comp,

I am going to build a box, most likely based upon your design. I have been reading many, many posts and I like you design the best. I was wondering if I found a way to hang my light source off the same support rods as the rest of the components, wouldn’t this eliminate a need for a focus box of any kind on the triplet? I was thinking of extending the support rods all the way to the back of the box. It seems to me that you have all the degrees of adjustment necessary and the front of the box could be just a simple flush plate with triplet installed.

"It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again!"

Hope my projector build goes well like this, nice work. Thinking of getting a laser level myself. Do they make any that do horizontal and vertical, like a crosshair?

One more thing:

I looked over this plog a bunch and i dont get a feel for how your routing the cooling air. Can you post pics of your air inlet and describe how you handle keeping the panel cool?

Thanks.

FastCote, I'd recommend making the focus box or some other kinda focusing mechanism.. its been my experiance that the threaded rod design is a real pain in the (insert 4 letter word here ) to adjust, mostly because there are so many nuts to loosen and retighten and in order to get at some of them, i have to remove the entire fresnel / lcd assembly to get them out. its MUCH easier to just move the triplet to achieve focus than to have a fixed triplet and adjust everything else.

for the bulb, there are designs out there ( i know punisher did this...) where the bulb mount is attached to the threaded rod giving adjustability there. my solution worked out pretty well for me:


allows for vertical and horizonal adjustability




there are laser level out there that will project a crosshair.. i think black and decker makes them.. very cool






pretty standard design as far as cooling goes.. i have a slot on the box lid which lines up with the fresnel / LCD gap in frames inside.



the cool air is drawn in through the slot, passes between the LCD and rear fresnel, then at the bottom of the rear fresnel frame, there is a gap to allow the air to be drawn up into the chamber where the bulb is located. you can see it here at the bottom of the frame


i then have 2 92mm fans in the back to exhaust the air, one of which is behind the ballast with a makeshift duct to try to cool the ballast a little better




works pretty well, measured temps over a 5 hour period with the box running and my temps near the lcd panel never rose above 95 F

wow man, looks great! i'm hoping to use the same lcd, but i'm wondering if there is a solution to those dark corners your getting from using the standard lens set, any ideas?

anything special holding that controller board, or is it just hanging lose under the LCD frame?

yup, actually, the LCD frame has a little "shelf" built onto the bottom of it to support the control board hanging off the panel, on the shelf i glued 2 little wooden risers that line up with the screw holes on the circuit board which secure the board to the frame.



here's another angle


notice that i actually had to cut out the bottom section of the front fresnel frame to leave room for the shelf to stick out under it... the front fresnel is still quite secure though as it is still supported by its corners.

comp_atkins, your plog ROCKS. I'm totally going right through your steps and getting along quite nicely.

Question tho... I'm also going to ceiling mount mine over my bed (i.e. over my head ).

Hows your stand holding up? Have you had to add any stability to it or anything like that?

Thanks!

very nice pixes and instructions, thanks. by the way, how much did you spend for this pj. thanks

hey i really enjoy your plog. i have a couple of questions regarding measurements.

what is the distance from:

lamp to first fresnel
on each side of lcd
fresnel to triplet
and if possible the angle the light comes off of the last fresnel.

thanks for the help.

great results.

hey, glad you like it i've been working on finally cleaning up the box a bit in preperation for paint... the shelf is holding up just fine. occasionally i'll hear a little creak from it and get nervous for a second ( especially if i'm under it! ) but it is really very secure. actually have to the projector off of the shelf rigt now and yesterday i was able to sit on the shelf myself with no ill effects so its much stronger than it even needs to be. i sleep pretty comfortably under it

thanks sovo. i have not tabulated my total cost but i'm guessing its easily into the $600+ range. there were a lot of odds and ends i had to buy, particularly in the tools area, in order to finish the pj up.

as i can remember,

LCD: $209
fresnels: $75 w/ shipping
ballast + mogul: 70 w/ shipping
mdf: ~$70 ( cant remember )
triplet: $20
bulb: $35 i think

so just with essentials i'm pushing $500, add in all the extra stuff, wires, fasteners, fans, tools, etc. gets me well into the 600's

its been a lot of fun too though doing this so u figure whats the price of entertainment

Comp,
Nice job!

thanks for the reply. hope you don't mind answer another one. thanks

hey i really enjoy your plog. i have a couple of questions regarding measurements.

what is the distance from:

lamp to first fresnel
on each side of lcd
fresnel to triplet
and if possible the angle the light comes off of the last fresnel.

thanks for the help.

wow.. its been a bit since i've done any pj work... i'm thinking its finally time to start cleaning up the exterior of the box and maybe paint the thing... mdf brown isn't a very appealing color...

first things first, i need to fill all the various hole i drilled all over the place when building the box.. a little wood filler goes a long way.




filled most of the screw holes and filled in the gaps around the control panel.. sanded it down so its nice and smooth. exterior of box is in pretty good shape... now all i need to figure out is what the heck i'm going to do with this...


my current setup for the focusing mechanism doesn't quite have that "finished" look does it?

i added that extra front piece because the first lens hole i cut was not quite centered with where the ligh was actually focusing to and i had to widen it. maybe i could do something similar with the lens holder as i did with the bulb bracket and add some adjustability..... any suggestions?

hey, my box is in a few pieces right now... when i start getting her back together, i'll try to get you those measurements if you're still interested.

Well you could do that or save yourself the hassle and get the pro lens and front frensel. I had the same setup and could never get the picture in full focus.

Say have you ever experienced a weird highlight issue in dark scenes with your L72S LCD? My L72S didn't survive AG removal or I would give you a good example. This is what is sort of looks like:

sorry to hear about your monitor. i've been able to get most of the scene in focus, tend to have a bit of trouble with the corners for 4:3 images but nice and clear for 16:9 content. pro lens is definatly an option but i'd have to lenthen the box correct?

i have not seen the highlight issue you are talking about either, did you have any kind of light leaking our from around the edges of the panel that was making it onto the screen?

finally got around to prepping the box for paint. got all the holes plugged, sanded down.. masked off, ready for primer/sealer





after 2 coats of primer




i'm still working on my colors and design for the box exterior.. playing with some options in corel now..

Yes you will need to lengthen the box and cut a new front fresnel. I got the pro lens about a week ago and have been tweaking with it since. The edges are much clearer with the pro lens and it seems you have a choice -either the center is super in focus, or the outer ring is super focused. The difference in focus is not as severe as the standard LL triplet. I'm going to try to split them soon and see if it clears everything up.

I thought the L72s monitor was suspect in the highlight issue, but it turns out the weird highlights were coming from a reflection off a white VGA cord at the front of my box. DOH+!

well, its been some time since i've updated my progress so here goes..

i've spent the last week or so working long hours and in my few moments of spare time watching "24" on dvd ( gf got my additcted ) or working on my pj's outward appearance. i've finished priming / sanding the surfaces and laid down a few coats of royal navy.



i wanted to go with something dark but not black

i also wanted to get the lense mounted to the focus box with something other than green duct tape. i found some small project plywood @ michaels and was able to put this together




basically how it works is the triplet hole on the inner piece of plywood is cut so it fits on the triplet very snuggly and holds the front plywood and triplet in place. it allows me to side the triplet horizonally for a bit of adjustment which was just what i needed to get my focus cleaned up. plus i think it looks pretty snazzy once painted





inside

i decided that having a plain blue box was a little boring so i wanted to spruce it up a bit. i was thinking of putting some kinda graphic or symbol on the outside.. maybe something meaningful given that this is a giant box with a bright ass bulb in it to project video with.... so i did a little searching on symbols.com and came up with these two symbols


light

and

video

and since those are the main ingrediants for mr. projector here... with a little clever corel draw manipulation we get a neet graphic to put on the side of the box.

had to make a stencil first in order to get it painted properly but here's approx what it'll look like once painted.


of course, i wanted to work on my painting technique before trying to paint this sucker on the side of my precious pj.. so i did a trial run with some spare mdf. i printed the graphic out full size, transferred it to some posterboard to create the stencil, then used masking tape and a nice sharp exacto to cut out the pattern to paint.

here's the masking in place, painted over, ready for masking to be removed.


the results show i'm ready for the real thing

stencil in place, blade ready to go


20 minutes of precise cutting and patience yields


ready for numerous coats of white paint... stay tuned..

Looking good... I like the design.

Nick

excellent stuff Comp,
Yep,good idea.It should finish her off niceley!
It 's all in the detail!
P

even if it doesn't work well, at least it will look good

ok got the pattern all masked out, laid down a few coats of paint...had to lay it on pretty thick given the blue undercoat..



the masking tape leaves nice crisp edges between different colors.



ready to start stipping the masking on the pattern...

here goes.

here's the symbol, fully painted, ready for masking removal..



first bits came off without much fuss, just a little teasing with the exacto ( hmm, having anti-glare removal flashbacks here ) and the tape comes right up




the symbol's starting to reveal itself... lookin pretty good



finally, after the last bits of masking are removed, we get

drumroll please.....







very pleased with the result. matching symbol also placed on other side for symetry.

basically all thats left to do is build a light cover for the air intake slot, lift this bastard back up onto its pearch, let loose a great sigh of relief for being finished, and enjoy!

projector back in place. front view of (nearly) complete box.



3/4 front view




time to start sleeping uneasily again

got my air intake cover assembled tonight... and started paint.. will post pics once its complete

in the meantime.. here's two quick screenshots of sc2 on my gc using a vdigi.





still messing around with all the dip switches on the vd-z3 trying to get the best setup... i dont think the brightness screw on mine is functioning properly as it does not appear to do anything... anyone else have this problem??

even something simple to assemble like a little cover for the air slot has its problems...

instead of "measuring twice, cutting once " i measured 0 times, and purchased once a small strip of wood to cover the front of my air slot cover. i thought i needed a ~3/4" wide strip but it turned out i needed a half inch. so instead of just showing some patience and going back to the store the next day, i decided i could make due with what i had, and sand the 3/4" down once assembled.

all was going accoring to plan, i even had a ( nearly ) foolproof way of getting a nice even sand down using my trusty rtx.. only problem was it necessated a perfectly flat surface on which to work, which i neglected to use.

the result was a very sloppy sanding job which overshot the 1/4" i was looking to take off and the results would have been quite ugly for something intended to sit nicely upon the top of the projector.

so i busted out the wood putty, a piece of ply to make a clean edge, and some wax paper to keep everything from getting stuck together and rigged this up to fill the gap i created.





once dried, i was able to re-sand, this time ensuring i was working on a flat surface! and was left with a pretty even edge which was nice and flush with the sides of the cover



a coat on black for the underside, a few coats of white for the top and i'm ready to go

I believe you have to enable it on one of the switches. You also have to turn the brightness screw around about 10 times to see any effect. Look here if you get time http://vdigi.com/index.php?option=com_simp...=62&func=search. I've already had the pleasure of setting up a vdigi in 3 hours of frustration with my friend who bought it. It seems to work best on Dells. I hope I don't get that problem, my friend had it too.

it looks like you are getting close to being finished. good luck

ahh.. good to know.. i turned it a few times with no result turning it both cw and ccw... i guess its not a very sensitive pot in there i'll give it another go thanks!

it is done! yahooo! 5 months of work completed with the finishing of the air slot cover. i still have some nice-to-haves on my list and maybe more tweaking for optimum picture quality but my box is complete!

time for a quick trip down pj memory lane.....

here's a few pics to see how far i've come

first shots of box when i was able to project an image:









and the all important first screenshot

now the pj as it stands today.







a few screens





its been a heck of a ride, fully of dizzying highs and crushing lows. now the question remains.. how long before i need to build another one???

I finally figured out how to add photos to my plog. I now get what you mean by many clicks. LOL
Thanks.
Capt. Video

oh and by the way...excellent job..i hope mine looks as good then my wife can watch her sports and i can build a 17" long throw for the great room for all purpose watching.

Comp_A - Those are nice results.

Have you had any focusing problems using the standard LL triplet with your 17" panel?...especially in the corners?

I can't really tell by your screenshots...which is a good thing I think.

i do have focus issues with the corners, as well as some slight dimmness and some damaged polarizer.. i guess a future improvement would be to upgrade to the pro lense and lenthen the box.. but i'll save that for when i'm in need of a new project. luckily 95% of the time i'm watching widescreen contect so its not that big an issue for me.

Thanks comp_a!

BTW - If you want, you could consider trying a precondenser to get better corner illumination and very likely increase your overall brightness as well.

thanks.. i've been meaning to research the who precondenser subject as i have no idea what they do and how to use them... any tips / links?

Precondensers are lenses that are intended to collect light and "condense" the light rays into a narrower beam or "light cone" that is usable by the collimator fresnel that is already in your projector. The end result - if all goes well - is a brighter and more uniformly illuminated projection screen.

You can start off with SIM's thread and work your way backwards:

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?s...00&#entry125369

There's a lot of theoretical mumbo-jumbo in there, which you can pretty much ignore. Some nice illustrations by various folks (including me ) and a few ray-tracing simulations using 17" LCD's, plus links to other relevant threads now and then.

But SIM could give you the best practical advice. Basically you need to mount the lens about 10-15mm in front of your bulb, in such a way that it can expand a little bit when it gets hot and not crack under stress.

So you will likely need a direct fan cooling system blowing cool air across the lens. You want to design your lens mount to use as much of the lens as possible. I recommend a rectangular frame - so that the "corners" of the lens are completely unrestricted by the supporting structure. But SIM has used fan grilles with success.

Then you can determine the best lens and bulb placement through trial-and-error. But I and others can give you some suggested starting values. And even suggest some possible lenses that might work. I say "might", because a lot of this is based on theoretical work with just a few successes so far.

And the words "condenser, precondenser, plano-convex, and PCX" all refer to the same type of lens that is curved on one side, thick in the middle, and completely flat on the other side.

Best of luck!

Don't be afraid to ask for help if you run into problems...

wow, thanks for the crash course! i'll def. start going though sim's thread even if i do not implement, the info will be good to know

i played around with the transcoder a bit more tonight.. you're right.. the brightness screw is a bit strange.. seems that there is a small range in which it actually does adjust the picture but if you keep turning well beyond that point in either direction, you can keep turning and turning and turning without seeing any change in brightness... you'd think they would have put some sorta stop on the skrew to prevent ppl from doing this... oh well.

anyway, snapped a few pics while seeing how some of my gc favorites looked

good ol' loz





and of course, mp2

wow those look really good

Awsome job!
Those are some nice results!
Clean looking box too.

how big is your projection

its been a while since i measured, but widescreen its ~ 110" i think. fullscreen its around 120" if i recall. my blackout cloth is 54" in height and for most widescreen media is just about high enough for the movie to stay on the screen. full screen bleeds over the edges onto the walls and ceiling ( i think my shelf is a little too high )

thanks

Hey man! Thanks for all the info on your projector. It's been a big help with building mine. I just wanted to know if you're using the component cable for the GC and how long ago did you get it as I can't find anywhere to get it now!

I'm running my GC into my PCI HDTV tuner card now and it looks like utter crap. Maybe I'll have to go with the vdigi and find the component cable?