moose, Very nice setup, i like how you have everything orginized in the box and consealed, You screen shots are very good, you most certainly have done your homework here and it shows in your projector and results.

Moose,

Top job! Great to see a coffee table in action too. Exactly what I have in mind for my setup. Can you tell me how high the coffee table is and how high your ceiling is. I was always worried I'd have to have the PJ too high up to get it into a coffee table yet here it is, done and dusted.

Well done!!

Cheers,
Arkay.

Great Results and good idea hiding the whole thing too.

T@kezo,
thanks- yea i really like having the projector in the box(safe) i love this thing to much to have one of my kids or dogs smack into it.and no one can fiddle with it.

arkay,
it is 24 1/4" tall, the projector is roughly sitting at 13-14 deg. my screen is floor to ceiling at 6'7" the projector is back 100" from the screen. i made the box large enough so i could put a tower computer inside on the left as well as my playstation 2, my surround system/ dvd player is under the projector. i have the ir board from the samsung in its own seperate box on the side if the projector(see picts.) facing forward. i can use the remotes to the surround/dvd system and projector by bouncing the signal off my screen. on the right side i have my battery backup/surge protector, power cords and the switches for my fan and lamp i still have room for my dvd's too. i have well over 100 of them. ok so the box size i made to house all this stuff is 24 1/4" tall 40" deep 4' wide, it's big i know, well sort of it doesnt seem that big. if i were to put recliners on either side it would be the perfect coffee table. as for now it is in my bedroom and i am reclining on my bed watching the big screen. i can just see the bottom of the screen in 4/3 mode in this setup. wide screen movies are about 1 foot of the floor and clear the box easy. if i had this set up with a couch behind i would probably set it on a stage raised up a couple of inches (couches aren't as high as beds). not a big problem though. nothing a hammer some 2x6s, plywood, and some carpet can't fix.

joe2000chevy,
thanks for the nice comments, the results are ever better than pictured.(brighter)

pjgibbs,
yes it is set up for air flow, when open the projector can pull air in from the front. my cooling slot on the projector is on the bottom which works out nice because it keeps my surround system cool to. the exaust is out the back of the box,i used some flashing to create a short duct from the projector out of the coffee table to prevent the hot air from going back in. also being on the floor is keeping it cool as well as heat rises. i had just bought a cheepo 100cfm fan for the projector and it was alittle loud. but now that it is inside the coffee table it is much quieter. i do have an additional vent hole that carries my power speaker wires ect. out of the box on the rear bottom right side ( about 3" dia.) and a second that goes from the power chamber to the projector chamber. when i am done i can shut every thing down except the fan and close the doors and still have enough air flow to cool it down for the night. my lcd indoor out door thermomiter also runs out the set of holes through the back and i have it placed on the table top so i can see it.

brainchild,
thanks again for this great projector. i have loved every minute of it. the only problem is i still have the bug and i cant wait to start building the 7" projector. well a guys got to have a hobbie i feel like i am rich with such a big screen. jeeves bring the car around it's time for my tennis lesson.

well i think i will still be playing around with some mods for this projector while i design plans for the 7". one of the things i saw here that i would like to make is the xyz light caddy. it had come around after i had put everything in the projector and i think it is a great idea for proper alignment of the bulb/reflector.

if anyone has any more question feel free to ask
toby

Awesome job!



Here's the first version of the light caddy:

Moose,
This design is superb compared to the other designs...IMHO. I was worried about having friends over and bumping the projector. But if you place the projector into a "coffee table" there is no way the drunken fools can knock it out of alignment

I would have to say that you have created the first design that I will attempt to copy...although mine will basically be rested like yours inside of the coffee/beer table but either way props to you for your ingenuity.

Granted this design will not work for members wanting to move their projector all of the time but I think that only includes like 15% of us.

Thanks Moose for your recent pics...it jumped from page ONE of our normal design to something more useful/drunken friends (worse case scenerio) friendly

I apologize for not giving credit to someone who has done something similar beforehand but this is the first time I have seen this type of setup...ironic how everyone is putting their projectors on moveable stands and such but did not think of something this nice...at least what I've seen in the project gallery.

BTW that looks like a car battery on the right side of the pic on page 3 posted at 09:11...just wondering what it is

ScOrPiOn,
it is a battery of sorts a battery backup surge protector. i had the projector set up and i had just shut it down and the power went out. it came right back on but i wanted to make sure that if it happened again my bulb wouldn't refire,and the fan would still work to keep it cool.i got it at staples for $50.00. worth it's weight in gold.

Nice job. It makes me want to start over or at least modify what I have already got!

kjudki,
thanks for your nice comments, i love the coffee table. you would not need to do anything to your projector as long as it is set up for keystoning. my projector is just sitting in the box and i can take it out anytime.
you could build one just slightly larger than the projector and have more room on the sides for smaller rooms, or you could build one alittle taller with a nice large table top on it and use it in a board room as a desk for bussiness meatings ect.
i have some of those easy mover skid pads under it for easy moving of the whole table, but you could make one with some wheels on it if you would need to move it really far.
btw i love your projector as well!
toby

WOW those are awsome pics. I hope that mine looks half as good as yours does. I love the coffee table as well. I was thinking about putting mine under a coffee table once it gets built to conceal it as well as protect it from my four kids. Great job.

ScOrPiOn,
thanks for your great comments. the box that protects from drunken fools moves pretty easy. i have some of those magic mover pads on the bottom of it and it glides on the carpet easily. or if you needed to move it further you could put weels on it. regardles the projector is compleatly removable from the coffee table if you wanted to pick up and go.
btw i would be flattered if someone does copy my design.
toby

Moose, i don't think you need to hear again how incredible those images look, but I"ll tell you anyway. They look awesome. I have to ask because everybody always says that the images don't do the real thing justice. If you had to give a rating to the pictures you posted (scale of 1 to 10), as far as accuracy to original product, what would you give it?

Hey moose. Great projector.

Anyways. I'm just wondering the amount you spent on yours? (for just the projector)

hi cjab,
well i am am impatiant sort and didn't want to shop around for used or cheap monitor, i bought the samsung new for i think it was $575. then all the lenses and lighting from here, through in the fan, wood, brackets, ect, i finished the projector for the approx bargin price of $900.. i know i could have built it cheaper by shopping for a used monitor and saved some $400 dollars that way, but i was to excited to build it. i was probably the most excited person curcuit city had ever seen buying a 15" lcd tv, and couldn't understand why i woulden't buy the extended warrenty. the projector is was worth every penny i spent on it. i was almost going to buy a 36" plasma tv for some $3,000 dollars before i found this site. now i have a 126" hi def. picture that looks awsome for 1/3 the cost of the 36" plasma.

Moose:
Glad to hear your on the mend.
Thanks for leading me here to your 'coffee-table' thread.
I've designed a similar concept in that's it's a originally a center table between two Lazy-Boys that just happens to be the same size as Brain's design(!)
The wife said 'why dont' you build it inside of that' (great idea, her's).
So it's in the design, parts phase.
My concern is this: I think I'm going to need to create a fairly steep angle (30 degrees or so?) due to my viewing distance is only 12' from seating to screen and my front projection lens to screen (throw distance?) is apox. 11'. Screen size 64"x84" ceiling mount from Da-Lite.
I'm considering making the whole unit tilt up with a small drop down leg to set the correct height OR make a seperate box inside-the-box that will do the same thing and this of course would keep my 'center console' level on the outside (keeps the cold drinks from sliding into my lap).
What do you think?
p.s. Great job designing and building your system! The pics speak volumes!

if you have that much tilt you should consider making a tilting screen to offset your projectors angle. I was thinking of building a coffee table design too. check out Sepulturas design only his is ceiling mounted. I dont see why it couldnt work that way.

I'm proabaly going to tilt the screen as well. After checking my specs against 'Moose's I maybe wrong about the amout of degrees needed (his distance is very close to mine and he only has 13-15 degrees) I looking at a 17LCD now so a slightly larger enclosure may be needed. The smart thing to do would be to take the slimplest route first...

maicosurtees,
thanks for the complements, you shouldn't need that much "tilt"... to get it focused and straight on the screen. anything more than 15 deg. of fresnel tilt will change the way the picture looks. kind of does funny things at that point. but you can get some more correction out of the triplet, say 5 deg. or so before you cut into the light that reaches the triplet. i did not need to have the triplet tilt. i would go with the box in a box design myself. i cant tell you how many times i have changed things around in the projector and coffee table to suit my needs. plus changing the angle will be painless. i would build the projector first and set it up where you want it to go and see how it looks, make adjustments as nessasary, take measurements for the coffee table, build table, install projector and enjoy.
this is just my point of view of couse.
however, since this is diy i am now starting to build a second box that will allow me to adjust everything and i mean everything, from the outside of the box. i will also use a new cooling setup with the evercool barrel fans, remote focus, poss. remote keystone correction, and all the other bells and whistles i can think to put in to it. i am still in the designing stage but i have started to collect parts for this.
this will be an aluminum framed and sided projector.
i don't want to break into my projector untill the new box is ready for the rest of the parts. don't want to stop watching movies now! so i am buying doubles of things i will need.
i now have a second set of lenses, uv filter, and new mogul from lumenlab
2 evercool fans
aluminum angle for frame
i will use my current lcd (samsung ltn 1565)
current lighting setup, ushido pulse lamp and lumenlab electronic ballast
i will be getting a new norpro, new temp sensor, fan alarms, transformers, and whatever else i can fit in. ideas are welcome...
also i just put up my new 1 piece blackout cloth from lumenlab. it is fantastic. 120" of pure enjoyment.
toby

Moose,

Thanks again for the heads up on the focal length. I planned so carefully, but used the measurements in the simple proj. thread which are a little misleading.

You will love the Evercool fans, which I think are the best for the project. The only pain is the need for a 12v power supply because my monitor was 15v. Somewhere I saw recently a post about a switchable power supply for about $4 which i will use in my next box.

Mine is going to be a little higher and narrower than yours and will live in between two chairs with a slightly elevated couch behind it.

Love the picture and can't wait to work at it again later in the week.

Thanks again

Moorse: Excellent ideas (especially the build order, that makes a lot of sense now that I think about it) I'm sure to steal / borrow, thanks!
BTW here is some background on my design:
400watt MH HQI with reflector & 60mm condenser lens mounted at a right angle, bouncing the light point to a 4.5" round cold mirror (heat sink) mounted on a 45 degree angle mirror, then through a UV temptered glass panel with the new fresnel mounted to it. Followed by a Samsung 17" 712n monitor (1280x1024 res, 12ms rs tm, 600:1 cr etc) then on to the second updated fresnel finally through the new vari-focal projection lens. All this would be mounted in a slightly larger enclosure (due to the 17"Lcd) with a 1.5 inch 'false bottom' to run all wiring through (no heat). The back would have an 14" + extension that would house the ballast (thanks Roschach) PC motherboard, hard drive, video/audio/tv tuner PCI cards, DVD drive and power supply. I plan to use Brain's cooling system (top mounted air inlet duct and with a top mounted 'hood duct' (think automotive) but with an additonal fan mounted in the secondary 'back box' and ducted under neath the PC coponents. This assembly would be floor mounted between two Lazy-Boys (as the original box is now). I think that the addtional work / time needed for the box-within-a-box would be worthwhile, so that's the route I'm going to take. I glad your around (as well as all the others) to 'bail-me-out' when I screw this thing up (and the wife tells me I told you so) anyway sorry for the long post...

I'm no expert, but I've never heard of tilting the triplet. Would it really be possible to tilt the fresnel 15 deg, and the triplet 5 deg for a projection angle of 20 deg without sacrificing image quality or having keystoning problems?

If so, this could really help with the design of my pj, which will be recessed into the ceiling.

Thanks,
Phil.

you may be able to get an extra- poss. 5 deg out of the fresnel by tilting the triplet to regain focus.
toby

Wow,

I like the furniture idea.

I will do similar, except will find a coffee table to fit the box in.

Do you have additional info on your lense tilting device?

One additional question...How much adjustment does one need for the lense? I have seen movable lense plates, yet am not sure why it would be needed.

Graham

gdavis,
yes i have info i can share, i will post it in the protected forum for you.

Moose,

Thank you so much!

Graham

Moose, Me too! Can you direct us (link please) ?
Thanks...Jim

Moose, I've got a question about your keystone correction mechanism. What is the size of that track you are using, and what kind of dowel/slider are you using to connect the frame to the track. You also said that there was a little friction grippage going on, so it doesn't slide toward the lcd when you tilt it up? Thanks

Why all of 4:3 and letter box ratios?

It is aluminum channel, 1/2" opening for the rails and slide bar. I mounted the 2 pieces of channel for the slide bar to a piece of mdf. This let me mount glass door hindges to the wood and put some space between the pieces of channel so it didn't tip over.
This design has worked really well. However I am now building my second projector and have a new keystone design made. Went back to the drawing board and simplified it, and made it a center mount. I will be posting pictures of the new projector in my soon to come plog, so if you can hold out for it, it may be simpler to impliment. Hoping to have it all done for Christmas or just after.

Well, I have a large dvd collection of both 4/3 and widescreen movies. I love widescreen, but my wife wanted to be able to watch the 4/3 flavor too. Since it was going to cost a lot to rebuy the movies in widescreen,and games for my playstation are in full screen (4/3), and dvd menus are in fullscreen, I made the screen large enough to handle the full screen movies. So I wanted to show the size and quality of the fullscreen which runs from my floor to ceiling. As time has gone on since I built the projector she now prefers to only watch widescreen. Now I could have gone through a htpc and made the 4/3 fit in a letterbox screen or some other route, but for ease when I built, I went with a samsung lcd tv so I could go right from my dvd player and gaming systems to the projector.

Lol, The only dvds i hav are the lotr's and spaceballs!!!

moose
great pj/table you have
do you have more pics of your keystone adjuster?
thanks
maz

Moose,

Love the projector! I am patterning mine a lot the same. Quick question for you. Did you just paint your mdf enclosure black? I think it looks real sharp, what exactly did you do?

maz, I will see what I can dig up for you. I am building my second projector now which has a center mounted piviot on a set of rails that should work easier than this one. I will be posting picts. in the near future plog style. If you still would like picts. of this style pm me.

stebooks, for the inside of the projector I painted it with some of that high temp. grill paint. good for approx 500deg. I got it at Wallmart. It does not need to cook of to cure and worked really well. It also does not rub off. It gave it a nice flat black color and I wish I had used it on the outside of the projector too. Instead I sprayed the outside with some of that spray on bed liner. Wish I hadn't. It looked good untill it got dusty and is very hard to clean. I didn't use or need a primer coat.
As a note. my projector now has flashing installed in the light chamber since I took those photos.

This is a very nice design! My wife liked it as well! Anything to raise the bar on the Wife Acceptance Factor.

Thanks
John

Moose,

Question regarding your design on slide "Lights on" where you show the norpro. How are you attaching the norpro to that metal bracket? Do you just have a bolt through the middle of the norpro?

Again, great design!

thanks!
John

Thanks John yea, I mounted the reflector to a steel angle bracket by drilling a hole in the bottom of the bowl in the famous little "flat spot" and put a round head bolt through. I also ended up drilling a hole in the bracket to get the reflector mounted at the right height.

moose i will wait for your new pics

moose do you have AIM, MSN or ICQ? I would love to get some tips from you

chasealicious11,
pm me and I will see if I can help you out.
moose

How come nobody ever posts pics of star wars? LOL

Dig the coffeetable idea and will be using it for my future pj. trying to work up the table design part. still working out ideas for airflow to make the pj's airflow complement and work with vents in the table. i'd like to go with the the normal dynamics of air movement and use a design that pulls air down low and moves it out the rear-top. I'm thinking of leaving a slot at the top that would allow for warm rising air to vent out naturally. Maybe even hide it discretely under an extended tabletop lip.

i'm sure i'll be bugging you alot for ideas. good job on your pj when i saw that someone had done a table idea i knew that it was for me!

little scared about the woodworking though! want to make something cool but have NO experience as of yet. will have to do some research!

FatScreen,
Thanks for the comps. I do like the coffee table and it has served me well for almost a year now. I built it in a day and painted it the next. It was simple to do and is made out of 1/4" mdf for the sides, door, and the floor and birch plywood for the top. did just about everything with a skill saw.

goneflyin, I love starwars and have watched the whole series on the projector. however I don't care for the new updated version of this fantastic movie series, other that the fact that it is on dvd.

Very nice looking. I just found out about this site, and I’m buying the guide tomorrow. I really like your Cabnet/tabel idea and when I build my projector that’s what I’m going to do. I was just wondering what keystoning is. I’ve never heard that term. If it’s covered in the guide or in the buyer’s only area you don’t have to explain it. Through common sense I think its tilting the box up or down, but I'm not sure.

If you place your projector at an angle to the screen, the projection will be a trapezoid called a 'keystone'. We can correct it to some degree with the lenses.

Thanks, brain. Thats what I thought it was but wasent sure.

Hey moose!

Great job on your project! I just stumbled across your your topic here while I'm currently halfway finished my projector and table. I noticed you have a remote placed beside the projector, is that because you're using a 15" LCD TV that came with a remote? (I'm assuming that it is from a previous comment you made). I'm trying to determine how to access my LCD controls once the projector is mounted inside the table and short of getting some sort of 3' cable adapter I'd probably have to get a tv tuner kit with remote for my 15" LCD monitor. Has having the remote and the way the senor is mounted, worked for you? Is this something you'd recommend? Does anyone know where I can get such a thing (a tv tuner kit with remote for my 15" LCD monitor)?

Also do you think that cutting the air vent into the bottom of the projector has helped reduce heat? Can you tell me what the average temperature of your box is, just as an idea I can gauge against?

Thanks for your help and good luck with your new project, looking forward to seeing the results!

- Pentarix

Pentarix,
yes, I have an lcd tv with a remote. regarding placement of the eye, it works very well. I sit about 20 feet from my screen and I simply bounce the remote signal off the screen for the projector to pick up. I can control the whole lcd from the remote so this is my only input point. However, once I set everything up I only use the remote to turn on the lcd and to change the input choice, dvd,tv,ect. But if you are going to use an N6 you could control everything from that, other than turning the lcd on.
The air slot in the bottom has worked out well since the projector sits at an angle. I wish I had made the air slot bigger than I had, Its about 1/2" wide.One of the reasons for my rebuild. As it is I can't use filter cloth for the air inlet as it bogs down the fan. So I have been running it without the filter on it and it stays about 15 degs. warmer than room temp.
I hope this helps you out and I can't wait to see your project.

wow i've seen so many diy pjs in the past but this is quite impressive. I haven't even made a post and i've been on these forums for over a year, but it deserved a compliment. Just about to start a build of my own. Just wondering, moose, do you have any guides or tips on how you made such a project?

If I may say..

That's a job well done.

Excellent work.



Jay