I noticed this also when I was warming up my bulb, except mine was not as centered as yours, and I do think yours is centered because the picture looked to be taken at a slight angle upwards, so the arc should be right in the middle of your triplet.

The PJ itself sits at an angle, so Im wondering if its not out of alignment. I THOUGHT I was shooting right down the barrell of the PJ. I could have been off.
Im going to try a straight horizontal burn tonight and see if its off or not. I think I might have to realign the arc. I was noticing the other day that I forgot to put in my depth screw for the lamp holder. Its very possible it has shifted during all the positioning.
Just gotta find that screw....

Hi Samurai, It's pretty easy to see the glass arc envelope in the pic. I was wondering if you have any ideas on what the 'dark' area in rectangle might be? My first guess is that it is the 'shadow' of the arc envelope generated by the light bouncing off the reflector.



If the arc envelope is moved to the centre of the triplet do you think this dark area might move to the centre also? Or maybe it is an indication of the reflector alignment??

....or maybe I'm just seeing things....

We have a tight project going on at work, so naturally this has been a train of thought while I do mind numbing software installs....:0

I think that might be more a product of how the camera works than the reflector. I checked the alignment again after placing it level and allowing the keystone to relax and its still about 5 mm too tall. Thats my guess anyway. Problem is I can see the arc long enough to make a good guess. My bulb arcs up in about 2 min. After that Im playing Tireseus and stumbling over to the couch...
Im thinking the image we see is actually the bulb upside down and that I may need to raise the bulb to get it lower in the triplet. I must have moved it when I dropped the gate...Damn Lego...

Since the LCD is a non-factor, that only leaves the triplet to reverse the image.
To tell the truth I was so fried last night I came home and played AOEIII for a bit then sank into a a movie on the PJ..."The Ice Harvest" is a strange movie...on the PJ its just surreal...

Thoughts on the alignment issue anyone?

Okay, so I had a quick talk with Astrogeek friend and he says that there IS such a thing as too much tweaking...I, naturally, scoffed at the notion. I cant help but wonder if that slightly out of center arc might be hiding a bit more brightness for the screen? I figure a rise of about 5mm should do the trick...

My curiosity is killing me....

Also the amount that the arc tube fills the triplet will determine the efficiency of the system even a small condenser will make the arc tube image larger and give some light gain this works until the arc tube fills the triplet or the light cone from the lamp does not fill the fresnel any more. Two lines when they cross that the max light output for a given arc tube. Unless you make the arc brighter?

During start up if you place a piece of paper at the triplet can you see the lamp image and the reflector image? They should be right on top of each other at that point you can’t see them as two they become almost one. Only the ends if the arc will be just slightly out of focus from the reflected image.

Oh man . . . you may have missed yer calling. You really should try writing a snarky detective potboiler. B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l!!!

Thanks Dude! I appreciate it.

Now on to business...
I ran through my calcs and discovered that I made a Grievous error, generally speaking. My arc had fallen and I actually made a miscalc on the Iris for the unit.
Sad times indeed when passing ruffians say "Ni" to old women on the streets...
So I fixed it and put on a little 5th Element...
My family sat transfixed at the new clarity and imaging...

WOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW!


( Pictures to come soon...)

Bring me a shrubbery!!!

A nice one with a little path running down the middle?

Whoa, 8 more O's and 6 more W's, will we be seeing comparisons samurai?....hey, why am I salivating?

How about just a few little screenshots? My jaws hurt from grinning all night.....

First off the famous Leeloo shot....

First time...




After adjustments...

Click to view attachment

One of my favorite film transfers...anyone?

Click to view attachment


This SOOOOOOO in your face ( I mean the size...) Its just incredible!

Your pics are just jaw dropping, your either 3'tall or thats one huge screen thats a little LL humar, SJ what is the size that you are projecting and how far back is your PJ, oh ya how you liking the dalite screen, are you still looking for more lumens.

RR

Great results Samurai, Picture looks superb

I just had a review of my previous post, and the thought I had of using welding shield to look at the arc. A little bit of sideways thinking had me picking up my polarised sunnies. It seems that if you hold them at the correct angle (and they block out enough light) you can look straight down the triplet when the PJ is running full tilt - no need to do it just on startup. Drop the power to your LCD so that you can see the arc clearly. For all those out there with polar offcuts you can do the same with them.

Just make sure it's not too bright before you look into it!

Edit: Just tried it with a piece of offcut polariser and it works a treat. The arc tube is clearly visible - although mine's not in the right place! Time for some tweaking......

that is just ridiculous..

*envy


nice one SJ, you need never go to the flicks again:)
That said, why dont you open your own cinema......

Thanks! I stand 6 feet even, and yes its a big screen.
Current shot you were seeing is 12x9 minus a few inches.
I am loving the dalite screen. Gain is nice and it fits my room perfectly. The controlled return feature is a blessing and when its away you can just barely see it. I guess I will need to start work on an HTPC now...

More Lumens? Always!

That is soooo nice someone is bound to claim it's really pics from a commercial PJ!!

Thanks for the compliment!
I sat down the other day and figured how much time I had into this thing and I am amazed at how many professional PJ's I could have bought if I worked the overtime...

But the sheer joy of it, I would not trade for anything. Remember that scene in "Castaway" where Tom Hanks first got the fire going?
Yeah, its like that...

No way, Sam. That's gotta be a commercial DLP!

Great results, that screen is really quite something. Makes me consider knocking down a wall in the basement so that I can move my projector back just enough to increase my screen size to be taller than me.

Your pics are AWSOME! I hope I can get mine to look that good.
GREAT JOB !

how's the screen door with the screen being so big??

Wow,SJ!
Truly amazing image you got there!
And HUGE!!!!!!
Nice work! Very impressive.

Since my wife and I sit back about 25 feet, its not really noticable. The thing I notice the most is the bleedthrough on the sides and my huge thumbprint...When you get to a light blue or white scene, you can see it there.
Most of the time we dont really notice. Im going to order a pro reflector and a new set of fresnels and rebuild the lightpath..

Thanks for the compliments guys! It s a quite a thing to see. Cant wait to finish tweaking it!

SJ

The word "finish" does not exist in the DIY'er dictionary!!!
Great Job SJ!

what other tweaks are needed? its unbelievable already!

Well I want to put in a pro reflector. I HAVE to replace the fresnels. I need to modify the triplet for better contrast and I need to strip the AG off the rear to get rid of the giant ( 18 inches tall) thumbprint etched into the rear of the LCD. I have tiny light bleeds on the sides and top which drive me nuts. I would also like the redesign the iris...

tweak, tweak, tweak....

Basically I wan to get everything I can out of the 15 before I move to my next design.

haha it never ends

samurai, A/G or TAC?

Since this was the CMV520D, it had AG on both sides. Naturally I managed to get some MC on my thumb and touched the back. I buffed out the print, but there were still some shoals on the outside. So I figure I might as well just strip it off. Hehehehe...

Guess I will modify the LCD when I do it and smooth the channels...I have to order my fresnels and pro relfector but things have been really busy lately. We just moved out entire campus over to Active Directory and exchange....Makes for a lot of work.

SJ.

Me thinks it might be salt deposits at the bottom of the bulb?? I know mine has these; but I think they might evaporate after the bulb has been on for a little bit, and re-condense when it cools off ...

EDIT: Scratch that, deposits would show up at the TOP because of the lens inversion. PS: Holly Batman those are big projections!!

That was actually a misalign of the arc with the reflector. The reflector was in the right place, but my bulb slipped down somehow. I didnt even really notice it because I went from a sheet in the garage to a sheet inside. Not easy to get crisp focus with a plain sheet....

Thanks! They are a little big, but the way our living room is set up, we can get the full effect.

As a side note, the wife finally gave her first "concerned" comment last night and asked if there was a way I could build a stand for it so we could stow it under the stairs. She also said that I "should do what I need to to get it in back of the couch"...

Hmmmmmm....I might have to push the pro lense isssue a little tiny bit.

SJ.

Click to view attachment

I hope you all have a good night. Its 8:53PM here and the temperature is 87 degrees and the humidity is awful.

Somebody please send some cooler weather my way?
[/quote]


Well I hope you got your wish. It was 80deg yesterday so I took of my jacket MY rule is not to complain about the heat in AZ until it’s over 110deg.

Your LCD was a 17” right? If you found a lens like elbeghast has

Click to view attachment

It might be better in one important way. With an fl of 400mm you may be able to move the pj behind you but the main thing is at 400mm fl you may be able to use your pj frame with only a slight add on for the triplet. You would only have to change the rear Fresnel to a 330mm you don't move the lamp much and it all fits. This is why I like that lens.

You have done a lot of work on your pj it would be a shame to re do everything so soon. The doublet may turn out to not be as sharp as the triplet but I still wonder if we need to see subpixtals any how?

Actually its a 15, but Im sure I could be encouraged to go with a 17... As for the PJ, well it was just a prototype anyway. I dont actually mind rebuilding as long as time can be made. Right now the shop is closed due to extreme cold. Last weekend it was below zero some nights and that was without the WCF. Oddly enough I used to thrive in this weather...

The pro lens has its attractions to me because it would force a rebuild and I could lavish some time on my new design. Its a folded unit with a structure that is taken from a natural form. It should look nice IF I can get it rendered properly...

I must read a little bit more of EB's plog...

So I started with some simple tweaks to the HTPC today and ordered a few things to make my viewing experience a bit more fun...

1. Scored a nice cheap AGP card for the unit which support DVI output. It does have 256 ram onboard which will help in the future. I think this is the last AGP card I will be buying. It aslo has a TV tuner in it, which I will play with a little bit.

2. Bought a second stick of 512MB ram to match whats in the unit.

Right now its just a little Semperon Proc running a modest 2200. Im going to give it some breathing room. I can always move the RAM to another 64 bit based computer. Last 32 bit rig I will buy as well. Prices for 64 are about par with what I pay for 32 systems.

I did manage to fix the skippiness of the DVD playback and its actually quite smooth now. The video render says Im pushing around 29 frames per second with no dropped frames and only a little jitter.

Now its just a question of what to do with the location. Seems that either way I go, there is going to be a cord on the floor...Mom like her martinis so Im trying to avoid the cord

Im also looking at the possibility of building a movable stand. If I go that route then I will just build the spot for the HTPC right into it. If thats the case then I will be looking into quieting the unit down. It actually makes more noise than my PJ...which is fairly quiet.


SJ

You could look into getting a USB sound card/device, and a USB extender.
The USB extender lets you use Cat5e cable for ~150 ft to extend the usb cable. THat should be long enough to get out of the way. Don't want to spill the martinis!!!

here is a cheap usb 1.1 card, and you can find a usb/ethernet extender for 30-50 more.

http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat_...&engine=froogle

On day last year I said how in the heck did my pc turn into jet plane. It just had to be fixed. Six months later it was. [ My wife loves me] I now have 25 fans

Start with the best fans, Go panflow ,every thing else is just a copy.

http://www.svc.com/pan80.html

Look at all the fans they have I have been using them for years. Not as fast as new egg but better prices and a lot of stuf that newegg just doesn't have.

The cooler master are panflow copys they have Rifle bearings also. these are on sale. Don't buy any thing with ball bearings!

http://www.svc.com/tlf-r82-eo.html

Is your CPU socket A?

A great cheep cpu cooler for Socket A The large fin spacing will not clog up for year's [ yes I do clean out my cpu coolers on the weekend just for fun ]

http://www.svc.com/spa04b4-u.html

It looks like they have a new fan on it.

This one cost a lot more but if you have a overclocked CPU and don't want to run a faster fan they work good.

http://www.svc.com/cl-p0295.html

They have vary tight fin spacing so you will have to clean them out on the weekend

Don't forget the accustic foam. I use the stuf for all kinds of things. Do every inch of the inside of the box.

http://www.svc.com/49spsoundpad01.html


I don't use the variable speed things much because the fans that have speed control are noisy. My wife’s box I used a thermal controlled system with a mix of parts I scraped a temp control unit for a 120mm fan and used it to control the CPU fan.

I like the power supplies with a thermally controlled 120mm fans with a high low settings. If not I change to a panflow 80mm fan. [2500 rpm if you have small heat sinks 2200 rpm if you have large heat sinks inside] and I foam the inside of the supply. One fan only. The fan grill does make more noise. The wire one on the outside make less noise.

I always use hard drive fans on any 7200 rpm drive. For one drive I use an 80mm for two drives I use a 120mm. I use the 5 volt taps off the power supply or I have a large selection of 2 watt power resistors to reduce the voltage to around 7 volts. 5 volts is often too low for the fans to start. If I remember 32 ohms was the most common value to slow them down just right. They sit right in front on most boxes so you will hear them more. I have a spacer on mine lined with acustic foam but you don't have to do that. I had to move the hard drives mounting box.

I can barely here my pc now. It’s just that easy.

Sounds like you and I have the same tastes in builds. Right now ( on my main rig ) Im using two of these little babies.. One vents directly out of the top of the case ( without the heatsink of course!) and the other is cooling the cpu. Whisper quiet I usually hear my HD before I hear the fans and my HD's all have fluid bearings. I think I paid 12.00 each for them. I havent lined with acoustic foam, but I have used strategically placed cork segments to lower resonant vibrations from the HD array. I also built a "scuba" tube to bring air down into the case from the rear vents and wash it directly across the vid card before it rises through the HD array.

The problem with my HTPC is that the case is from the Pentium Era. Its an Enlight 7030 (?) and it has been such a fantastic case that I cant bear to part with it. It was my main rig for a good 5 or 7 years.

I like the old boxes the steel was thick and every thing was so custem. Cooling was never so good. I do like the sound of the 120mm fan more, they make a slight rumble no whine.

I may add a third hard drive soon and I will make a new box for the drives and mount the fan to the box and mount the box with ruber tubes to get rid of the little amount of sound transfer from the drives. I can't here them but I can feel them.

Sam, I have more screen questions for ya. Im close to making a decision and ordering.

The final click website you have linked, they mention that if I order a 96 x 96 model B pulldown that any HIGH POWER size more than 6 feet (72") will not be seamless.

Is yours seamless? or does it have seams, if so how noticeable are they. Why would it have to have seams, if these pulldowns are manufactured by Dalite, then they should be seamless. Does model B mean that its something that is put together 3rd party?

As for the final click, how was shipping. Did they ship fast? What method did they use.

The 96 x96 HP Model B says $260 with free shipping, was shipping included in your price, if so what courier did they use.

Wow, very good and to the point questions!

First off, I ordered the Model C, which allows the Hi Power to come in some very large sizes. I opted for the controlled screen return, which is a serious blessing. At about 3 feet left going into the holder, it gears down and puts a slight tension on the cloth and then SLOWLY pulls it in the rest of the way. Keeps it from smacking into it . Should add some life onto the screen.

My screen does have a seam. True to their word, Final click advised me that I would see the seam, but that it dissapears during viewing. They were right. I dont see it when we are watching vids. The reason for the seam is that the high power material is made in 6 foot swaths.

My shipping was included in the price and they used UPS hub shipping. That being said, I have not always had good luck with UPS. They do have a special clause in their shipping that allows for them to subcontract for "rural areas". I live 12 miles from the UPS depot. I guess that makes me rural....ahem...ya'lll

Absolutely no problems with The Final click. Dave was one of the best service and sales people I have ever met. UPS was "okay" and they did hire a subcontractor to bring me the screen. Turns out it was too long to fit into a standard UPS truck ( Insert HUGE grin here....)

Go with a Model C and get the CSR option.

Now its just past 8:00AM here and I interrupted "Blues Clues" to get you some pictures!

First. A picture of the seam at even level ( I had to stand on a chair to take it) at an off angle, at 12 inches, with no flash..


Click to view attachment

Next a picture from 6 feet off angle and regular cam settings...IE "auto"

Click to view attachment

and lastly a mistake picture of the full 9x12 screen taken during a Leeloo shot where if forgot to turn off the flash. I will give you a snickers bar if you can tell where the seam is....

Click to view attachment

I think I could safely say that uless you are OCD, this seam will not be noticeable during viewing.

I ABSOLUTELY love it!

Thanks for the good answers.

Im just getting a model B, because all I really need is the fabric. Most places ive read, have mentioned that you can get just the fabric buts it ends up being more expensive than just buying the model B from most places.

I now have developed a couple more questions for you, if you dont mind. I dont belive any of them will disrupt Blues Clues (apologize to your kid for me)

Since im just interested in the fabric, im wishing there is a way in which I could cleanly remove it from the mechanical pulldown apparatus. Obviously I could just cut it, problem solved, but I wish to be able to cleanly remove it, and reinstall it if I wished to in the future. Have you by any chance peeked inside the pullup mechanics to see if this was possible with your Model C.

Second questions is about the appearance of the fabric itself. I have the high power sample here in front of me, and its just too hard to tell with this tiny 6 inch square peice. The angle to experience the vibrant "POP" is relatively extreme. With that said, I find that I may be setting at an angle in which I will maintain alot of that vibrant pop at the bottom of my screen, and not at the top. Do you have an issues with consistency of the screens retro-reflectiveness causing either the sides or top to be less bright than the rest of the screen.

I havent actually looked inside the unit to see what the mechanism looks like, but I would be willing to be that its pretty much the same all around. Perhaps someone else can tell you a bit about the inside. Mines 9 feet in the air and Im not realllllllllyyyyyyyy in the mood to take it down... That sucker is heavy and awkward!

The second part of this is easier to address. Since my living room is longer than wider it lessens the angle at which we can view, but if you sit in my mothers favorite spot, off to the side, you can see a dropoff from the whole screen, but its fairly consistent. The angling of the screen can produce an effect like you are talking about. For a while I had my screen angled back by about a foot to play with keystone. The effect was great for the keystone, but the picture faded a bit when you stood up. I went back to the straight hang after a while and the fade effect went away. The thing that is most noticable to me is ambient light washing across the surface. We have a hallway that will wash light over the screen but not the room and it tends to fade things. I think I will be ordering a pro reflector today along with some new fresnels...

SJ

Well I just broke down and order a pro reflector and cashed in my fresnels offer from Brainchild. Thanks BC! That was a nice birthday present from you. I will try to do a comparison shot.

I was also pleasantly surprised to see a package from MWAVE on my door this afternoon. Turns out it was the parts I ordered for someone else, but still...over the weekend when I ordered on friday? Man I love this company! To any folks shopping for parts out there www.mwave.com has given me the best combination of low price and good service of any company out there. They may not always come in lowest, but they are usually quite low and they ALWAYS treat me well. I once ordered a 100 foot cat5 with finished ends. They sent a 1000 feet of plenum. So I called them up. They said I could keep the plenum and sent me a finished 100 free of charge.

Nice folks!

its actually a tadd higher than that, my MS paint skillz aren't as 1337 as they used to be.

do I win the snickers? and is it king sized?

i'm partial to the ice cream snickers personally......

I'd have to say here too. Don't want no Snickers though even if I am right.

Click to view attachment

Thats pretty close! But like I said, I dont see it when Im watching. The product you are picking up is probably from my oh-so-mediocre camera!

SJ