The "NOT HERS" HT/Basement Build - The Suffering Begins - Page 5

Crap, the surrounds I was looking at (http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=246-850) appear to be 4 ohm, not sure if the receiver I have yet to buy will have an issue with this or not..

QUESTION!!??

Since I am thinking of getting the Panny AE2000, I am going to order the wires now to go through the conduit. (25')

Do I need anything else other than:
1 - HDMI
1 - Composite
1 - Cat 6

????

8/13/2008

Tonight I finalized the surround placement after measuring 5x. Looks like I will have 7" of width clearance to work with. I am going to go with a mount that will allow me to aim it correctly.


I then put on drywall in the utility room so I could attach wire mounts to it. Not sure why 3 outlets to cut around would take me 1.5 hours to do... but it did!

8/14/2008

Not alot of time after work and kids and 2 hours searching for the correct color to match my new carpet to be ordered soon.. still not sure I succeeded here...

Here are the color painted swatches..



Here are the completed wire mounts on the new drywall. These will handle the L C R front wall as well as all of the wiring for the hidden media storage. I also punched out 2 center holes in the drywall where power cords and wiring will be going through seperate holes to be drilled out tonight.

Any quality problems with the CAT5 to HDMI? I have never heard of doing that before, but then again I am a noob.

Sent in PM - let me know what you think

I ran conduit from the PJ about 12 feet into the other room which will have a dropped ceiling. There was no way for me to run conduit to my server rack because of the ceiling height and air return in the side-room.

So if I put it in now, I can still change it all later, but it will save me hours and hours of fighting super-tight spaces if I put it in now

I already have string from the PJ to the side room. (cake)

8/15/2008

Nothing really to take pics of in this update, we did a bunch of wiring in preparation of putting insulation on the walls.

We started to work on a little addition to ProjectX.. hidden media storage. I bought a few hundred LED lights some different angles and colors. Below is a test of 3 different types. Bright blue, bright white, and wide angled white.

Lights on test:

Lights off test:


We chose to go with blue, it just looks cooler against the black back and shelves.

8/16/2008

Tonight my neighbor Mark and I worked on finishing the first mock-up with LEDs. We both learned alot about LEDs and he taught me a ton about resistors and why I needed what values, etc. The guy should be a teacher because he puts up with my dumbass questions and doesn't laugh... but if I catch him making a mistake, man he gets it good for an hour

During the assembly time, Mark "hogged" the soldering iron and burned himself slightly (yes I laughed). The guy soldered like 100 peices faste than crap, I had thought he had only done half by the time he completed it all!

I was reduced to cleanup bitch, sanded on the shelves for about an hour to fix a tight fit with the glass, worked on the office area light placement, swept, tool organized, and tried to figure out what the heck to do about a ceiling that has a joist that hangs down 1/3" every 3rd one...

The end result of the initial mock-up is awesome, the shelves light up when the storage unit opens.

Front view lights on:


Front view lights off:


Side view light off:


--BASK in all of it's glory!!!!


Next steps are finding a 5 mm drill bit to drill the correct sized holes on the other shelves, and try to figure out what I can use for spacers on ceiling joists.. I was contemplating neoprene strips, maybe roofing felt. An alternative is to shave down the ones handing down, but I don't want to weaken them at all, plus avoid a huge mess to cleanup!

The are triggered by a switch only when the shelf is OPEN. As soon as it closes, they go off. I could do dimming later.

On the spacers, another thread mentioned this product which if I dbl up on it, mught do the trick as well as slightly help with the foot stomps from upstairs..

http://www.integritygasket.com/


Hmm I can get it from Amazon (Click Here)

And I have 100$ giftcard I need to use or it expires...

8/17/2008

Okay today I had to run around and try to find a specific (5mm) drill bit for my LED project. I spent probably $20 on gas yesterday and was in not in the mood for anymore runarounds. (I owe the guy at Harbor freight who "knew for a fact" that Sears or Home Deport carried them... a punch in the short hairs.)

Today even on a sunday, I struck gold and a place in Pontiac Michigan called Performance Tool said they did not carry metric bit kits, but were sure they had numbered bits they could get closer than with std American bits. When I arrived the guy actually remembered they had a single 5mm bit that was used for drilling pegs in cabinets as that was the standard size for them. I figured $10 for a fancy bit was worth it to minimize gas costs.

Picture of the bit, I will remove the C-clip and take off the spring so I can drill over 1" depth instead of it limiting to 1/3" depth.

**Update, no need to remove the spring/c-clip it goes through the back of the shelf (Barely)

**Performance Tool had a Dewalt special on 18v batteries. If under warranty, they replace them for free, if they test bad, they will sell you a replacement for $10. Much better than the $100 at HD/Lowes.

Next I figured out I can use my wife's hot glue gun on the LEDs to hold them in place as well as help with diffusion. Man she got pissed when I asked to borrow it, she hasn't used it in 8 years, but evidently, she thinks of it as a family treasure... so after spying on where she kept it, when she left the house, I snagged it and used it.

Picture of the peice of crap and the application to my glorious blue LED.


So next I removed all the LEDs except the center row based on feedback. I am not too fond of 5 LEDs per row, only because it looks like I have rope light behind the glass. Here is what it looks like with just the center row lit up:


I had to take a break and take my son to driver's ed (WTF on a sunday?). Took him to the highschool and he told me where to drop him off. When I was about to let him out, I spotted the instructor sitting in a yellow Dodge Caliber off on a different road and the lil brat mumbled "I guess I should have told you to go over there so I didn't have to walk"

Well that lit me up just a bit, so I jerked the wheel to the right and launched my 4x4 Blazer up over the curb, across the median area, off the curb (while my spoiled brat grabbed the bitch-bar with silver-dollar eyes), pulled another right, and skid to a stop right beside the instuctors door..

My son mumbled "Oooh my God, dad, you did NOT just do that!"
"See you at 3 son!" and I took off.

Back to work on the man cave..

I solved my spacing issue in the ceiling joists by ordering Integrity Gasket from Amazon. I had $100 in gift cards that were about to expire so I figured I would give it a shot.

..Dinner break. My wife thinks she is a gourmet cook, yet somehow once again I am eating pizza out of a fricken box!

My neighbor Mark stopped by to help me snap a line so I can proceed with installing light cans.

Office Lights Before:


CAN INSTALLATION TIP: Snap a centered chalk line inline where you want the can to sit, then take the light can and makr center on it. Most already have a small dimple where center is, but take a pencil and draw it out on the flat metal around the can so you can easily match it up to the chalk line.

Example:


Next I moved the existing light out of the way (After breaking the bulb dure to hammering the stud next to it) along with the romex. (I will ask Mark to help me cut them in).


Next after I thought I was done, I stepped back to snap a picture and then let out a few choice cuss words... notice anything wrong?

That's correct boys and girls, I actually installed the &^%*^%$ can right NEXT to the other one, I was kind of in a trance/ in the zone... and moved the ladder slightly when going to get the other can off the shelf... came back and nailed it up. Yes I am a ******!

After fixing that monumental screw up, the end result is 3 evenly spaced can lights in the office ready to be lit up.



Next I measured cable distance needed from server rack to PJ = 25 ft.
--Going to order HDMI, Component, and use my existing CAT6 to wire to PJ. Any objections to this?

Measured cable distance needed from server rack to front wall =
--20' RG6 for Left Sub
--23' Reference for Center (12 AWG speaker wire will be ordered later)
--27' RG6 for Right Sub (Future)

That credit goes to my neighbor Mark... since I was not of the correct height to do that work

That is in the office area, so don't much care I was thinking of going with a dropped ceiling since there isn't much area to cover. I will do that next year.

Yes sir, good point. But it is not in the theater area, so I don't care much at this point I was going to try to figure out a way to do double drywall with some sections able to be opened up if there is a shutoff valve.

But seriously it is not a concern to me as it is literally only 1.5 sheets of drywall, it is that small of an area.

It will be around 6' 9"