I'm starting this thread to document my progress on building my latest projector. I will be updating with new info about once a week. everyone feel free to respond to any theories or ideas I post because constructive criticizm is always welcome. My equipment is as follows:
150w mh philips master color, ordering # CDM/150/T6/942
aluminum parabolic reflector from 2 million candlepower portable spotlight
lilliput 7" 800*480 lcd
precision cut fresnel for lcd from ace3000_1
7" by 5.5" hot mirror from rosco industries/ you will see why in the design.
I am going to use sheet aluminum to assemble my light engine, and it will mate to the fresnel/lcd housing which will be made of wood. I am attaching a rough draft of the design below, the final specs will be posted as soon as I get it finshed. Any comments or warnings are welcome. will post again soon.
150w mh philips master color, ordering # CDM/150/T6/942
aluminum parabolic reflector from 2 million candlepower portable spotlight
lilliput 7" 800*480 lcd
precision cut fresnel for lcd from ace3000_1
7" by 5.5" hot mirror from rosco industries/ you will see why in the design.
I am going to use sheet aluminum to assemble my light engine, and it will mate to the fresnel/lcd housing which will be made of wood. I am attaching a rough draft of the design below, the final specs will be posted as soon as I get it finshed. Any comments or warnings are welcome. will post again soon.
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Hi Specteag: Could you explain me the menning of AR coating? What does mean AR ?
I bought last week a pair of copy lens from a Ricoh copier and they have a coating, if you see trough them you see all greenish, but yesterday I use one of them to proyect with the lilliput and picture was quite good.
I'm waiting for the Condenser an the fresnels to arrive.
About your draw I have to say that the air will not go out from de ligh engine because the reflector ocupy all the place. Unless your box is wider than the reflector there is no place to the air to pass trough.
Bye
I bought last week a pair of copy lens from a Ricoh copier and they have a coating, if you see trough them you see all greenish, but yesterday I use one of them to proyect with the lilliput and picture was quite good.
I'm waiting for the Condenser an the fresnels to arrive.
About your draw I have to say that the air will not go out from de ligh engine because the reflector ocupy all the place. Unless your box is wider than the reflector there is no place to the air to pass trough.
Bye
ar coating
gstuder,
The ar stands for anti- reflective coating. Normally, the lens will appear reddish- orange when looked upon at an angle and light green when looking directly through. The coating aids in reducing the amount of light reflected from objects other than the objective source( the lcd) so you do not get any stray light emissions through the lens. As for the air flow around the reflector, I will have a clearence of around .25" from the outer diameter of the bulb to the inside diameter of the reflector. The light box around theoutside of the reflector will be sealed, so the air will be pulled directly through the above mentioned clearance gap. I know the drawing does not show this in detail, but that is how it should work. Let me know if you can think of any thing else to look at before I start constuction, thanks!
gstuder,
The ar stands for anti- reflective coating. Normally, the lens will appear reddish- orange when looked upon at an angle and light green when looking directly through. The coating aids in reducing the amount of light reflected from objects other than the objective source( the lcd) so you do not get any stray light emissions through the lens. As for the air flow around the reflector, I will have a clearence of around .25" from the outer diameter of the bulb to the inside diameter of the reflector. The light box around theoutside of the reflector will be sealed, so the air will be pulled directly through the above mentioned clearance gap. I know the drawing does not show this in detail, but that is how it should work. Let me know if you can think of any thing else to look at before I start constuction, thanks!
It has been more than a week since my last post, and I just got my fresnel in the mail from ace3000_1. Fresnel looks good, I would reccomend ace to anyone who is looking for parts. Initial testing of the fresnel and projection lens produced good results. I will post again when I get my bulb and ballast and complete my light engine.
Murphy loves me this month!
I hate to announce that I must postpone my projector plans as they stand right now. I was in an auto accident, thank God it was not my fault, so I have to put all my cash into another vehicle. However, My projector efforts are not totaly thwarted. I will be using my old elh bulb and condenser housing to retrofit into a lilliput lcd and assembly. I will not get the best results in the world, but it will work until I get more cash. Thanks to everyone who helped me out with parts or information. I will post my results of my retrofit very soon.
I hate to announce that I must postpone my projector plans as they stand right now. I was in an auto accident, thank God it was not my fault, so I have to put all my cash into another vehicle. However, My projector efforts are not totaly thwarted. I will be using my old elh bulb and condenser housing to retrofit into a lilliput lcd and assembly. I will not get the best results in the world, but it will work until I get more cash. Thanks to everyone who helped me out with parts or information. I will post my results of my retrofit very soon.
Heya Spec, thanks for the nice words, sorry to hear about your car accident aswell, i hope you get that sorted out soon and i hope you didnt get as banged up as the car!
Ive been away for abit so this is the first time that ive seen this thread, well done on your efforts! and i hope soon you can gather enough cash to finnish this bad boy off. Help is always welcome, just hit me with an email when the time come's and ill do my best to sort ya problems out.
Trev🙂
Ive been away for abit so this is the first time that ive seen this thread, well done on your efforts! and i hope soon you can gather enough cash to finnish this bad boy off. Help is always welcome, just hit me with an email when the time come's and ill do my best to sort ya problems out.
Trev🙂
I'm back
Well, it seems that my luck has changed for the better. I was actually able to get a good deal from an insurance company. This means that my projector plans are back in full swing. I was sweating bullets about having to buy a new vehicle.
Back to busines. For fun, I tested the lilliput with a 300w elh and the image was sharp and darker than being in a cave with a half dead flashlight. Now armed with money again, I will be going with my original plan of the 150w mh hqi phillips mastercolor. Even with the dim picture I could see the resolution of the image was great. My copy lens turned out to be an exellent find. This stuff combined with the fresnel I purchased from Ace, this projector is going to be great.
BTW Trev, thanks for your support.
Well, it seems that my luck has changed for the better. I was actually able to get a good deal from an insurance company. This means that my projector plans are back in full swing. I was sweating bullets about having to buy a new vehicle.
Back to busines. For fun, I tested the lilliput with a 300w elh and the image was sharp and darker than being in a cave with a half dead flashlight. Now armed with money again, I will be going with my original plan of the 150w mh hqi phillips mastercolor. Even with the dim picture I could see the resolution of the image was great. My copy lens turned out to be an exellent find. This stuff combined with the fresnel I purchased from Ace, this projector is going to be great.
BTW Trev, thanks for your support.
final light engine
The following photos are of the final assembled light engine. If anyone has any questions about how it works refer to the drawing in my above posts. I performed tests using a 300w halogen bulb and the resulsts were great. The airflow ducts worked perfectly, and the light box itself became very warm but not to hot to leave your hand on it for a long period of time. with the hot mirror in place and using the cooler metal halide 150w cdm heat should not be an issue. The reflector created a very even light at fresnel focal length of 210mm. Looks good so far!
The following photos are of the final assembled light engine. If anyone has any questions about how it works refer to the drawing in my above posts. I performed tests using a 300w halogen bulb and the resulsts were great. The airflow ducts worked perfectly, and the light box itself became very warm but not to hot to leave your hand on it for a long period of time. with the hot mirror in place and using the cooler metal halide 150w cdm heat should not be an issue. The reflector created a very even light at fresnel focal length of 210mm. Looks good so far!
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this is the front view looking directly into the reflector. If you look closely you can see the middle part of the fan through the hole in the reflector. when I get the hot mirror, it will be placed at the very front of the engine between the relector and fresnel. the fresnel and lcd will be mounted in a different box that will be attached to the light engine.
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In this pic you can see the open area between the outer case and the inner case that forms the air intake. This is the front side where the hot mirror will be placed, so the air pulled in from the rear intake will cool the mirror and mix with hot air in the main light box and then pass between the gap of the bulb/ reflector and out the fan exhaust.
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Here is the pic of the light engine in its last configuration. the only thing missing is my hot mirror which has yet to arrive and my fan. The long threaded poles allow for precise bulb focusing, and the rails inside maintain proper azmuth alignment. I plan to cut the excess when i get everything assembled and working. So for everything works as advertised. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.
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I purchased my ballast from a local lighting retailer. However, the ballast came from Universal Lighting Technologies, www.universalballast.com. It is a magnetic ballast part number
M150MLTLC3M-500K. It will work with different bulbs, but I am using it with the philips cdm150/T6/942. It works with 120v, 205v, 220v, and 277v. The starter and capacitor are includedand it came pre-wired. All I had to do was hook up the hot, common, and ground. Hope this helps!
M150MLTLC3M-500K. It will work with different bulbs, but I am using it with the philips cdm150/T6/942. It works with 120v, 205v, 220v, and 277v. The starter and capacitor are includedand it came pre-wired. All I had to do was hook up the hot, common, and ground. Hope this helps!
Nice work, just wondering, where did you get your reflector from? Is it semi-hemisphirical or does that matter in your rig?
Thanks
Thanks
My reflector is a parabolic shape. It came from a two million candle power 12 volt spotlight from wal-mart. You have to be careful when choosing the correct light; some have plastic reflectors that will melt. If you want to use the same type you will need to assure that it is an aluminum reflector. Parabolic reflectors work great. If you know anyone at a movie theater, ask them to open the lamphouse and you will find a huge parabolic reflector. If it is good enough for theaters it is good enough for me. Obviously they have much higher quality reflectors, but it is the theory that is sound. Good luck!
bad news / good news
On a sad note, I am going to stop building my projector. I thought I could finish it along with my flying and work. I do not have enough time for all of it. However as hard as murphy struck before, today he has rewarded me with a cool grand from a scratch- off ticket. I could continue to build, but the cash to buy an X2 is to tempting to pass up. Therefore, I will be selling most of my parts to whom ever may want them. I have the philips cdm t6 bulb with g12 base, 4200k with matching ballast. I will take $150 usd for both. I also have a diy labs triplet for $15 usd and the lens for this projector for $25 usd. I am keeping my lilliput for use in my vehicle. I have huge amounts of very large first surface mirrors, so if anyone wants one let me know and I will cut it to size for you. A mirror 7" wide by 5" tall sells for ten dollars. Anything bigger will have to be discussed. Thank you all for you help, and I wish everyone luck with their projects. So long!
On a sad note, I am going to stop building my projector. I thought I could finish it along with my flying and work. I do not have enough time for all of it. However as hard as murphy struck before, today he has rewarded me with a cool grand from a scratch- off ticket. I could continue to build, but the cash to buy an X2 is to tempting to pass up. Therefore, I will be selling most of my parts to whom ever may want them. I have the philips cdm t6 bulb with g12 base, 4200k with matching ballast. I will take $150 usd for both. I also have a diy labs triplet for $15 usd and the lens for this projector for $25 usd. I am keeping my lilliput for use in my vehicle. I have huge amounts of very large first surface mirrors, so if anyone wants one let me know and I will cut it to size for you. A mirror 7" wide by 5" tall sells for ten dollars. Anything bigger will have to be discussed. Thank you all for you help, and I wish everyone luck with their projects. So long!
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