Hello world.

Well, although I don't have a lot of substance for this PLOG just yet, hopefully in the months to come (yes months, not weeks) I'll have some good stuff and maybe... just maybe... a completed projector! It might take a while because seeing as I just bought a house, car, and engagement ring all within the past year or so, funds are a bit on the low side. On top of that, there are other financial distractions coming my way such as a backpacking trip across Europe for the entire month of May 2007, and the Nintendo Wii which keeps eating away at my wallet. What I'm trying to say is that it will be a slow build.

Anyway...

The plan is to build a small sized projector using the 10.6" 1280x768 pixel panel and controller from Johnzo's Group Buy. I was one of the first brave souls to dive in and as a result I ended up with the RTD controller which does not accept component inputs. Nothing is etched in stone just yet so I allow myself room to be flexible in the build and parts selection.

I plan to connect my modded xbox running XBMC for watching movies and for watching tv episodes I don't get to catch live. I have a PlayStation2 that will be connected for the sole reason of playing Guitar Hero 1 & 2. The Nintendo Wii will also likely be connected, although many games (like Wii Sports) that require you to stand will probably not work too well as I'm sure someone will be blocking the light path while boxing or doing something silly-looking. I will also try to connect my PC via DVI or VGA in order to play Day of Defeat: Source but I might just get used to using the PC for movies too (FFDSHOW post processing perhaps) I may connect the TV cable to the controller to watch SD analog TV.

Here's the parts list...

Stuff I have purchased:

10.6" LCD Kit (1280x768 pixel native resolution)
MST Controller with HDMI and HDCP!
18" Beseler Triplet
Philips MasterColor CDM-TD 150W 942
4.5" diameter condenser lens with 6.5" FL
Lumenlab Pro Relfector
Lumenlab FS Mirror
Lumenlab 220mm 0.5mm pitch rear fresnel
550mm 0.2mm pitch front fresnel
RX7s base for lamp
Beer
150W SOLA magnetic ballast + ignitor + cap. Bought from fellow canuck LL member -=Shiver=- for $102 CDN Shipped.
A couple of *quiet* (hopefully!) 120mm case fans
Attic Thermostat


Stuff I still need to purchase:

Enclosure materials (MDF most likely)
Electrical materials
More beer


Other HT-Related Stuff:
Spherex XBOX 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers. - Purchased $198 CDN shipped
Da-Lite 72"x96" High Power Screen (2.8 Gain) - Purchased $318 CDN shipped

<more stuff goes here later>

So last night I took a plunge and ordered the Osram Powerball HCI-TS 150W NDL from a site in the UK called http://www.commercial-lamps.co.uk. I have been emailing a nice lady named Jody who works there and she tells me that she can acquire the Osram model specifically. On their website, they list a generic 150W Ceramic Metal Halide, and Jody informs me that they can get the CDM-TD (by Philips), HCI-TS (Osram), and some other model codenamed CMI and usually just ship out whichever model they have in at the time. The price was £36.43 (including VAT) and shipping to Canada via regular Post was only £6.00. After conversions, this worked out to about $100 Canadian for just the lamp alone. However, any Canadian source for the Osram has been about 50% more so this seems reasonable enough. When I pass through Berlin during my european vacation, I plan to stop by a lighting store and pick up another as they seem to go for ~20-30 EURO which works out to ~30-40 bucks Canadian.

So now the search is on to find a compatible magnetic ballast (with ignitor and cap) that runs on 120AC for a reasonable price, and I guess some rx7s mounts or whatever they're called.

I have been looking around for 150's recently,and am having fun(? ) trying to find something a little special.Man that seems a little expensive!! And I even live in the UK!
I have been looking at issotek's 150w g12 setup.
Good luck infinityPlusOne.

Well, not sure if it runs on 120ac, but I bought this ballast.
Magnetic Ballast

That's the very ballast I picked up from 1000bulbs.com (they're in my neighborhood) for $42. It lights my CDM 150W every time and has 120, 170, 240 volt taps. Keep it well cooled as the ballast runs hot.

Cool. Thanks for the link.

I've heard that not all 150W ceramics are interchangeable with any old 150W capable ballast. Hypothetical example being that if a 150W CDM-TD works great on ballast A, the HCI-TS may not work on it and might require ballast B. I guess I'll have to do a little research before I drop any more cash on something that may not work with the Powerball. My guess is that it would work, but I want to be sure first.

that's a nice price for a good small ballast..and they've got a 150w bulb for $13!!! You could get your whole light setup for about $80 (assuming mogul base is approx. $10)...I wish I didn't have this huge hulking 400w coil ballast now that I want to go to the small panel .

It is a good price. However, the 150w bulb for $13 isn't an Osram Powerball, nor a Philips CDM. The ceramic metal halides like the Osram and Philips both have UV-Stop in the glass lamp casing and produce significantly less heat than a 150W HQI (quartz) lamp which means that I won't need lexan for UV blocking nor for heat shielding purposes. Basically the reasons to get it are because it is bright, low-heat, long-lasting lamp with good colour rendering.

I am looking into getting one of these:
Om pak 150w 240v Remote Gear Box

Here is a list of bulbs that should work with it,suggests that all these should work with the same ballasts...
tridonicatco lamp list
Cheers P

how much are those bulbs?

I bought a 150w powerball & mag ballast a while ago from a german site.... it included everything you needed to get going, It's still sat in a box somewhere & will no doubt get dusted off when I take the plunge for a 10.6.

I can't remember the site as it was just an IP address but I found it in elkens monster 150w thread. It cost me about £65 delivered to the UK.


EDIT:
Found it here: http://62.75.177.102/shop2/index.php?user=...=75&skat=25

That's a great deal for the whole set. Unfortunately I believe I have tried contacting them and they told me they "don't ship to Kanada".

Well I was going to post a few SketchUp models showing throw and the dimensions of area in my basement where the "Home Theater" is going to live. However I made them before I made up my mind to go with the 10.6 so they will need some adjusting. Just doing some rough estimates, if I want to have it as a long-throw projecting from behind me I might have to use the standard triplet. I think my 18" beseler might make the projected image smaller than I desire. Maybe tomorrow night I'm gonna have to bust out the tape measure, fire up FocalCalc, and SketchUp my basement. SketchUp is pretty neat. I don't have any 3D modeling skills so my diagrams are rather crude but they get the point across. Seeing people's 3D models of their projectors/triplets/controller boards/etc just make me drop my jaw in amazement. That stuff takes a fair bit of patience. Hopefully I'll have some of that tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'll point you guys to this French fellow's PLOG from the www.allinbox.com forums. He converted a vertical 15.4" 1280x800 MAG LCD projector setup to the RTD kit which he bought from www.izzotek.com. However if you notice when it is actually in his box, the controller is a different one that only accepts component and vga. This leads me to believe that he couldn't get component to work with a vga > component cable on the RTD2523B from Izzotek. However this is just speculation on my part as I don't believe he mentions it in the thread. Also to mention is that he gets some _permanent_ black marks on his screen from the heat from the 400W HQI bulb he was using. For the folks out there with 10.6 kits that plan to use high wattage bulbs (well, standard wattage I suppose) beware! Yoshuaspawn has already had a similar experience although I believe his black marks went away.
Finally he documents stripping the panel quite well. Again this is all in French and I didn't bother with Google Translate since I can understand it fairly decent. I spent kindergarten to grade 12 in the French Immersion program and although I've forgotten how to speak, I can still understand written and slow-talking French. Anyway, one of the main reasons for my pointing you readers out there to this guys projector is because I like the way he did it. Although it is definitely not a small, portable, box, it has nice design features (air ducting for heat exhaust eliminates light leaks) and a great looking WAF-approved cabinet. This could be the way I go with my build.

Couple Question for ya regarding that plog.

1. He got the black spot even with that enclosed lightbox?
2. On page 5 there is a drastic jump in contrast in the madagascar shots... whats that all about?

1. It seems that it was when he was playing around with distances (due to the smaller LCD) that the lightbox got too close to the LCD and he didn't notice the effects until afterwards. However he seems to think it is the polarizer. He did say that after he let the LCD cool down, he tried it again and the black marks remained. This makes sense if the polarizer was damaged due to the heat. Possibly the polar's adhesive glue being cooked?

2. He is playing with contrast levels and gamma on his PC. I'm not completely sure if it is mplayer's settings or the video card's that he's messing with though. He mentions that he got better contrast, but lost detail. The one with the zebra and the penguins. There appears to be a very slight amount of black crush on the darker photo. You cannot see the upper eyelid of the zebra, and the iris of the zebra is less pronounced. The grass looks much nicer however (IMO).

Gah... so I think I might need to reconsider using the 18" beseler triplet. The thing just has too much throw for this panel which is going to make the projected image too small. If I go with the standard lens, things work out much nicer. I think I want to throw from the opposite wall and am guessing a throw of about 156" which gets me approximately 125" diagonal projected image. That sounds sweet and the price of the standard triplet ain't bad either... I still have to do some SketchUp drawings but at least now I have a better idea.

Dear PLOG,

Well I added another piece to the puzzle today, although it isn't much (and might not be used). Anyway, I purchased a 10x10 piece of FS Mirror for $20 CDN from a fellow LumenLab member by the name of smartdude24. It turns out we both live in Winnipeg and although our meeting was a brief one (outside after a large snowfall), our exchange was quite pleasant. It is really nice to be able to talk to someone in person about building a projector. I tell others that I'm building a projector, but they don't really understand. Most people just say "wow, really?" and then "why?".

So this piece of mirror might possibly come in handy. One thing is for sure: it is of much better quality than the FS mirror I salvaged from the beseler vu-lyte II that I bought on ebay. If I do decide to get all fancy and go vertical folded, then this guy should come in handy. If not, well, maybe I'll mount it up on a wall somewhere.

So the next items that I think I will need to purchase in the near future are the ballast/ignitor/cap/rx7s base combo for my Powerball that will soon be in the mail and the standard S15 triplet. Other items down the line are a reflector, a condensor, and some fresnels.

That's all for now. Over and out.

iPO

And, lest one forget, their small-arc nature -- so in-keeping with our fresnel-optics...
Can you write that French-fellow to confirm why he substituted controller (and, whether he substituted-with the RTD2533/wuxga)? High-heat issues for these panels are best-addresed by lengthening rear-fresnel FL, and use of an appropriate pre-con, perhaps? But the unfortunate arc-sizing of most 250-400w bulbs rather counter-weigh their lumen-advantage...particularly with a high-rez small-panel like ours -- so suitable for small-case designs and a narrowed optics-field.
I believe our Sola MBall's will be compatible for most 150w-lamps of-interest (and bulb-listing from an EBallast might not be well-supportive of that theory?). [1000bulbs raised their price to 44.06, btw, maybe due sudden 'LL-effect'?<g>] YS&elken will also test Powerballs, and I the G12/CDM150SA-variant...but someone at LL needs to establish GB's through a Euro-member...so TopSpot's and others can be had without all the 'customs/shipping-issues' (particularly 'vexing' for the many-Canadians here).
Some of us may be testing EBallasts, as well...including a V-S from a stateside-vendor (who will ship to Canada). I, too, have been 'off-put' as far as experimenting with the more-expensive EBallasts with low-w ceramics (several lesser-amp EBall's failed-to-please, initially) -- but, it's tempting to find one that does 'mate well' to our-lamps...as V-S (who make decent ballasts in both-Magnetic and Electronic flavors) states:
"Advantages of VS Electronic Metal Halide Ballasts vs. Magnetic Ballasts
--Lamp color & lumen output regulation
A VS metal halide electronic ballast has less than ± 0.5% change in output power with a ±10% variation in input line voltage, and less than ± 2.0% change in output power over the full range of accepted ansi lamp voltages. the result is excellent color stability. A typical "magnetic-lag" ballast has more than ±15% variation in output power with a ±10% variation in input line voltage, and an additional ±20% change in
output power over the full range of accepted ANSI lamp voltages; resulting in very poor fixture to fixture color stability and consistency.
--Energy savings
A VS metal halide electronic ballast uses approximately 10% to 17% less energy than a " magnetic" ballast.
--Improved lumen maintenance
Typically, a VS metal halide electronic ballast extends lamp lumen maintenance from 5% to 15% versus a "magnetically" ballasted lamp.
--Small size & light weight
The VS metal halide electronic ballast family offers extremely small and lightweight designs compared to large, heavy magnetic ballasts.
--Heat losses
A VS metal halide electronic ballast has a higher efficiency and therefore much lower heat losses than magnetic ballasts.
--One piece assembly
The VS metal halide electronic ballast replaces the ballast, capacitor, and the ignitor of the "magnetic" ballast systems in one integrated unit.
--High power factor
A VS metal halide electronic ballast has a power factor greater than 0.95, much higher than that of a "magnetic" ballast.
--Quiet operation
The VS metal halide electronic ballasts are sound rated "A" for quiet operation in interior commercial applications."

Yes small arc! Thanks for mentioning it. It is indeed one of the reasons why I am going 150W Ceramic but left that out.



It's on my list of things to do



I keep hearing about the Sola mag ballast. Sounds promising. Originally, I had my heart set on an eBallast for pretty much all the reasons you listed. However upon reading through Elken's 150W Ceramic book-of-a-thread, it appears the best results came from mag ballasts. The eBallasts apparently flickered (which does not make sense to me). Perhaps you've made me rethink my ballast decision. More research will be required, although I might still just go with the mag due to cost.

The Sola is inexpensive, and well-'tested' for the 150's (albeit only rated at 1.64A@120v, and prolighting.com's Keystone-substitution at only 1.61A). The early-failures among EBall's had much to do with their 1.4A ratings(?)...[elken's thread-recommendation was for 1.8A].

Well Elken's recommendation for 1.8 Amps makes sense since that is what the Osram spec sheet for the Powerball reflects. I've pasted the info for the lamp from Osram's website.


EAN/ Product : 4050300784007
Product description: HCI-TS 150W/942 NDL PB RX7S-24 FS1
Miscellaneous: Further information and pictures available here
General Description
Base RX7s-24
ILCOS MD/UB-150/42/1A-H-RX7s24-24/132/P45
Recycling (WEEE) yes

Technical - Electrical Data
Lamp current in Amps 1.8 A
Lamp wattage in Watts 144 W
Luminous Efficacy in lm/W 99 lm/W
Main frequency in Hz 50 Hz
Rated wattage in Watts 150 W

Technical - Light Technical Data
Luminous output in lumen 14200 lm

Technical - Colors
Colour of the product clear
Colour rendering group 1A
Colour rendering index (Ra) >= 90
Colour temperature in Kelvin 4200 K

Technical - Geometries
Diameter in mm 24 mm
Distance a / LCL in mm 66 mm
Max. Length in mm 132 mm

Applications
Operating position p 45
PFC capacitor at 50 Hz µF 20 µF
System power consumption in Watts 170 W


And this is what it looks like for those that don't know...

Click to view attachment

Well, now that I've actually busted out the tape measure and re-measured things it seems that a 120" diagonal using a standard triplet might be too big for the room!

I've plunked some numbers into FocalCalc... Please let me know if there is something wrong with the numbers I have put in.

Click to view attachment

As you can see I'm doing these calculations based on using the 18" beseler triplet. 280mm is the diagonal of the panel according to Ozstang65's measurements. 10.6 equals 269.24mm so the 10.6 panel is really more like a 11.0275" panel. I'm sure 10.6 sounds better in marketing though.

But as far as putting in the other variables into the split config, I took a quick look for what others who used the 18" beseler were using as a fresnel focal length and it seems that a 550mm fresnel is used along with a 220mm collimator fresnel. To be honest, I haven't a clue what I'm doing in terms of fresnels. Apparently people recommend using a condenser lens in front of the lamp but I'm not really sure what FL condenser to use, and if I need to change the FL of my collimator fresnel if I go with a condenser. I need to read up I suppose.

At last! A SketchUp drawing of the basement where the projector will be er... projecting.

Click to view attachment

So this is based on the focalCalc calculations in the post above. Originally, I though that the 18" beseler would project too small an image. However it seems that although in the sketch it doesn't look all that imposing, in real life a projected image that is 80" wide is big enough for me.

So I have decided that I want to throw from the opposite wall. I figure the triplet will be approximately 18" away from the wall with the box built (most likely a vertical box) so throw will be 165" give or take a little.

The centre of the projected image is currently at about 52" from the ground. I got my fiancé to measure the height of me sitting on the couch and it is approximately 45" from the ground to the top of my head. That only leaves about 7" from the centre of the triplet to the top of my head assuming I were to sit directly below the triplet. However I am planning on having the seating area a few feet in front of the projector so I believe this will become a problem for me. If I do not incorporate some sort of keystone tilt/lens shift combo to bring the triplet higher off the ground, I may be projecting a portion of the image onto the back of my head!

Whoa that French dude that I linked you guys to has his own webpage that I didn't notice before. He has many many photos of his projector build. Here is the direct link to the photos and here's a link to the entire website. Very interesting... He even made his own motorized projection screen. Better yet, he designed his own projector controller board (not lcd controller board). Very impressive!

Sweet fancy Moses
Wow,
Thats great documentation. Thanks for that link IPO

Im one to talk, but when are you gonna have that many pics in your plog
Gotta catch up reading, but looks like your doing good so far

Check out the "PC portable moyenne tour"
Dont however try and right click on the link!
P

Thats priceless

So it seems he only pulled off the mirror layer then, or am i missing somthing?

He's a member here...

details in This Post

So he is! Well, I sent him an email in broken French pertaining to his reason for switching LCD controllers, but I see that he speaks English quite well and am now embarrassed by my poorly-written email. Oh well. Hopefully he will respond.



In completely unrelated news... I watched Idiocracy tonight. Man, I laughed my ass off. A great satire on where our world is heading. Mike Judge, the creator of Beavis and Butthead sure knows stupid. I giggled my face off the entire movie.

Once I gather up all my parts, I can start photo-documenting my build. If I started taking pictures now, all you would see is a lazy computer geek drinking beer and playing with his Wii. But I guess if I take pictures AFTER the build is complete they will look pretty much the same as the before shots except with a much larger screen.

Just a small update. Today I ordered the Pro Reflector from LumenLab's store. It is currently backordered, but I purchased one on reserve as they are expected to be back in stock on March 9th which means it should ship shortly after that. I see they have the standard triplet in stock again which is good news for those planning on using the S15 triplet in their 10.6" builds (or 15" builds).

Well I got a response back from the French guy who goes by Zeltron on these forums and at the allinbox.com forums. The best news is that he can speak English fairly well. There are still a few things that get lost in translation but for the most part he got his points across (without the help of Google Translate as I had used).

Apparently, his wife is Chinese (which might come in very handy) and they ordered a few other controllers from a Chinese source that have the latest firmware upgrades. One of them is most likely that board that had the component inputs that he swapped the RTD out for. He is sending them to a fellow at the Izzotek store who is arranging to be selling a new controller with the 10.6 kit that apparently has HDMI WITH HDCP. He said that in a few weeks Izzotek will be selling the new board so check that site frequently people!

As for the RTD board that I have and that he posted in a few of his pictures, he confirmed that the firmware from carpow's RTD boards was bad, but I am not clear if Izzotek sells the exact same board as Carpow with the same bad flash. He mentioned that he tried to acquire the tools to flash the board from the manufacturer as there are issues with the board downscaling a 1080p source (!?) but they charge much too much for these tools so he decided not to buy it. However the issue is now irrelevant since Izzotek is going to be shipping a different controller anyway that apparently "works".

He did ask me to provide him some pictures of my controller board with the "PCB Release and the reference of my board". He said that he can't remember if there is a way to show the firmware revision number in the OSD, but perhaps he has remembered since he sent me this email. I'll be emailing him with this info in a bit. Camera battery is charging.

Finally, he leaves me with some advice: "Be careful with (buying from) China because it's a real jungle !!!"

Zeltron seems to know his stuff. He (well, his wife) might very well be the people we have been looking for to better-communicate with Carpow.

Izzotek informed me they will not, under any circumstances, sell boards without panels...
You can tell him our Genesis was flashed for an Acer/17"/1024X768 monitor, and was made by TopTech in 2005, v.3.2. [Do a Google from MonInfo.exe and SoftMCCS info if the Acer panel# is required].
Can his wife get for us a contact with the Chinese-source that Izzotek is going to use for ANY of their 10.6-boards (or for any-other mainland source for controllers, including for 15.4/wuxga's ... HDCP or otherwise)?

Quick update. I ordered a pair of 6.5" FL condenser lenses (in case the first one cracks) from Surplus Shed. Big thanks to Pun15her and matzner for making me aware of the deal. $6 for a Pre-con??? How could I NOT buy two! Surplus Shed is shipping it to me via USPS for $5. So for about $20 CDN, I'm getting not one but TWO to use and abuse.

I sent Jody from Commercial-lamps.co.uk an email regarding my lamp the other day and she said it still hasn't arrived in their warehouse and this is due to Osram taking their sweet-ass time. No biggie though.

I never received a shipping confirmation from LL regarding the pro reflector I had ordered. I'll have to check on that.

So I still need to find a ballast. I will most likely go with the mag ballast from 1000bulbs.com

I also still need to buy some fresnels. From the looks of things, a 220 would work just fine, but perhaps a shorter FL fresnel would work better. I'm following a few 10.6 plogs right now and seeing as this is my first build, I would rather follow what others have been doing that is known to work. Maybe I'll do some experimentin' along the way.

yea, great deal on the precons! im gonna pick one up, but about the fresnels... a shorter FL makes for a smaller enclosure. I mean like, the 200mm FL would have to be 217mm away from triplet.. the 330 would have to be 351mm from triplet... big diffrence right?? Im considering getting the 220 FL from surplusshed along with precon, what do you think?

I don't think any one has cracked their condenser lens with the 150 watt lamp.

You still may want to cool it.

That is one of the best reasons to go with the smaller lamps.

I think I will want to invest in some fine pitch fresnels. I have read that with the smaller arc the powerball has, the fine pitch fresnels seem to be better suited for it. OTOH I can't remember WHY they're better. I just remember reading in Elken's thread that they were better.

AV, I'm thinking of incorporating some sort of wind tunnel into my light box assembly. I am thinking about attaching a flexible exhaust tube to one end of the wind tunnel in order to reduce (or eliminate altogether) any light leaks. It's all up in my head right now. I'll shake it out eventually.

Is _that_ what you call it...? <g>
I doubt smaller-than-220mm would be best _if_ using that pre-con (although 320mm may be a tad-long).
I started my testing with a fine-pich 220 rear-frez, and I'm 'less than impressed' with 'fine' (it may relate to my only front-frez for my 18"-Beseler...a scratched-up 550mm/.5-pitch, and/or the current split-setup...).
BTW, my Sola from 1000bulbs is very-quiet...just a small-hum (that may be unnoticeable if soft-mounted in a closed-PJ). I had expected a cacophony equal to a BuzzLightyear musical-intro if he spoke at a AIPAC-meeting (from all the beeotching in LL about MBalls). [Just keep your 'commons-common' when wiring...).
-=Shiver=-, when we are discussing different FL-choices appropriate, we aren't including the front-frez...which _must_ be a FL equivalent-or-near the FL of your triplet.
However, I'm having second-thoughts about the length required for the 550mm front-frez to support my 18"-Wii [I mean, 'triplet'! <g>] It is defeating the whole 'nice/small PJ' thingie, and I may try one of Carpow's triplet's (with matching 320mm FF)...and circumcise about 9" off PJ-length...

For the size of the arc and using a condenser lens ( It makes the arc look bigger to the fresnel) a .5mm pich should be fine and there about 8% brighter. The smaller spacing was needed for the supper short arc lamps.(around 2mm) For a non split setup you might want a finer pich for the front fresnel.

I have 8' of the 3" flex duct and 8" of the 4" to vent the air box if you want, It's free. ( I think they get $18 for a box of the stuf.) You will need about 6"

For the little baby lamp I don't see the need to make a box so much, you won't be having heat problems I would just put a 80mm fan blowing on the condenser right where it gets hot, but the duct does make for a way to let the heat out and not have light leaks. For a small slim box it might be a good answer.

Thanks AV. It sounds like I can get away with using a standard 220mm fresnel at the back (assuming I'm using a condenser) and then a 550mm fresnel to match my 18" Beseler triplet. I'm pretty sure I will be going vertical split. It looks like the 550mm fresnel only comes in 0.2mm pitch.

Why would I want a finer pitch for the front fresnel in a non-split setup? What optical qualities would I see/not see? A sharper image?

The finer pich will maks a lot smaller fresnel rings which you will see some times. In a split setup this means the finer fresnel can be places closer to the LCD and this will give better focus because the closer the fresnel is to the triplet it more effect it has.

You have to place the front fresnel out of the focal range of the triplet so you can't see the rings.

The 18" triplet is not exactly perfect with larger panels and it will try to focus on the rings in the middle when the edge of the LCD is sharp.

With a split setup ther is not really any price to be paid for having the LCD a inch away from the LCD so it is not a problem.

The un-split setup also gives slightly longer throw.

I started my tests with a .2/220 rear and a .5/550 front (in split)...and found the fine-pitch rear tends to focus the coarser front-frez 'rings' in-display...when juggling for focus and frez-alignment, this is semi-correctable. It seemed likely to me that, with use of pre-con, a 220-rear would be about-right (but I have really dark-corners regardless how the lamp>pre-con coverage is larger than panel). I'll be trying 200/220/320@.5 next (at-rear), with and without the pre-cons I have (and the 4.5/6.5's we have coming from ss.c) soon.
I don't know where Davide-NYC found my 550/.5 frez...? But, if I were 'staying' with the Beseler (thinking now of selling and keeping PJ-front 'shorter' -- either with a Carpow or LL std.-triplet [which has greater FoV/diameter?]), I'd also want to test with a .2/550. And I don't know of a .2/200 (Carpow's are all .5) [edit...3dlens has a .2/200]
At any rate, I'd try-hard to config my PJ for some kind of 550 in-front (long enough by-far, imo).
I really like the 'look' of all that glass, though -- wish there was an easy-spacer-mod to bring the Beseler's FL down to an appropriately-shorter PJ-length (as in 317mm front-frez) for our 10.6's? I have a 'less-impressive' 10"-BUHL triplet, but dunno where I'd find a matching-frez for that-one? Maybe could-squeeze with a 317/LL-frez -- if I modded it's spacers a tad?

Well Friday night I purchased the fresnels. I bought the 220mm rear 0.5 pitch from Lumenlab store $17.50 USD, and the 550mm 0.2 pitch from 3dLens for $26.99 USD (plus $13 shipping! ).

I'm not too tired so I'm up late tonight. I've spent an hour or so now searching for an RX7s base online and am coming up with very few results. Nobody sells these! I've found a place in the States called Bulbworks that might have them available but they don't have an online shop setup and you gotta email for pricing. Here's a link to them. They're Bublworks model number BW.S26 on that list. I've emailed them asking for a price. I sure hope they're not as expensive as what Don's Bulbs is charging...

If anybody knows where to find these RX7s bases (aka S26, aka C-8) for cheap then let me know.

Try this site. They're local to me (about 6 miles away) and I bought them for <$5 each. Don's Bulbs has a lot of gall to charge what they're asking. I don't know if specialty optical ships to Canada or not.

http://gallery.bcentral.com/GID4905454P178...-Ushio-C-8.aspx

Thanks for the link Bevo! I just placed an order for a pair. They apparently ship to Canada, but when I chose the Canada Ground shipping method, there's a note saying they will have to contact me to confirm shipping charges. Fine with me. How much could they possibly charge for shipping those two little items? $8.96 USD for a pair sounds much more reasonable than $74 for one at Don's Bulbs.

Can you not get a cheap outdoor light like this :



In a local DIY store ? They generally have RX7 bulb holders in them.

I guess if that was the only way you could. Of course I bought mine for $4 USD each. So unless that light is cheaper than $20, it probably isn't worth the hassle.

That paticular light is £3. Plus you always get a piece of tempered glass as well !!

Still $4 is a good price

Well I just took the plunge and bought a Da-Lite 6'x8' High Power Screen with a 2.8 gain without CSR. Ordered it from directdial.com and it came to $316 CDN shipped! Shipping was a measly $14 CDN. I paid $10.40 USD shipping to get those RX7s holders from the States! I am giddy....

Apparently it takes about 2 weeks for them to ship it as it is considered a "special order item" but that's fine with me. I won't have anything to project onto it until the summer anyway. I'm just lining up all my ducks in a row right now...

I still cannot believe the price. Very reasonable. <--- iPO is happy!!!

Did they have pictures of the rx7s sockts?