so no flickering? hmmm... you didn't do anything different? maybe I'll flip mine over, I've got it sideways right now and easy to rotate it with the steel rods holding everything together.... yeah how about some pics of the pj? does the t15 still seem yellowish? have you tested for transmission yet? and yesh, using ab buhl makes this thing much bigger, I think I'm going to have to go with 4 foot rods!

No flickering, while the bulb pointed up but pointing down and it was doing the jitterbug. Not sure what the deal is but I've seen some of us new members and builders catching on with the vertical bulb and notice that they too are pointing theirs upwards. Perhaps they have tested it this this way and saw no issues or they ended up with certain bulbs that don't have the need to dance. Certainly, this is not the case with a shorter arc bulb like the s400dd, guess I got lucky with your T15 bulb. But who knows, I tested this in my garage and on a dusty ole green garage door but saw no fluctuations. Might be a different story once I get her in the house and on a white screen. The color temp of the light seemed ok but towards the yellow I'd say, again until I can get a white screen in front of her I'll hold back on this until then. Transmission with the panel out in the sun before A/G removal. Heres the best I could.

Average from three reads: above panel towards the heavens 810, directly underneath 30.

This opaque lens is certainly showing some promise, however, I notice I'd have to bring it really far back in order to get the huge screens. Not bad if I want to hold a backyard at night bb'que party.

I am STOKED!!!

Pretty much have the front end done as far as the LCD and control module screwed in and wired towards the rear. I figured I check how the projection looks before I finally complet it.

With the projection from 10.5 feet away I got a 54"x72" screen going. I put my screen into the garage for a test see. It's beautiful, like watching a plasma with the lights off. The colors are so deep and true.

First off heres a pic of the garage in shambles. Overhead I have 2 75w candesants and behind is a 400w halogen I think.

These are just on top of the pj with the lights still on.

These are with the lights off.

And finally a corner shot.

I'll finish off the build and hope to get in some time to tweak it. But for now I'm really STOKED!

Wow,SIM,those results are incredible,nice work all round.
This is I think the most thorough build,from the ground up.The attention to detail on every aspect of the build is paying dividends. I repeat...Wow!

And finally a corner shot.

I'll finish off the build and hope to get in some time to tweak it. But for now I'm really STOKED!
[/quote]


I enlarged the image with my enlargement software 600% and I can tell that your sub pixel separation is less than 40 microns between pixels. You should return that lens imeatitly Send it to.
AV
3870 E hazelwood
Phoenix Az 85018


I will send you a standard 62mm triplet and a free gift for you satifaction.

Sim
Great results The corners are unbelieveable. Did you do a straight shooter? I think the folded gets a little distorted at the corners. Mine looked ok in test but not like that.

Sim,, obie nobie twoie onie

you have doneie wellie

thats impressive......

Thanks pun15her, I can't say it was an easy build but I tried my best to stay within 1 to 2mm's error. It's generally a result of everything I've learned from all of you and from what I've experimented with as well. The only thing though about her is that she is on the hefty side but she is definately singing nicely. Oh, and her fan is loud, I haven't closed her up but I know I'll still be hearing her sing from the inside.

I couldn't resist a daytime shot.

nice pics!
When you removed your AG did you have any lines on the LCD? My ag is coming up in pieces and leaves fine lines at each piece. Can these be removed?

In a symbol BTW A/V the projection your seeing now is without the pro-reflector. I carved up another 5" kitchen ladle and place it under mikyd's T15 Pulse Right bulb which might be at the 40000 mark and of course veritical pointing up with the eballast (NO FLICKERS). I can not put the pro reflector into the 5" and hold it there. The 4.5" x 6.5" precondenser has more than a quarter inch more coverage from the ladle which passes the condenser edges. The distance from lightbox to rear fresnel is 240mm and I beleive the distances to LCD to front fresnel is somewhere 20mm and about 10mm gap space between the unsplit. There is a little ring action going on screen, but it's nothing I am really concerned about.

Another day time shot.

That's why I'm STOK'D. I didn't expect this much and like you said earlier '...like a pig in a slop troth...' Yes, its a straight, horizontal. I might be trying the vertical in the future right now I just want to finish this before then. Also, I'll provide some lux test soon.

And to you elken, nanoo, nanoo. Thanks.

Are these diagonal lines, like all the lines distinctly going in one direction? A/G or polar is coming up in pieces?

Did you still route your cooling between your lcd? I was trying not to do this so that area doesn't get dirty but I am reconsidering this. Great job Sim, it looks great!

man your pj is looking good.... which rear fresnel are you using now? can't get my t15 to stop pulsing when vertical...must be the eballast that steadies it, next weekend I'm going to try overclocking it, hopefully that will work...

edit: NEED READINGS.... having withdrawal amd envy issues

Yes I did, even though I was hitting only the high 80'sF without it. I figured I just do this since I have the build going. Otherwise it would be a pain taking everything off all over again. So now, the cooling between the LCD and fresnel is like 5 degrees F difference compared to ambient. Right now, it's 61F in the garage so it's 65.6f near the LCD. I figure I'll just have to use a filter to help with the dust. Thanks ChuckL.

The rear is LL's 317mm. Did you try pointing it up mikyd? And did you give it a while to burn in that position with the eballast? Maybe level it vertically with no tilt. If anything I don't know if its the lightbox design or the power that I'm getting. Pointing the bulb down seriously had the arc dancing.

BTW mikyd, at first the bulb did flicker for a while when it was pointing up. I just left it to burn for 2 hours then it began to simmer down. Please give that a try.

The color temp on your bulb (6500k) is awesome! I don't know if it is the build or the panel or your bulb but the projection is so rich and pure. The contrast of the panel is only 450:1.

well, I had the pj vertical in the last build(meaning the bulb was horizontal) , have testfired it the last couple of days with the bulb in a vertical position, only flickers when vertical burning, but maybe I'l run it longer tonight, not using eballast, using standard coil and core, which may be the difference.....

it doesn't seem yellowish after burning it in? yeah, the colors seemed a lot better than when I was using the 4000k bulb, just seems deeper somehow, though I'm sure the attention to detail of your build is a big part of the reason.... I'd be happy if I could get everything to 4-5 mm tolerance , yeah, I'll give burning it for a few hours in the vertical burn position a try

Still have to make some covers but I am really unimaginally STOKED!

She's about 10' or 11' away and I think I have another 8' more to move her back. This is in the recreation room now.

great results sim! especially in the daylight! at night it must be awesome. congrats!

So Sim, how much did you pay for your commercial PJ?

Great job!
What ever you do don’t set it up in your living room or where ever you are going to put it. I did and I’m now in procrastination mode. Just can’t get it out to do the final build.

DJ

Hehehe....ok,...you got me.....NOT!!

All that work researching and experimenting really really paid off. This is as best as it gets unless I can wave a wand and shrink her down a bit.

I know what you mean about setting it in but I'm really wanting to finish this so that I can move on to other issues I've put aside, but for the most part I got the 98% of it done. In few months from now I'll be contemplating on a theme for a paint job.

The screen shots look great but where is the rest of the PJ ? and that triplet shot? so you installed the new lamp AND the shorter fl condenser lens and the new 5" reflector?

Don't start waching movies on us now

Nice job.

Gaahhh!!!! That desktop... mama.....

In due time, I want to clean up the wiring a bit and make her insides look presentable to you all. However, I'll provide some of the info you ask as soon as I can. I wonder if the longer fl condensers and a 220mm fresnel would work better now seeing I've replaced the reflector with a larger one.....sigh...will these tests ever end?!!

I thought you'd like them. I'd like to borrow a commercial now and compare, thats how stoked I am. Dam, I gotta stop repeating that word The image is that bright that I think Dalite HP screen would be intense....hey I just remembered, I got a 70"x70" Highpower...anybody interested to see what the this baby produces?

Lovin those daytime shots! I wish more people would take shots from a distance like that with a bit of lighting so that we can get a good idea of how big the screen looks.

Alrighty then, here is a lux check. I defaulted everything from the LCD to the video adaptor.

52"x70" = 2.35sq/mtrs

129 136 107
152 167 145
120 134 117

Average 134.11 x 2.35sq/mtrs = 315.16 ANSI

And here are a few test shots using the test patterns from I believe paladin, his pgen is available in the build catagory.

Now this pattern showed focus within the white squares but actually they are small dots in the squares. Some of you may be familiar with this pattern.

What I found, however, that my screen tilted back and leaned against a window sill so the corners were not in focus but has I tilted it forward focus got better. Which would mean that lux readings would be more to the top portion if the screen was plummed straight.

Sim, can you give us an overview/summary of your projector parts??

Which condenser are you using for these results?

Which fresnels?

Which triplet?

Which bulb/ballast?

I need to seriously consider taking the Sim method when I rebuild.

My setup is not in whole- parts that I gotten from LLab. Similar results may be atttained with the LL's pro triplet and lenses but I can't be for sure since I haven't bought Brainchild's lens to compare. You may want to check SupraGuy's and/or DAZZ's builds as a comparison to mine.

To list, I'm using a precondenser lens I bought from Surplus Shed 4.5" in diameter x 6.5" fl, you can buy these also on ebay since SurplusS sells there as well. My lamp is from mikyd, it's a T15 Plus Right bulb with a 6500k color temp. My reflector is just a 5" kitchen ladle from Hamilton beach that I carved a notch for the bulb and highly polish with a dremel and polishing wheel using Mother's Billet polish. The bulb sits deep in the ladle and the precondenser lens is 5 or 6mm from the bulb. The lens is crown glass so heat from a 400w bulb will crack it so a lightbox is needed to tunnel the air directly over and in between it and the bulb (see first page). My collimating fresnel is from LLabs its the standard 317mm, the distance from the plano side of the precondenser to the fresnel is roughly 240mm. My collector fresnel is the 550mm from 3dlens.com and the distance from it to the 317 is 15 to 20mm. My LCD is just a 15", 16ms 16.7 color, 450:1 contrast. My triplet is the 18" lens from a opaque projector (I believe they are calling it the Buhl triplet) I bought from member slizm and the distance is roughly 500mm from the collector fresnel.

Now like I said I'm not sure if similiar results will come about using LL's pro lens setup, but there are two things that I'll take credit for and that is that the T15 bulb is not layed horizontally. It is standing up and in the vertical position using the eballast for power. We have found that the smaller arc Ushio provided more lumens this way rather then in horizontal position. Arizonavideo is also finding this in his test with other bulbs and also I beleive he has some ideas on the differences with the Buhl's size compared to the pro lens (A/V, if you may please assist me on this) he has a list of lenses and the size arcs that will fit these with promising results. My experimenting also shows that as the bulb sits in the reflector vertically the shape of the arc has a better view of the plane of the collimating fresnel therefor better coverage of light as well.

Hope this helped.

WOW SIM!

you spanked my daytime shots!!!
I knew that was coming

Amazing work as always.

I'm thinking it should always be brighter to take the angle at the condenser lens rather than the Fresnel.[shorter fl for the condenser lens] Playing with dazzles pre condenser spread shad has been vary help full. It does show the angle of the light from Fresnel and condenser. The Fresnels new job is to focus through the condenser so it really sees the condenser. It no longer determines the amount of light captured from the lamp the pre condenser does.

Any thing that lets us put the condenser closer to the lamp should be brighter.

I still think that a 600mm rear Fresnel[less angle of light hitting the Fresnel greater angle of light on the condenser] might be better but it doesn't always look that way on the spreadsheet.

But the 220mm v 330mm question does need to be answered.

I do have a condenser lens now and a lot of fresnels. You don’t have to have all the fun.

And here's a shot with the 70"x70" Dalite HP compared to the regular screen.

This is in night mode. Funny the previous pic wasn't matching what I'm actually seeing especially on my regular screen. It's between these two that I'm registering thru my eyes but I think this is more like it.

I should have gone for a bigger dalite, it really stands out with the lights on.

Wow that last shot really tells all. I guess maybe i will use my home made BO cloth screen for a while then get a Dalite if we use the PJ enough. Great pics

OMG. Best in show. Right here. Crown him.

HOLY SIMUL8R BATMAN! THAT IS WAY BETTER THAN THOSE STORE BOUGHT PROJECTORS!

KICK ASS!
I feel humbled in the presence of greatness.

Branichild.
This is a hall of famer for sure!
Congrats Sim!

Wow Sim it just goes to show that we can we really should do our PJ's some justice and get a proper screen. The difference in brightness and color tone is like night and day in your pics. I'm in an apt so it limits the size and placement of a screen but you've convinced me that my white moca wall isn't the best place for me t project my image.

Sim,

Your results are absolutely breathtaking! I've been a lurker for a while now, allowing you, AV, and Lucky to have some fun; but seeing that projection makes me want to dive in for round 2!!

Killer job.

PS: You're a fisherman too?!? My ladyfriend just got bequeathed her dad's 31' diesel cabin-cruiser. If you're in Socal, we should hook up for some flattie fishing ...

Hey Sim
Where do you buy your ladles? Can't seem to find one or I just haven't been to the right place.

Do a google search for Hamilton Beach Ladle #87350. It's got a 15.75" handle on it. I've been buying mine at a kitchen store in the malls.

You simply must take some movie shots. Perhaps LOTR, nemo, Fifth Element?

I'll see what I can do, but for now I'm glad your all enjoying this. I'm still not done with it yet as far as it's enclosure and painting. Plus I plan to see what a 4 5/8" or a 5" x 12"fl precondenser lens would do since I've put a 5" ladle reflector in the light box that now covers the large lens much better. Using either of these lens with a 220 fresnel (refer to A/V's explaination above). My goal is 400 ANSI

Greatly appreciate the cheers fellas.