My Next Project

[Goemon]

Barry,

Your setup looks great. I have been lurking on a number of the forums except the lumen lab one, although I am beginning to think maybe I should have bought the plans.

Anyway, I was wondering about the wiring - I assume you went with a 400w Metal Halide. Did you wire the fans in on the same circuit as the MH ballast or on a seperate circuit?

Have there been many traps for young players?

Cheers,

[Barry_White]

Barry,

Your setup looks great. I have been lurking on a number of the forums except the lumen lab one, although I am beginning to think maybe I should have bought the plans.

The purchase of the plans is really worth the $20 USD because of the access to the protected part of the forum which gives you all the information on the building of the projector and all the the traps that can be overcome.

Anyway, I was wondering about the wiring - I assume you went with a 400w Metal Halide. Did you wire the fans in on the same circuit as the MH ballast or on a seperate circuit?

Cheers,

Yes I used the 400w metal halide I used two separate switches one for the fan and one for the lamp.

I put a 8 amp fuse block in and ran the active to the fan switch. I then ran a active from the switch side of the fan switch to the active side of the lamp switch. This way if you happen to switch off the fan by mistake it switches off the lamp as well so you don't get any overheating of the box.

I have now finished the projector and have had it running. It is awesome. I have a bit of fine tuning to do. I have to build the mobile stand for it as well as the screen.

I will post some more pictures tomorrow of the finished projector and try to take some pictures of the the projected image tomorrow night,

BTW you can get into some areas of the Lumenlab forum but not the technical side.

[Goemon]

Barry,

Thanks mate. Do you mind if I pick your brain as I go?

Cheers

[Barry_White]

Goemon

You are welcome that is what the forum is about.

Attached are a couple of pictures of the finished projector. All I have to do now is to work out how to take some pictures of a projected image in a pitch dark room with my new camera if that is possible.

[Goemon]

It really came up nice...

If I just a tad shorter I'd want to be buried in it!

I was wondering if you could show me the wiring digram for it? Are you running it from a computer power supply??

Cheers

[Barry_White]

Goemon

I purchased an AverTVBox9 which will convert RF, AV, Component and SVideo signal to VGA signal.

Have a look here. http://www.sepco.com.au/buy.asp?ProductID=AVerTVBOX9

I can also connect the computer to it. I could have the internet up on the wall. Awesome.

I will draw up a wiring diagram tomorrow of how I set it up

[Goemon]

Barry,

I agree it is awesome. And tahnks again for the help with the wiring. I'm comfortable with the focal length calcs, stripping the LCD and even making the box, but not wiring...

You obviously have a 15" TFT in there. What did you go with?

G

[Barry_White]

Goemon

I used the BenQ 567s V2 LCD 15". Available here.
http://www.gamedude.com.au/


The fans came from here. http://www.eyo.com.au/details_R-TF-12025.html

The thermometer came from here. http://www.eyo.com.au/details_R-CT0129EB.html

The lighting kit including Lamp, Ballast, Igniter and Capacitor available from here
http://ww5.aitsafe.com/cf/add.cfm?us...=185.00&return=

Attached here is the wiring diagram of my projector

[Barry_White]

Here is a couple of shots of the inside of the finished projector.

[Goemon]

Barry,

I looked up the Benq - its got a nice resolution I'm not sure but it may meet minimum specs for High Definition TV. There is an informative article here:

http://www.dansdata.com/hdtv.htm

I thought it might be nice to project HDTV onto my wall and save myself x $1000's. HDTV cards are on sale in Aust for the computer at just $200-$300. The problem is that the LCD's are so expensive its such a gamble gutting one for a PJ.

Everytime I see your pj about a 1000 questions come up but I will try to keep mine to a minimum.

Was it easy to strip the Benq?

What temperature have you set for your fans to kick in?

How did you screen the UV from the halide lamp away from the LCD?

On one of the shots on the side of the box there is a aluminium rail - is that a track for your fresnel adjustment mechanism?

One last one - can you post some screen shots when you can. I can only imagine how good it must be.

With all your great help I have no more excuses soI guess its time for me to get busy...

If I get mine to fly I am sure it is only due to your kind assistance. Thanks

[Barry_White]

Barry,

I looked up the Benq - its got a nice resolution I'm not sure but it may meet minimum specs for High Definition TV. There is an informative article here:

http://www.dansdata.com/hdtv.htm

Goeman
Have a look at this thread from the Lumenlab Forum. This guy is in North Queensland and is running the Benq 567s V2 monitor.
http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2625
This is where I got a lot of my ideas from. Like you I also use other peoples ideas but as I said this is what the forums are about and you will also find this on the Lumenlab forum.

I thought it might be nice to project HDTV onto my wall and save myself x $1000's. HDTV cards are on sale in Aust for the computer at just $200-$300. The problem is that the LCD's are so expensive its such a gamble gutting one for a PJ.

He is using a HDTV card

Everytime I see your pj about a 1000 questions come up but I will try to keep mine to a minimum.

Was it easy to strip the Benq?

The Benq is probably one of the easiest of them all to strip. I had trepidations doing it but with an earth strap connected it was easy.

What temperature have you set for your fans to kick in?

The fans need to be permanantly on to keep the box cool. Have you purchased the guide as I said there is more information in the protected forums that will answer all or any questions that you can think up and makes the purchase of the guide more than well worth the $20 USD.

If you have a lookat the wiring diagram you will see that you cannot turn the lamp on unless the fans are switched on and when you switch the lamp off you have to leave the fans running for at least five minutes to keep the LCD cool other wise the heat left in the light box will overheat the LCD and fresnel lense.

How did you screen the UV from the halide lamp away from the LCD?

I used a UV filter I purchased from Lumenlab and taped it to the inside of the toughened glass behind the back fresnel lense.

On one of the shots on the side of the box there is a aluminium rail - is that a track for your fresnel adjustment mechanism?

I don't know if you mean the shot of the outside of the box toward the front. If it is that is the control panel that I cut out of the front of the frame of the LCD.

One last one - can you post some screen shots when you can. I can only imagine how good it must be.

I will post some shots as soon as I can work out how to do it with my camera. In the mean time have a look at Mr Burns post from Lumenlab Forum.

[rev]

Very VERY I M P R E S S E D, Bazza!!

Have you done (is it easy to do) anything to overcome the trapezoidal shape of the projected image - I think it is called keystoneing...other than setting up the screen parallel to the plane of the lens?

[Barry_White]

Very VERY I M P R E S S E D, Bazza!!

Have you done (is it easy to do) anything to overcome the trapezoidal shape of the projected image - I think it is called keystoneing...other than setting up the screen parallel to the plane of the lens?

Thanks for that Rev

I designed a way of doing if you have alook at this post.

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...6&postcount=22

Also some other pics of it.

[Goemon]

The screen pics from Obsessive Compulsive are great.

Its a great way to watch TV.

I haven't bought the plans yet but you have certainly sold me on them.

I hope you will be on this forum for a while as I would love to catch up once my project gets going.

Thanks again.

[Barry_White]

Goemon

I've been off the air for a couple of days, lightening hit my phone line.

I will be around for a while on the forum.

Still truing to work out my camera to post a few screen shots from the projector. I have a couple but not very good.