DAY 1: The plan.

I'm moving my family to Virginia in six weeks and desperately need to clean up, throw out, or put to good use some of the various and sundry things I have lying around my workshop.

Putting a 10.6 Samsung into my straight shooter freed up the 9" 800 x 480 Hitachi panel that came in the Toshiba SD-P2800 portable DVD player that had been driving it. It also forced me to replace the fresnels. At the same time, I installed a 14" Beseller instead of the 342mm 3M OHP triplet.

I also had an extra pro reflector, a nice piece of (IR/UV absorbing) Schott glass, a tin box that would make a good light gate, some fans, and an OHP arm.

So... I had all these parts, and many more, lying around begging to become something. And from that protean junk pile will be born the Everything Except the Kitchen Sink, or EEKS, Projector.

The challenge, besides figuring out a way to use up as much junk as possible, is to fit it all into a Gateway tower computer case. In a double-folded horizontal design. Why, you ask? Why not?

A rough design diagram:

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EDIT: Double-fold design scrapped in favor of a single fold.

But first, an airflow question.

The computer case has a fan mount and some intake (or in this case, exhaust) slots that are well-placed for the double-fold design I had in mind.
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I plan to mount an intake fan, which will blow air through a tunnel made by the frensels and lcd, down the case, into the light gate and then out either the front of the case, the side (top of light gate), or both.

Here's a shot of how the mirrors, lcd and light box will be situated.

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And Here's a basic diagram to clarify the air path.

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The rectangle at left in the diagram is a 90 or 100mm fan. The tubular thing below the lightbox is a pci slot fan. What I'm wondering is whether using both fans, and thereby "branching" the cooling path, would hinder or increase the air flow?

So, how about it, you physics(??) majors out there. In this case, are two exhaust fans better than one?

Personally I would skip the PCI slot fan for two reasons...

1) They're generally loud
2) Using only the other fan would direct the air more fully over the bulb, cooling it better.

Are you going to use the original fan size for your intake or were you thinking about making the hole bigger for a 120mm fan or something? Larger fans would generally be quieter.

I look forward to seeing what you can do with this build. Good luck.

Thanks for the feedback Lothar. I wasn't planning on using a larger intake fan, though I hope to use a 100mm or 120mm exhaust. I'm also hoping to slow the fans down a bit to quiet them. The nice thing is that the case lid has a bunch of small intake holes right over where the LCD will sit, so if the 60mm intake fan doesn't provide enough cross-sectional airflow, those extra holes should help.

DAY 2: Fun with lasers

Didn't get a lot done today. Kids kept me occupied, and most of what little time I did have was spent brainstorming for the LCD sled, lens adjustment, fan choices, and few other unknowns.

Did have a little fun with my laser level. I made some mirror mounts out of acrylic and a couple L-bracket style thingies that were in the junk box. Measured and screwed them into the enclosure, and I think this double fold thing might work out (famous last words).

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This shot show approximately where the triplet will need to go.

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I also crashed and burned on my seventh, yes seventh, attempt to make my own front surface mirror by stripping the paint off the back of a rear surface. This was actually my best try yet, but I always end up with many flaws, an orangy-bronze coloration, and some stippling/mottling (see detail shot below).

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Mottling/stippling:

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DAY 3: Accidents, Good and Bad.

LL bulb I bought from BIMPtacular arrived cracked today
Bummer. 'Twas a good deal. And now I can't even test the M59 ballast I bought with it.

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Until the broken bulb, this build has been filled with all sorts of happy accidents: the fan mount on the PC case working out exactly where it was needed, the case exactly as big as necessary (I think). Tonight there were three more.

First, I decided to dismember an old PSU, from the same first-computer purchase that the case came from. As is, it would not fit behind the right mirror, but after taking off its outer shell it fit just fine. Looking at the PSU's fan mount, I thought to myself, hmmm... that hole is about the same size as the triplet. Then I noticed the metal shell was exactly the width of the 5 1/4" bays, where the lens will go. After a bit of hacksawing, it slide right in, with exactly 1/2" to spare on either side, which just happens to be the height of the ghetto fabulous rails I'm going to be using.

(More on those tomorrow)

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Crouching tiger, hidden knee pain caused these shots to be a little shakey. And you can blame the crap focus on the goofy protection glasses that came with the laser level.

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Man, your projects are cool. Very inspirational! Looks awesome Sensi, That brain in your avatar looks bigger, and more defined with each PJ you tackle.

<---Nah, just an optical illusion


(Thought I'd celebrate post 500 with a little avatar mod. Hope people don't take that damn thing seriously. It ain't a brain at all, but a lame fractal I did about 10 years ago).


p.s. If it weren't for you chiming in now and again my PLOGs would be nothing more than me talking to myself.

I like that layout. It's gonna be awesome! (and if it works well, I may steal it later. Looking forward to the rest of your surprizes.

DAYS 4, 5, 6: Protect Your Fingers

Not much progress, I'm afraid. Life intervened, and then another accident. I broke one of the cardinal rules about drilling and (unknowingly) gripped my lens mount so that my left index was in the direct path of the drill bit on the other side of the metal. Then I pushed and drilled with enough force to go through said metal and most of the way through my finger as well

(I know this because I examined the bit afterwards and could measure how far up the skin/gristle/nerve/meat still clung to it. )

Now my finger tip is somehow both numb and throbbing. Gotta hate it when that happens.

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Sorry to hear (see) your mishap
I feel for you my hands are so scarred up from just that type of accidents that if you connected them like connect the dots they would more than likely be a design of my next PJ

Hmmmmmmmmm,
After looking at your new 500 avatar mod I was wondering if your finger pulsed like the frac does

A week ago I was working on my shop and was trying to screw some self tappers to connect a 1x4 to the steel truss for the lights and jammed the driver bit into my knuckle,,,,,,,, It still hurtd like h*#l

Your description makes me cringe! Guess you'll just have to drink it off

Too bad yesterday was Cinco de Mayo

I promised a shot of my ghetto lens mount slides -- yep, you guessed it, cheapo curtain rods. Found them in a corner of the basement. They should be hidden, when all is said and done, and they slide fairly smoothly. Hoping to incorporate a motorized focus mech. (affixed to that hole in the upper right hand corner) but will have to see if I can slow down a stepper motor enough to make it feasible.

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Days 7 & 8
Spent the last two days hashing out my lighting options. It quickly became apparent that a 400w bulb was too big for this enclosure, so it's now down to a couple candidates:

A. Double-ended 150 sylvania hqi (rx7)
B. Double-ended 250 sylvania hqi (fc2) slightly overdriven with a 400w S51 ballast and 48uf capacitor *
or
C. 575w hmi from either my first build or ...


* Thanks to Arizonavideo for walking me through the details of this.

Whatever the case, it's like this baby just went from a double-fold to a single. Will update when there's more to say.

Day 9: Disastrous Error

Every build I've done so far, I've made at least one big boneheaded mistake. Most have been recoverable, but this one might be a deal-breaker I'm afraid.

Somehow it escaped me that in a horizontal fold the image/LCD does not get flipped vertically by the mirror. Seems rather simple, but I had it in my head that mirror/fold meant a right-side-up LCD (the opposite of the straight-shooter, which gets in an inverted LCD).

Anyway, I go to make a test projection tonight and lo and behold -- my image is upside down. At this point, there is simply no place to fit the panel's ffc board between the LCD and the mirror.

Stamp this project "shelved until further notice"

i am sorry to hear that... ive been following your project and i was excited to see the first image.... looks like you will be waiting until you find a better suited LCD or rehash all togeather...

and so much blood and tears so far

That sucks. Hope you find a solution for it eventually. It would suck for this project to just die...

Thanks for the sympathy. I lay awake last night brainstorming a solution, but I think I boxed myself into a corner (quite literally) by trying to cram everything into the PC case. It's just a wee bit too small. I might try to make it work still, but I'm moving in a couple weeks and need to focus on that for now.

Day 10: Back from the Dead

Yeah, so, I simply can't walk away from an unfinished project. I moved things around a bit, lifted the mirror so the LCD ffc board could slide underneath and propped everything in place. It's a fudge for the time being, but it worked.

Here are some quick screens. Horrible ghosting from the rear surface mirror and light leaks out the wazoo (including a full image of the lamp at bottom right), but not too bad all things considered. This is with a 150w ceramic, the Surplus Shed precondenser, a 200mm rear, ~400mm front and a 355mm FL Beseler triplet.

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Legos make great lens stands.

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Wow, you pulled it off after all. Nice job!

GREAT JOB!

all you need is a couple FS mirrors and some sheet metal to block off the leaks and you should be good to go.

The CDM looks great. I'm glas you got everything to fit.

OK, little update. I ditched the PSU shell lens mount (too flimsy) and built one of MDF. I also started painting everything and sealing up some leaks. The result is much better. Just ordered a fs mirror, so I should be fairly close to finished

Here is a shot of the guts (in sore need of a dusting). The LCD is off so the light isn't going through at the moment. The silver box at top is a nice little 150w e-ballast I scored recently that claims to be specifically designed for ceramics. It's a little slow to fire the bulb but otherwise functions beautifully.

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That's an impressive build. Very nice work getting everythig together in the confind space.

Sweet job and so tiny. And FAST too.

Hey do you think you would want to sell that 9" panel from the dvd player? I would be interested in it.

Not after I just built a projector for it. It's a birthday present for my brother.

Very nice sensibull

I'm also currently building one for my son's birthday using his old 7" Panasonic DVD LS50 and I hope it turns out as good as yours.

The last photos kinda show ghosting, is this from camera movement?

I think he said he needs a FS mirror to fix the ghosting.

ah, thanks JJ

No. It's from the rear surface mirror I've been testing it with. I had to make sure I knew exactly what size I needed before I ordered a front surface.

Thanks for the nice comments, everybody. Paint job is coming along. Just need to decide on a mechanism for focus. As much as I want to build an electrical one, or something more elegant, I may just use an OHP arm I have laying around. If I've learned anything from these builds, it's to go with what works over looks pretty.

Focus mount. A little ugly but simple and quite functional.

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Still waiting on the fs mirror, but the paint is dry (more or less -- man am I an impatient finisher).

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Very nice- I really like the ohp addition

Victor

Great job on that one.

I personally like the way the OHP arm looks there. And very functional. Nice build.

Thanks guys. Got my fs mirror installed. Here are a few more screens. Only thing left to do is secure everything in place.

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