Ok gang....

Finally time to start up my plog. Found out about this stuff about 4 months ago... been reading like crazy... been asking all kinds of questions like a mad man for the past few weeks and I've finally started.

MY GOAL: 15" Haas style projector 1280x800 using an xbox 360 as a media extender to my HTPC

ITEMS:
Xbox 360 (in hand)
Windows Media Center XP PC (in hand)
Various wood / bolts / screws / wires (in hand)
Dell 15" Ultrasharp LCD monitor (dead)
15.4" X2GEN MW15A (sin hand)
Digikey FFC Extenders (shipped)
3dlens.com Large Fresnels (shipped)
Lumen Labs Mega Kit 120v (in hand)


StATUS LOG:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

• 4.05.07 - XGEN2 Monitor arrives
• 4.03.07 - OH NOES!!! Broken LCD
• 3.29.07 - My LL Order has arrived! All parts are now in hand!
• 3.27.07 - Got my mini hot mirror in. Details on how I plan to use it are here
• 3.26.07 - Outter walls cut, sanded, and drilled for the case
• 3.25.07 - Wood in hand for case
• 3.23.07 - Mega Kit Shipped out
• 3.5.07 - Mega Kit Purchased... on back order

Pics of the case cutouts. Did these freehand with a jigsaw and lots of measuring.

First Lesson Learned: Cutting through 1.5" of pine with a jig saw is slooooooow.



cut out and pre-sanded


post-sanded (sexy)


I thought this one was very artsy All outside edges sanded and rounded... holes for support rods drilled.


They're not perfect by any stretch of the term, but I'm very happy with them. Sanded off the edges and they turned out better than I had hoped.

Looks good so far, one thing I would recomend is to not do much sanding until you start assembly. The reason being is that if you round all the edges, you will not get a nice looking edge when you join the pieces (corners will have small gaps between the pieces of wood). That being said if you are doing recessed top and bottom this doesn't really apply...

Yep, going to route the insides for the top and bottom lids Thanks!

Heh,, good luck and looks good ,, What do you think of the media center ,,,I never even thought about that to use as an operting system ,, I just have xppro and was thinking of going to linux but now the media cente might be an idea ???? Man I change my mind worse than my wife on this build ... I will be watching your progress as you go..........................

Media Center rocks. the xbox 360 up-converts tv and digital movies to HD on the fly as well. I have a tivo as well that I don't use anymore now that I have media center running... it's a lot more responsive.. of course I guess that depends on how fast your PC is mine is a 3ghz p4 with 2gb ram.

Got my hot mirror in yesterday. Thought I'd post my ideas here.

I've been trying to find a nice cheap solution to the IR heat issue, and I *may* have found one.

From what I understand, with decent cooling you don't really need a heat shield... but after a while your lcd might start to get discolored, etc...

Sounds to be like we just need a *little* bit of IR shielding, not really the total domination of IR that most people's hot mirrors are trying for.

So I've decided to try out this 2"x2" hot mirror which is only $8 at B&H

I'm going to leave the back of the light engine open (i.e. no light gate.) and paint the back of the case black so that it absorbs more of IR light instead of bouncing it back. I'll probably also paint the fresnel / lcd frames white or cover with foil, to try and bounce as much away from them as possible.

As you can see from my raytrace, this should block almost 100% of direct IR. There will of course be some run off, and reflected.... but I think (read: hope) it'll make a significant difference.

UPDATE:
My LL order came in yesterday! (I'm so excited!!!!!)

I'll be dedicated all day on saturday to my PJ.. hopefully I'll be able to finish it!

It looks like your idea will work very well. Since it is a hot mirror it should stand up to the heat quite well, but check it occasionally because sometimes the coating will degrade over time from the heat.

Tgreenwood

According to you! you said youve been looking at forums for along time. Same. I was going to start a projector. I had already made one (with the help of my bro (ziggy_man) ) But the lcd broke and it started to screw up. hope you do way better thatn i did with mine. Best of Luck.

For the top

Some people rout a grove for the lit to slide in. I did the same but I used 1/4 hard board which broke out the top of the grove the first time I slid the lit in.

I just went with a L shaped grove in the top and it fit nice and tight and there are no light leaks.

I like the pine.

R.I.P. Dell Ultrasharp LCD
5.01.03 - 4.03.07



I'm assuming this lcd is destined for the scrapheap?

It's ok, I wanted an excuse to go 15.4" anyways for easy upgrading to wuxga later...

but can anyone please tell me exctly what I did cause this? So I know not to do it again? The FFC stuff looks fine, I can't find anything wrong with the cables....



On a happier note, case was mostly assembled before dissaster struck





and my light works nice and bright





I've ordered an X2GEN MW15A 15.4" widescreen from ecost for 720p... Also ordered the FFC extensions from digikey and the larger fresnels from 3dlens.com Anyone have a good guide on putting all of these together? (will I have to cut the fresnels?)

Xgen2 came in today.... SUPER fast shipping from ecost... just over 24 hours. holy cow... and only $22 shipping for a monitor.

anyways here she is:




(That's Southpark in HD from the 360 marketplace at 1280x768.... I know.. I know... southpark in hd? but it's the only HD thing I have right now to test. LOL )

and FYI... southpark in HD really does look way better than normal southpark.. lmao.


Anyone notice the brightness on the bottom of the screen? that's not a flash or anything, it's how the monitor is... if I was buying this to actually USE I'd be extremely upset with this. but since I'm going to tear it apart anyways, who cares?

Also, I have one tiny stuck pixel... gonna run the jscreenfix on it when I get home.

Ajay I just ordered my xgen2 15.4 today, hope it come in quick also.
Thinking of the Haass box as well.
What fresnels are you going with from 3dlens 220 or 330?

Why is Southpark at 1200 x 762?

I thought xbox 360 resolutions are:
1280x720
1280x768
1280x1024
1360x768
1920x768

Any chance of a few screenshots of a game or dashboard on that lcd?
Thanks
Dave

Sorry that was a typo.. it's running at 1280x768

you need one of each. the 220 goes inbetween the light source and the LCD monitor, and the 330 goes inbetween your LCD and your triplet lens.

The lenses I ordered were:
#A395a
and
#A395b

I'll grab some pics of the dashboard and some games when I get home (at work now... took the southpark pic on my lunchbreak.)

The quality of the LCD is great... the brightness sucks... really really bad. But I'm hoping that's just from a poor quality backlight.

Also, it appears to have no anti-glare layer! *woot*

Any Updates?

Sorry about the lack of updates, easter kind of left me with no time this weekend

I got the FFC extension in today. Still waiting on the Fresnel lenses from 3dlens.

Here's a few shots of me playing need for speed on the xgen2 monitor

NFS1

NFS1

The brightness issues are very easily seen here. Like I said, I'd be upset if I were using this for a monitor.

Also, I found one dead pixel in the middle of the screen, and one stuck pixel in the top middle of the screen... *sighs* I tried that jscreenfix and it didn't help.

Pretty sweet ill be fallowing this plog because im also going to be building a 15.4" Haas

FYI:

The xgen2 strips like a dreams. Easy as pie. the FFC tutorial in this forum is 100% perfect, and worked like a charm.

Also, I found out that if you set your xbox 360 to 1280x768 it runs at 1024x768 ... if you set it to 1280x720 it runs at 1280x720

so if you're looking for maximum resolution with the xgen2 on the 360, set it to 1280x720

You are right about the xbox resolution issue ajay.
I found that out myself. At first I was in a panic, 1024 who wants that!

Did you take any pictures of the strip?
Did you encounter much glue?
I will strip mine soon.

I hope to start my PLOG next week.
Best of luck

let me know when you start yours I'd like to check it out.

Also, feel free to ask me any questions about the Xgen strip, or ffc thing... it went incredibly well for me.

And it's SO much more clear than the dell lcd that I broke... that must be what having no anti-glare layer does for it.. it's amazing.

so any idea why it plays at 1024x768 instead of 1280? thats pretty wierd. Oh well my x2gen should be on its way!

not a clue.... but it's definitely good to know

Hey Ajay did you order 2 parts from digikey to do the ffc extentions?

The cable and the zif connector?
Was it the .5mm pitch?

Thanks

yes, .5mm pitch.

here's the exact part numbers from digikey I ordered, these worked like a charm:

WM10242-ND
and
WM7710CT-ND