ofxHelios

openFrameworks addon for the Helios Laser DAC.

v0.2.0 — Helios SDK v11, 16-bit output, IDN network DAC support.

Features

• Background thread sends frames to the DAC without blocking your app
• colourPolyline extends ofPolyline with per-vertex colour
• Screen-space coordinates: draw with OF as normal, ofxHelios maps to the DAC
• Automatic point interpolation, corner dwell, and blanking
• USB and network (IDN protocol) DACs discovered automatically
• Optional ofxHeliosGui panel (requires ofxGui) for live parameter tweaking

Requirements

• openFrameworks 0.12+
• macOS, Linux, or Windows (MSYS2)
• libusb is bundled for macOS; Linux/MSYS2 use system libusb via pkg-config

Building the examples

cd example-fractalzoom
make
make RunRelease

Or open the project in the OF project generator and build from your IDE.

Usage

#include "ofxHelios.h"

ofxHelios laser;

void ofApp::setup() {
    laser.setup();            // scans USB + network, connects to first DAC
    laser.setPps(30000);
    laser.setIntensity(0.5);
}

void ofApp::draw() {
    colourPolyline line;
    line.addVertex(100, 100, ofColor::red);
    line.addVertex(500, 300, ofColor::green);
    line.addVertex(300, 500, ofColor::blue);
    line.addVertex(100, 100, ofColor::red);

    line.draw();              // preview on screen
    laser.draw(line);         // send to DAC
}

Parameters

Method	Default	Description
setPps(int)	30000	Points per second
setIntensity(float)	1.0	Master brightness (0.0-1.0)
setSubdivide(int)	15	Interpolation density (higher = more points between vertices)
setBlankCount(int)	8	Blank/dwell points at corners and between shapes
setMaxAngle(float)	15.0	Corner angle threshold (degrees) for inserting dwell points
setOutputScale(float)	1.0	Scale factor for laser output (0.0-1.0)
setOutputCentre(glm::vec2)	(0,0)	Offset the laser output centre

Examples

• example-colourpolyline — animated circles with per-vertex colour cycling
• example-transforms — rotating hexagons using ofMatrix4x4 transforms
• example-fractalzoom — infinite fractal pentagon zoom with ofxHeliosGui panel

Known issues

• ofxGui crashes on Intel Macs running macOS Tahoe due to an OF tessellator bug. The core ofxHelios class is unaffected — only ofxHeliosGui triggers the crash. Use ofxHelios directly on affected machines.

License

GPL v3 — see LICENSE.