Thanks!
Yeah,one of my faves.
Maybe a bit long winded,but beautiful to watch,and looks incredible on the pj.
I love Billy Bob Thorntons voice over!
My PC woes continue though,I have set up zoom player as it was,but even without fdd show,I am now getting major choppiness,split seconds of black screen all over the place!I think I will remove my "new" video card,and reload all the s/w again.

Is there any pattern to it?
Does it go for five minutes, then black out? Is it just a black screen? or does it tear?
Is it pixelated or blocky?
Does the sound continue, but the picture doesnt?
Does it happen on all media, or just DVD?
You got the cinemaster drivers, did you also get the TheaterTek player?
Does it still "KAK" when you try to rip the DVD to disk?

No,I think it is a basic problem in the S/W,as it happens on all dvd playback.Not with downloaded video clips.But playing the same dvd's as before,rather than getting 100% cpu usage displayed,and regular choppiness of playback,I am now getting pure black "between frame" blackouts,that I havn't had at all before,Looks to coincide with hdd led blinks on the front of the pc.I am a bit miffed,but I think I need to remove the nvidia drivers from the graphic card install,that seems to be the main "upgrade" that has resulted in the problem,I really need to build a Purpose built htpc,separate from my home network,I think!!

Stop worrying about my pj,and finish your own Samurai!!!!
(only joking,Samurai.I would have been banging my head against a wall a long time ago,but for you! )

The rock sleeps alone
born of fire, patience and heat
observe my strength now

Dude!...I will finish mine all in good time...After all, what is the rush,...truly? Will I conquer time, or save the world? No.
A friend's plight is more important to me...
I am truly a foul weather friend....


I would concentrate on your chipset. It sounds like your USB bus cant keep up with the data flow from the DVD drive. A good way to test this would be to connect an IDE DVD drive, if only for a short while. I have a sneaking suspicion that your USB drive isnt operating at full speed. Drop a few pounds on a local store and buy an internal DVD-rom, test it, then take it back. I will bet you a Snickers Bar ( or a Toblerone...) that your internal DVD-rom will play fine versus your USB drive.

When you reinstalled XP, you DID update your chipset drivers, right?

Do me a favor and go into your machines hardware properties, right click on the IDE controller and tell me what it says.

You could be on to something there Samurai,thanks.
I will take a look at it tonight.
And thank you!

Ok,blinking playback appears to have been a problem with the sonic cineplayer decoder installation!
I re-downloaded the dscaler 5 decoder,and bang!!!! Smooth playback,even with higher post processing in fdd show!! Shows 100% cpu useage,but with the added,cheapo graphics card,seems to manage fine!!
I will need to "test" it,of course.Maybe a foll LOTR session is called for!!
Thanks for the help though chaps,it is much appreciated!

And a couple of MadMax pics coz its cool!
(couldn't resist the last one,sorry!!
He is just about to meet a huge truck,while going very fast!! )

Punisher! Help! I have been trying to figure out this keystoning, but I cant get it, I wanna be able to have my pJ on the floor and have the bottom of the screen be about two feet off the ground.... what do I do?

OK,first take a deep breath...
The easiest way is to put a book under the front of the pj!!!
Other than that,you could lower the mirror mount,and increase the angle of the mirror.Small adjustments can have quite alot of action here,so I would do it while projecting,to get the angles right.
When projecting widescreen,my image is over 2' from the floor,and 4:3 images would be on the ceiling at that height!!!
Hope this helps,MB.
If not let me know.
Cheers P

If the story I'm told is correct, I actually have the Falcon bonnet emblem from the car towing the caravan (well, what's left of it) somewhere in my collection....

But that's just an aside. Well done on your projector! I thought that was very brave completely finishing the cosmetics of your projector before even testing the image!

Some absolutely brilliant ideas, I'm still in the planning stage of mine at the moment and i'm not sure what 'form factor' I will be adopting although I'm a big fan of the focus mechanism - it just looks right!

Keep up the good work!

- Scott

No way!! That is a brilliant "trinket" to have in your collection,I am very jealous!!!!
Thanks for the kind words Scott,and good luck with your build,however you choose to do it.It is by far the most satisfying diy project imaginable!!!

It's taken me days to read through your plog, but it's been well worth it. Your projector really is brilliant!

I'm copying most of you design, but making a few alterations along the way and i've also decided to use an OHP for most of the parts. Nice and cheap.

When I've done some more testing I will start a plog and post some pics, will also do designs using CAD software from work, so I should be able to post some 3D concept pics.

I see your considering building a boat, I was also thinking about this one, check out the following link, thought the boats we're quite cool.

http://www.littlecraft.com/?source=adwords&campaign=1

By the way where did you get your glass and mirror from? Was it a certain type of mirror too?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Punisher,

I have a few questions which have been bugging me for a while. It would be great if you could help me out with them:

1) How do you attach the side panels of the image bank to the main image bank assembly? Or are they held in place by the main enclosure?

2) How did you attach your triplet to the drainpipe in your focusing mechanism?

3) What kind of wood did you use for the actual main enclosure?

Thanks for any help you can offer,

Bobski

Nice boat,thanks for the info!
Glass was from my local glass shop,just went in and asked for tempered glass,with the stamp placed on the side!
Mirror is a FS mirror,front surface mirrors are a must,I think.
I got it from:
Vacuum Coatings ltd
They are in central london,but are happy to post!!(11"x12",£35 with postage)
Hope this helps.Good luck with the project.It sounds cool!




Yep,bobski78,Side panels of the enclosure are up tight against the image bank,2x screws at the bottom,and a retaining lip at the top.

I cut a circle of MDF,that fits tightly into the drainpipe,then cut a hole in the MDF for the triplet to fit in.MDF is held in the drainpipe with some high-temp silicone sealant.

Top,,bottom and back of box is shelving board,pine strips glusd together,by the looks of it!!
Front and side pannels are mdf.

Hope that helps.If you want any more info,just ask!!!!

LO Punisher

Nice projector, and awsome screen shots.
I need an holiday after reading this plog im knackered as well as reading others.
Just started on mine and left the prototype, just getting round the wife factor thing
at the moment, so far so good.
Nice to see so many Brits building.

HI Pun15her,

Thanks for the info, very helpful.

Now I can get some tests going pretty soon, Got the projector bug bad!

@ pun15her

Very very nice project, I've read many pages. From time to time just saw the pics so if you don't mind i would have some questions.

1) When you look at your projection screen, are you in face of it or do you look at it from sides ?

2) What are your screen diagonal size (114' ?), the distance between you (100' ?) and the screen, between the pj and the screen ?

3) If you are not looking at your screen directly, do you think it's possible to have my pj in front of my sofa on the floor and correct the trapezoid enough ?



Translation of the Legend :
Canapé = Sofa
Tupplur = A screen buy a ikea
Projo = PJ

Hello,AeroCosmic.
Thanks!!
The sofa is just to one side of the screen,only beacause of the room layout,your sizes and distances are correct,and the sofa is 10',or 120" from the screen(wall).
At a lift of 15.6 degrees from horizontal you could use keystone,but it is just over the usual 15 degree limit,and would exaggerate the out of focus top and bottom problem.The best compromise I have found (for now) is leaning the screen,to lessen the need for extreme keystoning.The focussing issue is still there,but not to any noticeable degree!!
Hope this helps.And good luck!!

I've made my topic with my project if you could have a look

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6878

The problem with the leaning of the screen is that I have a tupplur :
http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/serv...productId=49066

It's not fixed on a wood frame or something because I want it to be enroulable because of the room layout.

Pun15her, I know you must tire of hearing the accolades, but you have made amazing progress since last I saw your plog. Awesome.

Thanks,Pinky!!
I really don't mind,you know!!
I appreciate the compliment,I seem to have ground to a bit of a halt at the moment.Lots of thinking,but not alot of doing!!!
Thats the way it goes,I suppose!
Thanks again!

Hi,all...
Back on the lightgate now...



Air is dragged over the length of the bulb from around the bulb holder,then over the "heatsinks" and out via 2x 80mm fans,and ducted out of the casing.
Is there an issue when dragging cool air directly over the bulb,lowering its operating temp slightly?Will this lower the lamps performance????

Cheers P.

The problem with dragging the air directly over the bulb is that it will change the expansion coefficient that the bulb is designed to work with. Its supposed to operate at full temperature in the middle and then rapidly drop off till it reaches a maximum of 250 C at either end. If you cool the glass too much it decreases the range of temperature dispersion and might create enough tension in the glass shell to shatter it. When I built mine, I was going for seperating the nice hot light from the LCD array and controlling spare light. I wanted the bulb to reach a good temp, just like they do in the street lamps. That should keep the bulb operating at the temps it was designed for.

I would take the middle heat sinks and point them towards the bulb, add smaller arrays of heatsinks on the other surface, wrapping around the curve so as not to disrupt airflow, and possibly eliminate the outside ones altogether. Then take one of the 80 mm fans and reverse it.

With your current design, the outside wont really be too hot, it will be the layer directly above the bulb. I looked at building a verticle ( I think I was musing on yours to tell the truth...) a while back and decided I would have a 1 inch layer above the bulb with heat sinks directly above the bulb, except for the ligh path and force all the air over the sink.

Did you find the site for optically nuetral glass yet? I have a US site, but I havent found one for you overseas...

Lookin good though!

EDIT: Oh man, my typing skills have gone to the birds...

Thanks Samurai.That cllears alot up.
I shall meditate further.
Maybe a completeley separate chamber for the bulb,and another chamber for coling that chamber???

Thats the way I did my original design. I had air chamber all around it, except for the back, but I got a little lazy because I really didnt want to deal with meatal cutting and joing at angles...

I have been thinking about a dual layer all round,but the stumbling block i have found is that it would really need 2 layers of glass,to be a fully dual layered system.Which would be a bad thing.
I am thinking of a tube within a tube,with the lamp enclosed inside the first tube,and air moving through the other tube!!!

Actually, I designed mine with only one layer of glass. The glass was on the outside. Optical grade, and the space between the two layers was filled with tin walls. So if you were looking down at the top of it, you would see the glass, then the sloping sides that seperate and support the two layers, then the arc...

Does that make sense or am I going to have to torture you with my extremely meager MSPaint skills....?
( Pray for mercy!)

have you thought of using liquid cooling.... no liquid touching the light or anything, just the hot air around it heating the water in pipes then pump the liquid out of the pj to get cooled from a radiator...?

Hi!

My first post at this forum!

I have watched your PLOG many times Pun15her, Your pj it's one of the best vertical's I have seen. I'm going to build a vertical pj, thanks to You Pun15her, your pj is amazing, You have inspired me.

I have build two pj of the LL design, both pj has only been test projects. I have had problems with the heat with both, the lamp is very very hot, I'm using a Philips MASTER HPI-T Plus 400w.

So I have decided to build a lightbox, my plan is almost as Yours, but my problem can be the operating temp of the lamp, see my quick drawing!



Any Ideas???

Samurai,I do know exactly what you mean.It just seems a shame that the space where the glass is would benefit from airflow too!!
Does the glass dissipate heat well? If so,maybe a bigger piece,so that at least part of the glass is within the airflow being cooled?
Am I making any sense??

No,not realy Mountainbiker!Only because I have never used it,It sounds good in principal,but I think it would be an accident waiting to happen if I attempted it!!

But if you wanted to have a go...

I am honoured Dcd,thanks for the kind words!

In your diagram,is one fan pushing and one fan pulling??? I presume it is,in which case it looks good.The principal I am working on is dissipation of heat from the lamp through the metal casing,then cooling the casing using airflow.The more surface area of metal you can achieve,the more heat will dissipate through it,so if you could add some "fins" to the inner sidewalls,the air moving over them should make more of a difference.(I am no expert in this field by the way,I am just working on long distant recollections of physics lessons mixed with a little common sense.).Any other input is welcomed.
But from your diagram,it looks like you will be cooling the air,rather than the bulb itself,which is a good thing,(I learned that today,thanks Samurai!).All these ideas are experimental,which is half the fun.Build it and we shall all learn from the experience.That is the point!

Go for it,and good luck!!
Cheers P.

I don't know if this makes any sense - but it occurs to me that the baffles you have in your sketch may impede the airflow less if they were placed on an angle in the direction of flow. Similar to the innards of a muffler. Or are you trying to slow the air down to reach an optimal temp perhaps?

Yes,it does make sense,I think the airflow will need slowing down to a degree,to have the most effect.The diagram may be a bit extreme,trial and error is the only way to tell for sure,I guess!
But maybe somewhere in the middle,a bit of smoothing will probably be the order of the day!!
Thanks for the input,Pinky.

Hi Pun15her

what method you use for shinning your bowl or what order did you do it?
Im using brasso with very fine wire wool, 1 piece to put on the brasso
and another pieces to shine.
Did you put on the brasso then use what ever grade wet and dry paper
to shine then on the final touches use t-cut, at what point did you use the
polishing disc on your dremil?

Hi,Shady.I used the wet and dry paper first.Then used t-cut on a polishing wheel on the dremmel.(warning,it splaters everywhere!!!).Went through 10 polishing disks!!!Then finished off by hand using metal polish,(the soft impregnated wadding in a can type).EASY!
Took a while,but is is very satisfying.
Good luck!!

Quick question, what do you have powering that focusing motor..... I got the sameone you did. All I have in my box is 12v, which makes the motor sound like it will explode. I suppose I have the option of using a battery or some resistors.... even though the battery would probably last longer then the bulb since how often am I really going to have to focus....Know how I could use some resistor os any other ideas....? thanks...

Hi! I am using a pc power supply,so I am using the 5V supply.I would say batteries would be your best bet.Just pick up a 4 cell battery pack from an electronics store,that should be perfect,I think!
Good luck,cheers P

Ok,confession time...
Last night,I watched my very first film,without fiddling around,stopping to take photos etc etc.
Chronicles of riddick.Looked amazing.I was too tired to play with it,so I just relaxed with a nice bottle of red and enjoyed!!!

Its about time....dontcha think?

More importantly, what does the missus have to say about it?

Chronicles of Riddick sounds more like a beer and pretzels movie than a red. Just like dinner you need to match the beverage to main course.

She was asleep after a day out with friends!!!!!!
She hasn't complained once since construction finished,which is great.But the only time we both actually sat down together to watch a movie,about a month ago,was when I had my fdd show glitching probs,and we had to give up after about 10 mins,and settle for the small screen!!
I will re-introduce them soon...

I find that red wine goes with anything,not least because beer comes in smaller bottles,so with a bottle of wine you dont have to keep getting up to go to the fridge!!

And if you get really desperate, you can get one of those "Boxes O' Wine", tear out the bag, and hang it up like an IV!

Maybe thats the marketing LL needs to use, big screen with no risk of driving while drunk.

I think that maybe the best idea I have ever heard in my life!

I AM here to help......

We tech folk must stick together...

pun15her, great design...

I am curious about you 12v wiring..
Did you keep the supply grounded at all times and wired it into the AC line before the 10 amp switches?

Also how are your evercools rigged? Do you have a switch or timer that keeps them running after the pj is turned off?

I like the idea of having access to both AC and DC inside my projector.
It really opens up the options for adding pc components.
Especially if you are into hardcore pc modding.. many options!

Thanks for the detailed plog and keep up the innovations!

Thanks radcode!
I have the mains going into my box.First thing it reaches is a switch.Turned off,it cuts all power to the box.Turned on,the mains electricity continues on to the 10a fuse.From there it goes to the micro atx 250W psu.This powers a 2 channel pc fan controller,which in turn powers the 2x pcac fans.It also powers the 5V motor for the focus mechanism.Then there is another switch that controls the lamp gear.So the fans are running when the first switch is activated,but the lamp wont ignite until the second switch is activated.This also means that the lamp cannot be turned on without the fans running.
I couldnt find a thermostat that I would feel comfortable running my pj,so I went for the simplest solution I could think of!!!!!
Hope that helps.Cheers P

Just thinking outloud about the lightgate again!
I was thinking about insulating the outer wall of the lightgate with something like this...
Automotive Heat shielding
I think it should stop alot of heat from being leaked into the rest of the box!