[pun15her]

Hello all.
I have been browsing and sketching for a while now,and although I am not finished by a long way,I feel that I have enough bits and pieces for me to start a plog.
Design is based on Joes simple 15" folded.But I am hoping to lean it back by 10'.
Here is a (very) rough pic of the basic design.I do have all the dimensions,and have checked that it will all fit by doing 1:1 scale drawings on my timber,I will attempt a more accurate pic if anyone shows an interest.

Sorry,I know that is a very basic pic!
I am using the Benq 567s monitor,here is a before and after pic for reference:

I have decided to use the threaded rod design for framing lcd and fresnels.I used L profile wood strips to make the frames.

This should give me loads of adjustability.

This post has been edited by pun15her: 21 February 2006 - 06:35 PM

[pun15her]

I am going to be using 2x evercools mounted on the front of my pj,but plan to control them from a panel mounted on the back,with main power swithces,and a temp gague and focus controls.Because of this I have decided to use a pc psu to distribute power to all of these items.I picked a micro psu up from ebay.
The psu requires a switch for itself,but if you connect the green wire to any of the black wires on the main m-board connector,this bypasses the need for a separate switch.The easiest way to do this is:

But as I have no need for the m-board connector at all,I have removed it along with all other unrequired wiring.
The psu also requires a load to function.IE;with just my temp monitor connected,the psu cuts out after about half a second,but with both evercools attached,even running at their slowest,There is no interuption,so I should be ok.

[pun15her]

As for the main control panel.I bought 2 10amp spst toggle switches with missile covers from maplins UK,thanks Haku!,and removed the evercool speed controllers,I found a neat temperature module('C only) on ebay:lcd temp module,and found the controls for my focus mech in a remote control car at my local woolworths!
I made the face plate out of some scrap epoxy resin board that I used from another project.
The board marked out:
The board cut:
And painted wit all pieces:
And all put together:
And a view of the back:

[pun15her]

Reflector,AARRGGHH!
Bit of a minefield that one.
I found mine in my local supermarket,it is a sugar bowl,it has been mentioned several times around the forums,it is made by a company called tchibo and is available world wide I think:
Manufacturers website
It ha a diameter of 135mm,or 5 1/4",the outside is nice and shiny but the inside is brushed at best!
I removed the lid and cut off the excess as we don't need the full hemisphere,and began sanding...
5 hours later and you end up with a very shiny reflector.
here is a pic half way through the process:
and here is a pic of what i used to sand/polish it:

4 different grades of wet and dry,some car scratch remover,which I used with my dremmel and quite a few polishing wheels,and some metal polish.
and here is what you are left with:
Hard work,but worth it.You get a great feeling when you finally can see your face smiling back at you from the bottom.

[pun15her]

I thought alot about focussing.I wanted to keep it neat,so here is what I came up with;I used the controller from a remote control car bought for £1.99 at woolworths
and have connected it up to a geared motor from a robotic vehicle,here is a mock up of the control setup:
I found some drawer runners from a filing cabinet that run on ball bearings,so they are very smooth.I only needed a fraction of the length,so out came the dremmel again:

Here is a pic of all the components of the mechanicals:

And here it is assembled and mounted to a mock up of the front of my pj:
Back view:

And what you will see from the front:

The motor will drive the threaded rod and move the captive nut inside the housing back and forth,moving the entire lens enclosure.

[pun15her]

Just a quick post,I wanted to check lcd orientation,so mounted lcd and fresnels,and used a 60watt house lamp as a test.
here is the test rig:

and here is the projected image:

Not brilliant looking at it now,but at the time it seemed awesome!

[pun15her]

With my box design,I am hoping to have enough room for all or most of the electronics to be mounted inside,this should also give me the benefit of cooling everything by re directing the path of the airflow inside the box.

The green line is the proposed airflow path.

[slowmottion]

wow, that's very good job

Love that focusing mecanism

[pun15her]

Thanks slowmotion,
I am taking things slowly with this project,as I would like to get it right first time.(I cannot afford the lighting kit until the end of march either.)Plus at the moment,my woodworking skills seem to be not as good as I thought they were! I have an awful lot of plywood with not very many straight edges at the moment!!!

[segaboys]

pun15her,

I can see that you are taking time to build each section right, excellent work so far.

The lens you have in your design, is that the standard lens, what is the diameter of the hole you drilled to fit it into. I am trying to plan my case and am still waiting on my components.
I have done a search in the forums but none of the measurements have been conclusive.

If possible could you give the diameter in metric

Much appreciated.

[pun15her]

Hi,Segaboys,how you doin?
Thanks for the kind words,diameter of the hole for standard triplet is 69mm,I cut mine with a jigsaw.

[pun15her]

I rigged up a trial of the motor driven focus mech today,and it works!!
Here is a pic of the mechanism at full stretch:

And from the front:

And here is the back showing mechanism moved foreward :

and from the front:

The motor is a bit slow moving at present,but as I am using a pc psu,I can run it at 5V,7V or 12V,to get the appropriate speed.

[pun15her]

pop quiz...
Does anyone know if the S400DD lamp is a universal lamp,and if not,would it be a problem mounting it at 10' from horizontal??

Also anyone know where I can get some siliconeII in the UK,I have found loads of sealant described as silicone,but none as siliconeII??
Any help much appreciated.

[segaboys]

Looking good, I am still not sure how my lens mech will work, yours does look interesting. I spent the morning at B&Q getting parts for my projector. Will try and start today. Ordered my Sugar bowl reflector from Tchibo's website, they said it would take 3 days on the page and once you pay they change to 6-8 days. I noticed you cut the rim of the bowl, how much did you trim off and would it do any harm if I left it there?

Keep it up.

[pun15her]

Hi,I cut 30mm off the top,because it gave me less surface area to polish!!And according to my calculations,it leaves enough angle on the finished reflector.
I spent alot of time in B&Q,myself,just mooching around all the departments looking for ideas,its great!

[crimp1]

Wow, your really doing some intricate work. Looks great! I was thinking of a motor driven focus, but had no idea about how to go about making it. Is there any way you could go in depth a little about the parts used and assembly? Thanks!

Sorry, I was reading the whole post and somehow skipped right over where you talk about the focus and parts...

This post has been edited by crimp1: 28 February 2005 - 12:56 AM

[rene156]

I love that idea for a fucusing mechanism. I'm hoping i can create a similar one for my fucusing box. Great Idea that was Pun15her.

[pun15her]

The geared electric motor I have been using is definately too slow,I don't want to use it at 12V as its only rated to 3V!!!
I have been looking around for an alternative,and found this at my local model shop.They do mail order if anyone is interested:Sussex Model Centre.

It is a variable ratio gearbox,powered by a small electric motor

It has 6 different ratios to choose from,by adding or removing moulded gears,each of which has a 4:1 ratio,this gives final drive ratios of:
4:1,16:1,64:1,256:1,1024:1,4096:1.After playing around with this,I reckon that
16:1 at 5V is the best for me,I might change my mind once it is fully installed,but it is easy enough to change.Here is the gearbox at 16:1:

I thought I would also post a pic of a 1:1 scale drawing of my plan with some of the more important measurements added for reference:

This has been by far the best way that I have found to test fit parts,and check measurements.

[samuraijack]

question?
I noticed in your original drawing that you had the lcd mechanism canted on one side, and with the latest scale drawing it is dead center. But the angle of the triplet hasnt changed? Any reason for that?
Im not being picky, Im just trying to understand this one, because Im working on a very similar design for mine. I think it looks just excellent.

[pun15her]

Best cartoon in years,Samurai Jack.
OK,here goes...
In the first pic I guessed at 45' from triplet as it was just a rough sketch.
I have decided to mount lcd/fresnels vertically now,mainly as it will allow me better insulation around the removeable side pannel,the triplet however remains at a laid back 10',which in-turn means the mirror needs to be at 50',rather than 45' which it is in the scale drawing later on in this thread.It is pretty much impossible to see the difference of 5' in drawings of this size,especially as the first image was not even measured,but the second drawing with measurements is accurate.
Hope this clears things up,If I can be of any assistance,please let me know,maybe post a sketch of what you were thinking of doing?I still havn't built my enclosure yet,but have an ever growing pile of scrap wood in my garage!!!

[pun15her]

I appologise for the paint skills,this is not an accurate diagram,but I hope it will illustrate the difference in angles with the changed plan.

Hope this makes some sense.

[samuraijack]

Ah yes, I see. Do you think there will be much keystoning in the picture?

By the way, I love your focus mechanism.

[pun15her]

Thanks,I dont think that anymore keystone than normal will be needed,I have enough room for the usual 15'.Should be plenty(I hope!)

[SupraGuy]

pun15her, on Mar 4 2005, 09:56 AM, said:

I appologise for the paint skills,this is not an accurate diagram,but I hope it will illustrate the difference in angles with the changed plan.

Hope this makes some sense.

When you say 50 degrees, does that mean from parallel or from perpendicular?

The diagram APPEARS to be 50 degrees from perpendicular, in which case the light is at a 100 degree angle.

but... Angle of incidence = angle of reflection.

[pun15her]

Angles stated are measured perpendicular from the lightpath.
It is the simple folded design,with the mirror tilted a further 5 degrees,to give a 10 degree lift on the triplet.