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where do you guys buy your lens mounts for your scanners?

IIRC you are usign z-bolt heatsinks correct? If you are, those have holes drilled for a fan on top (can't remember what size fan off the top of my head).
 





The_Muffin_Man said:
I am actually on vacation right now...Plus it is my b-day on friday so i will get some money to fund my project. I Think my project will be a "work-in-progress" for a couple months. I will be using it for my "bedroom rave" lol. It will basically be the components on a piece of wood or something similar. No box or anything. I will only be running it for ~25 minutes max.

I may have to heatsink the red a little more for runtime like that without an aluminum slab.
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NICE!!! i dont think ill b on the forum on friday so HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY!!! haha :wave:
are you supposed to set ur own settings on any of the supplies? (soundcard DAC, amps for galvos, etc..)
 
ElektroFreak said:
IIRC you are usign z-bolt heatsinks correct? If you are, those have holes drilled for a fan on top (can't remember what size fan off the top of my head).
Click to expand...

Yes i will be using that for the red. I heard that it works with 1.5in fans but i tried a 40mm one out and it was too big...Ill take some measurements on saturday...

mattmagic100 said:
NICE!!! i dont think ill b on the forum on friday so HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY!!! haha :wave:
are you supposed to set ur own settings on any of the supplies? (soundcard DAC, amps for galvos, etc..)
Click to expand...

Thankyou :)

You need to tune the soundcard dac. The amps for the galvos come pre-tuned and everything. They are "plug-and-play".

The tuning of the soundcard dac is covered in my thread. It took me a while to figure out so dont worry if you dont understand...Keep asking questions :)
 
i see. thanks!!!
i do have more questions haha :yh:
can u explain to me why there r so many different "channels" and what they r used for??
THANKS!!!
 
^ i think he means the different "ports" on the bottom. Those are the signal for the different colors/x,y. Those are named in my thread...Ill name them here anyway:

Just to clarify( g(1) = ground 1):

EDIT: These are on the input on the correct amp --> G(1) 5V G(2) 1 2 3 4 5 6 G(3)

These are the outputs from the soundcard:

G(1): this is the second from the right on the top of the soundcard
5V: this is the far left on the top of the soundcard
G(2): not used
1: Farthest left on the bottom of the soundcard. This is the X signal
2: second to the left on the bottom of the soundcard. This is the Y signal
3: Third from the left on the bottom of the soundcard. This is the red signal
4: third from the right on the bottom of the soundcard. This is the green signal
5: second from the right on the bottom of the soundcard. This is the blue signal (can it be used for violet too?)
6: farthest right on the bottom of the soundcard. This is the intensity(?) signal.
G(3): this is the farthest right on the top of the soundcard

The top:

Picture002-1.jpg


(^ the descriptions of the top are about this picture. You can barely see the black wire in it so i will post another where you can easily see the black wire.)

Picture005.jpg


Black wire pic ^

Also:

The 1-6(From pinout )are in order like this:

Picture003-1.jpg


Red wire: 1
Green wire:2
White wire:3
Black wire:4
Red wire:5
Green wire:6

(i added the rest of the word..G = Green...and wire so it made more sense :)

I just copy and pasted it from my thread. You can take a look at the actual pictures/layout if you want. Its page 4...

(just realized how long this post was lol. I have edited it about 6 times from the first post. It is a little mixed up...There are a couple different parts to it..)
 
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okay. and just to make sure, cuz i saw in another thread (i think it was yours) that there are a certain amount of channels on the DAC that you are supposed to adjust.
am i wrong?
 
You have to tune each channel on the correction amp board (6) in order for the system to work, but I'd worry about that once you've got the DAC assembled.
 
ooooooo i get it. but if its okay can you give me a quick description of how to tune it so i dont forget to ask later and then forget to do it?
 
Trust me, you won't forget. The minute you try to use the system and it doesn't work, you'll either remember about the tuning or you'll come here and ask. If that happens, I'll say: "remember about the tuning?" and you'll say "Oh yeah.. forgot all about that.."

But if you want a quick idea, there is a brief description in my DAC tutorial. There are two adjustments on each channel: One labeled "offset" and one labeled "gain". The offset adjusts the base voltage for the signal, and the gain adjusts the amplitude (think volume). You have to adjust these to get the signals to stay within the ranges described in the tutorial.
 
ElektroFreak said:
Trust me, you won't forget. The minute you try to use the system and it doesn't work, you'll either remember about the tuning or you'll come here and ask. If that happens, I'll say: "remember about the tuning?" and you'll say "Oh yeah.. forgot all about that.."

But if you want a quick idea, there is a brief description in my DAC tutorial. There are two adjustments on each channel: One labeled "offset" and one labeled "gain". The offset adjusts the base voltage for the signal, and the gain adjusts the amplitude (think volume). You have to adjust these to get the signals to stay within the ranges described in the tutorial.
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hahahahahahaha okay thanx for the description!! it actually helped a lot. :)

but when i do start doin it, ur gonna have to tell me a little more :D

so...:thanks:
 
I guess i will chime in here...

You will need spaghetti to tune the DAC (or another program...I think you will have spaghetti already for your system...).

First: you plug the dac in (the complete dac: soundcard/amp)
2) dont play anything or have any signals..
3) Using g(3) as the ground (negative) tune each signal. (This is very brief. Basically keep the negative on the g3 at all times. Then put your positive on 1 and tune it to 0v. Do that for each of the 6 signal channels)

Next:
1) play a file called max.wav or something. You will have to look in my thread for that. I think you can get it from PL.
2) using the same method above tune each channel to +5v.

I hope that is correct...If its not then i have the wrong idea about DACs :D

Once i get mine going, i will probably be able to explain it better...
 
^Exactly right, except you want the galvo channels to swing between + and - 5V, for a total of 10V peak to peak. I have never used "max.wav" so I can't say much about how it works, but I know that Muffin_Man will be finding out soon enough. An oscilloscope is the best way to tune them if you have access to one.
 
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No you dont really need SPaghetti to tune your amp, just some form of media player WITH MULTI CHANNEL OUTPUT (Windows Media Player etc), and this file: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/203420/max.zip

Yes an o'scope is the best way, but a DMM works fine. Simply plug the sound card in, install it, and go into the little icon on the taskbar and set it to 8 channels. Connect your DMM to output pin 1 on the correction amp, and the black DMM lead to any of the "G" connectors. Without playing anything thru the sound card, adjust the "OFFSET" potentiometer untill your DMM displays 0V. Repeat this for all the channels )1 to 6).

Then go back to channel 1, and play the max.wav thru the sound card, and adjust the "GAIN" potentiometer so the voltage is 5V OR BELOW. Repeat for all channels and your done!

Also, DO NOT connect the DAC to your scanner before it is tuned, it is possible it will overpower something.
 
Also, the sound card DAC is only single ended, thus you wont get a -5 to +5v swing, you'll only get 0-5V. This is fine for your lasers, but you will have a reduced scan angle. I have spent a fair bit of time optimizing my sound card DAC, so if there is something you need explained a bit better let me know :)
 
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^I'm not sure that's true about only swinging 0-5V.. Mine definitely swings +-5V on the scope.. Most other DACs swing +-10V which is why the soundcard DAC has a reduced scan angle. The little black box on the correction amp is a DC-DC converter that provides both positive and negative voltage (+-9V) to the op-amps which allows for a +- swing on the X,Y channels.

Differential signaling isn't the same thing as an AC signal. AC signals (voltage swings above and below 0V) can also be single ended. Differential signals use two wires with mirror-image signals on each wire which are subtracted by an op-amp circuit to give the final output. This method compensates for signal losses over long distances, a feature that single-ended signaling does not have.
 
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