CASA CTL-BM 270mW RGV Laser Show Teardown and Review

CTL-BM DMX Control

Finally, we’ll take a look at controlling the CTL-BM ourselves.  Once you’re bored with the automatic or sound-activated mode, it’s time to sequence some of your own shows from your PC using DMX control.  We recommend the very cool and very capable freeware DMX controller software:  Freestyler – Download it here.  Freestyler has loads of capability, of which we will barely even scratch the surface today.  But our goal is to get you up and running in controlling the CTX-BM over DMX.  After that – play around!  Explore the capabilities!  It’s quite satisfying to use the RGV laser as a canvas for your own displays, whether rocking out technical sequences for bands or clubs, or just making mind-blowing displays in your own living room.

All of this is made much easier by user ljvc3010 on the freesyler support pages, who generously developed a freestyler fixture file with the CTL-BM settings.  It’s not entirely complete (some pattern pix are missing) but that stuff is just fluff and all the heavy lifting has already been done.  Go download the CTL-BM fixture file from this thread, or if that goes down you can get a local copy from us here.  This will set up Freestyler with all the config data needed to operate the CTL-BM over DMX control.  Assuming, of course, that you’ve already constructed your Homebrew DMX interface.

Once you’ve downloaded Freestyler, the CTL-BM pff, and built your DMX interface, the setup is still a little bit error-prone.  In order to ensure your success, we will detail the step-by-step instructions that will guarantee you a working PC controlled laser show.

1. Install Freestyler.  No need to run yet.
2. Double click the PFF file, which should now be recognized as a Freestyler file.  It will be installed as a new fixture
3. Run Freestyler, it will come up with the initial setup screen
4. Plug in your homebrew USB DMX interface.
5. In the Freestyler setup screen, choose the interface section
6. Choose Enttec OpenDMX.  This is a generic FT232-compatible controller compatible with our homebrew controller.  A dropdown box will appear where you choose the name of the FTDI board you are using.  Do that.
7. Save the setup.  The FT232 board will begin blinking if it has installed LED’s.
8. Plug the DMX (XLR) cable into the CTL-BM.
9. Set the CTL-BM to DMX mode, channel 1 by turning ALL DIP switches to OFF except #1 – the one closes to the DMX in port
10. Power up the CTL-BM
11. In Freestyler main window, Add a new fixture using Setup->Add/Remove Fixtures
12. Scroll down until you see CASA.  If you don’t – you screwed up the pff add.  Close Freestyler and try again.
13. Double-click CASA to get CTL-BM.  Click the blue arrow to add it.  In our case, it’s the only fixture on our dmx chain.  Start Address=1.  Close.  You’ll get a little CTL-BM icon to show it’s been added.
14. Single click the CTL-BM icon to select this fixture, and click the 9′th button(shows a bunch of windows) to open all the control windows
15. Power up the CTL-BM.  Actually, it’s fine if it’s already on.  If you stall it you can even restart FS with it still on.  The green LED near the dip switches should start blinking that it is receiving data.
16. Click the Lamp->Open button to enable laser output.  Commence pew pew.

The actual procedure is really not that stringent, and is much more tolerant of different order, etc.  But for the first time user, following these steps will definitely get you a working setup in the minimum time possible.  After that, you’re on your own to break it at will.  Go back to the procedure if you can’t get it working.

OK, Software: Check!  Fixture: Check!  DMX: Check! Lasing: Check!   Now how exactly do we run this thing?

Here’s a quick overview of the Freestyler control windows.

Freesyler CTL-BM Control Window

Most of these windows are pretty self-explanatory, but we’ll run through them anyway just for clarity

• LAMP – Used for ON/OFF control of the laser output.  The strobe settings do not apply to this device.
• ZOOM – Used to change the size of the projection.  Maybe “scale” would be a better term for this specific device.
• COLORS – Select the desired beam color by clicking the color box or moving the slider.  FYI- White is color 0.
• MACROS – This selects the laser pattern that will be displayed.  Click an icon to change to that pattern.  Some are dynamic, some are static.  Also chooses the multicolor mode for a pattern in the last few selections in the window.   RTFM for more details on what the patterns are, and which are static (early) or dynamic (later) patterns.
• XY SCAN – use the mouse to adjust the direction of the beam.  When displaying a pattern, this moves the entire displayed pattern.  The “shape” selection and combo box allow you to control the scanning path of the beam or pattern.  Here, the pattern is being scanned in a rectangle around the CTL-BM’s field of display.  You can even generate your own scan paths for advanced positioning sequences.

Totally awesome stuff.  Stay tuned for more additions to this article, as well as more details on this interesting little box.

As always, happy hacking!