WAVE-Pi

Wave-Pi

A professional-grade, self-contained laser show controller.

WAVE-Pi plays ILDA (.ild) show files and 8-channel 16-bit laser WAV files straight from a USB drive, driving a precision 12-bit DAC that feeds your projector's X/Y galvos, RGB modulators, shutter, and stereo audio. Everything is controlled from a full web-based control panel — open a browser on any phone, tablet, or laptop on the network and you're in. No app to install, no computer required to run a show.

How it's built

The controller runs on a Raspberry Pi paired with a custom HAT board. A dedicated 12-bit, 8-channel DAC drives X, Y, Red, Green, Blue, Shutter, and stereo audio over SPI; a companion 16-bit ADC allows WAVE-Pi to accept a live analog ILDA signal from another source and pass it straight through (with full geometric/color correction applied in real time), or record it to WAV. An onboard OLED display and rotary encoder give you basic status and control without a browser at all. The whole thing is coordinated by custom C firmware with an embedded HTTP server, so the control panel you use in a browser is served directly from the device itself.

Main technical specs

• Test patterns, Lumia cues, static beams, and full animated ILDA shows
• Shuffle/random playback and instant filename search across large USB libraries
• Independent per-axis geometric correction with a live visual preview
• Emergency stop that blanks the laser on every code path, every time

HLR Adapters

ILDA-to-HDMI adapters — because everyone hates ILDA cables and the dreaded fish-hooks.

Standard ILDA DB-25 connectors and cables are bulky, fragile, and infamous for bent "fish-hook" pins. HLR Adapters solve that by repurposing the humble HDMI connector and cable to carry the full analog ILDA signal set instead — X+/X−, Y+/Y−, R+/R−, G+/G−, B+/B−, Intensity+, both interlock lines, Shutter, and Ground. This is not a digital conversion — it's the same analog ILDA signal, just carried over a far more robust, inexpensive, and readily available cable and connector. Field-tested to 400 feet on off-the-shelf HDMI cable with zero measured signal degradation, and already running in laser art exhibits and commercial concert venues.

ILDAC-WAV

The ESP32-based laser content generator that started it all.

ILDAC-WAV is an entirely self-contained laser content generator — test patterns, Lumia cues, static beams, ILDA files and animations, and 8-channel 16-bit laser WAV files with stereo audio, all without a computer in sight. It was built to solve a simple problem: sometimes you just want a slow beam through a diffraction grating for a Lumia cue, or a way to bench-test a projector, without firing up a full show-control rig. WAVE-Pi is the next generation of that same idea, built on the much more capable Raspberry Pi platform.

Fully self-contained, roughly the size of a Pangolin FB3, with adjustable scan settings, per-color corrections, and support for your own custom ILDA files. WAVE-Pi builds on everything ILDAC-WAV proved out, adding Ether Dream networking, live analog passthrough, geometric correction, audio-reactive effects, and a much larger media library on USB storage.

Wave-Pi Prism In Development

One Wave-Pi. Many projectors. Any signal, routed anywhere.

Prism is a USB-connected expansion module that extends a single WAVE-Pi to drive multiple laser projectors at once. Each Prism module carries its own 4-channel DAC bank plus an onboard microcontroller that receives signal data over USB and fans it out to four independently addressable projector outputs — each with its own color and geometric correction.

Prism isn't just a splitter, though — it's a general-purpose signal router and modulator. Any input signal can be remapped to any output channel on any connected projector: route the left audio channel to the green channel on projector 2, send X position to the blue channel on projector 3, or drive color channels from a live FFT analysis of the audio input. If you can describe the routing or modulation you want, Prism is built to make it possible.

• 4 independent DAC outputs per module, each with its own color/geometric correction
• USB-connected, onboard microcontroller (Teensy) handles the signal fan-out
• Freely remap any input to any output channel, on any connected projector
• Audio-reactive modulation (e.g. FFT-driven color channels) built on the same engine as Wave-Pi's audio FX
• Chain multiple Prism modules from a single Wave-Pi — 8, 12, or more projectors from one controller

Have an idea for a routing or modulation use case we haven't thought of? Let us know.

Wave-Pi Setup

From box to first show in a few minutes.

1. Prepare a USB drive. Format it FAT32 and label the volume WAVEPI. Copy your ILDA and/or laser WAV show files onto it (or just use the built-in test patterns to get started).
2. Connect the HDMI->ILDA Adapter(s)The Wave-Pi ships with an included ADC/DAC ILDA adapter and two short HDMI cables. Connect as shown in the photo below.
3. Plug in and power up. Insert the USB drive into any USB port on the Wave-Pi and apply power. Always use the supplied power adapter, or any adapter that can provide at least 2A@5v USB-C. The OLED display will show boot progress and when Wave-Pi is ready.
4. Connect to the network. The Wave-Pi upon initial bootup will create a local ad-hoc Wifi network named Wave-Pi-. Join this wifi network. The Wifi password is: 12345678.
5. Open the control panel. From any phone, tablet, or laptop on the same network, browse to: wavepi.local to open the web control panel.
6. Connect Wave-Pi to your own Wifi networkClick the icon. Once you configure your own network, you can access WavePi at wavepi.local
7. Play something. Browse your USB library, open a test pattern, and start dialing in scan rate, brightness, color, and geometric correction from the control panel.
8. Keep it current. Wave-Pi supports over-the-air firmware updates, so new features and fixes are a couple of clicks away. See the 'Settings' page