Lumenlab FAQ

1. Where to get LCD panels?
Ebay, Best Buy, Circuit City, anywhere really. Any place that sells LCD monitors that are compatible.

2a. Will [X]* Monitor work?
*[substitute your monitor here]

Check the Compatible monitors list or the Incompatible monitors list. If it's not on one of those lists, then chances are we don't know about it one way or the other.

Please do not post a message asking if a monitor will work or has the FFC issue because we do not know. We only know what people have actually done themselves…

So be a pioneer and take a monitor apart that’s not on the list.

2b. What size LCD should I get?
Depends on your budget and space concerns. The guide is based on a 15” monitor, while 14” is even better. 7” widescreen LCD’s are available but the resolution may be too low for certain people's tastes.

2c. What specs should I look for on a monitor?
The higher the contrast ratio the better. Anything about 300:1 is preferable.
The lower the response time the better. Anything above 50ms, you may have ghosting problems.
The higher the resolution the better. Anything less than 1024x768 is too low.

2d. Can I use a laptop LCD?

In a word: No.

In more words: The control electronics are usually built into the laptop itself. This makes it impossible to seperate the LCD completely from the laptop. You could possibly extend the wires and place the LCD in a projector, but since you'd still need your laptop to control the thing, all you'd get would be a huge screen for your laptop. And what fun would that be?


3. What’s this FFC issue that’s all over the Forums?
The FFC (Flat Flexible Cable) is the bane of the DIY projector people. A LCD monitor has circuit boards attached to 2 sides, one bottom and one on either the left or the right. The FFC is the cable that connects the 2 circuit boards together. The issue arises when you try to have circuit boards set at a 90 degree angle to the LCD. If it is too short to connect you are more or less stuck with the panels being in the way of the light. It is possible to extend the cables, but it requires patience and hard work, defiantly not for the faint of heart.

4. Light sources. What to get and where to buy.

Ballasts:

* Standard Coil and Core Ballast - MH400/MT

or

* Lumenlab Electronic Ballast

Lamps:

* 1012 400W Ushio Pulse-Strike Lamp
Smaller mass accelerates start up and cool down for faster warm up and restrikes.
- CRI (Color Rendering Index): 70
- Color Temp: 4,000K
- 40,000 Initial Lumens
- 32,000 Mean Lumens
- Requires an electronic ballast, M135 coil ballast or [edit-Lumenlab no longer recommends using the M59 coil ballast with the Ushio pulse strike].

or

*M400SX/BT28/HOR "EYE"
- May be used with either the M59 or the Lumenlab Electronic Ballast


Mogul Base HID Socket


Electronic ballasts and Ushio Lamps may be purchased from:

http://lumenlab.com/store/



5. Lens. What to get and where to buy.
http://lumenlab.com/store/
Projection Lens Triplet – The center ‘eye’ piece.
Dual Focus Fresnel – Uncut, Unsplit
Pre-split Dual Focus Fresnel – Trimmed to size of the 15in LCD and used for keystoning
Pre-cut Dual Focus Fresnel – Cut to size for use with the 15” LCD

6a. How to strip a monitor?
Take your time. Save all screws. Don’t force anything. Be extra careful with the flat ribbon cables. Take pictures, post in the forums.

6b. ESD - Electrostatic Discharge
Definition: A transfer of electrostatic charge between bodies (materials, components, etc.) at different electrostatic potentials caused by direct contact or induced by an electrostatic field.
Why you should care: When handling any type of electronic equipment there is a chance that the static electricity built up in your body can discharge into electronic equipment thus frying your LCD you just drop a bit of money on.

7. Cooling the beast.
120mm 90CFM fans. 12v or 120v will work.

8. How do I connect my projector to watch TV.
Choices:
A VGA scaler / converter: http://www.viewsonic.com/products/video_box_nextvisionn6.htm
A TV card for your computer: http://www.hauppauge.com/html/products.htm
Or if you are lucky and want to spend the extra bucks, some LCD's have TV tuners built in (Like some of the HDTV panels).

9. How far should X be?
Use the calculator.
http://www.lumenlab.com/focal_calc.php

10. Help! My projector is set on an angle and I get a funny shaped picture.
This is where the pre-split fresnel will be needed. You place one fresnel half behind the LCD panel between it and the light and mount the other fresnel half in front of the LCD panel tilting it as necessary.

11. What are the cut dimensions of the fresnel lens and the tempered glass?
We cut the fresnels to 9 3/4" x 11 13/16". Naturally equal amounts are cut off of the top, bottom and sides of the fresnel to keep the center in the center. The glass should be cut 5/8" shorter than the interior height of your enclosure. It sits 1/2" off the bottom and has a 1/8" gap at the top to accomodate the filter cloth.

12. If i am using the split fresnel lens and i put one in front and one behind what is the minimum and maximum distance needed between the 2 fresnels?
Each one will have to be about 10mm away from the panel or you'll see lines. The maximum...who knows?

13. How do you tell which side of the dual focus fresnel goes toward the lamp and which side goes toward the LCD. Are they labeled?
Yes they come from the factory with a small sticker that says 'up'. The 'up' side would face the projection lens. A quick way to find out is to simply hold the lens under a powerful light or the sun. One side will focus to a point when the lens is about 9" above the ground, the other side will focus at about 14" from the ground.

14. Do I need an HDTV ready monitor to project HDTV video?
Actually any old XGA lcd is 'HDTV'. When they say 'HDTV ready' they mean it has component inputs

15. How big do I make the hole for the projection lens?
25.4mm = 1"
69/25.4 = 2.71"
The closest hole saw you'll find is going to be 2.75", this will make a hole that is slightly too large. You can glue a piece of felt around the projection lens flange which will allow the projection lens to fit snugly in the bore.

16. Can I use a halogen lamp or a bunch of white LEDs instead of the Metal Halide lamp?

No. The bulb recommended in the guide is the best we have been able to find in terms of color temp, lumens, life, and price.

Halogens run too hot, have too short a life, and are the wrong color temp.

It would require WAY TOO MANY white LEDs to get the required lumen output.

As a newbie these are some of the things I found/had to find and am still looking to answer. I've been to all the forums trying to get as much info as possible and have saved and printed almost 2000pgs of posts, still busy reading them

These forums contain loads of useful gems of information and is very time consuming to go thru all or most of them like I have. Only going thru them did I really see what was possibly as far as different designs are concerned, what other poeple have gone thru and the enjoyment it has given them even though some have really persevered .

The FAQ should be the next thing any newbie should read after reading the guide. Maybe even have a Newbie forum or point newbies to the HELP forum immedaitely after first joining.???


Some thing I think should be part of the FAQ to make things a little easier for us newbies.


glossary - line doubler, dremmel, lexan, collimator, collector, ballast, mogul, FS miror.....etc

lots of good threads in various forum, like (in)compatible lcds, wiring, designs,other bulbs,HvsV, Eballstvs - with links

Plogs - good/interesting designs

Horizontal vs Vertical vs Folded - pros cons, differences

Common issues with possible resolutions

How to make projected image bigger if you have no room to move back, ie small room

How does one tell the focal length of a fresnel and if it's of good quality?

How does the size of the LCD affect the image or is it just a matter of quality?

How does one line up the 3 panels, ie. do their centers need to be on the same plane?

Are there any changes necessary for operating at 240v?

What do the values on the projection lense mean and how do they affect the projected image? eg. I have a Hektor 1:2.5/120mm and a 1:4.5/105 from a 35mm slide projector.

How can one create 16:9 blackout/blinkers when using normal non-widescreen LCD to minimize projected light

Different types of boxes/enclosures ie. metal/wood/fibre, bulb/lens mounts, focusing mechanisms,etc with links

Can one close off the light section (bulb to tempered glass) all together, ie. not leaving the gap at the bottom, thus containing the bulk of the heat and have 1 or 2 input and output fans in this section only? Maybe have one smaller fan for the LCD?

With the vertical design, is it necessary to support the fresnels and LCD with glass?

What is the UV Filter used for, is it necessary, what if you don't use it?

What is a first surface mirror?

What does the Pro lense kit do and when should one use it as opposed to the standard lens kit?

Split vs joined fresnels?

Recommended software packages/Software of interest eg. PowerDVD, Powerstrip, iRotate, etc

MH vs Holgen etc

Bulb options, ie. what models are known to work for different countries, requirements- lumens, CRI, etc

LCD requirements, minimum and recommended, ie. contrast, response times, etc

Precautions -eg. don't start lamp within 5 min of switching off.

Forums suck.

If the majority of information is pinned or non-reply, it's just lazy to put this information in a forum.

Forums should be for discussion, not presenting a clearly structured source of information.

</mytwocents>

I'd have to agree with you 100% on this... This information on this site is like a hard drive that hasn't been defragged since 1999. Hard to figure out exactly what I'm supposed to follow here.

So you're saying it should be archived and/or updated?