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Open Laser Show DAC (USB)

PostPosted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 12:14 am
by cfavreau
Hi everyone.

I am posting some specs and a link to a relatively new USB DAC on the block. The Open Laser Show DAC (or OLSD for short).

It is based on a Arduino microcontroller shield format and sports some basic but very useful specifications:

* Scan Rates: 1 kpps to 30 kpps
* XY Resolution: 12 Bits
* Color Resolution: 3 bits (for a total of 512 colors - 8 shades of gray)
* Colors: Red, Green, Blue outputs
* TTL Shutter Output
* Built in test patterns accessible by button.

These are the specs for version 3. Version 4 sports 32k colors (32 shades of gray) and a reduced IO count. It is totally open source. Here is a link the main web page:

http://www.fab-favreau.com/index.php/Ma ... serShowDAC

Not only is it a USB DAC but it also can function as a standalone test device. It features built in test frames (Quadrature, Laser Media, ILDA, and a few others) that can be displayed at different speeds and in greyscale or full color. The board includes a button to switch the unit into test frame mode. Since an Arduino can be run on batteries it can do this independently of a host computer.

No finished boards or kits are available at this time, however I do have some V3 bare boards if anyone is interested. Price for the bare boards are $5 plus whatever shipping is.