3M MPRO 120

[eliscio]

Hi Everyone,

I just purchased a 3M MPRO 120 micro projector and am pretty excited about getting it (hopefully next week). This is a bit higher powered (12 lumens on high power) than the MPRO 110 (about 7 lumens) that Gunter has shown us.

So, when it finally gets here I'll make sure to post my results. I am very interested in Microscanning and would like to get some advice on what kind of lens I should consider to get the reduction I need for very small objects.

I've checked out Gunter's thread on the MPRO 110 and it's very helpful. I also want to use his line generating program...awesome!

Cheers,

Eugene

[eliscio]

The MPRO 120 arrived earlier today and I have taken a couple of comparison shots. There really isn't much to it and it's a rather simple device. There is a "high power" button that provides you with 12 lumens of light.

Since I am looking at smaller scans and microscanning, I am not really interested in the larger format. The projection becomes rather weak as you move away from the wall, but I am confident it's going to do the job.

...will keep you posted.

Eugene

[Shuzen]

I'm considering buying the MPro120 to watch DVDs at home but I'm afraid the image size may be too small. Could you post a photo with something near the projected image so I can get an idean of the scale? Thanks.

[eliscio]

There is a 12" steel scale placed along the bottom left hand cornder of the projected image for a reference. You need to have a very dark room as ambient light just kills the quality of the picture.

So, if you are thinking of using it like a large monitor, that would be ok, but if you are wanting a large screen projector, this is not the right choice for you.

[eliscio]

Does anyone know where I can get the com0com application? I looked at the sourceforge site, but there doesn't seem to be the same thing available for download.

I did hook up the MPRO120 as a second monitor and that seemed to work ok.

Has anyone tried Gunter's linescan3 application on Windows Vista? Does it need com0com to work? Unfortunately, I didn't have much success when I launched the application.

Any feedback would be helpful as I want to get this projector scanning!

Thanks,

Eugene

[sley78]

com0com link :
http://sourceforge.net/projects/com0com/files/

[eliscio]

Fantastic! Thank you.

[eliscio]

Well, my first attempt this evening didn't go as well as I had planned. Everything seemed to work ok including the reference scan, but I do not see any line moving. It appears that linescan3 is not being activated to start the scan or I might have a wrong setting in the Advanced Menu.

Below are a couple of quick shots of my setup.

Any suggestions as to what settings I should be looking at to initiate the line movement? Since the calibration seemed to work fine, I think that the COM ports are setup ok.

Thanks,

Eugene

[eliscio]

Ok, a small typo and you waste 2 hours trying to figure it out. On to greater issues...

I have noticed that during scanning, the line from the projector varies in strength. I checked this on my monitor and it seems to be the same issue. It's like it's losing signal or something where it just won't project properly. I am currently using a laptop and switched to the Logitech 9000 webcam for better performance.

Any suggestions?

[MagWeb]

Hi,

-think your DAVID message StartScanningRepetition wasn´t set on sending a "S" ? - Was that your problem?

@ Line brightness
The MPRO is native VGA and interpolates a res of 1024x768. My application assumes a 1024x768 projector. So the MPRO constructs transitions between the real lines (These are a result of using two lines with variable brightness).
If you run the code (*.pde) via PROCESSING you could set the output resolution to 640x480, but I decided to accept that variable brightness. In these interpolated "lines" DAVID simply calculates the center on a wider line.

Gunter

[eliscio]

Gunter,

It was in fact the AnalyzeImage value = "M" that was incorrect.

Since I am actually interested in Microscanning, do I really need to use the 1024x768 setting? When you did the fingerprint scans, what resolution did you use for the projector? I have a video of the scanning on the background planes and you will see that the results need improvement, but there are a lot of spaces in the scan. (I was testing what would happen if I chose Green Laser Setting instead of Shadow Line, but it's really not relevant).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUUELcDB4MU

I did play with the camera settings a bit and will do a bit more on this to see if I can get a better scan. I will also attempt this again in native 640x480 and thought that I might place the camera at 90º (horizontal) to the calibration planes and place the camera higher up at about a 30 degree incline.

Cheers,

Eugene

[MagWeb]

Hi,

hmm that flickering is much more than I received with my projector.. Which cam res do you use? What happens if you use a 2pixel wide line?(to be set in my GUI)

I did my fingerprintscan using this linescan application (with a Projection res of 1024X768) and a logitech Pro 9000 at 960x720 which gives about 15fps.
I added some lenses in front of the projector optics . You can use normal "close-up" lenses as used for photo optics (I recommend to combine a +10 and a +4 lens to get a size to scan a fingerprint)

Do you run the code via processing or do you use the exe ( I could post a exe with a smaller projection)?

Gunter

[eliscio]

I was using 800x600 at 30 fps for the webcam and only a 1 pixel wide line. I will try 2.

I launched the exe for linescan3 and then ran DLS. When I hit "Start" everything ran accordingly. I am not sure what you mean by "via Processing". If you could provide an option for a smaller projection, I will test it out and see if there is a difference.

I did notice the same type of flickering effect on my laptop monitor, but it was smoother for sure.

As for the lenses to make the fingerprints, is there an online source? I'll check around as well.

Thanks.

Eugene

[MagWeb]

Hi again

Processing is the environment my code was written in (http://www.processing.org/). In this environment you could compile the code of the *.pde as an application....
I attached a linescan3 version that creates a 640x480 projection

Online sources for lenses: e.g. Ebay "close up lenses" choose a set of +1, +2, +4 and +10.

Gunter

[eliscio]

I tried the linescan3 on my 64 bit desktop machine, but for whatever reason it did not launch (neither did the original version) so I think there is an issue with my machine. I also had some different ports show up for com0com and I am not sure if that is part of the issue. DLS did not initiate linescan.

I am going to move back to my laptop and try again. The lowest screen resolution on my desktop was 800x600 for the projector so I don't know if I need to match the 640x480 exactly on the projector.

As for the lenses, there were all kinds on ebay and I picked up a pair for very low cost ($15) including shipping. So, this is something I need to try when it gets here. I'll probably just make a jig like you had, except mine will be made from wood as I have little access to a machine shop.

I will keep you posted...

Eugene