Well, seeing as how it's the year of the pig I just had to do it. Gutted my other monitor to breathe life into my projector. It hurt just a little. I swapped out the power and controller boards.

Simple pressed bedsheet hung on wall and plenty of waves in it.

Just for the sake of doing it I took some lux readings of a white screen using pgen:

40 50 45

53 65 52

48 52 41

I'll get some screen measurements and run the numbers later. Probably MUCH later the way I work!

Monitor and all else just using default settings. No attempts whatsoever at tweaking the projection.

Heck, I didn't even try to focus.

Snapped some screenies for posterity and again made no effort to get 'em pretty.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

It lives!!! Now the real work begins . . .

A couple more:

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

about time

Looking good !!

very nice........love the halo shot!!

SWEET, finally good to see it working, been a long time coming! cant wait to see it tweaked. I like the pulse pistol myself, the needler is too weird. I might finish Halo one of these days.

Hoorah! Three cheers for the D man.
Congrats,those pics look pretty good.Nice one!
Cheers P

INCONCEIVABLE!
That pic in-particular looks nice and lush!
Very nice results D

About time too. Let the tweaking begin

Houston....the pig has liftoff.....

Very Nice! Good thing you had that extra monitor!
I really like the color. Contrast looks good.
How is the heat? Any pics from the case itself?
How many times have you put in a DVD, switched to a specific part, watched 5 minutes and then bolted to another one?

and of course, the big question:

How many times have you said to your self "I will have to adjust that.."


Congrats Man! It looks really nice! Now tweak away!

SamuraiJack

youshuaspawn, I'm not sure you know what that word really means. I love the needler. Problem is I always want to watch the recipient blow up and usually get killed myself. Same problem with plasma nades. Toe, crotch, head . . . no matter where it lands it's such a treat. My buddy has this knack for dropping a frag in the crook of my arm. Thanks. Your avatar comes just shy of sending me into a seizure. And not a moment too soon. Hadda make the Chinese New Year. What a coincidence, huh? I'm pretty happy with it. Can't wait for a real screen and some adjustments.I'm running it with the side off. I'll definitely have to add some additional cooling. These folded designs must be quite a bit more demanding than straight shooters since the heat is just rising right up to where you don't want it. I'll post some case pics as it comes together. Lot's of finish work to do. Still have to hook up the surround sound.Too many. You sure know how to hit the nail on the head SJ. No comment . . .

A big thanks to everyone in this community who has had any input whatsoever in my build (here in my ploD, behind the scenes, and indirectly via all the other threads/topics). I've still got a long way to go but it's a treat more than a chore. This place is chock full of brilliant and generous people.

As the Guv'nor said.

Just don't stop posting now that you're nearly done. We want to see all the tweaks in action, and soak up all your reports. We Grand Unfinisheds need vicarious living. On a personal note, I'm looking forward to seeing your finished control panel

Well done again

and also oddism ones too,,, heheheheh <<<<

We now return to our regularly scheduled ploDism. I have the rest of the year of the pig to finish.

Diamonds may be a girl's best friend but saved cardboard and hot glue do it for me.

PCAC haute couture for my projector:

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Next up some flat black spray paint for that sleek and demure yet sexy look.

And an iris for the arse of the modded pro suggested to me to do some testing:

Click to view attachment

Sweet!! I mean OINK!!!!

Nice to see the beast up and going.
Like the fan shroud thingy....wheres it going on the PJ?

It'll theoretically cycle ambient temp air through the fresnel and LCD cooling channels. See pics here and here. Once I get it all together and get some pics it should make more sense. The air will vent out of the enclosure and the cardboard shroud will just provide some extra seal insurance as well as allow for minor vertical adjustments later.

Edit: Boy - going back and finding those pics made me remember those "pseudo screenies" I did. The projection looks WAY better than back then. Wish it hadn't taken me so long. I missed a year of movies and gaming already!!!

Painted the PCAC fan assembly and made some foam isolation gasket/mounts for it.

I've found if one doesn't pay careful attention to proper fan mounting nasty-noisy is the result.

YMMV.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Sung to the tune Paint It Black:

I see a PCAC and I want it painted black
High contrast is my goal, I paint the guts all black
I watch DVD's dressed in my summer clothes
With hi-gain DaLite screens the viewing cone just blows
I see others pj's but they're not all painted black
I figure maybe that they're just all high on crack
When inside those kinds of plogs I quickly click away
Like a new born baby it just happens every day
I look inside my rig and see it's all flat black
I check my screen door and fuzziness it lacks
Maybe others will soon have to face the facts
It's not easy keeping up when your pj's not black

No problem 'D' you won't hear any flack
Whatever you decide, we gots yo back
The Dlite cone may blow but dang does it's juicy center glow
In any case wear your colors whether it be black or pcac
Cause the word is your rig and ideas remains still the mac

Avid, loyal perusers of this ploD (errrr . . . that'd be me) will appreciate this excerpt from a book I just finished.

"I'm afraid I've got a long day ahead of me," Belknap said.
"It will be longer if you don't have some of this lighting fluid in your belly," the Georgian said. "I'm sorry you didn't come earlier. I could have introduced you to my wife."
"She out of town?"
"I meant a few years earlier, durak, not a few hours. Raisa's been dead for two years."

I continue to pick away at things. A week, maybe two, I should be back to actually firing up the projector and tweaking the image. I want a screen sooooooo bad. The bedsheet is just the pits.

pinch me.. I must be dreaming.. For a moment there I thought Durachko had a working PJ

I think he is taking longer than me..

Is that a formal challenge of sorts?

We got us a race. And it's for PINKS!

Mordeth, D (the winged pig) has got you by a projector & 1/2 length. Do you accept the challenge. If so, LET'S RACE.

lol. I don't know if I will lose or not, I think he has been building sinc eI joined the forums.

I ordered my RX7s yesterday, lol didn't notice the part where it says "Avg ship time: 14 days"

My ploD was started December 5, 2005. Actual hands-on build time? Probably a few weeks give-or-take.

what? no.. oh no -this is not happening.. HERE I AM, TIRED, HUNGRY, FRUSTRATED, AND FRICK I'VE NEEDED TO TAKE A PISS FOR 2 HOURS!!!
AND WHEN I HIT PAGE 44 U*RE NOT FINISHED?? AAHHHH

I hate it when that happends... Damn dude this project got me hooked -ive been reading through this thread for about 3 hours now and im getting tunnel-vision from staring at the screen hehe Im starting my project as soon as the parts arrive, it'll be a 17" Pro-lens kit beamer!

Im hyped! good work and for cryin out loud send yer wife and kids to the zoo and finish yer PJ -there's guys here at the forums chewing some weird form of foam here, and it's dripping on LL's carpets -so do us all a favor and stop this frustration

.... I feel.... PAIN!

Really though, you should finish it soon, so we can all get some closure.

Whoa! That almost makes me feel bad. Pssst . . . UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES VISIT SAMURAIJACK'S PLOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, unless you have a bottle to pee into. "Soon" is open to interpretation.



Edit: In some odd way I never want it to end.

All good things must come to an end, or at least come close. So long as you get the thing running, you can tweak it all ya want :-)

Durachko do you measure the 330mm from the bulb arc to the first fresnel or from the condenser to the fresnel?

I know what you mean about not wanting it to end. I look forward to checking in and seeing what your up to daily. too many threads just end and you dont know what happened.

Count me in for this little race thing you boys have got going on

Oh, and Durak, have you read any Neal Stevenson? If you like insanely intellectual and entertaining thrillers, give 'Cryptonomicon' a shot. Most powerful fictional author I've ever read, and I read fiction all the time ...

I adjusted my arc-to-rear distance using the color-corner technique. First, I brought the condenser basically as close as I could to the bulb for minimal magnification. Second, I projected with no LCD in place and moved the whole arc/precon/reflector assembly fore-and-aft until I saw blue/yellow corners/edges. Third, I took as my starting sweet spot the position right in the middle of the blue/yellow positions. This method was related to me by DAZZZLA.

But what really counts as "finished"? I'll give that a try after I finish with my current novel. I'm certain I've heard of that book - perhaps it was mentioned in Time or Newsweek awhile back? Insanely intellectual may very seriously be a little much for me.

I'm a week (or so ) late, but just wanted to officially say; Congratulations !

nice work... now how many times have you enjoyed your nice big picture ?? ... or will you need to wait until "hot tub season" is over ?

cheers!
gs

Thanks. I'm sad to say I haven't fired it back up yet. Hot tub season is NEVER over.

Some better screenies for future comparison. I actually forgot I had on six 75W lights dimmed behind me when taking these and the side wasn't on my projector so there was quite a bit of ambient light. Still looked good to me so I don't think I'm hurting for brightness. My image still has a "soft" look and I can't figure if it's just focus or a combination of other things. I'll continue to play around as I have time. My screen door "bleeds" - that is to say a single white pixel in the center cannot be resolved as three dots of RGB but looks like a white spot with bleeding. I tried to get some pics but - as always - was in a hurry and now that I see them on my screen they just don't represent what I was seeing on the bedsheet. I'm certain getting rid of the bedsheet will help quite a bit. I can actually see the cloth weave in the pictures. Also, my arc really fills the triplet when I view back through it. I'll get a pic when I can. This must make a difference as far as bleeding goes? I did try to step down my triplet with that paper disc pictured up higher in this ploD but didn't have time to really analyze whether it helped the bleeding. To my eyes it resulted in very little brightness attentuation. These pictures were taken with my Canon Powershot S30 on night mode.

Clicking on the thumbnail links you to the full size image.

Some more.

Really, screen shots! They look nice.

So what's the whle thing look like?

Your running the HQI 400 on a S51 ballast with an extra 2uf or was it a 4uf cap?

and a 200mm rear fresnel with no condenser lens?

It doesn't look like much yet. PC isn't inside. Not finished or stained at all. Some panels aren't made yet. Cooling circuit hasn't been finished. Bleh.

Overclock info here.

330 rear w/4.5x6.5 condenser.

Here's the white test screen from above w/brightness & contrast fudging to show vignetting.

Click to view attachment

I KNEW that song would come up sometime! Great minds think alike!

Dagnabbit!!! I guess I'm guilty of plagiarism now along with all my other prior forum violations. Must've been buried in my garbage bin subconscious all this time. Now, if I come across a couple of . . . errrr . . . frisky femmes . . . in my garage sometime in the next year or so you'll truly know I'm just an SJ wannabe.

Triplet spill. Shoulda' been cleaner when I modded dat bugger! There be fingie printies and linters in thar.

Click to view attachment

Arc image at rear of triplet. Hung a piece of paper over arse of trippie for this pic.

Click to view attachment

Lookin good man!

Do you have that m135 ballast still? I'm thinking of overdriving my t15. Did you ever overdrive the t15 with the m135? I need like 10-20% increase in brightness.

Om BTW, check my plog, got some new screens!

How is your corner focus with the trip mod?

It looks like you got nice lamp alignment. I can't see the reflector in the triplet image, can you?

I some times would shake the reflector so I could see it's image in the triplet shot. If it's image is smaller than the real lamp arc then the reflector need to be closer.

AV would be the man to ask about the T15 overdrive. I guess that's been you asking around regarding the T15 overdrive lately? Too lazy to check right now. I sold the M135. Never tried T15 overdrive.

Regarding the triplet mod - I couldn't get a satisfactory image with the modded triplet so unmodded it and it's like night and day. The unmodded wins hands-down in my case. Go figure.

I think it was SupraGuy who indicated he had no issues with the pro triplet up to a certain throw but that maybe at longer throws the problem maybe would show up? That's from memory so may be far from reality.

I have not done much quantitative or even qualitative assessment of the unmodded triplet so can't say if I'm exeriencing any pincushion but like I mentioned it's night and day for focus and ghosting. When it was modded I couldn't get a satisfactory image at all really. I'm just glad I decided to unmod it prior to trying a bunch of the other stuff I had planned. I actually have to rip into my lightgate to realign stuff 'cause I was fiddling so much with everything I'm sure it's all out of whack again.

I still have some work to do but I'm actually typing this using my projector. I'd wager in a few weeks I'll be pretty happy if I can find the time to rework the projector.

I did a few things to accomodate the modded triplet (due to the change in focal length from the mod) and now I have to undo those things.

Live and learn.

I'll check your plog soon.