Low power from projector

D

dmxlaser

Member
HI All,

I have this odd thing with my LD 2000.

I have a brand new RGB system with a max of 1000 mW whitelight. ;)

When I run a projection show or animation show on it, the colors are all nice and bright.

Now when I run a beamshow ( also those included with LD2000 ) on the same projector, the beams look dimmed and I really d
 
Hi Peter,

yes I too had a 2W RGB laser here and had troubles with the output power, there is TWO things that may be the cause outside of your wiring or projector problems.

ONE
it is important that the negatives of the LD2000 RGB colour pins are all connected together THEN also connected to ground!. My findings without the colour negatives grounded, when a single colour is at full, its ok, as soon as I bring up the power of another colour, the first color decreases in power, this was due to the grounding in my case.

TWO
Also, your message states that it outputs at 40%, is this what you measured at the output of the prjector OR what you see in the color editors color slider intensities AFTER you have done an automated color pallete? If the later, your color pallete may be set to fully balanced rather than high power pallete.

Glenn
 
Glenn is correct on both counts. There are a few other things including input impedance of the laser and expected voltage range. Unlike the NEOS and even MVM where I personally worked with these guys to create a product that was compatible with our software, laser manufacturers (except RGB Laser in Hungary and ARCTOS in Germany) do not seem interested in making products that are actually compatible with our industry. Go figure...

Bill
 
On this same subject, I heard a rumor that all QM-2000 cards no longer have differential color outputs, that they are now all single ended????

John
 
Hi John,

The QM2000 has differential output for X, Y and Z and pseudo-differential output for all color signals. Shutter output has never been differential and is not so in the spec either.

Bill
 
Glenn is correct on both counts. There are a few other things including input impedance of the laser and expected voltage range. Unlike the NEOS and even MVM where I personally worked with these guys to create a product that was compatible with our software, laser manufacturers (except RGB Laser in Hungary and ARCTOS in Germany) do not seem interested in making products that are actually compatible with our industry. Go figure...

Bill
Click to expand...

Hmm, in this case it *is* an ARCTOS , so what else is there to check ?
The odd thing is that when I use "other software" the colors are much brighter ?!

Any suggestions how this can be ?

regards,

Peter
 
Hi Peter,

ARCTOS actually saturates at just over 4V, so that can not be the problem.

There could be a few settings including what we call "minimum points" that may be influencing your specific case. Also, don't forget that each and every frame may reference one of three "palettes" that we automatically generate, including a "fully saturated palette" which gives priority of color rendition over raw power. Other factors may include the exact program material that you are evaluating. If, for example, you are putting out just one little point and trying to call that "a beam", there's your problem. I won't go into it here and now, but there are right ways and wrong ways of creating "a beam" and just placing a single point in the LD drawing window is "the wrong way".

Rather than go back and forth through emails and forum chats, I would rather just troubleshoot this on-site. I will be in The Netherlands (where you are) in early February hosting a Pangolin-like meeting at Hugo's place. What I suggest is that we get together then and examine your system and then come to a conclusion based on solid science using scopes and power meters, not speculation based on something as subjective as your eye (which by the way, has a response curve which is highly logarithmic). Not meaning to put you down but, since you are relatively new to Pangolin, it could be that there are a few "projector settings" within LD that you could be setting to a better position, or a few "tricks and tips" that you are not yet aware of regarding the creation of program material.

Once I have examined your system and we have come to a solution, I will be sure to let everyone here on the list know what the problem winds up to be, both to clear up any speculation and also to enlighten everyone of what to keep an eye out for.

I will say that I am confident in our software and hardware as literally thousands of professionals all around the world use our system, some alongside competitive systems. If there really and truly was a problem, I think we would know it by now...

Bill
 
Hi Bill,

I did not know yet that there were plans for you to come to the netherlands.
I think it is a very good idea and I will see to it that I will be there with the RGB and my laptop with PCI expansion.

As for the beam you spoke about. Yes, a plain dot is not the beam I speak of.
Drawing a circle already gives a better beam, using abstracts for example.
But I will also bring along a beamshow and will playback this show then, so you can see what I mean.

I agree that there is still a lot to learn for me and it could very well be that I have some settings wrong.
Anyway, investigating further in Feb is a good plan.

Hope to see you then, keep me posted on the date please, you know where to reach me ;)

Regards,

Peter
 
A followup on my own posting with some thoughts. they might be all wrong but here goes.

the lasers has thusfar been bas based using a PCAOM or alike to do the color changing needed ( filtering ) . I assume it also does the blanking needed.

Now I have read that a PCAOM can change color at a rate of 300 K per second. The general DPSS diode system has something between 10 to 15 K. This is a big change. So I was thinking that when using the setup wizard and setting the choice to a fast blanking device, this might result in deminished results due to the fact that the board is switching much faster then the diode can.

If the board switches at a rate of 300 K/sec and the diode only pic's up 10 K of that you would have a a lot of signal loss due to the slower blanking of the diode.

Would it be theortically possible that the output of the laser might be better when selecting the "Slow blanking device" option ?

Regards,

Peter
 
Hi Peter,

You definitely have a "fast blanking device". A slow one would be like 20Hz or so... actuators and the like.

Again, I think the best thing to do would be to do side-by-side comparisons, scoping, etc. On rare occasions, I have people send me their gear for troubleshooting. Since I will be in your neck of the woods relatively soon, I think you can wait... If not, then I recommend taking a ride over to Hugo's place since he has lots of experience and also a very good technician.

Bill
 
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