Welcome to my PLOG.

The introduction can be found below, but first...

The PLOG Index
Cutting the Fresnels
The Destruction of the Camera
The Arrival of the Hami
Initial Hami Impressions
The Interference Problem
The Horizontal Fold Design
Potential Cooling Solution Part 1
The Triplet Mount
The Triplet Mount Continues
The Unsplit Fresnels' Frame
The LCD and Circuit Board Frames
The Almost Complete Triplet Mount
The Light Box Begins
The Vertical Fold Design
The Updated Horizontal Fold Design
Potential Cooling Solution Part 2
The 'Putting an End to Unwanted Light' Design
These #$%!% FFC's

Introduction
My 17" PJ is on hold, for now I'll be going the 8" Hami route. Here's the list of parts I own, and don't.

Parts I own:
LL 400w Ushio S400DD MH bulb, mogul base, elec. ballast
LL 120V Wiring kit
LL UV filter
LL Standard Triplet 320mm FL
LL Standard Fresnel Lenses
LL PRO Reflector
LL 20 pin FFC extension
LL 40 pin FFC extension
8" Hami, 800*600, 300:1, 25ms
Apollo Odyssey 11000 varifocal triplet 274mm - 320mm
Rosco IR/UV Filter custom cut to 3" x 2.25" (in delivery)
Various tools

Parts I need:
FS mirror
Fans (120V I think), probably a 120mm and an 80mm.
Wires for, uh, wiring

That about says it all. I'm not sure what type of wood I'll be using for the enclosure. I'll either go with something nice (expensive) and stain it apropriately, or MDF likely painted some dark color with a glossy finish.

Design Outline:
Horizontal Fold after LCD, before varifocal triplet.
Un-split fresnels.
Triplet mount (varifocal) will be distance adjustable to the LCD.
LightBox sealed from remainder of box using Lexan/Tempered glass.

My light box will stretch the width of the box. This means there needs to be enough room between the light box, and the triplet box to fit the length of the electronic ballast (~20cm).

Pics to come once the Hami arrives.

Dave

Reference

Small PJ PLOGS:
Brainchild's Hami PLOG
Joe2000Chevy's Mini Haas
Yoshuaspawn's Mini Haas
The "Motherload" (Français)

Hami Related Posts:
Moving the Control Board
Stripping the monitor
AG Removal

DIY Screens:
Building your own

Cutting of the Fresnels

Last night I cut my fresnels to size... I havn't received my Hami yet, so I didn't know exactly what size to cut them, so I went with 9" in a 4:3, x:y ratio.

I was initially apprehensive about this process, but cutting these things is actually very easy. I followed TESCORP's outline to cutting them without issues.

What I did was:

1) Wrapped both lenses in cling-wrap.
2) Determined the amount of lens to be cut (horizontal size of lens - horizontal size of desired lens / 2... Same for vertical)
3) Measure in from the edge of lens the amount determined in 2.
4) Clamped a metal ruler, at this distance from the edge, on to the lens to use as a guide for my exacto-knife.
5) Firmly ran knife along the ruler's edge, probably about 4-5 times until the knife just started to penetrate the lens.
6) Wiggled the now cut part of the lens from the remainder.
7) Repeat 3 - 6 until all 4 cuts were made for each lens.

What I ended up with was 2 nice 7.2" * 5.4" fresnels. The whole process took maybe 25 minutes - but I went fairly slowly until I felt comfortable that it was difficult to mess up.

I wanted to post pics but the batteries for my camera found themselves into my girlfriend's mp3 player. They'll be charged tonight, and so I hope to post pics tomorrow.

Dave

In looking at my box cooling solution I realize that the LCD control boards (the ones requiring the longer FFCs) are going to prevent me from doing what I want.

I've looked around a little, and I think I might do something like this:

Click to view attachment

This person did a really clean job with the insides, plus I think I would have room to get the ballast in there - behind the mirror...

Dave

The Destruction of the Camera

It was a sad day yesterday for my digi-cam...

My girlfriend's new dog decided that my FUGI 2.1MP cam was more satisfying to chew than the soft, tasty bone we got for him...

Damn. Strangely enough the camera still takes pics, though the flash is broken. It now feels strange to pick up this chew-toy and use it to take pictures. Dim, grainy pictures.

Anyway, I received notice yesterday that my Hami is ready for pickup at the local Purolator center... Maybe I'll have some dim pictures up tomorrow.

Lately I've been throwing around ideas of a fairly sharp vertical fold. I've got a 1/2 scale of a 60' bend that I can see will work, but I'm going to try and go sharper... Maybe 75'

Dave

The Arrival of the Hami

It has arrived!!

Unfortunately, since it appears designed for the European market I need to purchase a DC12W 1200mA power supply. I would post pics, but my camera, well, see the above post...

One point of curiousity is that on the box it says that it has "Ultra fine and bright 230,000 pixels". 230 000??

There is no standard 4:3 resolution that has this many, the closest would be 640*360 (16:9) at 230 400... But this is no widescreen display. Either way, it appears that I have the 8001 model, 8", 800*600, AV, VGA, TV (though not for the type of coaxial that we use in in NA). I'm hoping that the 230 000 is just some type of misunderstanding.

Tomorrow I'll post my comments on the performance of this mini LCD, assuming I can get it to perform.

Dave

Keey up the good work and keep us updated

With best regards,
SnakeDragon

Uh oh, I hope that the box is wrong 'cause they might have sent you the wrong monitor. 230,000 pixels is what they say for QVGA monitors..... 320 X 240 X 3(RGB) = 230400. (Like a PSOne LCD screen)

If it has the inputs it is supposed to have, it is probably the right one and they just used the wrong box.

Tgreenwood

Initial Hami Impressions



Hmm, good thinking. Thankfully I tracked down a transformer last night and I powered up this little guy...

My initial impression was that the monitor was pretty bad actually. The colors all seemed washed out, the difference between greys and whites was indistinguishable and it did not seem sharp at all. I was thinking I had either been had or they sent the wrong monitor. Then I went into the control panel and lowered the brightness from 50 to about 30 and I was much more pleased with what was going on.

It is definately an 800*600 resolution monitor. It scaled all the resolutions I could throw at it up to 1280*1024. Not that I'll be using anything but the native 800*600 as during scaling things get a little fudged. The only reason I could see myself going beyond 800*600 would be to enjoy smaller icons.

I watched a DVD on it and tried out all kinds of settings (using PowerDVD) and it seems to do just fine with 800*480 (480p). It actually shuts down the pixels along the top and bottom of the monitor (it doesn't try to display black borders), which is an unexpected plus. Colors are reasonably sharp and the contrast is also reasonable. I have experience with some very nice LCDs with gorgeous contrast ratios, and in this respect this LCD is certainly not top grade. However, it is sharp, clear and does an effective job with most of the color spectrum. It certainly comes with a brighter backlight than the display itself can handle.

I have only three concerns with this display. The first one is that when in VGA mode (which I plan to use exclusively), when the brightness is high enough there appears to be 'horizontal waving'. I'll describe it as waves that stetch the width of the screen and move slowly up the display. When I lower the brightness to appropriate levels I can't see them except in certain situations, like with certain dark colors.

The second concern is on the right hand side of the display there appears to be a slightly dark blob of pixels in the middle. They still function properly, they are just slightly darker than all of the other pixels. Again this is only noticeable with certain dark colors and when video is displayed there is too much happening to make this blob out.

The last concern is that the monitor does not seem to get out of 60Hz when in 800*600 resolution. I believe the manual specifies that it can handle 72Hz and 75Hz while at this resolution, and when I change the setting in the control panel of my PC it seems to make the change. However, when I check the menu for the Hami, it says 800*600 @ 60Hz. Also, the menu is only almost non-responsive while the control panel for the PC is open, I'm not sure why this would be. At first I thought the Hami was defective, but then realized it worked just fine when the control panel in Windows was closed.

To be honest, I'd rather return this monitor and get one without the blob and waves (I also have 2 dead pixels but they are at the bottom of the display at the corners so they're not hard to deal with). However, I'd have to pay the shipping both ways of almost $50, making this monitor very expensive. So, I'm just going to live with it.

I guess these gripes are only noticeable to someone who is trying to find them, but I was hoping to find nothing when I looked.

Oh well, tonight I hope to strip it and build the frame, along with the fresnel frames.

I still can't make up my mind about the enclosure or if I plan to go with a vertical or horizontal fold. I guess I'll build the frames and lightbox and go from there.

Dave

Well, I didn't strip the monitor, nor did I make the fresnel frames. I've decided to wait for my FFC extensions before getting into this.

I've been working away at my design for a horizontal fold and I have something of a template I suppose. The current interior dimensions are about 50 x 32 x 16 cm. I am really trying to get this size smaller, but fitting the elec. ballast and the long 400W bulb is no easy task.

Unfortunately my diagrams are on paper, as to date I am far more skilled with a pencil than I am with MS paint (or any real CAD software).

Hopefully this weekend I can start building something (lens mount or maybe the light box). Hopefully.

Dave

The Interference Problem

This weekend I took my Hami to my parents place to see if a different location might solve my small interference problem (horizontal bands that slowly rise from the bottom of the LCD to the top).

When I first plugged it into their PC in 800x600@60Hz, the interference was there just as it had been before. So I tried 1024x768@60HZ, and just like that, no more scan lines. Then I went to 1280x1024@60Hz and again, no interference. But when I went back to 800x600 again, it returned.

At this point I didn't know what to think. I then tried the S-Video connection (connected to a DVD player outputting at 480p - although S-Video won't transmit that high a resolution) and it works just fine. Actually, I was fairly pleased with how it looks using that mode.

Anywho, I did finally get the monitor going in 800x600@60Hz without any interference and has been running interference free ever since. I'm not sure why this would resolve the issue, but when I tried 960*720 (as my parent's video card supports) the image that came on the LCD was all messed up. Apparantly it doesn't support this res. So I turned off the monitor and waited for Windows to revert back to 800x600. When I turned it back on, voila, no interference.

I can only hope it stays that way. I've gotta say, I feel much better about going forward now that I know I can get a clean image. My Dad was reasonably impressed with the picture, although it doesn't stack up to the Viewsonic VP191B they have (or something like this).

Today, during any free time, I'm going to transfer my paper design to some free CAD software I downloaded and post it.

I don't know when I'm going to start building anything as I didn't this weekend. I hope to have my lens mount designed soon, maybe by the end of the day.

Dave

Horizontal Fold Design

As promised, here's the design, viewed from directly above. All measurements are in mm.

Click to view attachment

This should give a reasonable idea of what I plan to do. What I havn't yet decided upon is how the cooling will occur, and the exact placement of the ballast yet (the 200x65 yellow box). I neglected to put in the reflector, though there is sufficient room for it. For what my light box will look like, have a look at Pun15er's P-cubed plog (subtract craftmanship).

The triplet is drawn according to it's glass size (the opening closest to the LCD is larger than on the side of the projected image). The actual triplet is housed in a metal unit much bigger than indicated. It should fit the box I have designed for it.

Cooling to come...

Dave

Potential Cooling Solution Part 1

I think for cooling I will use a 120mm fan directly above the bulb arc and two 40mm fans placed on the inside of the box, right next to the LCD and fresnels. The two 40mm's should draw air in from an opening on the other side of the LCD and fresnels, over the LCD, and blow past the ballast and into the light chamber, and finally sucked out through the 120mm fan mentioned above. There will only be one intake in this situation, and one fan to exhaust. I may be convinced to go with 2 120mm fans above the bulb instead of one.

Here's a basic diagram. The rectangle next to the ballast is symbolic of 2 stacked 40mm fans, and the rectangle ontop of the light box is the 120mm fan blowing straight up.

Click to view attachment

Does anybody see any issue with this cooling situation? Should I be worried about the tempered glass/hot mirror placed directly infront of the bulb??

Dave

The Triplet Mount

I started building the triplet mount yesterday.

There are 2 things I need to accomplish for this. First, it needs to be be able to slide to and fro so that I can adjust the distance between the LCD and the triplet.

This is varifocal triplet, however, the adjustment knob is on the side of the lens that faces the LCD - on the inside of the box. So the second thing I need this mount to be able to do is adjust the triplet's focal length from the outside of the box.

Here is what I've built (remember that my camera has been partially destroyed):

Click to view attachment

And another, without the 'custom' knob on the front of the lens:

Click to view attachment

Here's the back of the lens (the side that faces the LCD). You can see the yellow knob used to adjust the focal length:

Click to view attachment

The idea of that 'custom' knob on the front of the lens is that it connects to the knob at the rear. As I rotate that knob on the front, it will adjust focus. I'm having a hard time coming up with the description for how I plan to attach the knob, so those interested will have to wait until I complete it (tonight, maybe tomorrow) to see what I have in mind.

Obviously, this is just the face of the mount. BTW, it measures 120mm squared. I will build tonight the rest of the mount 'box': the part that trails the face into the PJ enclosure.

Dave

One last thing for today.

I thought I'd post a pic of the beast that destroyed my camera. This was taken the day before it was destroyed. His name is Sol.

Click to view attachment

Dave

Yesterday I picked up my shipment from LL at the local post office. It contained the 20pin and 40pin (0.5mm) FFC 6" extensions, as well as the PRO reflector.

The FFC extensions aren't worth writting home about, but the PRO reflector is something else.

It's a lot smaller than I expected, is extremely reflective and has a coating on it that gives it a bluish hue. All in all I'm impressed, but I should say this it seems very fragile. Being as small as it is might make building a mount for it difficult. I think most people are using 80mm fan guards, after having cut out the inner rings.

I'll have to see if I can get my hands on some of those.

I've almost finished my triplet mount/box. All I need now is some serious crazy glue, and a couple of hours to spend on sanding this thing.

Pics, dim and grainy, tomorrow hopefully.

Dave

The Triplet Mount Continues...

I didn't completely finish the triplet box yet, but I've made some progress. I wanted to finish last night but ended up spending the evening with my GF and her photographer as they processed some recent pictures. Not exactly what I had in mind for my evening, but you gotta do what needs to be done.

So, here's what she looks like as of this AM:

Here's the little attachment that ties the wooden knob on the front of the box to the triplet adjustment knob:

Click to view attachment

And some crummy shots showing the focus adjusted to the extremes:

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

That should illustrate how I expect to adjust focus. What's left for this triplet box??

There's a gap in the cover that holds the triplet which needs to be filled (I used it to slide the triplet into place, as it cannot be lowered into the size of hole desired to hold it snugly). So I've gotta cut that out, sand it, try to wedge it in. Then when it doesn't fit, sand it some more. Glue it, apply wood filler, then sand again.

The other thing that needs to be done is cut out the piece of wood for the 4th side of the box (or is it the 5th), and again wedge it in there with sanding, filler, then a final sand.

Atleast the weekend is here so I've got some time. After these jobs are complete, I plan to build the frames for the fresnels.

Lastly, here's a pic I of the glue I used to bond the pieces of brass to one another and to the wood:

Click to view attachment

Zap a Gap! Strong as can be. This little tube cost $8

Dave

The Unsplit Fresnel's Frame

Small progress this weekend (Monday was a civic holiday - nice to work for the government, err, some of the time).

First, I built frame to hold the fresnel lenses. Pretty basic stuff, basically I used 1/4" dowels (might be wrong term) to create slots which allow me to slide the lenses into place from the top opening.

This frame sets the height of the interior of the box, about 15cm.

Pics:

Click to view attachment

One more of the frame, showing the slots (about 1/8"). The fresnels fit very well.

Click to view attachment

The LCD and Circuit Board Frames

After the fresnel frame was completed, I decided to strip the Hami to get an idea for the dimensions of the internals. I didn't completely take everything out and apart as I don't yet have a good place to put these fragile components, and it may be a while until they are ready to go into the PJ.

This strip was a pain in the @ss compared to what I went through for the Samsung monitor I last stripped. The FFC issues don't help anything. Oh well, a little sweat, more patience and a tiny screwdriver and I made my way through it.

Glad I won't have to do that again.

So, with my measurements in hand I cut out the frame for the LCD, two panels to hold the two circuit boards directly attached to the LCD and two more panels to perhaps mount the 'inputs' boards (power, VGA in, S-Video in, TV in) and a fourth circuit board whose purpose is partially unknown to me. These 4 panels are all cut larger than need be, and will be trimmed to size when the time is right.

The LCD frame and circuit board panels:

Click to view attachment

The other circuit board panels:

Click to view attachment

Here's them all together:

Click to view attachment

The Almost Complete Triplet Mount

The last thing I did this weekend was complete the triplet box. All I had left to do was cut a small piece to wedge into the opening of the front of the box, and glue the final panel of the box into place.

I didn't take very good pics here to illustrate the work I've done. But I'll post one or two anyway.

I should say that this still isn't completed, the front panel still needs to be glued on, and then sanded for a nice flush finish. However, I can't do this until I've properly disassembled the triplet to clean it thoroughly - there is dust on the inside, but thankfully no scratches.

Here's how it'll look until the lens gets cleaned:

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Well, that's it.

Tonight I'd like to build the light box, maybe even do a test fire of the bulb - probably not though.

I ordered my Rosco IR/UV shield last friday, it should arrive this weekend and I can then build it into the front of the light box. I've been working on some ideas for this, and I think I've got one that will allow me to block as much unwanted light as possible. I'm too lazy right now to try and describe it though, I will try later - maybe with a diagram.

I've used nothing but a jigsaw, sandpaper and glue so far. Since this is almost the full extent of my tools at this point, hopefully I won't need anything else anytime soon.

Dave

One last problem...

As I cut and assembled this weekend, I realized I might have a problem on my hands. The circuit boards attached to the LCD are required to sit on the same side of the LCD as the fresnel lenses. But my lenses are bigger than the LCD (the frame for them even more so), so I don't know that I'll be able to fit everything in there without cutting the fresnels again - then remake the frames. The side control board is small, probably only extends about 2cm max from the plane of the LCD, so I don't have to worry too much about that one. But the top control board is bigger and needs to be able to sit above the fresnels for all the optics to properly line up.

I guess I won't find out until I actually mount the LCD to the frames, I've got my fingers crossed.

Dave

The Light Box Begins

I spent the last two nights trying to put together the light box. I have some pics of my progress.

Here is what I have so far:

Click to view attachment

I stole the idea directly from Pun15her (thnx Pun for the good thinking).

There are 'identical' supports which hold the tube of rolled steel (22 grade) in place. I say 'identical' because my wood working skills are not yet at the point where I can create 2 simple items which are actually the same. After I cut the 4 supports I clamped them together and spent a lot of time sanding them all into roughly the same shape.

The steel itself was a pain to roll up. I bought a sheet of 12" x 24", cut off about 6" and rolled up the rest by bending the sheet around a rolling pin. Then I used my hands to bend it some more until it was almost cylindrical, then I shoved it into the 4 supports.

The dimensions of the cylinder are roughly 12.5cm in diameter, 30cm in length. The supports are about 15.25cm tall and about 14.5 cm wide. The two end supports are cut from 1/2" mdf, the inner two, 1/4" inch. They may or may not remain in this configuration.

What needs to be done at this point is build the mount for the bulb, attach it (temporarily) to the light box, and determine where and what size of hole needs to be cut in the steel cylinder to allow light to escape.

The reflector position will then also be determined. I also need to build the mount for the reflector: I have already accumulated a few items I think I can use.

I also need to get a hold of a couple of threaded rods and use them to hold the supports at apropriate distances to one another along the length of the cylinder. Finally, I need to screw the cylinder itself shut.

One last pic:

Click to view attachment

Dave

im sorry to enter in your plog this wy ... but i look know thw hami ande i need some help ...
i don´t know what to think ... when i plug mi hami on mi pc (vido card geforce4 ti 4200 msi ) the hami led turns red and lcd shows nothing ,,,then some time later (when windows open´s) i got a message of no signal...

i´v already turn my pc resolution to 800x600 at 60hz and 16bit and re estart it plug hami ... but it still not working...

but when i plug my hami in an old pc with onboard video card it works well ... shows DOS and windows .... in good qualit ...

please ... any one got an idea to do this lcd work in my pc ?

only thing i can think is the hami is not compatible with mi video card ... plese ... help me....


tanks you all and sorry about my inglesh im not american....

Well, I don't have much experience with these monitors... But, I experience something similar with my own.

When the LCD is properly connected to the PC and powered on the LED light is green. But there are times when my hami is non-responsive (during use of the control panel in windows for example), and that LED goes red. Sometimes when I power it on, it will display the signal from the PC, but the LED will stay red rather than green. I don't know why this is, perhaps someone with more technical experience with these Hami's could comment. All in all, I feel like this is a very finicky LCD.

It very well could be the video card is causing the issue, as you suggest. It is a good sign that the monitor will run with an old PC (atleast the Hami isn't altogether defective). You could try taking it to a friend's house to see if it will run on their PC. I know that when I display a resolution at a frequency the Hami cannot handle it does exactly as you describe (red LED, eventually no signal message). It could be the signal your video card sends the Hami is not recognized by the LCD's hardware...

I'm not sure I've shed any light on this for you. Again, I'd recommend trying the LCD with different video cards to see what kind of a compatability issue you may be dealing with.

Good luck, and let me know what comes of it...

Dave

My girlfriend has started refering to this project as my 'Mistress'.

Even less uncommon, I'm anxious to finish this PJ so that I can move on to the second one . I'm already thinking about ceiling mounts and condensors, widescreens and lens shifting, high res LCDs and huge triplets

I still havn't even finished my first one .

The Vertical Fold Design

I still can't decide if I really want a horizontal fold.

What appeals to me about this style is the small size... But with the Ushio bulb I have, and the elec. ballast, it seems like the enclosure will end up looking pretty large.

If I'm just going to end up with a large enclosure anyway, why not just fold vertically and atleast get a small foot print?

So, a few minutes with CADStd and here's what I came up with:

Click to view attachment

I think it looks cool. I plan to mount the ballast at the bottom front of the enclosure (under the light box). So this area will need to be widened for it to fit, which should help add a little balance to this `50cm tall beast.

The fold is 55' at 215mm from the focal point of the field fresnel. It's a little tight, but I think it'll go. I just need to be sure that the LCD frame will not block the reflected light path (which will be a bit smaller than drawn).

I'll try to get something in 3D up to give a better idea of what this will look like.

Dave

Here are a couple of 3D interpretations.

(this one is too fat and short to have the correct proportions)
Click to view attachment

(this one has much better proportions, but something is still off)
Click to view attachment

Dave

If you haven't tried it yet, I'd suggest Google's Sketchup.

It's pretty sweet and easy to use.

Probably pretty good advice. My MSPaint drawings are lame .

On another note, my 3" x 2.25" IR/UV filter arrived today from the good folks at Rosco.

I'm not sure there is anything to be said about it. It's a small piece of tempered glass with a coating to prevent IR and UV from passing.

It has a maximum continuous operating temperature of 200'C so I think I will probably get some air going across it when the bulb is running (It will be about 7-8 cm from the bulb arc - pretty close).

Dave

The Updated Horizontal Fold Design

Alright, no building updates today, just more design garb..

The vertical fold is once again no more. It would end up being too tall, too long, and not all that wide. I think it would look strange, and be prone to tipping.

So, the horizontal fold is back!

I was going through my parts last night and I think I will mount the ballast externally. Afterall, it looks pretty serious, and it would hint at the nature of the components on the inside of the enclosure... Or something like this.

Now that the ballast doesn't need to be inside the box anymore, I could 'tighten' things up a bit.

Here's the updated CAD (edit: updated, updated CAD):

Click to view attachment

JPEG's really make these diagrams look terrible. I've tried to use more color, but they still look bad.

Oh well, this model now has the panels drawn in (the enclosure walls that is), as well as all of the wood panels used on the interior. Also of note, the LCD panel has been moved 1cm closer to the bulb, and the fresnels 2cm closer to the bulb. I is my understanding that optimal brightness is achieved when the 220mm collimator is about 200mm from the bulb arc. The fresnels are mounted to a 'unit' that will be distance adjustable to the bulb, so hopefully I'll be able to figure this out for myself.

The cooling solution has yet to be decided upon. I 'know' I will have a 120mm directly above the bulb arc, and atleast 1 80mm used to cool the LCD. There may or may not be a second 80mm for the LCD or perhaps the ballast. I've got some thinking to do..

Dave

Potential Cooling Solution Part 2

Now for the cooling of this box..

The first major compartment is the light tunnel. I plan to place one 120mm fan directly above the bulb arc. Intake will be through 2 holes above and below the IR/UV shield, cooling the glass in the process. However, I need to figure out where the air will be coming from, ie. my main intakes.

I had previously thought about using only 1 main intake, and one exhaust with a air path from the rear of the PJ, across the LCD, across the IR/UV shield, past the bulb and through the 120mm fan. But I'm not sure if this is the best approach, as it depends on the fresnels for creating an air-tight seal, which I don't know will be possible.

So, perhaps I will do something like this:

Click to view attachment

For this diagram, and the two that follow, the white sqaures represent fans blowing vertically (above is a 120mm, or supposed to be). The white rectangles represent fans blowing horizontally. I've tried to draw arrows in the blue air flow to illustrate which direction things are going. All fans will act as exhausts. Openings in the side of the enclosure are meant to indicate an intake.

So, the intake is at the rear (top of diagram), the air gets sucked across the IR/UV shield, past the bulb and is blown out vertically.

Next up, the LCD cooling.

I'd prefer no fans at the front of my PJ (I didn't want any intakes either, but...). I've got in this diagram an 80mm fan, placed just behind the LCD, blowing exhaust towards the rear. The intake is at the front of the PJ.

This setup still relies on the fresnels as an air seal.

I am aware that part of my exhaust from the LCD cooling will get sucked back into the cooling circuit for the bulb - I am not concerned. The exhaust from the LCD shouldn't be too hot, and still much cooler than the bulb and IR/UV filter will be.

Diagram:

Click to view attachment

I may need to cool the ballast. I was thinking a good solution to this problem would be to place an intake where the ballast itself is attached. That way, air will be drawn into the projector, but first will have to pass over the ballast.

The 120mm fan will cool the bulb, however, the light tunnel itself will probably get fairly hot, and so I think I should have some kind of cooling for it aswell.

Here's what I was thinking:

Click to view attachment

That should illustrate what I was thinking. It will likely be an 80mm fan doing the dirty work.

The light tunnel itself (the stell cylinder) will be sitting inside a box within the enclosure. The 120mm fan will only cool inside the light tunnel (it will be sealed off to do just this), so the 80mm will remove heat radiated by the steel, while also cooling the ballast.

I may or may not use this extra 80mm fan. I have yet to decide

Maybe I'll do some more building tonight,

Dave

One last thing I forgot to mention.

I bought an FS mirror from an ebay seller for $14 CAD, too bad shipping almost matches this amount.. It is 6.25" x 7.25" x .125", just about perfect for my box.

I expect it to arrive sometime this week.

Then, all I will need are the fans, and all of the stuff required for wiring (including a lot of reading).

Dave

Are we looking down from the top of the PJ?

If so I don't follow how the hot air is going to make its way out the "side" of the PJ.
Or is that an intake?

Edit: Great design!

Thanks PLJack! It has taken about 2 months of wavering between different ideas to get this far. This PJ will not fall victim to my own impatience, unlike my last .

Yes, the diagram is a top-down perspective. I realize now that I didn't label anything. I will go back and edit my posts to make things a little bit more obvious.

At the rear of the PJ (top of diagram), there is an exhaust fan (the white rectangle) which will blow towards the rear. There is an intake for this exhaust at the front of the PJ.

At the right side of the PJ (right of diagram), there are 2 fans, a 120mm and an 80mm (the white sqaures) which are aimed vertically. They will exhaust heat from the light box. There are two intakes, one for each of these fans.

For the 120mm fan, there is an intake at the rear of the PJ. Air from this intake will be sucked past the IR/UV shield (opening above/below it), through the light tunnel and out the top of the enclosure through the 120mm fan.

The intake for the 80mm fan is essentially a hole on the right side of the PJ. The idea I was thinking of was to cover this intake partially with the ballast, essentially forcing air over the ballast as it enters the PJ. I no longer think I'll be using this idea.

I should probably say that these drawings are just potential cooling solutions, and there is much refinement to be done to these designs. After looking at them again briefly, I think the LCD cooling is fine, although the light box needs a lot more thought.

Back to the drawing board..

Dave

The 'Putting an End to Unwanted Light' Design

More diagrams...

Here's how I plan to control the light entering the collimator fresnel. It is a 3 level approach.

This diagram is a horizontal cross section of the PJ, viewed from the front. The diagram shows the fresnel sled adjusted to it's extremes.

Click to view attachment

Arggg, the blues are impossible to see unless you enlarge the pic...

The initial light blocking occurs with the light tunnel (drawn as the blue circle), it will block 90% of the light not destined for the collimator.

Just outside the light tunnel, before the IR/UV filter (green rectangle), there is the first set of light blockers (blue vertical lines). They consist of pieces of steel cut from left overs from the light tunnel. They block any light the light tunnel does not. Any light that gets past this point will pass through the IR/UV filter.

The final set of light blockers are postitioned after the IR/UV filter and before the collimator (drawn as, again, the blue vertical lines). Cut from the steel sheet, this will be adjustable to the light source. This way, when the fresnel mount is moved, this final light blocker will be able to move with it. This will allow a nice rectangle of light, just the right size, to enter the collimator, no matter how far it is from the light source.

Dave

These #$%!% FFC's

I don't know what I'm doing. Seriously, I can not figure out these FFC extensions for the life of me.

I've stumbled across the idea that there are OS (opposite side) FFC's and SS (same side) FFC's. Apparantly the Hami uses the OS type.

So I had a look at the extensions LL sent me, they are supposed to be SS. The Hami's, from what I've been told, are OS. They look identical.

Here's a pic of the end. This is the bottom side:

Click to view attachment

Now here's the top:

Click to view attachment

I would think it is the bottom sides that need to be in contact. Right??

The only difference between the SS and OS FFC seems to be that the on the OS (the ones in the Hami) the metal exposed is on the top on one end, and on the bottom on the other. I don't think this should prevent me from using these extensions... As long as the proper contact is made, right??

The other issue I have with these things is the two little connectors I got with the extensions from LL. I bought a 20pin and a 40pin, so I got 2 zif connectors (I think this is what they're called).

Here they are:

Click to view attachment

I have no idea what to do with these. The larger one is for the 40 pin. I tried to see if the extension would fit into it, but I couldn't see how it's supposed to get in there, let alone get 2 FFCs in there at the same time.

Some help would be appreciated from anyone whose used these little things.

Dave

One last pic to show the difference between the OS and the SS (sorry for the fuzz, I would make a poor surgeon).

Click to view attachment

You can see the FFC cables attached to the Hami have the blue plastic on opposite sides of the cables on either end. The LL extensions has the blue stuff on the same side on either end. I suppose this is the difference between same side and opposite side.

I should still be able to use these, right??

Dave