Full Version: The Stealth Project
Ive finnished it.... but have I, have a look at it in completed projects. More drawings and pics will follow
I have a mirror that looks a lot like that for my next build. Any chance you could elaborate on how it's mounted and adjusts?
Interesting project, what kind of size and throw distance does that setup give you?
For anyone else who's looking, the completed projects post for this projector can be found here.
Interesting project, what kind of size and throw distance does that setup give you?
For anyone else who's looking, the completed projects post for this projector can be found here.
Click to view attachment
The size of the screen is 120 inches and the distance the mirror away from the screen is 151 inches. I am not happy with the way the miror is mounted as it moves with the slightest bump and then wobbles for ages making the image projected hard to watch. The mirror was mounted on a frame fixed to the wall, but the surround sound speakers vibrated the wall and the frame with the glass in it thus the picture projected onto the wall. So I hard mounted the mirror to the projector itself but the drum fan inside vibrated the mirror so the vibrating image lived on. This setup with the mirror mounted to the floor plate of the proojector seemed foolproof as I made it all out of steel thinking that would work but no not yet, just needs something....
QUOTE (PhDeviant @ Apr 10 2007, 11:53 PM) 
I have a mirror that looks a lot like that for my next build. Any chance you could elaborate on how it's mounted and adjusts?
Interesting project, what kind of size and throw distance does that setup give you?
For anyone else who's looking, the completed projects post for this projector can be found here.
Interesting project, what kind of size and throw distance does that setup give you?
For anyone else who's looking, the completed projects post for this projector can be found here.
The size of the screen is 120 inches and the distance the mirror away from the screen is 151 inches. I am not happy with the way the miror is mounted as it moves with the slightest bump and then wobbles for ages making the image projected hard to watch. The mirror was mounted on a frame fixed to the wall, but the surround sound speakers vibrated the wall and the frame with the glass in it thus the picture projected onto the wall. So I hard mounted the mirror to the projector itself but the drum fan inside vibrated the mirror so the vibrating image lived on. This setup with the mirror mounted to the floor plate of the proojector seemed foolproof as I made it all out of steel thinking that would work but no not yet, just needs something....
Click to view attachment
QUOTE (PhDeviant @ Apr 10 2007, 11:53 PM)
I have a mirror that looks a lot like that for my next build. Any chance you could elaborate on how it's mounted and adjusts?
Interesting project, what kind of size and throw distance does that setup give you?
For anyone else who's looking, the completed projects post for this projector can be found here.
Interesting project, what kind of size and throw distance does that setup give you?
For anyone else who's looking, the completed projects post for this projector can be found here.
I,ve just taped the bottom of the mirror on to a steel rod type ledge to act as a hinge.This works pretty good surprisingly, 
but you can't realy see it very well in the pic
but you can't realy see it very well in the pic
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The base on this enclosure has been changed to allow for adjustmet of the height of the centre of the screen
The base on this enclosure has been changed to allow for adjustmet of the height of the centre of the screen
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You can see the new improved base in this pic and a ledge for the pc to sit on
You can see the new improved base in this pic and a ledge for the pc to sit on
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I whipped up this electronic controlboard. It has a circuit to turn the lamp on and the drum fan on when power comes from my pc to turn the monitor on. This circuit is wired to the LED on the LCD original front panel which changes color if in standby to on. The opto isolator circuit sees the LED being on and turns 2 large 240v relays on. There is a temp controller board that I wired to turn the lamp off at 50 degrees and sound an alarm until temp drops, the restrike time on the lamp times out longer than it takes to cool the LCD which works fine unlees there is a constant over heating, e.g a fire. Wiring from the LED allows me to turn the LCD off independantly from the pc thus turning the lamp and the drum fan off so I can leave my pc on downloading from the net e.t.c. To allow for this I spent a few hours extending the 14 wires that go from the LCD control box to the original monitor front panel which you can see in this next pic. You can see my air filter in this pic as well which is spray painting type spray booth roof filter which works perfectly offering virtualy no resistance to air flow and is laced with a sticky substance to capture dust.
I whipped up this electronic controlboard. It has a circuit to turn the lamp on and the drum fan on when power comes from my pc to turn the monitor on. This circuit is wired to the LED on the LCD original front panel which changes color if in standby to on. The opto isolator circuit sees the LED being on and turns 2 large 240v relays on. There is a temp controller board that I wired to turn the lamp off at 50 degrees and sound an alarm until temp drops, the restrike time on the lamp times out longer than it takes to cool the LCD which works fine unlees there is a constant over heating, e.g a fire. Wiring from the LED allows me to turn the LCD off independantly from the pc thus turning the lamp and the drum fan off so I can leave my pc on downloading from the net e.t.c. To allow for this I spent a few hours extending the 14 wires that go from the LCD control box to the original monitor front panel which you can see in this next pic. You can see my air filter in this pic as well which is spray painting type spray booth roof filter which works perfectly offering virtualy no resistance to air flow and is laced with a sticky substance to capture dust.
Click to view attachment
The LCD, and franells (not shown installed in this pic here) are made so I can remove the whole assy to play with. Everything just un plugs so that I can tweak it
The LCD, and franells (not shown installed in this pic here) are made so I can remove the whole assy to play with. Everything just un plugs so that I can tweak it
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This is the bottom of the ducted area for my drum fan to cool the LCD on the LCD removable assy
This is the bottom of the ducted area for my drum fan to cool the LCD on the LCD removable assy
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The whole assy has a test fit. When completed top of the enclosure in this pic will be the cold air intake, isolated from the lamp end of the enclosure with the help of two panels which go either side of the LCD assy(not shown in this pic) to" fill the gap "so that its air tight. With the help of rubber seals on the top of the LCD frame there won't be hot air from the lamp circulating into the cold air intake end
The whole assy has a test fit. When completed top of the enclosure in this pic will be the cold air intake, isolated from the lamp end of the enclosure with the help of two panels which go either side of the LCD assy(not shown in this pic) to" fill the gap "so that its air tight. With the help of rubber seals on the top of the LCD frame there won't be hot air from the lamp circulating into the cold air intake end
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Black makes things start to dissapear. You can see the control box in this pic which got painted to. I screwed it in front of the LCD eventually so the little fragile flat cable would reach. I hacked away at the metal box with the LCD control gear in it with a angle grinder to make it fit though, so much for esd it still works lol
Black makes things start to dissapear. You can see the control box in this pic which got painted to. I screwed it in front of the LCD eventually so the little fragile flat cable would reach. I hacked away at the metal box with the LCD control gear in it with a angle grinder to make it fit though, so much for esd it still works lol
Bout time
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This is the lamp which took a couple of weeks to make. It is perfect as it screws up and down real slow aleviating problems associated with getting the arc where it is supposed to be. Once adjusted it stays there not like others I have previously made introducing me to the horrors of lamp adjustment
This is the lamp which took a couple of weeks to make. It is perfect as it screws up and down real slow aleviating problems associated with getting the arc where it is supposed to be. Once adjusted it stays there not like others I have previously made introducing me to the horrors of lamp adjustment
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The lamp is a metal halide 150W Arcstream.I got the control gear,lamp and ceramic lamp holder for ten bucks from a second hand dealer. I've since been back there and bought 2 more sets and they then put the price up to 20 bucks. The reflector is a Pro which I later dropped and there is a crack through the centre of it, that has no effect on the picture projected!
The lamp is a metal halide 150W Arcstream.I got the control gear,lamp and ceramic lamp holder for ten bucks from a second hand dealer. I've since been back there and bought 2 more sets and they then put the price up to 20 bucks. The reflector is a Pro which I later dropped and there is a crack through the centre of it, that has no effect on the picture projected!
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You can see the slots I cut out in the lid to vent the hot air. The light from these slots lit up the whole room, so I made 2 shelves to hide this problem and provide a place for my dvd player and 5:1 home theater amp. The hot air comes out under the dvd player, and with the way I aranged a couple of bits of timber inside the shelf assy, no light escapes but hot air does. I use a cheap ish dvd player instead of my pc dvd player because my kids want to watch scratched dvd's. My pc dvd player is very fussy with what it will play where as the cheap dvd player dosen't seem to be that way.
You can see the slots I cut out in the lid to vent the hot air. The light from these slots lit up the whole room, so I made 2 shelves to hide this problem and provide a place for my dvd player and 5:1 home theater amp. The hot air comes out under the dvd player, and with the way I aranged a couple of bits of timber inside the shelf assy, no light escapes but hot air does. I use a cheap ish dvd player instead of my pc dvd player because my kids want to watch scratched dvd's. My pc dvd player is very fussy with what it will play where as the cheap dvd player dosen't seem to be that way.
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Kids put santa stickers over the front. I didnt mind cos they wanted to get involved in the build, and they are too young to let near an angle grinder or circular saw yet. I cut another slot in the lid to slide a glass shelf into so I had a spot for the printer and the mouse to sit on e.t.c
Kids put santa stickers over the front. I didnt mind cos they wanted to get involved in the build, and they are too young to let near an angle grinder or circular saw yet. I cut another slot in the lid to slide a glass shelf into so I had a spot for the printer and the mouse to sit on e.t.c
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Note the side panels are in next to the LCD. Black gaffer tape seals the gaps. I've started to change things since the start of the build like the lamp mount using spacers to compensate for changing the triplet from 500fl to 550 and back. and the franells are mounted differently than the pics show at the start.but thats another lot of pics to come. Oh and I added a fan speed controller, you can see the back of it (top left) to turn my fan virtually off at night, I can turn my volume down while watching my pj when it's all quiet and I'm trying not to make to much noise so I don't wake my kids up. I had a comercial projector which was loud in the noise department. Those siroco fans in the comercial pj's are way to noisy for night viewing, even in whisper mode. I'm totaly happy with this set up,you don't even know my pj is on.
Note the side panels are in next to the LCD. Black gaffer tape seals the gaps. I've started to change things since the start of the build like the lamp mount using spacers to compensate for changing the triplet from 500fl to 550 and back. and the franells are mounted differently than the pics show at the start.but thats another lot of pics to come. Oh and I added a fan speed controller, you can see the back of it (top left) to turn my fan virtually off at night, I can turn my volume down while watching my pj when it's all quiet and I'm trying not to make to much noise so I don't wake my kids up. I had a comercial projector which was loud in the noise department. Those siroco fans in the comercial pj's are way to noisy for night viewing, even in whisper mode. I'm totaly happy with this set up,you don't even know my pj is on.
Click to view attachment
I can adjust this lamp easily with the lid down and the components aranged on top, via a little door under the dvd player on the front of the lid. It' just big enough to get my arm into it leaving the theater dark enough to see slight changes in picture quality in real time.
I can adjust this lamp easily with the lid down and the components aranged on top, via a little door under the dvd player on the front of the lid. It' just big enough to get my arm into it leaving the theater dark enough to see slight changes in picture quality in real time.
Click to view attachment
I use the rumpas room for our theater, but couldn't solve the light coming through the windows problem with "block out curtains" as the light comes in and around them which wasn't good enough so I spray painted the outside of my windows black. That fixed it.
I use the rumpas room for our theater, but couldn't solve the light coming through the windows problem with "block out curtains" as the light comes in and around them which wasn't good enough so I spray painted the outside of my windows black. That fixed it.
I have to say this is one of the fastest builds yet. For a fairly complex shape it looks like all went well.
Are you happy with the brightness?
Are you happy with the brightness?
QUOTE (kaney @ Apr 15 2007, 07:52 PM)
I use the rumpas room for our theater, but couldn't solve the light coming through the windows problem with "block out curtains" as the light comes in and around them which wasn't good enough so I spray painted the outside of my windows black. That fixed it.
QUOTE (arizonavideo @ Apr 16 2007, 05:05 AM)
I have to say this is one of the fastest builds yet. For a fairly complex shape it looks like all went well.
Are you happy with the brightness?
Are you happy with the brightness?
Yes very happy,the color temp of the lamp is 4200 and is acceptable, my other projector is an hitatchi and apears to be as bright as that was before it's lamp blew , my enclosure could handle a higher watage bulb to get a higher color temp, I might have to keep my eyes open for that mod in the future.
That is a very slick setup! Nice engineering on the internals as well. Congratulations on the build!
Thanks, I'm getting plenty of use out of it now its all together. The projector is on at least 6 hrs a day
QUOTE (kaney @ Apr 15 2007, 08:47 PM)
Click to view attachment
I can adjust this lamp easily with the lid down and the components aranged on top, via a little door under the dvd player on the front of the lid. It' just big enough to get my arm into it leaving the theater dark enough to see slight changes in picture quality in real time.
I can adjust this lamp easily with the lid down and the components aranged on top, via a little door under the dvd player on the front of the lid. It' just big enough to get my arm into it leaving the theater dark enough to see slight changes in picture quality in real time.
Could you elaborate on how your bulb adjustment works? What is it that you turn to make the adjustments?
I don't want you to have to take it all apart again, but I for one would really like a way to be able to adjust my bulb position without burning my fingers or retinas.
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I hope this helps you, the lamp adjuster is two adjusters joined together, one adjuster udjusts the lamp up and down and the other in and out from the LCD. The steel knobs are fixed to the threaded rod with loctight threadlock, I used a tap to cut my own threads . feel free to ask any other questions. Next time I have my pj apart I'll take some more pics of my lamp setup.
I hope this helps you, the lamp adjuster is two adjusters joined together, one adjuster udjusts the lamp up and down and the other in and out from the LCD. The steel knobs are fixed to the threaded rod with loctight threadlock, I used a tap to cut my own threads . feel free to ask any other questions. Next time I have my pj apart I'll take some more pics of my lamp setup.
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