Well here goes. I finally got a camera that can take decent pics, I don’t know how to use it yet, but that’s another story so sorry in advance for the few pics that are blurry or otherwise messed up.

I’m not doing a detailed log as I’m just cloning Pun15er’s great design, no use reinventing the wheel. I’ll just outline the differences between mine and “stock”.

Parts include:

Liquid Video A150X1 15” LCD
M59 coil and core ballast
ED28 400W bulb
Standard LL lens and triplet
LL FS mirror
LL FFC extension
Aerogate 3 fan controller
120mm fan


I used ½” plywood for everything except the front panel and the frames, the rest being 1/4” mdf and corner molding. For no more weight savings than I got, I think I’ll use ¾” MDF from now on, if my next PJ isn’t a 17” pro lens Haas that is…

I messed up somewhere along the way, I think I used Pun15er’s internal dimensions as external plus I used a larger form factor bulb than he did, the end result being I came up a few inches short on the height. I figured it was easiest to drop the bulb down a little further to make up some of the lost height so that’s how I ended up with the “modified” cooling system. It looks kinda funky and I’m sure the air flow is not optimized with how it’s drawing air through the light area, BUT IT WORKS!!! According to my temp sensors the hottest its been was 92 F after an hour of run time.

I thought with an internal fan mount it would dampen the fan noise and it does. With it turned all the way up you can’t hear the fan running but you can hear the air rushing out of the exhaust port so that was a wash.

I’m still working on the focus mechanism, I have the motor but am working out the linkage and the placement of the triplet in the PVC pipe so it’s still white and hasn’t been trimmed for length yet. I also have to trim about an inch of the drawer slides as they are getting into the light path on the bottom corners. Also I have a Ikea reflector that I still need to make a mount for.

I’ll post some screenshots when I get something to project on that looks decent, right now the only place I have to project on is a medium gray blue textured wall.

Any questions just ask.

Pics to follow.

Here's the case shortly after painting.

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Here's my wild and crazy fan and duct...

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Frames... note the two temp sensors on the underside of the lcd.

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Here's some internals...

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Here's my panel with the LCD and fan controller and the switches, still have to add a switch for the focus mech. Wasn't to happy with the way this turned out but the way the lcd controls are made it's kinda hard to mount them unless you want to make your own buttons (I didn't).

Here is some overall shots...

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excellent work

Very, very very nice work it looks really clean. You might just out do Pun1sher with his own design.

I really like that box. Looks sharp!
And small!

very nice work . congrats!

would you be able to post a picture of your ffc extension in detail..?
i have the same monitor and for the moment havent extended mine, despite having a couple of 10pin LL extensions at home...the edge board i have angled at around 50 degrees and is clear of the light path..but I'm considering extending and folding it the full 90 just to have it seated properly.
I have nasty memories of extensions and hot glue...

Thanks everybody for the compliments.

Foxy2000, I'll be taking out the LCD in the next few days to get my focus mech. out to finish it up and I'll make sure and take some pics of the FFC when I do. I think you'll need the 12 pin extension. The CMV is actually an 11 pin and you'll have to trim back one contact on both ends but it's not hard. Just make sure and get it in the connector straight. Mine was a little off the first time and when I fired it up I could smell something getting hot. Still works though. Mines flipped all the way around to the front of the monitor due to the way it mounts in a folded style and it would block the air flow otherwise too.

You did a fine job nncognito, alot of attention to detail. What would you say was the most difficult part of the build? Looking forward to your projection results.
sim

Thanks Simul8r. The hardest part for me was the case frame with the front radius. I havn't done a whole lot of woodwork, I'm an automotive tech. Got a new table saw about half way through this build so that's helped alot with the straight cuts. I need to get in alot more time on the jig saw before I try the next PJ though.

Have you ever looked at the star ship Enterprise, you know, NCC-1701, and thought to yourself, "Man, if you turned that thing upside down and ripped both space/warp propulsion units off it, spray painted it with black high temp header paint, that would make a great PJ Reflector mount"? Yeah I think we all have at some point.

Anyway, I did it. If you've ever replaced a headlight on your car (older car anyway) this should look real familier to you.

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Excellent job! your PJ looks professionally built, well done. nice tight job. I like the reflector mount, warp speed! any screen shots?

Thanks TESCORP. No screen shots yet, I'm still working on the focus motor linkage and mount. I got to get some kind of screen or wall to project on too, right now all I got is a heavy textured blue-grey wall. I'm trying to talk myself out of a 10' or more screen. Not having much luck...

Nice work, but maybe you could use a day or even a week off.

With your hard work and patience the rewards of a completed projector will be great and by you showing what hard work and patience can get you other members will take notice and learn from your outstanding work,great job and I can't wait to see more of one of the best DIY projector put out by a LL family member.

RR

Thanks for the kind words. It's a group effort though. All you have to do is look around LL and you can't help but get inspired. There's nothing in my PJ that didn't come off these forums in one form or the other, Pun15er's great design (where has he been? It's been at least a month... ) being the most obvious.

And that's a great idea pagercam, if I take a week off work, I just might be able to get this PJ knocked out

No prob.

What can I say...I’m really impressed...

Congratulations…very, very good job.

I’d like to see some projected pics.

Thank you. Yes I would like to see some projection pics too... i'm working on that

I just realized working on it the night before last that I need ONE MORE wire in my harness. I knew that was going to happen when I was securing everything and thought about it a bunch but couldn't think what it would be. Figured it out I just ran a positive 12DC wire for the focus motor from the control panel at the top down to the area under the triplet mount. I was planning on grabbing a ground from the electronics at the bottom. That won't work because I'll be reversing polarity on that circuit so the motor can run both ways so the focus motor will need its own ground from the focus switch, I hate when that happens

Foxy2000, here are the pics of the FFC extension. The board attached to the lcd is rotated 270 degrees in this example. I hope you can see what you need to.

The last picture is another cable I had to extend. The cable with the wire mesh jacket has three coaxial style cables that I assume carry the video signal along with 5 other single wires. I soldered and heat shrinked the connections and then put a layer of aluminum foil around the extension and then wrapped it in tape. I havn't seen any noise or anything like that in the display so hopefully it takes.

Had a pretty productive day. I got the motor and linkage mounted for tripplet. It works better than I expected it would. I have about 2" of total travel. It's geared low enough that it takes about 20 seconds to go from one stop to the other. Shouldn't have to poke at the button to get it focused just right. I'll paypal anybody a dollar that can tell me what the motor and gear came out of

Also a pic of the revised reflector mount. I don't know what I was smoking to think I had enough room for that to fit in there. But a round or two with the dremel and it slides right in

Reflector mount...

I'm guessing VCR tape feed/eject motor.

Good guess, but no. I might have to look into that though, it might be smaller than this one. It didn't come out of any home electronics

Does anybody know if nylon hose would restrict airflow signifigantly or if it's fine enough to stop very much dust to begine with?

Woah,nice build! Really neat and tidy,and very well thought out.Well done!
If she performs half as good as she looks,she will be a beauty!
Cheers P

[quote name='nncognito' date='Feb 4 2006, 03:27 PM' post='119420']
Foxy2000, here are the pics of the FFC extension. The board attached to the lcd is rotated 270 degrees in this example. I hope you can see what you need to.

cheers nncognito

those pics give me the confidence to get working it
thanks for taking the time to post those pics

very nice focus mech too

Long time no see Pun15er! Thanks for the compliment and thanks for the design, I couldn't have done it without you!

Just watch the alignment on the FFC Foxy, I had mine off so little you could hardly notice it and it was enough missalignment to short out somewhere, didn't hurt anything but probably would if you didn't shut the power down fast enough.

I didn't notice it till I was posting the pics but I used the wrong paint to touch up the area around the focus mech, something else to fix!

I got to run the projector some today. I got the light area sealed off a little better and temp stabalized at 84F on the sensor at the back center edge of the screen and 88F at the sensor mounted on the left side. I also hooked a third channel up to a sensor mounted on the right hand side of the lexan on the bulb side furthest away from the fan. It reads 133F. I have one more temp channel left, i'm thinking exhaust outlet temp just for grins.

I wouldn't call these screen shots. I don't have anywhere to project at the moment other than the clutter room, where I can't get any further back than six foot and the wall is a textured gray/blue, and there is a window right in the middle of it and I havn't done any adjustments so it's keystoned real bad... lets just call these pictures of the projector operating during the cooling system test... But for those asking, this is what I got right now.

This one has two 60W bulbs on right above the projector, in addition to the window...

Sorry about the NASCAR stuff, it's a red neck thing...

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Hi nncognito

Just browsing through your plog, must say you have done some pretty nice work! It will be nice to see it all finished

Cheers




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in one of your last pics it shows your Light next to some sort of electronics board.. do you have any electronics exposed to the light?

Thank you JohnBuster99, but there must be some kind of mistake. I was told they are never finished...

Phife, that's a striped small form factor computer power supply. All the electronics shown are covered by a panel with flashing on it that is not installed in that picture, I beleive it's visable in some of the other pictures on the first page though.

Hey nncognito,
Very nice build, clean, compact, and effective.
I have a question about your focus mechanism, and actually Pun15her could chime in on this one as well.
Does pushing/pulling the mechanism from just one point cause the lens assembly to tilt back and forth as it goes in and out or are the ball-bearing drawer slides tight enough and low enough in friction to keep this from happening?
Also, what is the red tubing your using, I assume it's a universal joint of sorts.
Okay, last question (well, for now, lol): What kind of switch are you using for your focus mechanism that allows you to switch polarity? I have a stack of VCRs laying around and will probably canibalize one for its worm gear and motor (you never did say where you scavenged your, did you?).
Again, nice work and keep the screen shots coming!

Thanks for the compliments. I have not noticed the focus assembly tilting forward or back, the slides have very little slack in them and if it does I would assume it would only tilt while focusing the lens, once stoped it would settle back into proper position if it was out of position to begin with. Depending on what you use it will take ALOT of sanding to get the proper clearance in the PVC for smooth operation.

The green tube I'm using if some fuel line off one of my RC airplanes. It holds tight, no slipping. The way mine ended up it's almost in line with the bolt running through the focus mech anyway but you still need something there to take up any slight variations in alignment.

The switch is a double pole double throw momentary toggle switch. I can't find it right now but there is some good pics and a description of how to wire it up in one of the wiring schematic threads.


The gear and motor is out of a rotating emergency light. It used to have a reflector mounted atop the gear, I cut that off and machined a grove in the spinde for a snap ring to hold it down, then bolted into some existing holes in the gear to mount a stud in the center to attach the fuel tubing too and then another bolt for the focus mech to ride on.

Hope that helps.