Vertical Masking solution for the top black bar anyone?

Have you thought about trying to somehow connect two blinds together if they can't do 4m? I know when I was considering something similar the limit for the width was about 2.5m. I got the same answer as you re the motor strength being the issue.

Obviously you would have to make sure they both come down and go up at the same time. Hopefully one remote would do both though?

Or as others have suggested get a tube made up 4m long, same diameter and use a motor each end which may be powerful enough? Just buy the cheapest blinds and strip out the parts.
 
How much was it mate? I do already have electric blinds, sadly the company I used said that don’t do 4m :(

Or companies are stating they can’t do with mvle22 cos their motors are too weak
TBF why don't you just construct something yourself at the end of the day it's aluminium tubing with fabric stuck to it then with a controlled motor attached.
 
hi mate, how do u control the tube motor? I'm going down dIY route. No one will help me sadly from the blind companies or the guy who installed my blind.
Hi I control the motors via a custom coded raspberry Pi interface as per my post from years ago. I've had a few other people ask about it I've got my friend who coded the pi to upload the source code if that's of any use.

I dug out the link on github now. Full of fun safety disclaimers 😬


Googling for a 4m wide blind I did find one company who do what you need but it comes out at around £400 and then you would need mvel fastening on.


As others have said finding a decent tube remote control tube motor and then buying a long tube would be a way forward
 
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TBF why don't you just construct something yourself at the end of the day it's aluminium tubing with fabric stuck to it then with a controlled motor attached.
Sim12 for my coursework in design and technology at school I got a D in my coursework.

This is far beyond my remit hence asking for help 🤣🤣

No doubt it’s simple for the average person but for me it’s pretty tough 😢😢
 
Sim12 for my coursework in design and technology at school I got a D in my coursework.

This is far beyond my remit hence asking for help 🤣🤣

No doubt it’s simple for the average person but for me it’s pretty tough 😢😢
Lol fair enough, you have 2 problems then, firstly finding a firm that will make it that big and secondly the premium they will charge you for a what is essentially going to be a specialist service because let's be honest the parts to do it ain't going to cost that much.

Oh well good luck, I look forward to seeing how this works out.👍
 
KJN aluminium do up to a 6m aluminium bar which you could attach the MVEL22 to and then either have a motor directly attached on one end or set it up with a small toothed belt to change the ratio giving it more strength.

If I was only going with single top down masking that’s how I’d do it since you’d only need one motor then. It’s the same system I use for the seat belt tensioner on my rig and it’s certainly not lacking in strength a bit of MVEL would be child’s play. Biggest thing is then programming it and hooking it up to an Arduino and making it wireless.

I’ve just gone for two 3.5m x 29cm panels I’ve made from aluminium which I’ll wrap in MVEL22, super lightweight and then I’m attaching a window opener to both so I don’t have to mess about with pulleys which was only another £120.

Picked their wireless Alexa/app driven switch, I’ve quickly tried it and works perfectly, biggest issue is how slow they are should have worked it out from the 10mm/s on the specs but 30s is a fair amount of time to move them 30cm into place!

It will be slow but perfectly level and accurate each time and it’s significantly easier than building it myself. It also links up to the Alexa app so it may very well be useable as a switch directly on the Logitech Harmony remote but I can’t confirm that yet.

Still a while off having it all setup though and may be too early to start wrapping the panels since they’ll be in storage for a while but I’m definitely going to try and bolt it all together in the garage on some bits of wood just to see it working.
 
Lol fair enough, you have 2 problems then, firstly finding a firm that will make it that big and secondly the premium they will charge you for a what is essentially going to be a specialist service because let's be honest the parts to do it ain't going to cost that much.

Oh well good luck, I look forward to seeing how this works out.👍
Cheers.. I don't really mind the premium TBH mate definitely if it includes install as thats one thing out of my mind.

I've contacted seven blind companies and only 2 entertained a 4M blind. 1 said can't do MVEL22.. too heavy or something, wont work with their blind motor ??. The other I'm awaiting feedback from but they basically just said we MIGHT sell u the parts but thats abou tit.
 
@kenshingintoki sorry if I’ve missed this but do you have a fixed or electric screen? This is where fixed screens come into their own as it’s so easy to build a very cheap masking panel to sit on the bottom of the inside of the frame itself. Mine cost me about £25!
 
@kenshingintoki sorry if I’ve missed this but do you have a fixed or electric screen? This is where fixed screens come into their own as it’s so easy to build a very cheap masking panel to sit on the bottom of the inside of the frame itself. Mine cost me about £25!
I project onto a wall mate so I can switch between aspect ratios.

My screen is too tall. 2.6m mate and subs at the front so reaching to the top of the screen to put a masking panel on and off is a bit tough. :(
 
How much was it mate? I do already have electric blinds, sadly the company I used said that don’t do 4m :(

Or companies are stating they can’t do with mvle22 cos their motors are too weak
I'm not sure off the top of my head mate and wouldn't have a clue where the invoice is at the moment.

I can't imagine MVEL will add much weight at all to a blind although not quite sure how you could bond/attach it to the blind to keep it nice when it rolls away.

I took a (bad) video of the one in our master bedroom when it was installed as this was a custom made one due to the length and width of it. The white housing is bigger as it has to drop nearly 10 foot above the arch of the window but I think a standard 8ft drop is a normal housing and about hand the width. You could quite easily paint/cover the housing in MVEL of course!!

Note the blinds aren't no way as noisy as the video makes out as we didn't have carpets etc down when I took the video...

72C21BAA-7C8B-4DE2-8425-9E0D556C1651 by Mark Turner, on Flickr
 
I'm not sure off the top of my head mate and wouldn't have a clue where the invoice is at the moment.

I can't imagine MVEL will add much weight at all to a blind although not quite sure how you could bond/attach it to the blind to keep it nice when it rolls away.

I took a (bad) video of the one in our master bedroom when it was installed as this was a custom made one due to the length and width of it. The white housing is bigger as it has to drop nearly 10 foot above the arch of the window but I think a standard 8ft drop is a normal housing and about hand the width. You could quite easily paint/cover the housing in MVEL of course!!

Note the blinds aren't no way as noisy as the video makes out as we didn't have carpets etc down when I took the video...

72C21BAA-7C8B-4DE2-8425-9E0D556C1651 by Mark Turner, on Flickr
Thank you mate. Looks similar to the blind I have at the back of the room. Tbh one of my blind drops down 2.7m so I’m sure the motor should be able to take the weight and maybe my blind installer is just being obstructive arghhh
 
I built a 4 way masking system for my last home cinema and will do the same again once our new house is built.
Last time my top panel was a 3.3m ish wide panel made from mdf and aluminium u section glued together so maybe 3.3m x 20cm. This was then mounted at either side onto kitchen draw runners mounted vertically. A short, say 1m roller blind tube set behind it fixed to the panel by Velcro which simply lifted the top panel up or released it to fall.
In my mk1 setup there was a second panel at the bottom with the two joined by cord and a pulley, so as the top one moved, the bottom one mirrored the movement. I used some elastic cord to tension it so it defaulted to closed unless the blind motor raised it.
I used Somfy blind motors which have a top, bottom and middle position set able which I used for 3 aspect ratios.
The whole thing was hidden in a mdf frame covered in velvet so none of the workings were visible.
For mk2 I’d make the following changes:
  • I’d forget the frame and simply have the moving panels behind a full wall of velvet so from back to front big white AT screen, then vertical panels top and bottom then horizontal panels then floor to ceiling velvet panels creating the hole for the screen.
  • I’d also try to find a better way to make the panels so they don’t sag given they are 3m plus wide, maybe some tall aluminium box profile
My side panels were vertically mounted roller blinds, with the end mounted on more kitchen draw runners top and bottom with a bit of elastic to pull them to the centre under tension. I used two motors left and right, but probably could have used one with the other a simple roller blind connected by cord to mirror the one on the opposite side.
I’d never really attempted to build anything like that and my DIY skills are average but it was a really rewarding thing to do and worked extremely well. As I used XBMC to play movies I organised them into different folders for aspect ratio then had a raspberry pi look at the video location and fire relays to set the correct aspect ratio once the video started playing.
 
Hi

Has only one seen one of these:


Not cheap though!

Kevin
 
Hi

Has only one seen one of these:


Not cheap though!

Kevin
I only need the top bar. Everything else has been sorted :)
 
Give these a try….


Our windows are just over 3 meters wide and so we had to have custom electric blinds made / installed.

They come with a remote and can be controlled via an app on your phone / voice control.

Won’t be cheap I’m afraid but maybe able to do what you want…?
phoned them mate. will wait for price.. if they install ill be happy and can make it to spec. seems very nice on the phone
 
Got a quote for £440 excluding VAT for a 4M x 60cm drop blind. I think thats daylight robbery lol. No instal, just parts.
 
You could do something with a pulley and two plates, I designed and made this 15 years ago to match my screen. I can vary the central image from 2.6>1.85:1 so mm perfect. The bars are aluminium made to drawings then covered with adhesive velvet and suspended on pulleys, so if you lift one it lowers the other closing the gap and visa verse

Cinema screen 1.jpg

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You could do something with a pulley and two plates, I designed and made this 15 years ago to match my screen. I can vary the central image from 2.6>1.85:1 so mm perfect. The bars are aluminium made to drawings then covered with adhesive velvet and suspended on pulleys, so if you lift one it lowers the other closing the gap and visa verse

View attachment 1667708
View attachment 1667712


cheers mate. I have the bottom bar set how i like TBH. Perfect height.



I was eyeing up one of these motors which come with a remote:


Ideally would love for it to be alexa controlled as I think I've got most stuff alexa controlled now
 
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