Added some automated boarder adjustment for the top and bottom of the screen so that the borders can be adjusted to fit the exact movie size. Makes the image appear brighter and is just all around cool ;-)

Used a reversable motor, long rod, some fabric, remote control ceiling fan controler to be able to raise and lower it from the seat, and some string.

Also, I can close it all the way so it acts as a dust cover for the screen. After a year of being in place, it has managed to pick up some lint.





You can tack or stapple the fabric to the rod. Also, at the edged that has the wood for the straight edges, break out the sewing machine and sew a loop to slide the wood in. For the bottom half, i just let it fall on the ground and it stacks up nicely as it goes down.

Next is a drawing on how you can get the top to go down while bringing the bottom up.



With the top border rolled all the way up, attach the string to the rod so the bottom border is at the lowest setting. This would be your 4:3 border setting. Now as you look at the picture, imagine if you will the rod turning counter clockwise to unroll the fabric so that it will lower the top border down the screen. At the same time, you will notice that the string is now being wound up on the rod pulling the bottom border up. This part you will have to tweak to get the proper adjustment. The thicker the rod is by using tape to stick around it or the thicker the string is, the faster the bottom will raise up.

This type of setup would require a motor that has a forward and a reverse mode. I am sure many of you can figure a way out to couple the motor to the rod.

cool, thanks for sharing...looks nice....i might do it too someday....do you think a desk fan motor will be powerful enough?

I dont think that would be powerful enough. Also, the weight involved would spin the fan motor when it is not powered. So there would need to be gears or a brake on the motor to keep it from spinning freely.

where and what did you source your motor from??

Junk yard? car window motor...

The place that i work at uses different actuator motors. Over time, when machines come back, they will some of the time replace old motors styles with new styles. The company was throwing one of these actuators away and i just used this.

Joe however is correct, If i did not have the option of using one of these motors, I would have tried a window motor from a junk yard. The actuator that i used sells for around 100 USD and is not friendly on the pocketbook.

Yeah, I like Joes's idea .... I cant believe I didnt think of it ... and the 12V power supply for it should be simply enough as well ....

exellent idea
once i have finished my pj i'm defenatly going to build one of these

EXCELLENT IDEA!!! Just curious, what are the dimensions of your screen?

The screen is around 115" diag.

Can you describe the electronic system you set up, more? And is it one touch button, or do you hold it down till it gets to where you want it to?

/very interested in this idea.

The remote control is a remote control system for a ceiling fan. I use the lamp button to lower the screen, and the fan speed buttons to raise the screen. When you press the button, it will turn the motor on. You do not need to hold the button in.

Now there are probably other remotes that could be used that i just was too lazy to look around to find that might just have a FAN on/off and lamp on/off. This remote when holding down the light button sends less power to the output that is supposed to be tied to the light giving you a 'dimmer'. Also there are 3 buttons for the fan speed(which is tied to the motors reverse line) HI/MED/LOW each of which also sends lower power to the output slowing the motor down.

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=prod...03LO&lpage=none
Harbor Breeze®
3 Speed Universal Fan Remote

Item #: 43147 Model: RC103LO
$24.98

By screen, you mean the black cover screen?

So pushing the lamp button, it closes the screen, and then low opens it a little, medium opens it a little more and high opens it alot? does this fit well with the different size pictures 4x3, 16x9, etc.

Again, this is an excellent idea! I'm thinking of using something like this...

http://www.electrokits.net/electronics/rel...s-timers/39.htm

It's a little more money, but you can set the relays to momentary switches so when you push the button it will only move up or down as long as you have it held in. Haven't ordered it yet, but I can't see any reason why it wouldn't work.

i like that site u gave us very nice stuff

Thanks, I found a better one. The first one seems to be the manufacturer, but has absolutely no information on how to order. So I did some digging and found these.

http://store.qkits.com/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=136
http://www.hobbytron.com/ce-ck1617.html
http://www.electronickits.com/kit/complete/elec/ck1617.htm

All of which seem to be the exact same kit.

You are right, I did make a little slip up there. I mean the black boarders not the actual screen ;-)

so what do pushing the different buttons do then?

Too cool. That is awesome.

1) Are there any wrinkles on the screen?

2) What diameter of rod did you use?

3) Any particular type of string?

Think any of these would work?

I would think that most of them would work, but I wouldn't buy new. I just got one off of ebay for $10 with shipping. Easier than going to the junk yard, and a whole lot cheaper than buying new. There are a lot of them listed there.

http://search.ebay.com/window-motor_W0QQfr...brsrtZlQQsojsZ1

Turning the remote button for the fan light turns the motor on so that it is lowering the upper boarder. Hitting the button to turn the motor on in reverse raises the black boarder.

1) the screen does not roll up, the black boarder does. The screen remains the same size and is stretched on to a wood frame.

2) I think it was 2" round rod. I got it from the section in lowes that had the banaster railings and the wood molding.

3) I used nylon string. Seems to work pretty good.

What kind of power supply would you need for a car window motor?

I would guess they just use a 12v power supply since everything else is 12v in the car.

I haven't payed much attention to the "Screens" forum, and now I'm sorry. This is one of the coolest ideas yet (mainly because it's something I've been considering for a long time, but didn't have the know how to pull it off). As always the case with me... man of a million ideas, but lacking in execution!

Anyway, how long until we see the $20 -- "Build Your Own Motorized LCD Screen" from Sepultura that takes those of us too stupid to figure it out on our own?

Good Work!

Actually, a guide perhaps... but have you considered selling these?

i knew it would have to be a 12v power supply, lol. I'm wondering more of the specifics.
Like wattage, amps, etc. I was thinking that a computer power supply might work. But how big of one would i need? 100 watts, 200 watts, or less than that. Or would one of those ac-dc adapters work?

I just got my automatic adjustable borders working thanks to Sepultura, your picture of your screen encourage me to build one of my own.
I always had black curtains for borders around my screen with the top and bottom borders control by me manually moving them myself. I found a small portable shiatsu machine at my favorite Thrift store for $5 I thought to myself this was perfect because it had a switch on it for forward and reverse after buying two machines I finally got it working perfectly, no more getting up to change from widescreen to full, I felt a little bit bad when I was taking it apart for the screen because the wife and kid just love the way it felt on there necks but life goes on and so must my project luckly I went back to the Threft store and pick up another on just for the family, I will be posting picks once I get this damn camera to work right.

Nothing like dredging up old posts, but I just thought I would share my idea. For my senior mechatroic systems class I have to come up with a design project and build a prototype (or proof of concept) and I thought one of these would work but with a little twist. Instead of the manual remote adjust, a micro-controller would sense light through some photosensors on the bars and move the bars up and down.

Think, you could be flipping through channels on TV and your fullscreen show just got over and the next one is widescreen. The bars will adjust automatically. Any thoughts?

Yeah, I actually thought about trying somehting like this eventually. I would say put at least 2 ssensors on each side facing the screen at...say a 30 degrees. If sensors on both sides see black (or whatever color the screen is if you plan on watching with ambient lighting) for a specified time period...let's say 30 second or so...then it activates the mechanism. Mechanism would adjust the frame and would be set for the standard ratios only. simply have the mechanism rotate through the different ratios in order. It should find the right width. this way you don't have the screen constantly adjusting back and forth as you watch a dark movie.

I have been thinking about the dark movie problem, and I think it can be solved with having the controller check inputs about once every 20 seconds and use three sensors on the top and three on the bottom, having to have all three agree they are seeing black.

Yep, I agree. I was describing a 16:9 native aspect ratio in which the adjustments would be for the side panels. I see you're talking about native 4:3 aspect ratio in which the adjustments would be top and bottom.

The 4:3 is easier because you are just adjusting the top and bottom. With a 16:9 there will be times where the bottom and top need adjusting but the sides are fine (and vice versa for that matter).