There are to many folks to thank for an idea here and an idea there so I'll just say Thank You to all who actively participate and share what they have learned, done, experienced and contributed to the overall knowledge base in support of this project.

Components:
Dell 1702FP 17 inch, Pro Lens kit, Ushio, Electronic ballast, 120mm 110V arctic fan, two switches, norpro, terminal block wiring, laminated pine box, MDF base - screwed and glued with reactive polyurethane adhesive.

John

Here is the collection of parts on the box

Here are the monitor controls and VGA input in position. All controls and operations and inputs are on the same side of the box.
(Guess where I sit?)

VGA port was made with a female to female gender changer. The face plate was made with 3/4 inch aluminum U channel, drilled out and filed to shape. I purchased a 12 inch VGA cord for inside the box.

Stripped LCD. FFC is an easy fix, 6 inch, .5, 20 pin extension with a double zif.

Video and power boards

No new pic's since Santa didn't bring a digital this year.

The electric is finished and a heat shield is in place.

I ran the bulb and did some temperature tests. With a 5/8 inch gap I was able to hold 66 degree max temp after 15 minutes run time. Granted the room (garage) temp was 60 degrees so a 6 degree increase is very acceptable. Since the PJ will be on the lower level of a split level home this is excellent news. The room never goes above 65 degrees, even with the heat set on 70 in the winter. In the summer it hovers around a natural 60 degrees.

The light engine is complete. I cut the norpro down, lopping off about 1.5 inches of the rim (What a pain in the arse)

Cut down the metal backer plate that holds the cct boards.

Hoping to have new pic's within the week by brorowing a friends digital.

Next steps are to
1. Mount the boards
2. Fabricate and mount the frame for the field fresnel with keystone
3. Install collimator fresnel
4. Run the lamp and determine the focus box center
5. Cut and mount pro lens
6. Wait for the arrival of the new fresnel

John

Modified the air flow a bit. Top opening in the box for air the flow between the lcd and the fresnel, but will also flow between the regular glass holding the fresnel and the tempered.

Tempered...1/2in.......glass / frez.....5/8inch......LCD

Installed all hardware for securing tempered, reg glass and fresnel in place. Blocked off lcd area with wood and am running temp test now. Running for an hour and currently at 78F (25.5C), ambient at 67F (19.4C). Will post graph later today after total of three hours.

Detached the backlight power supply from the video card and test ran the LCD. Worked fine for a period of one hour then I shut it off.

John

Time and temperature test. Ran for four hours and I am very happy with the results.
John

hehe, looks like the fan KEPT the temps up- it dropped, FAST right after you turned your fan off................. hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Uh Duh....bulb off at 230 minutes, fanleft on. Will correct above chart

John

Well the TGB3 is up and running. First movie last night of Spider Man, more on that but first a few comments on finalizing it.

1. Connecting the side FFC to the extension is a pain in the arse. I'm still not 100% confident in the connection but it is holding.

2. Using the fresnels unsplit due to the pro frez issue, awaiting corrected frez in order to employ keystone.

First images were on a black cloth, then switched to a white sheet. These were primarily to see if I even created an image. Was clear yet dark, so naturally I blamed the frez issue. All in all, just happy to get an image, and tweak from there. I only had to move my bulb back 1/4 inch. All else was good to go. No pixelation, no screen door (was visible at 24-30 inches from screen but who sit's that close)

I sifted thru the deep dark crevices and found an old 60x60, white matte, da-lite tripod screen that I was given many moons ago. I figured I'd give it a shot. The difference was like night and day. Absolutely beautiful, crisp and clear.

Although I never saw blackout cloth in use personally, the Da-Lite screen convinced me to go commercial on the screen for the following reasons - The 17 inch LCD and Pro were pricey items and I want to maximize the output (the experience), I need a manual retractable ceiling mount - so it made sense to go commercial. I'll be picking up that tonight.

I wish I had a digital camera now but a relative will be here this weekend that has one, so I expect to have images early next week.

All I can say is that I am impressed, as is SWMBO and thats the part that really matters..........

John

Hey I'm going to use the dell 1702fp when I start. Any hindsight in taking it apart or did it go smooth? It good to know the picture looks great. Hope to see some more pictures soon.

Cold,

Taking apart was simple, once you get the plastic housing apart. Use a credit card to pry and split the case. Once inside, just remove screws as you find them. The only screws I used over where the four that hold the panel controls so be sure to save them.

Once you have it all taken apart I took a utility knife and I cut the white molded frame that secures the lcd glass. If you look at the part, you can see the L shapes in the corners. This is the frame corners for the glass. Score a straight line from each "L" in the corners to make a box. Cut out the box. In hind sight I am not 100% certain that this is necessary. Since I do not have the scrap pieces here any longer, I will never know - so take a look to verify. It's nice to use the LCD's own framing to secure it in it's own metal frame and case (nice and stable)

I cut out the panel control section of the front of the case with a razor knife. Just keep scoring the line with light pressure.

Scrap the power supply for the back lights and all else.

The FFC extension was the only challenge. Getting the extension and the FFC inplace was a pain (fat fingers do not help)

The input board wiring gives you a little wiggle room for placement within the box.

I have to relocate my VGA port closer to the front of the box and I should have added a DVI port outside the box. Will do when time allows or make a new box once the new frez arrives and I can get dead nuts dimensions.

Will post more pic's when I get access to a camera. My bro-in-law didn't bring his over the weekend.

Using my laptop for DVD's. I bought a ATI card for an older dell I have to use as a TV tuner. Clarity was superb even though it's a P3 w/ 128ram w/ standard comcast cable not "digital"...

I may not employ keystone. From 14 or 15 feet with a lens height of 40 inches, I raise the front of the PJ about 2 inches. The keystone from top to bottom on a 55 inch height is 1/2 inch - very acceptable and really only noticeable when a movie is played within a frame. When full screen, could not even tell.

Any questions, fire away.
John

I was going to go 17"... but $$ (ok, my wife) is making me consider bumping back to the 15" (well that and the pro fres issue and my relentless lacking patience).

But tell me what you think of the 17" action compared to a 15"... we need a thread that compares the two .. with sweet pics of course demonstrating the uber-superiority of the 17" display. I think i'd still like to go 17"... but maybe i'll just do the 15" to shorten the time table of having the bigscreen and see what happens with future lens'.



thanks, sounding like a great pj, cant wait for the pics.

Jersey, Did you do any grounding on your lcd. I read somewhere about grounding each component with a wire attaching to each component.
CS

ps.pics?

Cold,

I did not ground the LCD, no need to. It is after the LCD transformer plug, which has a ground wire.

John

Thanks man., Any pics yet. I am looking forward to it so I can show the Mrs. CS
I'm a long way off for mine. In 2 months I hope. I'm remodeling my living room. But the Mrs. doesn't want the pj in there. So with pics it might persuade her. I can see it now (10-12 ft Jaws). wooot

Cold,

I have to scrounge up a digital camera that is fairly decent image quality from a friend. I am trying to borrow one. I owe it to the members who have posted images and helped me along the way. With two cub scouts and one boy scout, summer camp's and the national jamboree this year, cash is tight. Then you have to add in hockey and soccer expenses and it just keeps getting better ;-)

For now remember that I have the bad fresnel, but image is decent and watchable but there is spillage due to the looooong focal length of the fresnel.. The proper fresnel is enroute from China and I am waiting as is everyone else. Once thats in, I'll be all set.

My screen is a 72 x 72 tripod da-lite white matte, I can only get a 55ish inch diagonal in 16:9 and a 72 inch diagonal in 4:3 Saving pennies for a 10 foot manual pull down in white matte.

John

Oh yeah, I know exactly what you are saying with 4 young'ns. Band , basketball, gymnastics, karate, football, baseball, track and other things. Now almost raised up. 2 college grads and same 2 still in grad school.

I hope by the time I get ready to order Brain will have all the stuff in stock and with the newest items all updated.

I still be wondering around in these forums for a while so when your pics become available I'll view em. CS

Focus box looking into the business end. Lens is face mounted to 16 gauge metal, that in turn mounted to the wood frame of the focus box with adjustment slots.

Focus box slide channel. 3/4 x 3/4 Aluminum channgel nounted to the outside frame of the ocus box. A 3/4 x 3/4 pine rail mounted to box. Pine wood sanded smooth and coated (impregnated) with dry bar soap. Al and wood slide smoothly.

Focus box adjustment screw. Focus box was pushed against the front of the box. A 5/16 hole was drill thru both walls. A press fit T-Nut furniture fitting was secured to the focus box. An RTA furniture fitting was mounted to the outside end of the screw. It turns with a allen key, drawing the box in and out, riding the rails. All hardware is 1/4 - 20

Another shot of the focus box adjuster

Looking into the front you can see the hardware and connection method. I recessed the lens intentionally so that when not in use it can be withdrawn for protection.

Here you can see the light engine. I scored lines in X and Y to give me a grid. This gave me a method to track locations when I moved the reflector and the bulb. Bottom left was origin 0,0. Grid spacing is about 1/8



Another shot. Right now the fresnels are unsplit

General circuit board layout. 1/8 strip of wood was bolted to the LCD cct board thru existing holes in the board. Wood strip is not against circuits.




This is the FFC issue on the lcd (Dell 1702FP) I still do not trust this connection. It is the two ffc's "forced" into a single connector. I pried open the connector a little more prior to placing the two ffc's inside it. You can also see an aluminum bracket that is slotted and a "V" groove made at the end. The V groove is held firmly against the webbing of the white lcd plastic housing to secure it in place. Taking m inimal side space away for future keystone mechanism, if deemed necessary

Photo gallery
http://home.comcast.net/~jerseyjohn/wsb/ht...otos.html-.html

Photo Slide show
http://home.comcast.net/~jerseyjohn/wsb/ht...ID-2068539.html
John

Light spillage with the 990 frez.
John

Looking into the front showing focus box adjustment fittings.