Thunder Laser DSP

Discussions and help on this commercial controller.

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Thunder Laser DSP

Postby whmeade10 » Fri Oct 07, 2011 1:18 pm

Thunder Laser has a new web site dedicated to their DSP: http://www.lasercontrolsystems.com/

BIll
FSE 45w Deluxe CO2 Laser 5th Gen w/X7 DSP | CorelDRAW X7
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Thunder Laser DSP - More to the story

Postby bdring » Fri Oct 07, 2011 1:59 pm

There are some other interesting recent developments with Thunder Laser. Apparently Thunder Laser is not entirely happy with Light Object in several areas, especially in technical support. According to Thunder Laser, they ended their relationship with Light Object several months ago.

Light Object has/had some stock to sell off, but is working towards a new controller. They have this listing now.

http://www.lightobject.com/2012-Commeri ... -P321.aspx

According to my contacts this is not a Thunder Laser DSP controller. It is a new controller by an engineer who left Thunder Laser allegedly taking some of the design with him. I don't know the full story on this. As far as I know the new controller has yet to be seen in the field.

Thunder Laser is looking for a new distributor in the US and is very serious about the DIY market. They saw that a lot of good tech support was coming out of the buildlog.net forum and Wiki. They also saw that the DIY market has big visibility at buildlog.net. They contacted me about taking over for Light Object and sent me a controller to test.

This has been going on for several month. I have mixed thoughts on this for several reasons and have not given a final answer to Thunder Laser. On the negative side, I have always had a good relationship with Marco at Light Object and do not want to hurt that. I am also committed to supporting open source controllers and open source alternatives to commercial controllers. Is this to much of a conflict with an open source laser for me or Thunder Laser?

One the positive side, if the relationship between Thunder Laser and Light Object is truly ended It would be nice to pick up that business. I am also truly impressed with their controller. It has taken my laser further in capabilities than I ever thought possible.

I welcome any feedback on this issues on or off the forum to help me make up my mind.
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Re: Thunder Laser DSP - More to the story

Postby BenJackson » Fri Oct 07, 2011 3:57 pm

bdring wrote:It has taken my laser further in capabilities than I ever thought possible.

Can you expand on that?
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Re: Thunder Laser DSP

Postby bdring » Fri Oct 07, 2011 4:19 pm

t has taken my laser further in capabilities than I ever thought possible.


I have used several engraving options, Mach3 Plugin, my XMOS, Retina Engrave then Thunder Laser DSP. I was impressed and satisfied at each level until I saw the next level. The fine detail and level of control of my laser is at it's best right now. The resolution at each level was the same. It just seems like the power control is really dialed in right now. I have not used Retina Engrave for a while. I am sure some improvements have been made there too.
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Re: Thunder Laser DSP

Postby andrewblanejr » Fri Oct 07, 2011 8:44 pm

it seems like this site is the greatest source of information and support on the Thunder laser DSP controller. Might as well make a few bucks off of it and have it be easier for people to get their hands on it. It still seems very mysterious, for example it looked like naPS had quite hard time figuring out how to optimize the settings, it seems like he basically had to figure it out himself. It would be nice if such a partnership between bdring inc. (i know thats not the real name) and thunder laser made it easier to ask questions of and get accurate information from the developers.

Also, since i just bought a DSP controller this week, i'd like to post some docs that they sent me. they might be useful to other people considering this option. See attachments.
Attachments
LASER DSP CONTROLLER KITS.jpg
Kit Picture
DSP_LASER_CONTROLLER_DF_211_V_2.1.pdf
Manual
(1.08 MiB) Downloaded 1374 times
THUNDERLASER PRICELIST-DSP CONTROLLER-2011-10.pdf
Pricelist
(132.05 KiB) Downloaded 1398 times
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Thunder Laser DSP and 3D engraving?

Postby LeonS » Wed Oct 12, 2011 12:36 pm

Good morning All,

Has anyone been able to do 3D (variable power on a pixel by pixel basis) engraving using the Thunder Laser DSP?

Will those of us who have purchased the DSP from LightObject be able to continue with updates of firmware and PHCad that we get from Thunder Laser?

Also, I think Bart should fill the void created when TL divorced LO. It's just business. LightObject is still a good supplier of parts and equipment and will, hopefully, continue to prosper.

Thanks in advance,
Leon
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3D Engraving

Postby bdring » Wed Oct 12, 2011 1:36 pm

Yes it can be done and I have done it. It helps to do it on a material where the engrave depth is proportional to the power level. Light soft woods work best for me.

The power is not actually adjusted on a per per pixel basis. I don't think our power supplies can react that fast. You halftone the image at a very small grid and the on/off rate is so fast it has the same affect. The process is all built into PHCad. Here are two vidoes



http://www.buildlog.net/DSP/3d.wmv

In the future, please start a new post with a major subject change like this.
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Re: Thunder Laser DSP

Postby generalsocial » Thu Oct 13, 2011 5:21 am

So which controller should I get?

Should I get the http://www.lightobject.com/2012-Commeri ... -P321.aspx

or the http://www.thunderlaser.com

one?
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Re: Thunder Laser DSP

Postby generalsocial » Thu Oct 13, 2011 6:24 am

What I mean is which is the best controller to get right now?
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Re: Thunder Laser DSP

Postby twehr » Thu Oct 13, 2011 12:09 pm

generalsocial wrote:What I mean is which is the best controller to get right now?


Define "best". LO has some additional features and may be a few bucks cheaper. Thunder seems to have better support. Which are you more interested in?
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