Hey guys,

As you can guess from the title, I'm looking for those two parts for my PJ setup. The more important of the two is the thermal switch. In a few threads about cooling your projector, I saw mention of adjustable attic fan thermostats. Now I've called everyone in the area, form hardware stores to megastores (Lowe's, Home Depot), to electrical supply warehouses... and nobody knows what I'm talking about. One member pointed out ventingdirect.com, where I can order it, but I'd prefer to pick it up locally. Does this product exist in retail stores, or am I out of luck there?

Second is that shower drain thing. It's the two part, threaded drain used as a focus ring. The closest I've found is a single PVC adapter from 2" straight to 2" threaded, but I can't find a female thread to match it. The only ones I can find are beveled, so as it screws in it gets tighter and tighter. After it's screwed in maybe 1/4", it can't be moved any further. As you can see, this would be virtually useless as a focus mechanism. Other members use one that they found at Home Depot, but I've been through my local Depot's plumbing department 3 or 4 times specifically looking for that part, and I can't find it. And once again, when I ask for help, all I get is a blank stare.

Does anyone know something I don't about finding these things? Is there a product SKU I could ask for, or maybe some secret handshake I need to learn? Help!

Thanks,

Moose

You should find both at your Home Depot. I found the attic fan thermostat in a box back with the insulation and other industrial building materials. The shower drain will be in the plumbing section, obviously, and looks something like this (thank Tescorp for the picture)

Click to view attachment

You could also use an op amp and make a level detector to engergize a relay if you cannot find one. you just use a regular resister and a thermo resister to setup a voltage divider across the non-inverting and inverting terminals. its a bit more work and requires you to know electronic basics but there are tons of schematics around the web for it.

Thanks sensibull (and Tescorp). After seeing that picture, I remembered something similar at my local hardware store that I found. I didn't look too closely at it the first time, because I couldn't figure out how it came apart. I spent a minute fiddling with it, though, and it works.

However, still no sign of the attic fan thermostat. I spent an hour at Home Depot today looking through their venting, plumbing, air filter, bathroom, electrical, end even lighting (where they have ceiling fans) to no avail. And the employees there were less than useless. It was like pulling teeth to even describe what I needed, and nobody had ever heard of such a device. They just pointed me where I'd already been.

You don't remember where in the store you found it, do you? It looks like I'll probably have to order it online, but I'd rather not pay $6 shipping on an $11 item and just hope that it works right when it arrives.

Thanks for your help!

All the Depots I've been in have been laid out differently, but in the store I found the thermostat, it was in the same isle as the rolls of insulation, bags of sand, those big concrete cylinder molds, and other building supplies. They should be next to wherever the attic fans are. The item itself did not look like I expected it to (larger, more industrial). Most people remove it from its housing.

Lemme see if I can dig up a picture from the forum...

found one


Click to view attachment

Lowes probably has theirs on the contractors side of the building as well. The One by me did.

At the closest HD by me, they were out, but had a slot where they are supposed to be, $16.95 or whatever it was for an Attic Fan Adjustable Thermostat. It was with the attic fans right by the guttering, and right beside replacement attic fan motors.

For the record, you guys rock, and I wish you all worked at my Home Depot.

I went back again today for a few things I forgot last time, and I was determined to find the stupid thermostat. I scoured the building supplies section again. Turns out all the attic and whole house fans were behind a floor stack of ladders. So that was fun.

After spotting the fans, I still couldn't find the thermostat... I only found it by noticing a price tag for $16.95 (thanks, SuperJETT) and looking WAYYY to the back of the shelf. There were two, and judging from the layer of dust I had to wipe off to see what they were, nobody had touched or even seen them for ages. So I'm not really surprised that nobody even knew what they were, let alone where to find them.

Thanks, everyone, for your help!

Just for kicks, I asked another employee who worked in that department if he could help me locate "another one," and even when I showed it to him, he still had no idea what it was. Ah well, what can you do?

Forget the attic fan thermostat switch, I'm getting http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.ph...73&t=491609 thanks to Hirudin

What about using a basic mechanical thermostat for a baseboard heater?

All it is is a bimetalic strip that clicks on and off, and you can adjust the temp where it turns on. Sure they are for 220 volts, but it shouldn't make any difference what voltage is running through it. (Actually, thinking about it the voltage will heat up the strip somewhat, but I don't think enough to make a difference). I see them for about the same price as what you are saying the attic thermostat. And they seem to be a lot easier to find.

Or am I missing something?

If it's a heating circuit, it would cycle opposite of what you want for a cooling circuit.

Plus, with the price the Cooler Master controller is going for, it's hard to beat. Mine was $18 shipped, with a $5 rebate still to take off that, and it control up to 4 fans based on true temperature.

I knew I forgot something. Too bad they don't ship to Canada.

You could still make a switch from a bimetallic strip working on the same principle. You simply have to change the location of the contacts, so that the hotter it gets, the MORE pressure it puts on the contact, and once it gets cool enough, contact is broken. This is a reasonably simple design, you could probably sacrifice a cheap bimetal coil thermostat to the cause to build it.

If you got REALLY clever, you could even have it auto-set to a certain amount above ambient temperature using a second bimetal strip -- I'll leave the details to your own imagination.

I was considering doing something like this with my project, since I took out the old mechanical thermostat for my furnace, when I replaced it with an electronic programmble unit. I just never got around to building it. I think I will with my new projector, though.