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building first scanner, need help

i just downloaded it and it seems very tricky, ill just stick with spaghetti since everyone else is familiar with it.
 





DZE

Click on products, then go to the DB-25 breakout board link.

That is a very, very handy piece of hardware for wiring up your scanner, and the seller is a well trusted member on PL.
 
if i bulid the sound card dac and i dont have a Oscilloscope to calibrate it, what is the best way to calibrate it?
 
You can either send it to me and I'll calibrate it for you at no charge, or you can try to do it with a multimeter, but I've never seen anyone do it successfully with just a meter, personally.

To try it with a multimeter, you'll need to download a file called "max.wav". You can find it here. You play this file with windows media player and adjust each channel so that when the file is playing they provide 5v and when it isn't playing they provide 0v. You will adjust the gain and offset pots on the correction amp to accomplish this.
 
ok. ill try that then, i have a multimeter and that is much easier for me to do. also u have any ideas on a case that i should use that is fairy cheap?
 
i decided that im just going to leave it on a metal sheet until i get a enclosure for it. the only concerns i have now is how i connect everything all together? i know ive asked this a lot but im just not understanding it at all. lol if u can label the pics that u have uploaded for your sound card dac tutorial, u think u can mark what wires i need to connect to where? that would be very helpful
 
so since im not making a separate dac i would cut off the plugs off the galvo and connect those to the necessary points on the soundcard? and am i really moding the soundcard or am i just hooking the wires up in the right places?
 
You're not actually modding the soundcard, no.. you're merely modding it usage. And yes, you would cut the connectors off the ends of the galvo wires and connect them (the positive and negative wires) directly to the DAC. There are three wires coming off your amps +, -, and ground. You can ignore the ground wire.
 
so i only need to solder a total of 4 wires? and they are just going to the left and right channel? no confusion schematic?
 
That's correct. You'll also need to connect the modulation wire that comes out of your laser to the DAC as well, but there are also pins for this in that same row. I believe Ch. 4 on the DAC is for green-only systems. So in total, you'll be using Ch. 1 and 2 (first four pins in the output row that I described previously) for the X,Y galvos and Ch. 4 (pins 7 and 8 in the output row) for laser modulation..
 
i will not be using a laser module yet. i will just be using a 80 mw green laser pointer that i have available at the moment. so if i dont hook up the laser module then i will only be using 4 wires?
 
so since i only need to adjust the left and right channel for calibration it shouldn't be that hard cuz its only 2 adjustments? also where do i touch contacts from the multimeter to the sound card dac?, so that i can see the 5 volts?
 
You'll tune it before you solder the wires on to the pins (I use a connector myself but soldering will do..). You just put the multimeter on the pins where the galvos will go. I'd go ahead and tune up the other channels when you do it since it's very easy and you will then be able to continue using it when you get a proper laser.
 
so i only touch it to the positive and negative of the left and right channels? just by touching the two leads off the multimeter to them?
 
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