Building electric roll down screen, here's some parts - Page 5

Fine, I measured it at both ends to make sure both ends were at the same height. I had to add a 1/4 piece of wood to get both sides even. Drilled holes in wood and mounted roller. Every thing seems to be working fine. I'll try to post some pics on Wed., too busy tomorrow. Got double sided tape sample. I'll post a pic of that too. The only substantial thing to do is get the screen material and mount it to the roller. I used an old piece of screen material that I had to test the how strong the tape is by mounting it to a wooden poll that i have and adding a weight. It appears to be strong enough. Mounting the material to the roller is something that is going to be a difficult part. The reason being is that the material needs to be evenly attached or it will not roll up properly. It is not going to be that difficult just a slow and careful job.

Sounds great. Make sure your pipe will not flex. I found that a lot of the alum. pipes will.

Good work. The Phifer 4500 would bring the price down considerably.

Did a rough contruction of the valance.

More pics of valance

Here's some pics of the roller/motor assembly attached to valance. Everything is working fine. Next step is to take it apart, sand and paint the valance, add crown molding and mount screen material to roller. I decided to go with the Dalite single motor control with IR. The problem with the Saaria remote is that it has a 30 sec. time-out to project their motors. Since my pipe is 4 inches outside diameter, it will roll 8 inches of fabric with each revolution. My motor has a speed of 15 revolutions per minute. So in 30 seconds it would roll about 60 inches of material. If you used a smaller pipe you need a faster motor. For example with a 2 inch pipe you would need the motor to turn 30 revolutions to raise the same amount of material. I think I have settle on a screen size of 65 by 116 but am waiting for my new projector, the JVC RS1 due next week to see how bright I want the image to be. With the bottom of the screen about 28 inches off the floor, I will need to roll about 75 inches of material. The Saaria remote would not allow this. AVS sells Dalite parts and should be able to help. I think the most cost effective control would be the Dalite video projector interface which is a 12v trigger. You really only need the screen to lower when the projector is on. Which give you remote control via the projector. The video projector interface is only about 100.00 or so. I plan to buy one of those to lower masking when I add that.

Thanks. I can see that you are experienced at this. You didn't add the drop to the math though. Add about 15 inches to that.

My guy, who sold me the parts for my screen is checking into some thing for me. I am considering having him have a pocket sewed into the fabric for my metal bar that will add weight to the screen. Also, I am having him look into have the material seemed to add extra height as by the time I seam it for the pocket the fabric will be under 95 inches. I would like to be able to wrap the roller a few times as well. If I wrapped it twice my fabric would be down to 70 inches tall. Further he can have the material seamed and then cut at an angle to "tilt" the material to prevent any possible moire issues. This may be the way to go and in this case worth the extra cost. I will not have to worry about cutting the material and trying to sew a pocket in.

Valance is a synonym for cornice. Dalite refers to these as valances. I was pretty certain I was using the correct term, http://www.answers.com/topic/cornice. My guy who sells blinds too is double checking the measurement and advising.

I do not want to be limited to 30 seconds. My motor has is a 770 foot pound motor so would use it for other applications in the future. My experience with the Dalite stuff is that it is of high quality. Also if I add masking which I intend, I will need two motor controls operating with different IR codes so I can retract them independently. I have asked Dalite repeatedly via telephone if I could do this with their remotes but could not get a definite answer. I will use the Saaria control for my masking. Perhaps you can call Dalite and debate whether valance is a synonym for cornice. Part of the instructions for mount their screen include the use of #6 brackets for mounting behind what they are calling a valance.

Stikes me as odd that with all of your experience your screen has waves. What gives? Surely you know how to eliminate them? That is just what keeps crossing my mind.

No. My objective is not to save money. That's what I've been saying all alone but you are not "hearing" me. The cheaper electronics have those tiny little wires and are fragile. I just got my Da-lite control in. The wires are sturdy. The connection to the IR sensor is a thick as a telephone cord. In fact that's what it looks like. Again , I already have a "cheap" DIY screen with flimsy connections that I broke when I just bumped into it, weak motor and waves. That is not what I am trying to do here. This screen is for my personal use. Few guys asked me via PM to post my screen as I go along. I do not intend to have the as the "official" electric screen thread. All this is to show and tell how I did it. I'm sure there will be ways for others to do it cheaper. Tiddler had done a fine job with making a cheaper screen. The tips on measuring how much fabric I need for the roller is really the only thing you have done to help. The rest has not helped as I am just keep spending time telling you that I am not trying make a cheap screen.

Here's the motor control. Wiring is very simple. I bought a power cord from Home Depot. The cord is a standard three wire cord, with green, black and white wires. These match up exactly with the wires coming out of the control. The wires that go to the screen also match it exactly. That's another reason that I chose to buy the Dalite stuff as it usually matches U.S. wiring schemes and you do not have to try to figure out what color wire should go wire. You just match color to color. Took about 10 min to wire power cord to control and control to motor. Batteries already in the controller. I now have remote control of the screen in less than 10 min set-up.

These are the wires out of the control for the motor. They match wires to motor exactly. The last picture is of the wires from the control connected to the power cord.

Maybe I should just not include this picture as it of poor quality. At any rate, it's the IR sensory. It just has a cable that looks like a standard telephone extentsion line that plugs into it and into the center of the control. Wiring all this is very simple. Da-lite even has a 1-800 number on the control for assistance. The cable dangling from the table is the cable use to connect it.

I have decided to go with SMX720 because Sandman is just more flexible with his material. 98 inch tall which is the max height for SW4500 does not really work for me because I would really like to wrap the roller with more material. By the time I have the pocket sewn in for the metal rod to weight the screen, I'll have 94.5 inches of height left. To wrap the roller twice will then eat up another 25 inches of material and only leave me with 69.5 inches of material and I need about 80 to extend down to 28 inches off the floor in my room with 9 foot ceilings. If your room has 8 foot ceilings the 98 inch material should work. Fortunately, Sandman has come to the rescue with material that is 126 inches tall. The means that I can do a screen that is 124 wide and have plenty of material to put a lot of wraps on my roller to make the material stay on the roller. My other source is reluctant to seam the SW4500 because of the thinness of the material. Sandman is set-up to seam the material, his is just as thin too, and has the material that does not need to be seamed in 126 widths. The SW4500 does not come in widths greater than 98 so that alone tell you that the materials are not the same. The MAJOR reason that I am building my own screen is because I can update the material that I am using for the screen material easily if I built it myself. Sandman is continually working on this stuff. Perhaps at some future point, he will have even newer materials for me to try. That's why I am happy to support him.