Laser Device CHOP

Summary

The Laser Device CHOP can send laser points to supported laser devices: EtherDream, Helios, and ShowNET. The devices can be connected to a laser using an ILDA cable, except in the case of ShowNET when an onboard DAC is used. Applications of the Laser Device CHOP include displaying computer-generated shape animations or other special effects of a light show.

(The Laser Device CHOP replaces the deprecated EtherDream CHOP and Helios DAC CHOP.)

Input/Output Channels:

• x: the point's X position, between -1 and 1.
• y: the point's Y position, between -1 and 1.
• r: the point's red color component, between 0 and 1.
• g: the point's green color component, between 0 and 1.
• b: the point's blue color component, between 0 and 1.
• i: the point's color intensity, between 0 and 1.
• user1: Optional user field 1. Supported by EtherDream and ShowNET.
• user2: Optional user field 2. Supported by EtherDream and ShowNET.
• user3: Optional user field 3. Supported by ShowNET.
• user4: Optional user field 4. Supported by ShowNET.

Large changes in RGB values from sample-to-sample will likely be visibly correct as lasers generally can switch on-off quickly.

Blanking (all-off) occurs when the incoming RGB CHOP channels are all zero, or the Red Scale, Green Scale, and Blue Scale parameters are all zero.

An issue you may run into is IP discovery for the EtherDream for which you can use the EtherDream DAT.

Helios/ShowNET both have auto-populating menus for attached devices.

See also: Laser CHOP, EtherDream DAT, Pattern CHOP

laserdeviceCHOP_Class

Parameters - Laser Device Page

Active active - When enabled, the CHOP will connect to the specified device and send points to it.

Type type - ⊞ - Specify the type of laser device.

• EtherDream etherdream - Send to an EtherDream device. EtherDream devices are network-based and will require an IP/port to use.

• Helios helios - Send to a Helios device. When selected the Device menu will auto-populate with any connected devices. Scan can be pulsed to re-scan for any newly connected devices.

• ShowNET shownet - Send to a ShowNET device. When selected the Device menu will auto-populate with any ShowNET devices on the network. For ShowNET, the device menu will update automatically.

Device device - Menu to select the named devices in the case of Helios and ShowNET.

Scan scan - Scan for Helios devices. Note: there should not be any active Helios device connections when this scan is performed, otherwise they will be closed by the scanning process.

Network Address netaddress - The network address of the EtherDream device to send the packets to. EtherDream IP can be found be polling devices on the network using the EtherDream DAT.

Network Port port - The port to send the EtherDream packets to.

Local Address localaddress - Specify an IP address to send from. This is useful when the system has multiple NICs (Network Interface Card) and you want to select which one to use.

Queue Time queuetime - Determines the queue size of the Helios/EtherDream point buffer and the corresponding time required to drain it. It is often useful to reduce this value when sending fewer points.

Queue Units queueunits - ⊞ - The units of queue time.

• I samples -

• F frames -

• S seconds -

X Scale xscale - Allows the input x values to be scaled by the specified factor.

Y Scale yscale - Allows the input y values to be scaled by the specified factor.

Red Scale redscale - Allows the input r values to be scaled by the specified factor.

Green Scale greenscale - Allows the input g values to be scaled by the specified factor.

Blue Scale bluescale - Allows the input b values to be scaled by the specified factor.

Intensity Scale intensityscale - Allows the input intensity values (i) to be scaled by the specified factor.

Parameters - Common Page

Time Slice timeslice - Turning this on forces the channels to be "Time Sliced". A Time Slice is the time between the last cook frame and the current cook frame.

Scope scope - To determine which channels get affected, some CHOPs use a Scope string on the Common page. See Pattern Matching.

Sample Rate Match srselect - ⊞ - Handle cases where multiple input CHOPs' sample rates are different. When Resampling occurs, the curves are interpolated according to the Interpolation Method Option, or "Linear" if the Interpolate Options are not available.

• Resample At First Input's Rate first - Use rate of first input to resample others.

• Resample At Maximum Rate max - Resample to the highest sample rate.

• Resample At Minimum Rate min - Resample to the lowest sample rate.

• Error If Rates Differ err - Doesn't accept conflicting sample rates.

Export Method exportmethod - ⊞ - This will determine how to connect the CHOP channel to the parameter. Refer to the Export article for more information.

• DAT Table by Index datindex - Uses the docked DAT table and references the channel via the index of the channel in the CHOP.

• DAT Table by Name datname - Uses the docked DAT table and references the channel via the name of the channel in the CHOP.

• Channel Name is Path:Parameter autoname - The channel is the full destination of where to export to, such has geo1/transform1:tx.

Export Root autoexportroot - This path points to the root node where all of the paths that exporting by Channel Name is Path:Parameter are relative to.

Export Table exporttable - The DAT used to hold the export information when using the DAT Table Export Methods (See above).

Info CHOP Channels

Extra Information for the Laser Device CHOP can be accessed via an Info CHOP.

Common CHOP Info Channels

• start - Start of the CHOP interval in samples.

• length - Number of samples in the CHOP.

• sample_rate - The samplerate of the channels in frames per second.

• num_channels - Number of channels in the CHOP.

• time_slice - 1 if CHOP is Time Slice enabled, 0 otherwise.

• export_sernum - A count of how often the export connections have been updated.

Common Operator Info Channels

• total_cooks - Number of times the operator has cooked since the process started.

• cook_time - Duration of the last cook in milliseconds.

• cook_frame - Frame number when this operator was last cooked relative to the component timeline.

• cook_abs_frame - Frame number when this operator was last cooked relative to the absolute time.

• cook_start_time - Time in milliseconds at which the operator started cooking in the frame it was cooked.

• cook_end_time - Time in milliseconds at which the operator finished cooking in the frame it was cooked.

• cooked_this_frame - 1 if operator was cooked this frame.

• warnings - Number of warnings in this operator if any.

• errors - Number of errors in this operator if any.

Operator Inputs

• Input 0: -

TouchDesigner Build: Latest\nwikieditorwikieditor2023.11280

An Operator Family which operate on Channels (a sequence of numbers (Samples)) which are used for animation, audio, mathematics, simulation, logic, UI construction, and data streamed from/to devices and protocols.

A Time Slice is the time from the last cook frame to the current cook frame. In CHOPs it is the set of short channels that contain the CHOP channels' samples between the last and the current cook frame.

A parameter in most CHOPs that restricts which channels of that CHOP will be affected. Normally all channels of a CHOP are affected by the operator. TOPs have Channel Mask, a similar feature.

samples-per-second of a CHOP. Each CHOP in your network has a sample rate. In contrast, the overall timeline has a Frame Rate, which is the number of frames to cook and display per second, generally your monitor display frequency, default 60.

Exporting is the connection of CHOP channels to parameters of operators. The output of each exporting CHOP is one or more channels, active only while the CHOP Viewer is on. The current value of a channel can be exported to a parameter of any operator, overriding that parameter's value. See Parameter.

An Operator Family that manipulates text strings: multi-line text or tables. Multi-line text is often a python Script or GLSL Shader, but can be any multi-line text. Tables are rows and columns of cells, each containing a text string.

The location of an operator within the TouchDesigner environment, for example, /geo1/circle1, a node called circle1 in a component called geo1. The path / is called Root. This path is displayed at the top of every Pane, showing which Component's network you are currently in. To refer instead to a filesystem folder, directory, disk file or http: address, see Folder.

Every operator in TouchDesigner has a set of control Parameters that can be integer or floating point numbers, menus, binary toggles, text strings or operator paths, which determine the output of the operator.

TouchDesigner is a hierarchy of components. "root" is the top-most network in the hierarchy. The Network Path or Path for root is simply /. A typical path is /project1/moviein1.