You’ll notice that the lower line is pretty fragmented and more red than white (which it should be for pattern 11.) Are there things we can do that don’t involve taking the cover off the laser to get this aligned better, or am I looking at doing an alignment with a screwdriver?
This unity laser model does not have any external option for the color alignment. I’m afraid only the “screwdriver” option is left, but look after carefully how to do that. It is not an easy task, some parts can brake if you need to bend a mirror or a prism inside the laser. If the warranty is still valid, let the manufacturer to deal with it instead damaging the device.
Some way more expensive Kvant models (Spectrum, Atom, etc) are fitted with “motorized
dichroic filters what
allows for remote and automated alignment of laser colors, simplifying a complex task. They can be controlled through the FB4 network interface on the device or via remote software like Pangolin Beyond, enabling adjustments for vertical, horizontal, and color alignment without physically accessing the internal components of the laser system.
Control methods
FB4 Menu: Access the “beam alignment” section within the FB4 menu on the laser system itself.
Select the desired color and a step size.
Adjust the position vertically or horizontally.
Remote Software: Use compatible software, such as Pangolin Beyond, to control the filters from a computer.
Navigate to the projector or beam alignment settings within the software.
Choose the color and make real-time adjustments from your computer.
Note: A specific license may be required for remote control via software.
Benefits
Convenience: Avoids the need to open the optical compartment of the laser system for adjustments.
Precision: Provides a higher level of control for accurate color and beam alignment.
Ease of Use: Simplifies the setup process, especially for complex laser shows.”
Also some better quality chinese models nowadays are fitting similar option, on the side of the laser you can access some screws to do manually the allignment.
I guess Seb is also developing some option for color alignment in the Liberation through ether dreams, but first of all the lasers must have this option to be able to control the alignment via the software. At the moment this option is not really accessible for beginner or entry level laser projectors.
I know that DT (who make a lot of scanners) are working on remote alignment technology at the moment, and in theory it could be added to the Ether Dream (it has plenty of spare pins). But it’ll be quite a while before you see anything like that in Liberation.
In the meantime, yes - it’s definitely worth learning how to align your scanners properly. Just be careful: it’s fiddly, delicate, and potentially dangerous work, and it’s well outside the scope of what I can support
It seems like.. some of these are built upon (or at least related to) the others. Question is, which one do you start with and which do you do next? I ask because when I set the unity laser scanner rate to 30k (per the specs) it’s very flashy and seems happier(smooth) up at around 45k. Should I be leaving this at 30K and adjusting something else instead to get it not to flash drawing the boxes and lines. I’m curious what the order of configuration of the rate/speed and colour shift is to get things right.
Speed does not change PPS but spreads the points out more, i would NOT set your PPS higher than specced on your scanner, it WILL (slowly or quickly) degrade and kill your scanners…
the blinkyness of a laser effect can be contributed to mutiple factors and is not so clear cut to just give blanked statements on whats wrong in a setup…
what size are you scanning?
is it a complicated image its trying to scan?
and then what are the rest of the settings, there is also some more settings (but if you dont know what you are changing… dont, you’ll probably only make it worse)
it could also be that your scanners are already degraded a bit and dont achieve 30k anymore…
First of all - I can’t emphasise this enough: if you adjust scanner settings without understanding what they do, you can damage your scanners. But before we get to that, let’s talk scanner sync.
The colour shift (recently renamed to scanner sync) is something you can safely adjust in Liberation. It’s designed to compensate for the slight delay between scanner movement and the laser beam colours changing. If you’re seeing colour “tails”, that’s the setting to adjust. You can find details here:
Now, about scanner speed - honestly, talking about point streams in terms of PPS is a bit irrelevant (and kind of outdated) because Liberation doesn’t just blindly send out pre-rendered points. It calculates everything in real-time as it’s sent to the lasers. But you can at least get some idea of the quality of the scanners by their PPS rating.
(Seriously, I still can’t believe that legacy software just sends out pre-rendered point streams that could have come from anywhere, designed for who-knows-what scanners and point rates. You end up with no real idea how your scanners will respond.)
The defaults in Liberation are set very conservatively so that even the cheapest scanners should be able to render all the beam effects reliably. You can use the speed slider if you want things faster, but it’s on you to make sure your scanners are coping safely.
You shouldn’t change the point rate itself - and in upcoming versions, changing the point rate won’t affect the scanner speed anyway, because the points will be recalculated to compensate.
For more complex graphics, you’ll need to experiment with the render profiles and find settings that get the best out of your scanners, but that’s an advanced topic and requires some care.
I need to do more work documenting this so look out for it soon. In the meantime, be careful adjusting these!
