red. Pretty simple ;D
If you have any other questions, just ask!

Things --

Thanks for all the help !!! I think I could work that screen.

Mine is plenty bright in the back yard but the yello is "sorta lime" too much green in the auto mode. I have yet to try it on audio.

So far, Mine is as quiet as two servos can be and it runs cool.

Is there a power control on the red or green control board ?? I got lots of green!! I asked for a powerful one and I think I got it!

Is that screen you show from that program you recommend?? The "book" I got is a poor translation -- It's almost funny ;D

Mike

i don't think there is an adjustment thing on the control board. i use this program because it's free, and it works like a charm mine is VERY noisy, but david is sending me a new fan, and it should be here monday, so i will check for knobs and things inside, and get plenty of pics. i have tried mine in the front yard, and i can see it, but yours sound like it's really bright!!! we should ask david if he could upgrade us to the 260mw model, because we have said so may good things about it ;D

if it's hard to read the lasers book, here's a chart i made up.

Things --

I printed this out - looks like an english translation of the book !!

I set mine up on the deck tonight and my wife was amazed !!  Sat there for almost 30 minutes watching it.  Out under the tall hedge, it was like farrie land !!!

I'd sure like to be able to "talk" DMX with a switch box.  A few switches and a couple pots but that's olden days  :-[  How about an "etch-a-sketch" thing ---- I didn't think so either -----------

Next mod -- audio line input - ---

I'll go along with that upgrade !!!!!! Helloooooo David

Mike

you printed my chart out david HELLO[wink][wink] ;D ;D

Grats Mike. I hope you are enjoying the scanner as much as I am enjoying mine, I took mine to a friends the other night and projected it into a tree in his back Garden. It was amazing, it looked like an everchanging "rope light" draped over the tree, with thousands of little bulbs.

Everyone was spellbound by it, even the neighbours came out to have a look, they were like 'How on earth are you doing that?'

Much fun.

Jase.

i did that once, i live in a court, so i shone it up into a tree above the road, then i had 10 or so people standing asking "what the hell is that" ;D ;D

I opened my "can" tonight. Just like the pictures in there. The main power board has two pots labeled VR-R and VR-G. Look like power controls to me but they are covered with glue stuff.

I used my Sper power meter inside but it's impossible to measure peak power because it is switched so damn fast. The green peaked over 60 mW once and the red made it over 60 once too but the red seems under powered in comparison. Nothing gets hot.

Now I know what little piece of glass to use for a r/g combiner !!!

Mike

it's nice to know you can adjust the power, maybe you could turn the red up a bit, it's very well cooled, so i don't see why not?

Mike, my driver board has no visible pots to control power, could you post a pic of yours please.

Jase

Tallaxo -- They are small multi-turn pots (1/2"square and blue) in the middle of the board behind the driver transistors.  They stand upright. Printing is on the board. I'll try to get a pix.

Mike

we should find out what the lasers are rated for, maybe we can turn them up abit to to 260mw ;D ;D ;D

Today, I added a power switch and an audio input so I can drive it with line input from a walkman type device.  Pouring rain here -- over 7" in two days and I want to go outside to watch the show    I have Sgt. Pepper loaded !!!!

Mike

any pics? i gather you just hooked the audio jack onto the microphone line?

A little more complicated than that ---

The microphone is an electorate mic and therefore has a DC bias on line.  I added a spdt switch to go between the two sources and isolated my input with small capacitors to block the DC.  

The "computer" in there follows the beat well.  Sometimes, it's almost like it knows the music !! With line input, the sensitivity control works well at half setting - nice. I'm working with David about the power ratio (R/G) trying to see if I can get a better yellow by dropping the green or pushing the red.

This would probably be better done with DMX to set a solid full power red or green so it can be metered.

Mike