I am humbled to be in the presence of so many innovators and craftsmen. I have spent hours reading the interesting posts in this forum and have enjoyed the friendly banter. I decided it was time to emerge from the shadows and introduce myself and my project. I started my PJ about a week ago.

Here's what I have on hand so far:

Lens triplet from Lumen Lab
Split fresnels from Lumen Lab
Eye lamp from Lighting Unlimited
Ballast and Cap from Lighting Unlimited
3/4 Plywood and various hardware bits from Home Depot

Here's what I have ordered and am waiting for:

A piece of tempered glass (without a logo)
Benq FP567V2 WH/SIL LCD monitor
Enermax 120mm Clear Ultra-Cool Speed Dial 12V (fan)
Norpro stainless steel-half sphere reflective surface (bowl)

Even though I may regret it later, I decided to go ahead and build my box even before I had all my parts. I just couldn't wait to get started. Here are some photos of what I have done so far. I am open to suggestions and critique and will happily answer questions like "WHY IN THE HECK DID YOU DO IT LIKE THAT?".









I may have to move my ballast, although it seems quieter when it is mounted on a vertical surface (as opposed to the floor). I'm just starting to figure out what to do with the aluminum flashing material.

Looks good so far kjudki.

yeah looking good. are you going to keep the flashing after you get your norpro?

It would be a good idea to.

i have mixed ideas on the flashing, it bounces light around and would cause you to lose contrast, if you have light that is not coming from the source getting onto your projected image it is not good. just because your getting light out of the lens is not a good thing, if you getting controlled light out of the lens and no stray light then that is good. if you cant control the light coming out then your image will not be as good, the only light that helps your image quality comes from the light source that the lenses are setup to redirect light from. example the shadows on images are caused by light not reaching an area, well if you have stray light bouncing around then it might create a hot spot in an area and cause you to not have dark shadows in spots. if you still are worried about the box somehow catching on fire or something like that then paint the flashing flat black along with the inside of the box. if i am wrong please explain why i am wrong so i could understand better.

Light pollution will only effect contrast forward of the field lens.

I plan on using the flashing and the norpro reflector. It can't hurt to have a double wall of metal between the hot lamp and parts that I want to protect. Has anyone used insulation like you would find in an oven, on the back side of the flashing, or would it just be overkill? I have some flat black spray paint that is high temp for BBQ grills. Would painting the flashing cause it to absorb more heat and perhaps be hot enough on the back side to melt wires and other plastic?

I will probably leave the flashing alone and only paint it if I have a contrast problem. I believe what brain says to be correct about stray or aff axis light only to be a problem in front of the field lens.

Today I picked up my tempered glass panel and got my fan in the mail. Yipee!!! Another part that I failed to mention are the 10 amp 120 V switches which you can see if you look closely in my photos. They light up when they are on. I salvaged these off an old computer peripheral control center.

I built the box with notched sides to help prevent light leakage. I learned this from buiding a dobsonian telescope a few years back in a plywood box. That project has some similarities with this one.

Thanks for your comments.

With only my LCD panel lacking, I decided to put together a makeshift test of the optics. The test had to be short because even though I have the fan installed I can't put the lid on my box and my flashing/duct work isn't complete.



Without the LCD I taped a green transparent CD jewel case to a piece of glass. Since no human was awake to help with my all important 1st projection shot, my dog stood in.



Remember the scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark when at the end the bad guy opened up the ark and his face melted off? Here is my version of the ark opened.



a few other detail pictures





The projection was very bright and sharp. I look forward to getting rid of the binder clips, pushpins and popsicle sticks that were holding everthing in place.

I am sandwiching both fesnels in 12x10 1/8" glass from Lowes. It was $1.53 for the precut pieces.

I'm having a great time with this project. I'm suppose to get my LCD screen n Monday.

wow very nice -

Amusing Looks good.

My panel should arrive tomorrow, May 10. I have spent some time this weekend framing my fresnels in aluminum channel painted flat black. They are both sandwiched between 1/8" glass. I also recieved my Norpro bowl and dremelled it down to the half sphere.

I'm sure that I'll be re-reading some "LCD stipping" posts when I get to the point of stripping mine. I am a bit nervous about it.

Monday 5/10/04

My Benq came in UPS today. Unfortunatley I didn't have time to do much more than plug it in to make sure it worked. I've made progress in other areas. I am having to modify my box a little so things will fit and align properly. If I were going to start over, I would increase all the dimensions on my box instead of trying to cut it so close.

I'll take more pictures at the next chance I get to work on the thing.

Being wary about stripping your monitor is a healthy way to be, but honestly I don't think you'll have any problems.

This is the thread I swore by when I was doing mine. It is obviously identical to the 567s but minus the speakers. Good luck

Thanks Eyebath! The link was very helpful in the stripping process. Here are some photos that I promised.


First, my Norpro reflector in place.

Here is my flashing/ductwork. I hope that it is out of the way of the light path. I used 5/16 T-50 staples instead of buying a rivet tool and rivets. I just bent over the staples on the back side of the flashing. I think it works just fine. I plan on laying down metal flashing on the floor, walls and lid of the light chamber area.

Here is my Benq, out of the box and my plans for extracting the controls. BTW-The monitor worked fine but I've got lots of working monitors. What I need is a projector.

Here the I.D. tag from my Benq with the serial number blurred out. (I wouldn't want it to fall into the wrong hands )

Here is the backside:

I guess I don't really need to show this whole process. It is pictured elsewhere on the board. So let me skip ahead with 2 last pics for now. Here are all the circuit boards and the control panel that I cut off the front. The only thing that I had trouble with was the center riser on the big circuit board. Even with the screw out it didn't want to come loose. It felt like it was epoxied to the board. I ended up bending the metal casing away from the board edges so I could pivit on the riser and break the thing loose. In doing so, I destroyed the metal casing that was surrounding the pc boards but I don't have room for the bulky thing in my PJ box anyway.

I left the LCD in the metal frame and put some silicon II in a big fat syringe to carefully stick the glass edge to the metal frame.



added 6/21/04:

Excellent stuff.

Solid monitor eh? I was really pleased about the edge connectors when I stripped mine.

I toyed with the idea of silliconing it to the frame too, but it still needed a lot of spacing on either side, so I just crafted a new frame from some alu angle.

Are you gonna put your panel straight in? If not, I'd put one of the diffuser sheets back onto the exposed side of the panel. Don't want her getting dusty!

Kjudki, looks good so far - Q1: what's that black thing to the top right of your last picture , it does look like an FFC connector of sorts, did you pull that from oneof your circuit boards?
Q2: Sillicon II? Is that glue or caulk and is it heat resistant to stand the heat around the panel?(I gues isn't much if your cooling system works well)- looks like it will?

I used JB weld to tack mine at the corners and one in the middle of all sides. heat resistant and hardens like metal, and apllied with tooth pick after mixing the two epoxies.

I'm getting closer to having my projector up and running but there still seems to be many details to work out. I still need to:

1) mount the controls on the box. (I may do this after the initial test)

2) my fresnels and tempered glass are already in metal channel but I need to build them out with wooden framing before doing a test run. I will keep everything modular for now until I get the best results then I will screw it all in place.

3) the field fresnel will need a keystone adjustment pivet.

4) finish the flashing in the light chamber end of the box

5) devise a focus adjustment (I may do this after the initial test)

6) finish all the wiring and ground all the PC boards and LCD, then fire up the LCD to make sure it still works. (After all this, it had better work .

7) Fire it up and take some pictures of the results on blackout cloth.

8) Paint the exterior so my wife will let me keep it out in the open and put it on a rolling cart.

9) Make some popcorn and watch a movie.

8) Save some more money to buy an N6.

Thanks Joe for that info on using JB Weld - that stuff really works good on most anything - just used it this past weekend to seal a leak on plastic collant tank in my car - little did it occur to me that I could ise it to mount my panel on to its frame - thanks.

Japlasma, the little black thing is a clip that holds the AC power inlet to a metal casing. I believe that its purpose is to take strain off of the connection where the AC inlet connector is soldered to the PC board.

GE Silicon II is caulking and should be fine for the operating temp of under 95 deg F. I believe the label say not to use it on a surface that will exceed 400 deg F. I believe that you can get Silicon II in smaller tubes also.

Looks great man. I love the way you've marked the light cone on the bottom so that you can see any interference (I used a string).

Here is the control panel mounted in my box. I decided to do this before I tested the LCD panel. I'm not real happy with my routing job here. I'll make it pretty later when I finish the exterior.

The good news is that my LCD panel still works. I grounded all the boards and temporarily put everything in the box in its approximate location. I made this cable to connect the main board to the smaller board to give me some flexibility on board placement and to take the stress off the pcb connectors. I put a room lamp behind the lcd to help me see the image. At this point it was 2 am and time to clean everything up and go to bed.

I wouldn't complain if I were you. There's only one spot to the top right that I would be concerned about and there is wood putty to fill that kinda stuff in.

Overall this is the kind of results I'm hoping to get. Nice wire management with the heatshrink.

Not even going to ask where you got the big fat syringe

I have it working and it looks great. The results are much better than I expected. First of all, here are a few shots of my test setup.

Now, here are a few screen shots. Sorry, I don't have the movie with the girl that has blue hair. These are both just projected on my wall. The image is 7' 5" across.
I have material to make a blackout cloth screen. I will take more picture when that is done.

Nice.

Superb first results. I'm sure there's room for tweakability though. Is that a word? It is now...

Like it. Nice and bright - right on!

Your images look great......

How did it feel when ya 1st saw them .....

I followed the measurements from the guide very closely and had very little adjusting to do besides focusing. I do have some light leaks to take care of. My computer screen image is a little larger than what shows on the projected image and there aren't any controls in the monitor to scale the image. what can I do about that?

I just ordered the Yamakawa dvd player with RGB out for $59 USD and $14 USD shipping. It looks to be very highly rated on Amazon, Germany. I will let you know how I like it. I have seen it discussed on other areas of the forum but have any of you actually bought one?

I felt like a cow standing in a field of tall grass...

... udderly tickled.

but seriously folks, this has been a very rewarding project. The projected images are amazing.

While the PJ was running for it's 1st 3 hours the slot temp, using a meat thermometer, stayed between 87 and 93 deg F. I didn't smell anything burning or melting so the metal flashing and tempered glass must be doing their jobs.

You don't have a 'phase' adjustment?

Yes, I have a phase adjustment. I just didn't know what "phase" refered to. That will change the dimension of the image on the screen?

I will play with it.

Does on mine, phase and clock.

He he, just noticed it looks like your dog is wearing sunglasses in the pj pix above.

Thanks for noticing. My dog feels that it is important to wear sunglasses when staring into the light of a projector.

In that picture he is anticipating that I will tell him to STAY while I fire up the PJ.

I added "box within a box" focusing. I used 3/4" ash for all pieces except for my lens board which is 3/4" plywood. The ash is very durable and sands smooth for manually sliding to focus. I lined the opening with the soft side of self adhesive 3/4" Velcro. With precise measuring this seals up any light leak around the sliding box and makes it a joy to focus. Also it stays where you put it without need of any lockdown screws. A lip on the back of the sliding box keeps anyone from sliding the lens box out too far. I am very hapy with the results of this setup.

Here are some pics:

Outside extended view (fully extended when we want to focus a small intense image---approx 4' wide image.

fully retracted for the BIG picture---approx 9' wide

inside view of focusing box in place

nice - i think i will do that idea instead of the pvc focus

Yes. I think it looks better than a peice of plumbing.

Here are a few detail shots of the focusing box out of the hole: