My Barco Data 500 DIY Install.

[cosaw]

Thumbnails - click for bigger picture. Descriptions further down page.

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Number 19: Hoisting - Follow the link to the ANIMATED GIFF:
http://www.cosaw.f2s.com/resized/500.gif

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Not been frequenting the forums much recently - been busy. Here are some of the things I've been up to. A big Thank-you to all those who gave input through the forums in answer to my queries on this project. This is my first install. Not everything is completely finished yet but thought it time to post some pics. My objective was to make this a one man job and still keep the procedure safe. Yes I could have called on friends and used brute force but I prefer jobs I can handle completely by myself just in case I have to! Its a bit more of a challenge as well.

I went the Unistrut route and the pj can slide front to back and be moved up and down. The reason I did this was that the Barco lens prog doesn't doesn't accomodate data for my HD6-C lenses so I didn't know throw distances exactly. I did a partial floor setup beforehand - next time I'd do a full floor setup to get thorw and drop and then take up the floorboards upstairs and hang from inside the ceiling space. All that being said I'm quite happy with the way its turned out.

The big problem with using the unistrut turned out to be that the area of ceiling I needed to use was in no way level. There was a big bow in the plasterboard front to back and there was no way the strut would fit flush to the ceiling. I corrected this by using a piece of MDF board temporarily hung from the ceiling on four screws and then leveled with a gap left at the back. I then filled the gap with expandable foam filler. So that the filler didn't stick to the ceiling I bluetacked tinfoil over the ceiling. If we come to move and take the pj down the foam filler should come away cleanly without having to chisel it off the ceiling and ruin the plasterwork.

A brief description of whats going on in the pics going left to right and top to bottom:

1) Find the joists - I used a studfinder purely to test how good they are I then checked joist positions from the floorbard nails upstairs before drilling holes to find the joist edges. As I say I wanted to test the studfinder but I wasn't gonna rely on a stud finder when suspending around 60Kg above my head. The studfinder was of little help, I think you need a completely flat surface when using these and having a woodchip covered ceiling the studfinder was useless. I penciled everything on and worked out where coach screws would go and then transfered all my measurements to the mdf sheet which had the useful secondary function of being my template. You'll see I had to cut some coving out to get to the 4th joist. To find the centre-line I used the arc drawing method that Chris Frost recently detailed and it really does work a treat.

2) Plaster the holes up then paint. Leave holes which would carry string from above to hoist the 18mm piece of MDF.

3) Stick tin foil to the ceiling to stop expandable foam filler permanently welding itself to the ceiling creating more mess when I come to take the pj down.

4) Some paper backing for the now pre-drilled template and ceiling leveler. Just for completeness.

5) Hoist from above with 3 pieces of sting (there is a piece at the rear thats harder to see).

6) A view of the gap the foil the paper and the leveling screws. The gap was much smaller than this once leveld up with a spirit level. Then fill with expandable foam filler - DONT get this on your hands like I did - it takes weeks to get off - literally. Use rubber gloves and eye protection.

7) Strut up, 8 x 6" M10 coach screws, 2 in each joist - probalby overkill but better safe than sorry. Pilot hole 8mm, (7mm would have been better) for the threaded part of the coach screw. I then opened up the end of the pilot with a 10mm hole for the smooth shank part of the M10 coach screw to save putting a splitting force on the joists.

8) Another view of number 7 but showing cables better - 5bnc to vga, mouse, keyboard, power cable. My htpc is gonna be upstairs you see, its cheap ugly and noiser than my projector. I don't mind nipping upstairs when I want to change a dvd. Strut also has some more special metals primer on where I churned up the paint job with my socket set when screwing in the coach screws.

9) Chanel nuts with extra back nuts for locking and araldite metal style glue for extra security. I'd probably leave the glue off if I did it again - it gave way in a few places when tightening fixings at ceiling level and isn't really neccesary. I was gonna use nylon lined locking nuts all round but after messing with a few found they take ages to wind up and down the threaded rod and make adjustment more difficult and time consuming.

10) Washers glued in place to accuately guide the threaded rod through. See next step to see with rod removed.

11) Rod removed once glue set and guide holes are now centered. Paint job looks a bit iffy but now its on the ceiling it looks fine.

12) Everything hung.

13) Another view of number 12.

14) Pj on the floor front.

15) Pj on the floor back.

16) Chanel nut with threaded eyelet, shackel and chain. I used a "Quick Link" (1 on each chain) to stop the chain running back through once I'd hoisted a corner further. I replaced each link with a 5th spare link once I'd pulled the chain through on the corner I was working on. That chain would then have two quick links on it - one holding the weight of the projector and one redundant to take off and use on the next corner.

17) Chain shackled to strut which in turn is bolted to the pj.

18) Enough for another day pj goes to bed. You can see the holes I drilled in the case for g2 and electronic focus.

19) For the hoisting process click this link (http://www.cosaw.f2s.com/resized/500.gif) to see the ANIMATED GIF which is just over 1 meg. As you can see lenses are removed and all the boards with heavy heatsinks have been taken out.

20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25) Shots of it up. Needs its little door on to cover the lens adjustment bay. The expandable foam layer between ceiling and mdf also needs some tidying up. I quickly went over it with some white paint but intend to put some sort of beading round it in the future.

The work continues. My screen is up and I'm watching dvds now. Pj is mostly tweaked. If I do any more bits and pieces (which I am sure to) I'll probably add to this post with further pictures and stuff.

Brilliant. well done si.

Very patient of you to take so many shots for the gif... I would have been too keen to bother!!!

I don't know why but I'm feeling jealous!!! I've already got one of these buggers strapped to my ceiling!!

Looks great up there - now you've just got to put the telly in the right place and you're laughing!

[cosaw]

Cheers Lex!

Well the telly is staying where it is - you can still fit a three seat sofa central under the pj with the tv there. Mostly watch pj at the weekend so I just move the sofa. Plus the fact my old speakers aren't shielded to move the telly between them under the pj screen. I'm onlly interested in watching dvds on the pj everything else the tv does fine.

You know what - I almost didn't do the gif. But once everything was setup I thought what the heck I'd be missing an opportunity. I had my rubbish digital camera on its little tripod which was blue tacked in place on a table. All I did was tilt the camera back on its tripod around every 8 shots. This made it dead simple so I just had to click the button on the camera once every time I moved to another corner on the pj. Still got the big pics also so I could make a little vid but wanted to keep the size down on the gif for 56kers.

I don't know why but I'm feeling jealous!!! I've already got one of these buggers strapped to my ceiling!!

I sorta know what you mean. Once you've taken the time and effort to put one of these things up yourself you certainly appreciate other peoples efforts more so its good to look at other peoples installs and see how the've done things. I've learnt alot this way.

[Mad Mr H]

More people should post pictures of their installs (me included!). Gives us all food for thought.

[Gary Lightfoot]

Excellent post - very helpfull and informative, and I especially liked the gif.

Gary.

[cosaw]

Thanks for the coments guys!

More people should post pictures of their installs (me included!). Gives us all food for thought.

Yes its nice to look at how other people do things. I really want to get some screenshots up but my digital camera is a budget model and gives really disappointing results in the dark.

and I especially liked the gif.

I thought I might as well take a few photos while I was hoisting the thing!

I watched a bit of Episode III last night. Not really into the Star Wars prequels but I had an HMV voucher and they've a sale on and their was nothing better. Good as a showcase dvd for colour dynamics though and really shows what even a humble CRT PJ can do!

My camera looked crap until I used a piece of spare wood to hold it steady... guess where the wood came from!

Shutter stays open for much longer obviously, so it's difficult to get a sharp piccy.

[cosaw]

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The films: Stuart Little, Spiderman, Edward Scissor Hands, Temple Of Doom, Temple of Doom taken from around 20ft away.

Ok all this talk of photos and figure I better try and get a few of my better (although still dissapointing ) shots posted. I would have added them to my original post but had almost exceeded the limit for thumbnails in that particular thread starter.

I plan on trying to get some better results but just haven't got the time at the moment so In the meantime I'm posting these which were done when the pj was on the floor months and months ago. I took loads but these were the only handful that came out anywhere near half decent.

The source is 720x576p @ 75Hz on a 7ft wide 4:3 home made screen. The screen was temporarily mounted and skewed at the right hand side hence the geometry distortion in the pic. The setup was quick and rough and you can see convergence is plainly off from some shots. To get my camera to pick up the image I turned contrast 5-10 notches above what I'd normally use and brightness up about 10 notches. The pj is plenty bright in room but my cheap digital camera is just not up to the job it seems. Dvds are paused while pictures are taken with my camera on its little tripod. Any yellowing or yellow banding in the pics are a result of the camera. I applied some gamma correction to all shots except the last Indy shot (where I just drove the pj harder than I really wanted to) otherwise the photos look TOTALLY rubbish! My monitor is on its last legs so I may not have done this correction too well and you may need to adjust contrast and brightness on your monitor accordingly but I hope not!

The last Indy shot is by far the best approximation of what it feels like to be in room - taken around 20ft away - I actually sit around 12-13ft away under the back of the pj which is optimum for my eyes and screen size. This shot is softer than the others due to only using a small amount of the cameras resolution at this distance and then also cropping and shrinking all shots down to 800x(whatever) however it still gives a better feel of the actual in room environment.

I hope better shots will come at some point now that the pj is on the ceiling and also set up much much better but I'm taking a break on pj tweaking for a bit - well at least until the weekend.

Enjoy!

[Paul D]

AT LAST!!!

I did my room myself, so can understand why you wouldn't let me help!
By the look of the photos, you certainly didn't need any help!

Your raising/lifting method is pure genius, and now installed will cost you nothing to lower or raise in future.

I know you will probably say no, but my offer of any help still stands and you are still more than welcome to come see my install.
It's had a few improvements in the last few months including a new(DIY) screen, and the walls have been treated to a very dark grey matt paint job.
I've got SKY-HD being installed on the 23rd May, so it might be worth coming after that

Paul

Ps
Click below to see some of my build photos (barco and DLP etc), including Roland with his Genie Lift!
http://photos.yahoo.com/fulabeer

[cosaw]

Cheers Paul for your kind comments!

and you are still more than welcome to come see my install.

Thanks again and likewise! We'll have to sort something out in the near future. Like you say probably better if I wait till you get HD first

Si

[cosaw]

Paul those screenshots are absolutely stunning! (you can see why I'm fairly modest with mine ) The rest of your setup aint too shaby either! Just think how long it would take me to do all that diy at the rate I work!

[Mad Mr H]

Originally Posted by cosaw

I thought I might as well take a few photos while I was hoisting the thing!

I watched a bit of Episode III last night

Episode 3 !!!!

How many pictures did you take

[cosaw]

No pics of episode 3 yet. Maybe at the weekend!

Think there were around 70 in the animated gif plus loads more of general prep stuff probably around 50 but only picked the best 23 for the beginning of the thread

Screenshots I did loads 30 plus but dumped most as they were rubbish but that was months ago on a temporary/crude floor setup. I used a tripod but stuff needs to be real bright for my camera to pick up. I can't seem to hold my digital still enough with its slow shutter speed so most stuff turns out blurred and I dump it. I usually take 3 similar shots (if I'm not using the tripod) and then pick the best one. I really should invest in a better camera but I bought it purely for ebay stuff for which its fine.