Hey everyone,

I am new here. I am curently working on building three 15" projecters That i will be connecting together with a triplehead2go. I plan on using one large screen that curves 45 degrees on each side for an emersive experience. I just found this site and it is going a long way in helping me as i was saving to buy three store bought high quality projecters and now i already have enough to acomplish my goal. If anyone has experience or has already done this i would apreciate any advice you could give.

Here are some pictures of the raceing simulater i built. It has a fully adjustable seat from an astro van that worked perfectly. I cant wait to use it with my three projecters. Just wanted to show it off

That's pretty cool. I'd love to have room to set up something like that.

It's gotta have a low WAF, though.

thats badass. I always want to build a racing simulator chair but then I need to remind myself I don't play any racing games.. but then I tell myself well thats because I don't have a simulator!

wow that momo wheel is available for less than $80! and I have plenty of old car seats.. HRM!!

You should definetly build one then. its incredibly cheap and easy. i recomend a van seat though if you got one, as it has a pedistle it sits on and mounts symetricly,where a car seat would mount directly to the floor with not so symetricle mounts ,a truck seat might be the same.Get some pvc and misc elbows and tees .I used a couple of peices of press board to mount the pedals and the wheel to.

Here are some pics of the 3d model i made of my plans. I am curious if the crossing of the projecter image projection is an issue or if i need to stagger them to avoid this.

it's a cool idea but it's very hard to pull off. Matching up the edges perfectly takes some work. Good luck though.

I figure if i cant get them acceptably aligned,wich im going to work very hard to accomplish, i can just seperate the screens slightly so its not so noticable.The triplehead2go is designed for three lcd moniters that would normaly have about a 3/4"- 1" gap between screens anyway.I would rather get them alligned and see what adding curved bends would look like.
I cant wait to get my parts in the mail to build my first projecter. I purchased a NEC MultiSync 15" LCD 1560M on ebay.I plan on building this first one> then buying 3 matching high quality,but hopefully inexpensive 15" or 17" moniters.(If any one would like to reccomend a certain one for my application i would be much appreciating).
By the wat has anyone noticed that the models most availiable on ebay have ffc issues and the ones that dont never seem to go for very chaep? I just was wondering if its from people doing this or just a coincedence.

how would you run the 3 monitors at once? do they have video cards that can do this?

the matrox triplehead2go does all the work.. you only need 1 video card with VGA out.

what PC games are compatible with that logitech wheel? Is that the PC or the PS2 version?

It is the PC version, So all PC driving games are compatable. If the game dos not work with force feedback. you can calibrate the force feedback from the logitach software.

I looked at some reviews at circuit city and it seemed people were having problems finding games 'compatible' with the pedals? people said they were using it without the pedals for a lot of games.

i wonder what games they were talking about.are you sure its not the ps2. Every racing game i have tried workes spectacular.In fact a majority have been set up for the wheel from the get go .others have the abilty to change the contol settings.So a little tweeking and your good to go.Maybe they mean games like GTA, as ive never tried it with those kind of games.

I have played Need for speed underground 1-2, NFS most wanted, Flat out 1-2, GTR 1-2 , Toca 2-3 (i think or is 1-2), Midnight club 1, and some really bad european rally simulator. All of them worked flawlessly with the wheel and pedals I think that any of the good race games are going to be copatable with this wheel.

sounds good! I really want to get behind the wheel and play some GTR 2 Wish they made gran turismo for PC

Gran tourismo would be cool. I gotta say though those GTR games are a little too realistic for me. Its hard to even start the engine let alone race the car. I end up pulling my hair out for a while before I can have any fun with those games.

yes I've heard they are very realistic.. but I race cars for real so I'm interested in checking it out

Right on. what class do you race?

used to race in SCCA SARRC HP (road racing), but now I've relegated myself to Solo I and II nothing spectacular.

Tom's Hardware did a review of this device, check it out here

Hey thanks for the info, sounds like it will work perfectly with my system and for what i want to do. I cant wait to fire up oblivion. Its funny, on there review they are comparing it with gaming on a 30" moniter. I already have a 52" moniter(hd rear projection tv) and im tying to get an 18' long moniter. and they were complaining about having to look around on 3 17" moniters. Hehe .As far as im conserned it should give me periphial views to increse the immersion and allow me to turn my head and look. or i can always turn my character to look at things as usual. Racing games will seem like your actually there especially ones where you can view from inside the car.

This should be a vary intresting project, I had to go to matrox triplehead2go site to see how you would accomplish the the panarama vision view, you my want to consider only using one light source since our projector are based on focusing on the light source and by doeing so increasing the lamp size wouldn't be such a problem because your inclosure would be bigger,if I had somewhere to project this I would have to take on the challange myself but I,ll have to wait to see yours good luck.

RR

No problem. I'm really looking forward to your results. I'll be honest, I'm not a gamer (I bought Doom3 when it came out really just for nostalgia) but if this turns out 1/2 as good as it looks in concept, I may just have to start!

I considered the one light source option. The problem i ran into is that for that to work the lcd screens would have to be placed next to eachother at a 45 degree angle for the light source to be directly in the middle of each fresnel lens. wich would be great exept i wouldnt be able to pull the projector back far enough to line the screens up, as it woulld have a fixed position very close to the screen.

If anyone has any thoughts on how i could actualy acomplish it that would be awsome. i woulld love to use 1 verticle 1000 watt for all three.As i see it though even if i could place the lcd's at a shallower angle to pull the projecter back i would experience horizontal keystoning.

please prove me wrong about this

Got my lcd and my LL products today. stripped down the NEC 1560m. only to find an ffc issue that its not supposed to have. here are some pics



easy tear down



oops ffc



I am trying to locate an extension. it is a 16 pin .05mm . wich digikey does not seem to carry.
This moniter should have its ffc issue on the index changed from no to yes.

Twisted, looks like a great project! I have a MOMO wheel too, and I love it.

For your LCD panel, a 16pin 0.5mm pitch extender would work for that FFC I think. Also, it looks like the same panel I use, so when you get to the AG strip point (if you haven't already), a 3 hour paper towel soak did the trick for me and for Conker ... who also has the same panel.

I also found I could slide the panel back into the thin metal frame of the backlight and use the thin black frame to keep it in place. With a little gentle pressure, the whole thing can be made stable by using two of the bronze screws put back into the lined up holes.

As far as the triple projection approach, I had started designing for this as well as a workstation solution. BIG desktop. One possibility I thought of was using a single bulb lighting 3 lcd panels by using all of the "sphere" of light leaving the lamp. Don't know if it would work or be a major b**ch to align, but with the right folds maybe...?

Thanks for the info. Someone finally told me LL sells the extension, DUH. as far as the one light source , as i said earlier in my plog, i would love to do that, but i cant figure a feasable way of accomplishing it. Unless i used som crazy mirror system.like you said lineng that up could be a nightmare. I could put the lcds next to eachother at a 45 degree angle and mount the light verticly right in the middle of them, but my projecter would end up about 4 feet from my screens to line them up. I am not ruling the idea out though as it would save money and energy for sure, as well as look damn cool. It might be a little on the heavy side though.

I looked at this idea some more and came up with this model of a three way one light source projector. .Tell me what you think. is this feasable?















I know some of the distances are wrong. when i get done with my first basic projector i will have a better idea of geomtry i need.

heres the projector lined up with the screens. the projector is 10 feet from the screens, the guy is 8 feet

dude! great plog! i like the idea of one bulb/box for all three PJ's. I think having only one box may make it hard to adjust things like screen size or angle. but if you make many parts adjustable this might not be a big problem. Have you read the plog about the "stereo project". little different then what you are trying to do but last time i checked he was talking about trying to focus one bulb onto 2 lcds. you two might be able to share ideas.

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?s...st&p=174599

Nice rendering!

I have been thinking about this approach a bunch, but unfortunately if I went after it right now, the wife would kill me, given the state of her bedroom. lol

Picking the right lamp and placement of the mogul and electronics will be tricky. Getting it aligned and not casting a shadow is the key I think. But, once you get the light cones figured out and the best choice of reflectors, I think your box will actually be pretty easy. You aren't having to overlay three images like a CRT projector, only line them up right. And, one side benefit ... it seems like the machine would run cooler. Using three times the light of the lamp than a basic setup, I would think more of the IR energy would be exiting the box, rather than being absorbed by flashing or black paint.

I can pretty much guarantee you would be a hall of famer.

One other possibility, if a times 3 expenditure on panels and fresnels makes you wince ...

Maybe get a higher watt/output bulb setup going, then put the light through a larger high resolution single LCD with a tweaked aspect ratio and game settings. Have the game output in a horizontal aspect equal to your combined triple screens and matte out the top and bottom bars. Then, using magic and mirrors split the image into three equal parts either prior to the triplet (requiring three triplets) or afterwards.

Great idea, but it actually sounds more complex than what i am already doing. Also a large high quality lcd would cost as much or more as 2 more 15" lcds. I wish i could use magic. That would be the coolest.

Got my lcd mounted up today i mounte using the front of the moniter case and the metal backlight mount frame as was suggested by weldonib. though i dont think i did exactly how he suggested. hers some pics






I cleaned the lcd right after mounting it and there was a little piece of something on my lens cloth. i managed to ut a big zig zag scratch in it, im not sure if you can see it on the pics. hopehfully it wont show when i use it or i will be upgrading my polarizer i guess.

I then atached the front frensel to the moniter fram also using a peic of some kind of alluminum door screen frame or something. i have no idea what it was when i started with it. the frensel auto keystones like the hass. i left some room for adjustment. here are some pics of that







im going to let the bottom of the moniter mount hang out the bottom of the projector so ican use the original button mounts.Im mounting it to the ceiling so it should make them easy access. It would give me a headphone jack on the projector also though im not sure i would use it.

I finally got done with my initial projector. Got a little sidetracked with Guild Wars, But im writing this using the projector on my wall right now. It looks Amazing.I have got it set to a 9' width and it looks like my triple projecter will have to be 7' wide each for a 21' total width. I didnt really log alot of the projector build as it is just a simple projector and this is really a Htlog. Here are a few pics of the finished projector. I ended up using a large part of the original moniter in the build.

I cut a cross in the moniter sheild then folded the corners back and fit the reflector in like jewel



The sheild is attached to the steel plate from the back of the moniter and serves as a heat sheild and light blocker




LCD and fresnels in place. Auto keystone working nicely



Lens mounted with felt weatherstripping so i can adjust focus



Finished with towels to block the light. it will probably stay like this for a while. i need to play with it more than i want to finish it.



the NEC moniter i used worked like dream from begining to end once i figured out ffc aint no big deal. The AG stripped in a couple hours it self adjusts so i havnt had to mess with the moniter conrols at all. Plus i was able to use many parts from the case to make it easier to build.

All in all i gotta say this was a fun and easy project i highly reccomend to everyone.Whoever first concieved of this is super cool number one.

Now on to the triple. anyone know where i can get my hands on three identicle high quality 15-15.4" moniters real cheap. Also someone on here showed a picture of a 1200 watt movie projector bulb in its reflecter but i cant find it again and thats the kind of setup im going to need.

Ebay had a bunch the Eizo 15" L365 from Tech-Mart ... all for less than $90 I think. That is where I got mine, and I am pretty happy with it. 1024x768.

theres a couple inexpensive 15.4" WS 1280x800 monitors floating around in recent threads.. would be a good choice IMO

3 screens? I hope you have a HUGE room to put that in. You'll need at least 20 feet wide area.

Doable... but...

I live at my studio. you could say i live in a studio in a studio. its one large room

Triple Projector cost list

updated 1/19/07



3 LL S15fresnelkits 34.99 ea+shipping................104.97
2 izzotek 300fl triplet 80.00ea inc/ship................160.00
1 LL 320fl triplet 30.00ea+ship.............................30.00
1 power cable and socket 5.00..............................5.00
2 anchor reflectors 15.00ea inc/ship.....................30.00
2 LL 120mm Ball Bearing Fan 7.99 ea+ship...........15.98
1 goodwill ac adapter(used) 2.00.........................2.00
2 sheets XL10 15.00ea........................................30.00
3 15" LG LCD 225.00(used)inc/ship.....................225.00
1 triplhead2go 279.00........................................279.00
1 400 watt e-ballest,bulb,mogul(used)inc/ship......155.00
another bulb/ballest or mirror...................................?
another reflector......................................................?
4 3/8 thread stock 6.00ea....................................24.00
misc 3/8 nuts and washers...................................10.00
wood free.........................................................freebie

screen
2 wilsonart bright white 120 x 60 lamenent................?
misc 2x4's..............................................................?
total so far.......................................................1070.95

I redesigned my projector plan. It is all based on working measurements now. the screens are 80 x 60 ea. i moved the angle of the screens back to a 45 degree angle to take up less space. This is causing a problem in middle projector being to far from the screen as it is folded. I am going to see what it takes to change the throw distance on that. if i cant adjust it i could always use two lamps and just build an unfolded middle projector.that might end up happening as im not sure how much light i can get from the top of the lamp or if that reflector wouldnt be blocked by the others. here are some pics of the new triple

I'll just throw this out there.....

by the time you add up the money it's going to take to purchase 3 x triplets, sets of fresnel, lcds and whatever stress with build size, even lighting issues which will arise... i'd suggest you go for a wuxga 1080p pj and be done with it..... you could have a curved screen with the same if not more immersion; just by 'de-focusing' your triplet so it focuses on the entire curve of the screen.

This is contructive critism... but there is an extremly low chance you will get anywhere near even lighting; on all three screens. I dont know if you relise how big that thing is going to be... i would not want to be anywhere near it if it was to come down !!

KISS keep is simple stupid < engineers phrase and it holds true..... just think about the above and maybe ask other members for some advise....

Again this was not to flame you, but to try and help..... Good luck and i look forward to seeing some result which ever path you take !!!

I have got to say that what you've figured out is definitely amazing. Really I
don't see much of a problem with using one light except for that bottom panel since
we waste so much light anyway. I would put some kind of blind between the top
two outside of the light path to reduce reflection from the fresnel / panel interfering
with the other.

I have added up the cost here and its not bad. whatever happens ill have three projectors to mess with / give to people or whatever. as far as wuxga being the same. its not. the triplehead2go software actually works with the game software to increase the in game veiw width by 3x. so you are not just stretching out the veiw you actually see what wasnt there before.

Yeah ,like i said i may just have to go with 2 lights no biggie. thats a good suggestion, i see what your saying , a divider would fit right between the light cones down the middle.

i have finished my experiments to determine how to adjust the throw to the proper size to line up the images from the projector. It looks like using a 300fl triplet and moving the front fresnels forward 30mm is what i am going to do. i gotta get those 300fl triplets from france though, as far as i can tell. now i can put the sides on my current projector and mount it on the ceiling. ill be able to use those towels for there rightfull purpose again

I have been enjoyong the hell out of my 15" projector. I have been playing carbon with my simulator and the big screen really is awsome, its like being there. i have been using my simulator with my flight stick to play flight sim 10, wich is great with the projector, the graphics are unbeleivable, and you can fly around your home town or anywhere else an the planet. i have also been playing sid meyers railroads also, a very addictive game, alot of fun. then theres half life 2 & H2E1, this is a game experience every one should have on there projector, the best. once i get my camera to take a decent picture of the screen i will post some pics of my setup in action.

i really should change the name of my HTplog to "building the ultimate PC gaming room",i would if i knew how, since im not into consoles anymore. I am going to get my son the wii for christmas and im pretty excited to try out the wiimote though. i was thinking you could use the triple projector to play multi consoles just add two seats and three people all have there own big screen . great for HALO.

did you all know that next year microsoft is coming out with the first remote and light up multimedia keyboard ever. i didnt even relize they didnt exsist untill i tried to buy one. it sound pretty cool. it auto adjust to the ambient lite and auto turns on its lights when your near it. also sound exspensive though.

enough rambeling on

so it turns out wilsonart laminent comes in 60" x 120". its exact size is 61" by 121 1/2" . x2 is a screen 61" tall by 243" wide wich fits the exact deminsions of my triple projector projection if each projector is projecting an 61" inch tall image, and from what ive read the white lamenent gives a realy nice picture.
that lead me to thinking about curving the screen into a semi circle then curving the fesnels to match the focus, if thats even possable. it seems that would probably widen the image. hendo mentioned something about defocusing the triplet?
its a neat idea ,a full hemisphere of image. you could just use it as your futuristic computer moniter. you sure could have a lot of windows open at one time. the ultimate in multitasking.

If you want to do a curved screen, maybe you could experiment a bit with you a curved convex mirror in your fold path? Maybe one of those big security mirror spheres some people use for panaromic images?

I am thinking that you would get the same results bending the frensel lens as using a curved mirror. i guess the diffference would be that a mirror could be place after the triplet. but i have no idea. i will have to mess with it. Maybe hendo will elaberate on the defocusing technique. didnt older analog projectors use a slightly curved screen?

I just ordered a logitech G25 racing wheel I picked up GTR2 last week and it seems pretty awesome (keyboard control stinks though of course). Also, so many racing games on the PS2 (compatible w/ pc and ps2).. I should pick up gran turismo 4.