Hello all.
I have been browsing and sketching for a while now,and although I am not finished by a long way,I feel that I have enough bits and pieces for me to start a plog.
Design is based on Joes simple 15" folded.But I am hoping to lean it back by 10'.
Here is a (very) rough pic of the basic design.I do have all the dimensions,and have checked that it will all fit by doing 1:1 scale drawings on my timber,I will attempt a more accurate pic if anyone shows an interest.

Sorry,I know that is a very basic pic!
I am using the Benq 567s monitor,here is a before and after pic for reference:

I have decided to use the threaded rod design for framing lcd and fresnels.I used L profile wood strips to make the frames.

This should give me loads of adjustability.

I am going to be using 2x evercools mounted on the front of my pj,but plan to control them from a panel mounted on the back,with main power swithces,and a temp gague and focus controls.Because of this I have decided to use a pc psu to distribute power to all of these items.I picked a micro psu up from ebay.
The psu requires a switch for itself,but if you connect the green wire to any of the black wires on the main m-board connector,this bypasses the need for a separate switch.The easiest way to do this is:

But as I have no need for the m-board connector at all,I have removed it along with all other unrequired wiring.
The psu also requires a load to function.IE;with just my temp monitor connected,the psu cuts out after about half a second,but with both evercools attached,even running at their slowest,There is no interuption,so I should be ok.

As for the main control panel.I bought 2 10amp spst toggle switches with missile covers from maplins UK,thanks Haku!,and removed the evercool speed controllers,I found a neat temperature module('C only) on ebay:lcd temp module,and found the controls for my focus mech in a remote control car at my local woolworths!
I made the face plate out of some scrap epoxy resin board that I used from another project.
The board marked out:
The board cut:
And painted wit all pieces:
And all put together:
And a view of the back:

Reflector,AARRGGHH!
Bit of a minefield that one.
I found mine in my local supermarket,it is a sugar bowl,it has been mentioned several times around the forums,it is made by a company called tchibo and is available world wide I think:
Manufacturers website
It ha a diameter of 135mm,or 5 1/4",the outside is nice and shiny but the inside is brushed at best!
I removed the lid and cut off the excess as we don't need the full hemisphere,and began sanding...
5 hours later and you end up with a very shiny reflector.
here is a pic half way through the process:
and here is a pic of what i used to sand/polish it:

4 different grades of wet and dry,some car scratch remover,which I used with my dremmel and quite a few polishing wheels,and some metal polish.
and here is what you are left with:
Hard work,but worth it.You get a great feeling when you finally can see your face smiling back at you from the bottom.

I thought alot about focussing.I wanted to keep it neat,so here is what I came up with;I used the controller from a remote control car bought for £1.99 at woolworths
and have connected it up to a geared motor from a robotic vehicle,here is a mock up of the control setup:
I found some drawer runners from a filing cabinet that run on ball bearings,so they are very smooth.I only needed a fraction of the length,so out came the dremmel again:

Here is a pic of all the components of the mechanicals:

And here it is assembled and mounted to a mock up of the front of my pj:
Back view:

And what you will see from the front:

The motor will drive the threaded rod and move the captive nut inside the housing back and forth,moving the entire lens enclosure.

Just a quick post,I wanted to check lcd orientation,so mounted lcd and fresnels,and used a 60watt house lamp as a test.
here is the test rig:

and here is the projected image:

Not brilliant looking at it now,but at the time it seemed awesome!

With my box design,I am hoping to have enough room for all or most of the electronics to be mounted inside,this should also give me the benefit of cooling everything by re directing the path of the airflow inside the box.

The green line is the proposed airflow path.

wow, that's very good job

Love that focusing mecanism

Thanks slowmotion,
I am taking things slowly with this project,as I would like to get it right first time.(I cannot afford the lighting kit until the end of march either.)Plus at the moment,my woodworking skills seem to be not as good as I thought they were! I have an awful lot of plywood with not very many straight edges at the moment!!!

pun15her,

I can see that you are taking time to build each section right, excellent work so far.

The lens you have in your design, is that the standard lens, what is the diameter of the hole you drilled to fit it into. I am trying to plan my case and am still waiting on my components.
I have done a search in the forums but none of the measurements have been conclusive.

If possible could you give the diameter in metric

Much appreciated.

Hi,Segaboys,how you doin?
Thanks for the kind words,diameter of the hole for standard triplet is 69mm,I cut mine with a jigsaw.

I rigged up a trial of the motor driven focus mech today,and it works!!
Here is a pic of the mechanism at full stretch:

And from the front:

And here is the back showing mechanism moved foreward :

and from the front:

The motor is a bit slow moving at present,but as I am using a pc psu,I can run it at 5V,7V or 12V,to get the appropriate speed.

pop quiz...
Does anyone know if the S400DD lamp is a universal lamp,and if not,would it be a problem mounting it at 10' from horizontal??

Also anyone know where I can get some siliconeII in the UK,I have found loads of sealant described as silicone,but none as siliconeII??
Any help much appreciated.

Looking good, I am still not sure how my lens mech will work, yours does look interesting. I spent the morning at B&Q getting parts for my projector. Will try and start today. Ordered my Sugar bowl reflector from Tchibo's website, they said it would take 3 days on the page and once you pay they change to 6-8 days. I noticed you cut the rim of the bowl, how much did you trim off and would it do any harm if I left it there?

Keep it up.

Hi,I cut 30mm off the top,because it gave me less surface area to polish!!And according to my calculations,it leaves enough angle on the finished reflector.
I spent alot of time in B&Q,myself,just mooching around all the departments looking for ideas,its great!

Wow, your really doing some intricate work. Looks great! I was thinking of a motor driven focus, but had no idea about how to go about making it. Is there any way you could go in depth a little about the parts used and assembly? Thanks!

Sorry, I was reading the whole post and somehow skipped right over where you talk about the focus and parts...

I love that idea for a fucusing mechanism. I'm hoping i can create a similar one for my fucusing box. Great Idea that was Pun15her.

The geared electric motor I have been using is definately too slow,I don't want to use it at 12V as its only rated to 3V!!!
I have been looking around for an alternative,and found this at my local model shop.They do mail order if anyone is interested:Sussex Model Centre.

It is a variable ratio gearbox,powered by a small electric motor

It has 6 different ratios to choose from,by adding or removing moulded gears,each of which has a 4:1 ratio,this gives final drive ratios of:
4:1,16:1,64:1,256:1,1024:1,4096:1.After playing around with this,I reckon that
16:1 at 5V is the best for me,I might change my mind once it is fully installed,but it is easy enough to change.Here is the gearbox at 16:1:

I thought I would also post a pic of a 1:1 scale drawing of my plan with some of the more important measurements added for reference:

This has been by far the best way that I have found to test fit parts,and check measurements.

question?
I noticed in your original drawing that you had the lcd mechanism canted on one side, and with the latest scale drawing it is dead center. But the angle of the triplet hasnt changed? Any reason for that?
Im not being picky, Im just trying to understand this one, because Im working on a very similar design for mine. I think it looks just excellent.

Best cartoon in years,Samurai Jack.
OK,here goes...
In the first pic I guessed at 45' from triplet as it was just a rough sketch.
I have decided to mount lcd/fresnels vertically now,mainly as it will allow me better insulation around the removeable side pannel,the triplet however remains at a laid back 10',which in-turn means the mirror needs to be at 50',rather than 45' which it is in the scale drawing later on in this thread.It is pretty much impossible to see the difference of 5' in drawings of this size,especially as the first image was not even measured,but the second drawing with measurements is accurate.
Hope this clears things up,If I can be of any assistance,please let me know,maybe post a sketch of what you were thinking of doing?I still havn't built my enclosure yet,but have an ever growing pile of scrap wood in my garage!!!

I appologise for the paint skills,this is not an accurate diagram,but I hope it will illustrate the difference in angles with the changed plan.

Hope this makes some sense.

Ah yes, I see. Do you think there will be much keystoning in the picture?

By the way, I love your focus mechanism.

Thanks,I dont think that anymore keystone than normal will be needed,I have enough room for the usual 15'.Should be plenty(I hope!)

When you say 50 degrees, does that mean from parallel or from perpendicular?

The diagram APPEARS to be 50 degrees from perpendicular, in which case the light is at a 100 degree angle.

but... Angle of incidence = angle of reflection.

Angles stated are measured perpendicular from the lightpath.
It is the simple folded design,with the mirror tilted a further 5 degrees,to give a 10 degree lift on the triplet.

I love this place. Where else can you hear "I love your focusing mechanism" and keep a straight face?

OH YEAH

hey Pun15hers great going so far! I like the motor you found for the focus mech.! It seems very flexible and adaptable. I had also hoped to incorperate a motor driven focus assembly. For others looking for motors i have found old cdrom drives, dead inkjet printers and VCR's to have some good motors, gears and useful diy-able parts in them.

I had a female mechanic for about five years in another town and we got to be pretty casual with each other. I came in one day and she was adjusting her bra. She didnt even bat an eyelash, just finished and then looked at me and said: "Racks out of alignment."
Humor is where you find it...

Hi,all
Just ordered the euro lighting kit,YAY!
I have been having fun with my circular saw recently,and have finally taught it who the boss is!
Here are a couple of pics of some progress:

Finally got my tempered glass to support my fresnels.

I have revised the rear fresnel mount to include cutouts in the side wall to increase airflow between the lcd and rear fresnel.

This shows all the mounts in the image bank.

And this is the sketeton of my box,still pretty big in the flesh,already thinking of ways to get it smaller,but I think I will wait and finish it in this guise first as it is a perfectly good box with plenty of room to tuck away bits and pieces,will be getting on and finishing enclosure while waiting for lighting kit.Hope to post more pics soon.
By the way,outside dimensions of box are: 700mm tall, 500mm wide at the bottom,250mm wide at the top,and 335mm deep (without 2x 9mm thick side panels)

You have a really interesting design. Looks like a good start on the box. I'm looking forward to seeing it in action.

Yeah me too!

Really coming along Pun15her, wondered why you were so quiet lately, now I see all the effort you have been putting in. I have been busy on mine as well, hope to get my PLOG started soon.

When you say euro lightng kit, which one is it?
I got this one...

IWASAKI EYE - Standard Metal Halide - Tubular series
Type - MT400SX/HOR*
Watts - 400
Bulb - T48
Base - E40
M.O.L. (mm) - 285
L.C.L. (mm) - 175
Lamp Voltage (V) - 135
Lamp Current (A) - 3.25
Approx. Lumens (lm) - 39000

And that huge Ballast, Capacitor and Ignitor from Lumig


Cheers

Hey! That looks pretty good. I was looking at building an Obelisk shaped one like this until my wife ( in her oh-so-practical manner..) mentioned that the peak would be in our viewing field. So it looks like the top comes off, which basically leaves me with a design like yours.

Im really curious to see how this one turns out . I have a long living room and right now we sit about 15-20 feet away from the tube. Im hoping to have this one on the floor 10 to 12 feet away from the screen which should drop in front of the TV. Thats why Im so curious about the angled lens.

It looks great and I will be watching this one closely.

More PICS!

Thanks guys,
I have ordered the lumenlab lighting kit.
It looks like a nice bit of kit!
Look foreward to reading your plog,segaboys.

The reason for this particular shape is based on the ideal viewing position,which is apparently directly infront of where you sit.This leaves us with 2 options; floor standing,or ceiling mounted,and my better half will no way let me hang it from the ceiling! This design also has a smaller "footprint" than the standard box,and will not need any kind of stand.
I think it would be possible to make a pj like this only about 600mm from the floor,but for a first go,I wanted lots of room for adjustment,and the 720mm height of mine should be OK.If not I should be able to remake the box to incorporate the mirror closer to the front fresnel,and move the triplet out and down accordingly.
Again,many thanks for the input chaps,keep it up!

Just checked my e-mail thismorning,and my lighting kit has been shipped,hooray!!
I had better get a move on with my box,hopefully this weekend I can finish the construction off.

Ok,quick update time:

The box (sorry I meant enclosure) is taking shape.

I pre-marked the inside of the side panel with positions of items to help along the way!

Paint by numbers PJ building, very very cool, probably really will help with alignment.

Heres hoping so Pagercam!
Ok,few new pics,
These are the side panels for the image bank,which will be mounted inside the main box:

Here are the panels painted and shown in their respective positions relative to the image bank:


This diagram is supposed to show the proposed airflow through the image bank:

Here is the assembly placed within the box:

And a diagram of the proposed airflow through the whole box:

I am waiting for my lighting kit before fixing into the box,but will plod on with what I can for now,here is the box so far with some rough sanding done,but I still havn't decided how exactly to fix the other side panel on to make it light proof and yet accessible!

OK,thats it for now,thanks for all the comments chaps,I am only too happy to answer any questions,listen to any ideas,or if anyone has any ideas of how to improve anything,please let me know.

I love it Pun15her, it's a great design, looks amazing! I'm doing a similar setup for my lenses, mounting them and using the threaded rod to hold everything together. What I'm wondering is, what are the frames for your fresnels and LCD made from (plastic? wood?) and did you make them yourself or purchase and modify them? They look awesome, my current plan involves cutting some wood strips to make frames but I love the look and functionality of yours and would love to know how you got to that point. As always, thanks and keep up the great work!

Hi,Pentarix.
Frames were made from strips of wood:

I only have one piece left,which is a side piece that I cut too short:

This shows the same piece,giving you an idea of the cross section shape:

And here is a detail of one corner of the finished frame,showing the strip attached to the side with a hole for the threaded rod:

All I have used to attach these is wood glue,but so far 3 of the joints have split due to lateral movement,mainly because it is not mounted in its final position,but I think that I might try and find some small tacks to hold them together.
Hope this helps.

Nice job, P!!! sigh....now there's a fourth design I have to consider for my vertical! Question: How will you seal off the top edges of the image bank to force the air flow to follow your proposed path?

Hey tj101,I love the teleport pod idea!
The gaps at the top should be a "breeze"(ha ha) to seal using a thin strip of wood.
I can't see it being a problem(famous last words!).
I will deal with it when I come to that part.I am concentrating on bulb placement at the moment,(still waiting for lighting kit.)
Keep it up!(vertical that is!)
(N.B: pun15her would like to appologise for the quality of the puns used in this post.)

I was planning to mount the mirror to the side wall of my enclosure,but seeing as I have threaded rods,I thought that I might as well take advantage of them.
I have come up with this:

I hope it makes sense,this would give me both height and angle adjustment.
As far as I can tell,this should work pretty well.
I will go and get some mdf tomorrow and give it a go!

Ok,seems to work,needs finishing,I also took the opportunity
to remake the reflector mount as the old one was made out of a piece of scrap
ply and was chipped and frayed at the corners.

This should give me alot more adjustability than fixing the mirror to the
sidewall.

OK,checked the shipping of my lighting kit,and it says that that delivery was attempted at 3.00pm yesterday! There was someone in all day yesterday,and three people in at 3.00pm!!
No attempt to re-deliver today,I have been camped out by the front door since 8.00am.( )
OK, I was bored,so...
I started to sand my mirror mount.I decided to cut a hole in the mdf that will be at the back of the mirror to save some weight.
Now I know that this will be inside the pj box itself,but if you are going to cut a hole in something,then why not make it a nice hole!!

This is a pic of the bracket to hold the mirror:

All these parts will be painted black,by the way.

This is what the mirror will be mounted to,before cutting the hole:

This is the same piece after a meeting with Mr Jigsaw!

And after 30mins worth of hand sanding,and mounted to the bracket


What can I say,I guess I really did have too much time on my hands today!!!
Hopefully the lighting kit will appear tomorrow.

i love that ! very creative !

Nice craftmanship. You truely have earned the "Punisher" title.

Ahhhhh... Thats a really nice touch!
You strike me as the kind of person who might do computer case modding, yes?