Bigger project area and wobbly lines, louder mirro after system meltdown/reinsta

[landshark]

Hi, I'm not sure if I need to change openlase or the lasershark or what, but when I was messing around with playilda I really corrupted my packages and linux. After trying to reinstall linux about 8 times I finally have a version of mint, except this time I am booting up from something that's like /vmlinuz (the only install of linux i could get to work this time was using ubiquity -b to install)   and I don't know if this has to do with that either.

But I've tried compiling the forks by marcan & kamal and for both of them the lines of my laserprojector are extremely wobbly and far apart.

The projector is covering a much bigger area than before, and I think the galvos are louder than before. Do I need to reset something? I've spent days just trying to reinstall to get to this point and I need to be able to demonstrate this tomorrow to get the safety ok from my school. Thanks!

[Macpod]

If you have only been tinkering around with linux and not the hardware then this should be a purely software-only issue.

Louder galvo noises and wobbly lines can both be caused by setting the sample rate too high and by increasing the scale in the output window. I think one of these is your issues.. probably the latter since you are commenting on scaling.

Loud noises and wobbly lines can also be caused by improper tuning of the galvo amplifier boards or by fried galvos (generally caused by driving them too hard for extended periods of time). You probably don't have this yet unless you have been tweaking the pots/etc.

[landshark]

Thanks! I haven't tweaked anything and I tried lower sample rates, I didn't see any changes. I've never had the sample rate higher than my galvos are rated. The output is still really large and crazy wobbly. I can make the square smaller or use an aspect ratio in output but the lines are still messed up. I'm trying to install linux on a borrowed laptop right now to see if it will work on that.

*the linux install is not working on the other laptop. And tbh I felt like the gui of everything was a little different this time, like the grid on output was bigger, the buttons seemed a little sharper on the corners than before, it was strange. I don't know if this could mean anything?

[landshark]

If I left my galvos plugged in to power when I wasn't running them would that have fried them?

[Stimpy]

Maybe it's wrong audiosetting in qjackctl. Or some strange audio connection.

[landshark]

Thanks for the suggestion! As it turns out, I did fry the galvos somehow. It must have been leaving them plugged into the wall when I wasn't using them. I have a spare galvo set around here I was saving for planning to do an instructable/tutorial of sorts so I went to radioshack and got a power cable and swapped them out for my old galvo's.... problem solved! These galvos aren't rated as high as the ones I was using, but at least it works!

[landshark]

Does anybody know- if I fried my galvos by leaving them plugged in when I didnt use them, could I get another power supply? Would that fix it?

I think I am going to overclock my @20at galvos to perform like the @30 galvos, and choose an aspect ratio that's a little smaller than the square. Or could I use the @30 galvos with the @20 chip, or are the @30 chip and galvos fried?

[Macpod]

Stimpy had a good suggestion too for this. I recall you wanting to use something that wasn't the "dummy" audio server. but the max range should not have changed as that is dictated by the lasershark and unless you tweaked the pots on the lasershark boards that wouldn't be the issue. The fact you got this working with the other galvo set rules out the lasershark pots too.


Since you aren't familiar with linux I would suggest rebooting the machine between attempts. It is possible to unintentionally get multiple jack server instances running which may lead to confusion on your part.


I don't think leaving the galvos plugged in is a good idea (reason being there's no need more-so than anything else) but I also don't think this alone would harm them unless you had a power surge... and that seems far fetched.


You can check your "fried" galvo power supply with a voltmeter to see if that is the culprit. That's a start. This is a difficult problem to diagnose over the internet with the info provided.

Have you tried running different examples too that you haven't modified?

[landshark]

Hi, yea I tried both the lase_demo by marcan and simple. It's possible I may have bumped the galvos by accident moving them around, but I don't see anything loose or obviously missing. I might be able to get @30 galvos by Friday which would fit my needs. Tonight I am going to keep looking at the @20 galvos, I probably won't run them past 25 or not at all to be safe. Agreeing with Stimpy I tried different settings and the 'live memory' (I'm on my phone so I can't look) checkbox bu it was the same. I made a few attempts when I was in the terminal to guess my username to add to the permissions for audio server and being live or something, but I don't see how that would effect it. I'm going to test the other galvos more tonight to rule out a problem with the software or linux- I've never booted from vmlinuz (virtual kernal, I can't boot from the hard drive.) it's looking good though I have to @20 galvos. I'm also going to research scripting linux to run examples together on their own and some other things. That's a good suggestion I will try to find a voltage meter. I'll keep looking at the jack settings too.