The amplifier and built-in power supply are packaged on one compact circuit card measuring about 8.75 x 3 x 2 inches. Input power is switchable from 110 to 220 vac. The power components have a large heatsink, but fan cooling may be desirable as the heatsink becomes hot during sustained operation. A 12 vdc output on the card is provided for fan operation. Input and output signals come from a 10-pin header style connector, with differential inputs and a position output.
Polarity inversion is accomplished with computer-type jumpers.
When evaluating scanner performance, I use a variety of test patterns at different scan angles. Use of a single pattern may overlook some performance features of the scanning system. For this evaluation I used an Amiga computer with Pangolin's LD 400 as a signal source. The basic test approach involved displaying a test pattern at a particular point output rate, and then increasing the scan angle until distortion was observed. I used four different patterns to evaluate the scanners, the results of which are shown in the accompanying table.