Finally, it is good enough to post in the 'completed projects' forum.

I'm a perfectionist, and I will think it needs work until it is perfectly even, in focus, and bright; but here is what I have now which I am happy with:

Closeups:




Full picture:

Forgot to mention, some of the center brightness in the images is due to the wall being shiny, and there is a hot spot unless you sit off to the side or bottom.

Some pics of the completed projector:

Finished, in the room where I use it most(at night):


Light 'box':


Front section:


Front, collector fresnel out:


Front, LCD out:

Front, collimator fresnel out:


Detail of the LCD frame bottom:


Lamp with a longer arc than I would like:


And here is why:


Without the collector fresnel, the light goes straight:

Good job, where's some video/game samples

OK, here is my favorite game to play on a 15' diagonal screen:




And here is F22 ADF, not much color in this game, but a fun flight simulator:






These pictures are all the same size as my other screenshots in this thread. I used a Canon PowerShot A530 on the auto setting.

nice work, reminds me of mine, suggestion, defiantly need a good reflector, and if you have room, mount the bulb vertically if it says its a universal bulb

Congrats,
I have been seenin' your name all over LL and now I have a face to put with the name. That screen is huge what are the measurements? And Ya have to put up Leelu up on that screen. LOL ! And a little history on the build, You know the tip of which finger did you burn, How many swear words uttered under your beath while setting up your fres/lcd/triplet. You know the basics stuff. Nice job

Well,

I did add some blood to the sides of the projector while cutting some of the holes with my x-acto. Bound to happen when youre cutting a 60mm hole with a knife.. Plenty of burns from the hot glue gun, got lucky and didnt have to touch the soldering iron this time around. That thing will turn your skin into plasticy stuff in a second. Oh and another side-effect of using a carving knife for that long - blisters. So here I am, blistered, burned, cut hands. The projector makes up for it, and of course you dont need your hands for using the projector....wait........yeah

Nothing horrible though, tried to keep safe so the college couldn't say 'told you so' when they find out I had an electric cutting tool because I'm going to the hospital holding my fingers.

Now for the bulb... most reading this probably already know what I found out about when the bulb touches wood for a long time...it makes horribly smelly smoke. So yeah, I burnt a hole straight through a 1/2" piece of MDF while sleeping, whats wrong with that? Luckily, I was lucky. The smoke detector went off, but not the whole building, thus not causing a commotion. Second, I woke up. Mostly because of the smoke. Some because of the alarm. So I turned the light off and opened windows and hoped that I wouldn't die, either from the smoke, but more from the Residence Director the next day. As lucky as I seem to be, noone ever said anything about it, apart from some jokes about 'dont burn down the building tonight, Chris!', and a reference to Office Space. Everything in the room smelled for weeks.

Once I cut the burned part off, and put duct tape over the hole, it was good. Of course I had to remount the bulb too.

Fun story.
More later if I realize I forgot something.

Yikes! Sounds like you had some pulse-quickening minutes there with the 'burn-thru'!!
How did the lamp get against the MDF? Did your fan quit?
Nice build!

nope, the lamp was mounted diagonally in the box, and the mount holding it up was hot glue.

...

It fell over, probably slowly, till it touched the bottom. As it burned through, it kept sinking lower.

NinHowFritz, I see a hole underneath your bulb, was this an attempt at a vertically position bulb mount or is it just an air vent?

.......and here I go again.....try the vertical position bulb if it's possible. You will see a more even spread and more than likely a brighter picture.

BTW, are you planning a reflector in the works?

Nope, thats where the bulb burnt through. I just cut out around the burn-hole so that it didnt look so sh***y.



I'm not sure if my design will allow the bulb to be vertical. Sim, do you know why my bulb has a longer arc-base length than is advertised in the LL store? And the arc length is longer too, alot of light does not go into the triplet. I bet it would be alot brighter if this bulb was used with the pro triplet...


Possibly, depends on when I feel like going out to get one. I've tried something, it is noticeable but not extreme, not worth the time to mount it, the reflector had a huge flat spot, radius too small, etc.

It does seem to have a long arc chamber and your right you will not get all the arc to fit within the standard triplet but just by this bulb's cylindrical arc chamber shape when position 90 degrees to the plain of the lcd (longer width) does provide a much more even spread as oppose to illuminating horizontally and only the top and bottom of the panel is receiving most of the light. The thickness of the chamber is also shorter then it's length, if you also want to look at it that way . Just to be sure, is this bulb rated a horizontal or universal type?

It doesnt say anywhere on the box so I assumed universal. Its a Coralvue, the only number that I could imagine being a model # is ISO9001.

Also I did a crude test by holding the bulb up to a surface, and then shining it on a surface through the fresnel with the bulb at about the focal point of the lens, and it seemed to have a better pattern when the bulb was ..well.. the way it is in the projector now. I dont really know why, I see your reasoning and I agree!

So the bulb works better for you horizontally? Interesting, well this has got me stumped.

Yeah, I dont really know why, maybe my test conclusion was incorrect, maybe I'll have to take pictures of it - later though, I won't have time to take my projector apart until after school. I barely have time to use it!!

How much did it cost total to make that projector??

It was about $477. About

More info here:http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?s...c=18904&hl=

BTW, SIM, if you read this,
I now believe you about the vertical position being better. The test I did still gives the same result, but the test must somehow be flawed. It doesn't matter, I did it a while ago when I was still a mere noob(am I still?!? ) But now I can see the light -- is dimmer at the sides of the screen, but not so much at the top and bottom!

I'm looking @ your setup, and it looks like we're basically using the same parts haha. What do you think of the brightness of your setup? Think adjusting the bulb, and moving it closer to the tempered glass will help?

I've pretty much got it adjusted best as possible for now at least. Mainly the screen size determines where the bulb should be, since changing screen size changes the triplet distance, and the point where the light needs to collect to. Brightness is OK, esp. for having no reflector or precon. Again, I would advise going with a vertical bulb, since I can now see the pattern of my vignetting shows it would be better.

Well, had a 'movie night' just a few hours ago now on the wall of a friend's house. Darn house siding was visible in the pic (you know, the stuff that is slanted slightly out and overlaps itself), but it was white, and reflective. We made a 2.35:1 image probably 12 feet across, so it was pretty dim, but still better than my living room wall. My first impression once I got the PJ all closed up, and just looking at the screen was that it was actually a nice brightness considering the really large size.

The friends liked it (I think ), so it was good for me , however, I had to resist the urge to adjust the gamma during the movie; the shadow detail just wasn't cutting it, besides, due to the low brightness, I like to boost the gamma higher than it should ever be.

Anyway, we watched Beerfest, I hadn't seen it before, and I kept thinking Supertroopers + Dodgeball. It was good.

Sorry for no pics this time

real big screen, nice.

beerfest is a cool movie i like't