Great Dane Cinema aka Brent's Budget Theater - Page 2

I got my eagle aspen ROTR100 a couple days ago....and Ive been busy! I ran an IR emitter to the front of the theater. I have a cat 5 run to my server rack fro IR send/receive, so it was really easy to add another emitter.
Then I proceeded to set up eventghost to control it. This process was more tedious than usual. For some reason it took several tries to capture each IR code from the remote. But once I had the codes, I could set up Macros to do whatever I want. Its controllable from my PC and my iphone via a web interface at the moment.
I then made a large wheel/pulley out of some scrap plywood, mounted it to a shaft and to the ROTR100.

Here's a video of what I had at the end of the night. It still needs some tweaking. and obviously i need to hide the mechanicals behind the screen wall, but, I was so excited to see it work the first time!


Its cheap and easy to build. Total cost of the masking system was only around $150. Its a pretty simple implementation and its put together from mostly off the shelf parts. I could probably construct the whole thing in one night.

I got the idea to use the large pulley approach from JARathje's 2 way masking design. The rotor doesnt have tons of power, but it doesnt take a whole lot to operate a traverse curtain rod either. There really arent any forces to work against other than a little friction. There are no springs or weights.

Right now the masking panels arent all that tight. they are just panel track curtains from ikea.
I used some cheap velvet from joans for the fabric to test. there is an aluminum strip along the bottom to help keep the fabric in form. but it doesnt do a very good job on heavier fabric. i plan to turn this into a frame similar to a window screen frame to wrap the fabric around.

Instead of attaching the pulley directly to the ROTR100 like JARathje did, I used a drive shaft... actually... its a curtain rod:


I was hoping that i could use the plate on the end of the rod to run some screws into the pulley. It might have worked, but i had to tap the bearings on to the shaft and apparently that plate isnt attached to the rod very well.... so i ran some 3 in deck srews into it instead:


I didnt take any pictures during the assembly, I was too concerned about getting it done! Heres some pictures of the completed drive assembly:




And in place on the left side of the screen. Its just sitting there now, not permanently mounted, and it will move at least a little from this position due to a few issues.


I cut a notch in the wheel and just tied a knot in the curtain cord:

I might make the notch a little wider so the cord slips out in the event that the wheel turns past the range of the curtain track. That way there is no catastrophic destruction. 2.35:1 is with the notch on the far right, 4:3 is a 180 degree turn on the left, if it would turn past that, it would cause the cord to tighten and could cause damage if there were no failsafe.

Here are some screen shots of my iphone web interface:




when the buttons are clicked it invokes in event in eventGhost to set the masking or lighting scene using IR commands sent through the USB-UIRT attached to my server. I dont use the built in presets, instead i have the server send the degree of rotation to the ROTR100. so for example if i select 2.35:1, the server sends:
ESC, 0, 0, 0 to the ROTR.
16:9 it might send:
ESC 1,2,3

This will make it easier for me to set up the stopping points, since the rotor controller will be out of view. I can make changes directly in eventghost. the ESC command ensures that any rotation in progress is immediately stopped and the new command executed without delay.



There are still a few issues I need to address. First there is a little bit of play in the whole system. If i extend the masks to 16:9, then go back to 2.35:1. the rotor turns about 3 degrees before the masking starts to move. This is due to a slight stretch in the traverse rod cord. I may mount the rotor above the screen to shorten the cord to reduce the stretch or possibly replace the cord with some sort of cable with less stretch. There is also a little bit of play in my fabulous wooden block connection between the traverse rod and the panel track.


I plan to replace this with a metal bracket of some sort.
The next issue is that of noise. This contraption is not quiet by any means. The ROTR100 is pretty loud. That was another reason for using a drive shaft. I plan to build a box around the rotor, pack it with insulation and then place that box inside the corner bass trap to reduce the noise.

I have finished framing in most of the soffit. There is just a little bit to finish up in the front of the room where the soffit and light tray will be curved to match the stage.

Proof of progress pics:




My dad brought me a surprise while I was at work the other day too. I was almost ready to abandon the idea of filling the stage with sand due to the cost of bagged sand. But Dad came through and brought over a load of washed sand.

It wasnt exactly dry though and I'll need to carry it in the house by the bucket full. But its free, so i cant complain too much. Actually i discovered that i can use my snow sweeper thing on my windshield scraper to brush the dry sand on the top into a pail pretty quickly and as long as its sunny, it doesn't take long for another layer to be dry.

So i took the top back off the stage and started filling it with sand.



I expect to be be done filling it in about a week. Its not a difficult or strenuous process, just time consuming.

I also ordered some GOM FR701 Black fabric today as well as the fiber optics for the star ceiling. I decided on Black gom for the ceiling for a couple reasons. First, the stretch velvet I had in mind apparently has consistency issues between bolts. Second, its REALLY easy to push the optical fibers through the GOM. some of the other fabrics I tested take a bit of effort to poke them through.

Im still undecided which fabric to use for the lower (black) portion of the walls and columns. I should have enough GOM left over to experiment a little, but will need to order more if I decide that its what I want. But funds are depleted again, so that will have to wait.

My star field dimensions will be 7'8" by just under 16' long.
I ordered 5000 ft of .5mm fiber and 1500 ft each of .75 and 1.0 mm fiber. According to my calculations that should be pretty close to the right amount, but i wouldn't be surprised if i need to order more.

I'll definitely post more progress pics once I start construction of the ceiling panels. I plan to use the same method that Stockmonkey did for mounting them. I still need to get the MDF and borrow a drywall lift again though.

I have a friend that owns one. The last time I borrowed it I had it for a couple months, So i don't think keeping it for a couple weeks will be a problem. I'm definitely going to test fit the panels before covering them in fabric like you did as well. I'm sure that my room isn't quite square. Did you have any trouble with the panels sagging at all, since they are only fastened at the edges?

Im using two Coolsky LED illuminators:
http://www.fiberopticproducts.com/Co...light_unit.htm

One will be for the Milky way stars (.5 mm fiber) and the other for constellations (1.0 mm) and other brighter stars (.75 mm fiber).

I didn't realize that you put blocks in the middle with finish nails. I think i'll copy that idea too At least it will make me feel a little better knowing there is something holding the middle of the panels too.
I'll need to hit joists for the mounting blocks on the edges. Hopefully it wont be too bad. It would have been nice to have a layer of osb under the drywall though. I'll keep that in mind if I ever build another theater.

I have been debating relocating my projector again. Currently its on a diy mount just behind the first row of seating. I moved it there because i found it annoying when people would get in the way of the projector beam. I have kids and they tend to get up a couple times during the movie. We also like to have snacks and such during a film, so we typically don't sit still without ever getting up during the movie. I'm not sure that I like the idea of it hanging down in the middle of my fancy star ceiling though.

As I see it the advantages are:
1. shorter throw = brighter image
2. if guests in rear row stand up, they dont get in the way of the projector.
3. guests in front row need to get pretty close to the screen before interfering with the image.
4. convenient location for making manual adjustments.
5. its already there.

Disadvantages:
1. short throw may limit my options when replacing the projector. I use close to the least amount of zoom possible on my panny ae700u
2. its in the middle of my ceiling.
3. occasionally vibration from subs, or people walking on the floor above is visible on screen. this wasnt an issue when i had it in the back of the room on a shelf for testing.
4. its close to if not slightly above the top of my screen. this could cause issues with using the zoom method for 2.35 content on the ae4000 i plan to replace it with at some point.


READY... VOTE!

the ceiling fabric will be GOM FR701 Black. I have that on order now, along with the fiber.

i got a couple packages today. I know it will be worth it when its done, but those fiber optics came in a pretty small box and dont look too special considering what they cost.

Im still debating my projector location. Right now its ceiling mounted more or less like this:


if i put it in the rear of the room i'm thinking of mounting it to the under side of the soffit, like this:

that puts it at about a 17' throw distance. I was playing around with the screen size calculator on projectorcentral, and I dont think that will work for my 40" high CIH 2.35:1 screen setup if i use the zoom method. It would work fine if i always keep the PJ zoomed and use the Shrink method with a scaler though. Thats actually what I do now, since manually adjusting my Projector is such a hassle. But I do lose some resolution that way.

Mopar,
Which projector do you have and how far is the throw distance to your screen? What method do you use for 2.35 content?

I need to get this figured out before I can do my star ceiling build.
I am leaning towards putting it at the back of the room, but it seems there are compromises no matter what.

That's pretty close to what my throw distance would be if I mount it at the rear of the room. Whats the smallest image Height you can zoom to at that distance for 16:9 content? The calculator says it should be about 44". That would make my screen 105" wide at 2.35:1 ratio, almost 10 inches wider than I had planned.

Excellent! Thanks for checking it out. I did some math and I think I can fit a 105" screen width and still have room for my masking panels to move off the sides of the screen. It will be close though.

I was in Eau Claire yesterday and found a HVAC company that would sell me Certainteed Toughguard 1" Duct Liner by the foot. I'll be using it on the lower portion of my walls and first reflection points. They stock it on a 59" wide roll. Brought home 30 ft last night. I'll see how far that gets me.

I cut my duct liner to pieces approximately the size they will need to be for my acoustical treatments last night. Right now they are just tacked in place with a couple drywall screws. I wanted to put them up to see how much difference they made and try to determine about how much more I need to buy. So far the results are promising, although i'll need to get about 15 more linear ft of it to finish treating the front wall.

I've been working on the layout for my star ceiling some more. I still need to get some MDF before I can start though.
I started with a layout I got from mopar_mudder. I used a free program called DraftSight to manipulate his layout into something that will work for my ceiling dimensions. This is not a true accurate star map, but it does contain several constellations. Here's what I came up with:



and how i plan to orient it in my room. sorry, its a bit hard to see due to how sketchup handles viewing photo textures at an angle.


Here is the DWG file I am currently working with for my layout along with some PDF exports for easier viewing. Feel free to modify them for your own uses.

Star_Layout.dwg
Star_Layout_4-17-12_(panels).pdf
Star_Layout_4-17-12_(panels and grid).pdf