First Build, well not really, I trashed the first one i built. I got some problems with this build. Its a vertical 15 inch using joechevys design, and this thing has to go in the closet, which is 12 feet away, this makes the screen way to big, and slightly out of focus when its in the closet, I think i kinda gotta fix for that though, i still take sugguestions though. I need to know how to implement a zoom lens into the design, and how much does it cost. And I got this piece of crap "HD" trasncoder that wont show anything from component, it will show 480p but it show it twice and crappy like somehings wrong from my xbox. The panel i am using will do 1280x720 at 80hz 1024x768 native, I am looking for a transcoder that will show 720p on this panel, no matter if it has to letterbox it or something, wit remote tv tuner and all that, and some without tv tuner. I also bought a reflector, dont really see a difference dont know what i did wrong. LL wont let me post pics on this plog dont know why but i'd love to show my little creation, and any assistance would be appriciated.

Check the size of the files you are trying to upload. That's probably the problem. I believe all customers can post pics.

Looking forward to seeing your project.

I had trouble posting pics at first too. Make sure the filesize is not too big. Read your screen carefully for error messages when posting pics and heed the advice. Ya gotta punch more than one button to post pics.

Browse...

Add This Attachment

Add Into Post

Something like that.

Hmmm . . . perhaps I'll write a tutorial if one doesn't already exist?

Ooops the pics were to big. Alright here is what I am working with. I was happy with the brightness until I got to work and played with their projector, the one at work can show bright pics and a brown wall with the sun on...er... out. and mine can barely show pics with a 60w bulb on. I am stilil happy with the projector so far, I just want to know if there is more I could do to get the optimal output. I got the pro reflector and it makes no diference what so ever.

Pic with the light on

How much light was leaking into the room

Inside

Inside

Here is what I know, I know I have a lot of light leaking into the room, The wall is not flat white or even flat for that matter its kinda bumpy with a gloss, I just wanna know am I finished can I close this puppy up paint it and have some parties. Is this aprox how bright a 400w T15 Pulse-Strike Lamp supposed to be or can I tweak it some more, does the 400w T15 Pulse-Strike Lamp compare to commercial PJ, and finnaly can I use a pro triplet with the standard lenses, cause i dont wanna rebuild the whole thing. What can I do to acchive a slightly longer throw with my current setup?

*bump*

You have a pretty good image there. I bought a DALITE manual screen and turned it into an electric with a Saturn windshield wiper motor.

Glad I did. Screen cost me $100 and is worth $300 in picture quality. Don't try to do the wall thing. The screen makes a HUGE difference. (IMO)

Are you running a reflector at all, I couldn't see one? If not adding one will give you some extra brightness.



If you run a pro triplet you'll need to change the field fresnel to a ~650mm one.

I have the reflector but I didnt see a difference so I didnt mount it until I find out how

Please help my brothers... (sorry been hooked on halo2). I found out why my PJ is not as bright as I hoped, the bulb was not positioned right, there is a little glas bubble or something on one side of the bulb, this must be facing up right. And the problem i am having now is uneven focus, I redesigned the entire lens assembly in such a way that it could accomodate perfect mesurments. What the cause of uneven focus.

Alright, I sucked in my gut, swallowed my pride, and took a dive into the antiglare removal. Layed a paper towel on there soaked with distilled water and pushed it from the edges. So it begins.....

w00t!!
Good luck on the AG removal.
I really like how the little flowers show up on the paper towel when wet.

Describe how the focus is uneven. That way we can help a little better. There is some focus issue with the LL triplet. Its been noted with the standard triplet that corners are a bit out of focus when the middle is focused. Thats fairly common.

The LL reflector is a neat little piece of work and when I installed it, I didnt see a whole lot of difference until I noticed that it performs better in ambient light. A lot of folks notice this, but in a dark room it doesnt SEEM to make a whole lot of difference versus a basic SS reflector. Some folks do notice improvements however so a lot of it is really a subjective thing.

SJ

Yes, the paper towel flowers ARE lovely.

Relatively minor adjustments to bulb positioning can make a considerable brightness difference. Move it fore and aft with respect to the rear fresnel and use the focal point as your starting point/reference point/baseline.

Ensure all components are very well aligned along a center line running through the whole projection path.

Use the reflector. It WILL give you extra brightness.

I also highly recommend blacking out the entire inside of your projector. This reduces junk light which can enhance contrast.

You can't alter the throw - that's hardwired into the optical components. You can cheat a little by using software to alter the size of the image though - if you get what I'm saying?

A commercial will outshine most of your DIY projectors in terms of raw light output.

I think you can achieve better results but you're already looking quite good.

It's really hard to judge just what your projector is putting out unless you have a luxmeter to measure the light.

Uneven focus can be the result of things not being perfectly aligned. It's crucial to have all the stuff at the precise angle and alignment.

Whew! That's enough. Keep asking and we'll keep tryin' ta help!

Good luck!!!

Well this morning, the AG wont budge, guess ill go to work and deal with it when I get off. But when I speak of uneven focus , I was speaking of optical degredation around the coners, since I redesigned the lens assembly however, the issue is uneven brightness around 2 corners which lead things being a little fuzzy. I've adjusted everything i can. now what I will do is move the triplet according to the light that is spilling out of the sides.

And Aye!!! Stop making fun of my lovely...*ahem* paper towels, just becuase i dont have any with a toolbox or something doesnt mean i am any less of a man.....they were on sale.. .

Your manliness ain't in question dude! I'd buy pink towels with bunnies on if they were the cheapest. (Of course, I wouldn't use them on my panel and then post a picture!!)

Curious how long the panel has been soaking? One of the tricks is working up that first teeny-tiny corner of the antiglare and then it peels like an over-ripe banana. Have you a REALLY fine pair of forceps (tweezers) or maybe an X-acto knife with a really pointy new blade? Gingerly work the outermost corner of the antiglare to see if she's ready to strip. Just the smallest little piece you can manage to twiddle with. Once you get the small piece of corner started give a teeny tug and if it don't budge then STOP!!! And it's best to pull it all off in one consistent pull. Don't hesitate. Do it smooth and steady. It should come off really easy.

Important that your toweling is making contact with every stinkin' square millimeter of the antiglare so you have totally uniform soaking too.

Well....Crap. Every sqaure millimeter huh? Well I read that it is important that the water does not go over the edge, so I thought the only way to insure this is to make sure the towel doesnt go over the edge. Anyway its been soaking for 12 hrs as of now..but i wont get to it till after work so, its gonna be 17/18 hrs. And I have been reading on taping the edges but I dont understand the concept.

you may want to try some blackout cloth as a cheap alternative to just a painted wall. it makes a big difference as far as bightness and color vs. a flat white painted wall.

What I meant was the toweling should be flat and touching everywhere and not showing those obvious puckers and bubbles like in your pic. Toweling right up to the edge but not over and soaked just shy of the point of runoff then covered to maintain near 100% humidity to slow evaporation. You want the water to permeate down through the antiglare and not diffuse into the edges. That's my understanding and the methodry which worked well for me. I'm sure there's some room for "slop" in there. But you don't want to totally immerse the panel - obviously. Hopefully, you'll be just fine when you go to strip it. Just hate to see any failures - ya know? I'm not a believer in taping. To each his own though.

It's Working!!!

Come on...Halfway!!!

YAHOO!!! Yippe doo dad scrunch and mumble

Dont know looks like I got just the AG, its bout as thick as a transpanrency sheet...

So there I was with the odds...stacked againts me, what was I to do? I had no choice but to go into battle with the undefeated AntiGlare. 20+ hour soak. I got home after work and CRAP!!! I forgot to buy a exato knife....crap I said, i dont feel like going back out, frustrated I pryed it up with my fingernail...and presto. Took about 5mins I went REEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLL slow.



P.S AWWWWWWWWWWWW Do i have to let it dry for 24 hours.......I wanna see some results mom???

Congrats! Looks like you're just fine.

I tested it this morning, big diffrence i cannot believe that I waited this long to do it. The colors are muddy though. It seems the the whites are never brighter that the screen when it is turned off. Can this be attributed to the fact that have not painted the inside black yet. Also with this design joechevy... I have to flip the lcd panel around, could this also be a reason. The light that is NOT going through the lcd is VERY white.

I can't speak from personal experience but from secondhand knowledge blacking out the guts CAN make a noticeable difference. Also, I certainly can't say if you'll get white any whiter than the screen? Unless maybe there's some gain in the screen and the brightness will make it look whiter? I'm out of my element commenting on this.

So the antiglare removal made the picture sharper and crisper? How would you characterize the difference in your own words?

Ill do you one better, I'll tell you exactly what I was using to judge sharpness. I would get up on the "screen" and actually use the screendoor effect to judge what is in focus and or what needs to be brighter. Looking at each individual pixel I can see that the overall picture is in focus, no more blurry pixels. However the center is much more crisp than the edges, but that is a given for this project as I understand. I just want to know about the whites. At first I though maybe I just got a crappy moniter, but before I stripped it the whites were ok. Its something else.


P.S I didnt make myself clear, When I say whites whiter than the screen, I mean when I turn on the bulb and the LCD is off, all of the white are pretty much that color, faded grey or light brown.

Once again I feel out of my element but I'll talk out loud anyway. Once the light goes through the LCD it has gone through red, green, and blue filters. The amount of light going through each determines what your eye sees. Now that the antiglare is off things aren't being mushed around so much (diffused) and maybe that's why the "white" light appears "muddy"? I don't recall anyone describing the aftereffects of antiglare removal in quite such a way though. I suspect someone will chime in here who can voice things more sensibly than I just have.

When watching a movie does it look better or does the movie look muddy?

Movies look Great. Just halo is what i am have problems with. The colors were muddy before the AG removal, This is a whole different thing I am working on. I am going to paint the inside black. I think thats the problem and that I dont have a screen yet, (need BO cloth.) . I am so dumb, I keep forgeting that there is a great deal of light leaking from the PJ, that is why the colors look muddy.... . I need to get some sleep

I've got a buddy who is a member but never posts. He decided to just buy a commercial PJ. He loves it but says it's not the best for gaming. He says things just don't look good when projected (gaming that is). Some text looks blocky. Must be somethin' to that? I seem to recall others having specific negative comments about certain games as well. Things like "color looks off", "too dark", etc.

Well I am impatienly awaiting the arivial of my BO cloth. What am I to expect ,will it really that much better than projecting onto a uneven rough texture wall with glossy white paint . Seriously though movies look ok tv looks ok, just dark sences are hard to make out, and halo 2 is unplayable. What options are there for more powerfull balast and bulb. Like say a thousand watt overhead project bulbscfrom what i have seen they are capable of displaying images on a wall in broad daylight. However I realize that performace will decreased significantly when transmitted through the lcd and and fresnals. Just dreaming ATM, just in case the BO cloth doesnt perform the way i hope...

Well my BO cloth finnally arrived, LOL just kidding...its been here. After half a year of tweaking I am ready to show the completed(ish) projector...When I get off from work. I got a question though, what about adding a 15 inch FS mirror to the bottom of the projector to reflect ALL light back into the LCD.

The taping solves an important problem. The taping is in case you have stubborn anti-glare. Most of the time people will have cooperative anti-glare and not known the difference, but it is always a good idea to run some tape around the edges just in case.

Running tape around the perimeter of the anti-glare just keeps it from tearing while you pull it up. It also usually eliminates the need for an exacto knife to get a corner started. You just pull up a corner with the stickiness of the tape.

It really is highly recommended that everyone tape the perimeter before attempting anti-glare removal. It reinforces the anti-glare by adding thickness to prevent tears.

To back up a minute, the problem with a tear is that you have to get another corner started. But maybe more importantly it means you have to pause with an edge masking right down the middle of your screen. The uneven drying will then cause a streak where you paused. All too simple to prevent with tape.

Mark

I am Honored to show this well overused pic. The pic is not as Sharp as i would want it to be, but the brightness is a accurate rep.

Looks really good.
The colored light on the outer most edge of the screen? Light leaking? or something else?