When I moved into my new home, the previous owners left a few things behind, one of which was a cheap wooden standing clock. I took some measurements and came up with this idea. However I'm worried b/c of the large distances between lenses. Is this going to be a issue? Any way around it?

what are the distances we are talking about?
If the lcd will fit inot the upright "tower, then everything should be able to move up as needed to accommodate the pro lenses.

well the distance between lcd to mirror will be about 3.5 feet or so. From light to lcd, around 2 feet. the clock it's self is around 6feet tall. I wanted to go with this idea, that way i can project the image a 90deg angle from the wall (5.5ft projection height, 9ft ceiling, so that will allow for 6ft screen ). that way no keystoning.

Sounds like you are planning it like this:
Click to view attachment
But you are afraid that X and Y will be too large. 2 feet from bulb to LCD and 3.5 feet from LCD to mirror, does seem too large to be done easily.

Is there a reason you can't do it like this, to shorten those distances? Then just leave the bottom half of the clock empty?

Click to view attachment

Thats kinda what I was saying without the purty pictures.

yeah i guess. I just thought keeping the light as collimated as possible would be a good thing. having strong lenses and sharp bends (so i hear) tend to mess things up unless you have alot of VERY expensive optics. Maybe my Micro ATX computer could live in the bottom!

here is my idea. You build the projector in the upper part of the clock, build the computer into the base. And then get a cheep clock mechanism (thoes ones in the build you own clock kits.) and build it into the back of the curent clock face and use the current hands. Then you make it so the projecton triplet is on a slideing focusing mechanism that can slide it far enough into the clock that you can put the face back on when it isnt being used as a projector. A hidden projector of sorts.

how far away will the projector be from the wall/screen? if you use the standard optics at 12 feet you will have a 133" diag image, if you use the Pro lens set you will have a 120" diag image at the same distance. once you know the distance and size screen you want use the focal calc to determine the distances between optics and go from there. nice idea BTW. projectoclock.

yeah i havent measured that yet, but if i had to say, it'll be around 11ft-12ft or so. I'm aiming to use as much of the projection wall as possible (about 150" diag.)



It's one of those REALLY cheap things. Matter-a-fact it has a thin (1/16" fiber board) clock face with one of those clock modules in the back. You know the ones that is in a nice black plastic housing and you put a C cell battery in? My Idea was to take the battery out (leaving it none functional) and mount the triplet into the face with a mirror behind it. Set the clock to a time where the hands wouldnt be in that way. Haha like a spy Projector

OR have the face open and the trippy pop out with a little cookoo sitting on it.

Remember that if you want a good quality with a FS mirror, the mirror has to be as close as possible to the LCD !!

why is that?