Laserworld, ILDA, shownet and laser control with TD

General TouchDesigner Discussion
1

Hi,
I found an old thread, apparently Laserworld should be supported in TD imminently

As I’m not sure about the timing I’d like to know if you could suggest a way to control Laserworld DS-1000RGB MK3 using TD.

This laser has these control features: ILDA , Professional DMX and ArtNET (two modes), LAN (computer control, integrated DAC)

I’ve been through the episodes on youtube about controlling Lasers using TD but I’m still a bit confused.

I’ve found the Helios DAC and did some research, last thing I could find was from 2017 saying it wasn’t fully supported and not “solid” yet in TD, is everything sorted now?

Thanks

2

Our current release supports ILDA via the Etherdream 1 and 2 as well as Helios DAC.
See the Laser CHOP wiki page for more information.

The DMX and ArtNET functionality of lasers is usually reserved to drawing some preprogrammed patterns or controlling the playback of loaded laserframes.

cheers
Markus

LASERS ARE DANGEROUS - DAMAGE TO YOUR OR THE AUDIENCE’S EYE SIGHT IS A VERY REAL RISK

If you plan to use lasers

  1. Understand all the laws and regulations for laser operation in your area.
  2. Become a certified Laser Safety Officer (this is required by law in some areas). Courses are available from ILDA directly: ILDA Laser Safety Courses
  3. Make sure an emergency stop button is close to you at all times.
  4. Do not let anyone enter the laser projection area unless all precautions have been taken to limit the output.
  5. Make sure there are no reflective surfaces in the projection area that might cause the beam to reflect unintendedly.
3

I came across this video from LaserWorld that says that TouchDesigner is able to output directly to the integrated ShowNet board via the ShowNet API: The difference between ShowNET, Showeditor and Showcontroller - explanation video | Laserworld - YouTube

Sadly I can’t find anything else about this, but it does look very hopeful. Does anyone know how we might get this to work? Would this be ILDA data or just DMX?

EDIT
Apparently there is also something called ILDA streaming (3.5. ILDA streaming), which can stream ILDA to a ShowNet interface via UTP. Sadly it seems to require both a USB2ILDA interface and a ILDA2UTP interface. So in that case it’s still cheaper to buy an EtherDream 3 DAC and connect the laser via ILDA.