DIY solutions for a Lens mount

http://www.firgelliauto.com/product_...products_id=99

A Tubular Actuator. This is actually the cheapest solution I've found for a adjustable lens mount. It even has remote control activation. The 0.7" pers sec speed is acceptable, the 30" stroke is debatable but not a big deal. This sure beats the 2.5k panamorph slide option if cash isn't an easy commodity.

Many people have used drawer slides for their homemade sleds.

Laters,
Jeff

Ours is made of two 18" ball bearing type drawer glides mounted side by side with the UH380 hanging from it. works extremely well.

Exact same thing i did to mount my ISCOIII. Had it up there for about 8 months now with no sign of stress on the slides.

Screwed both drawer slides into a 2x4 and put a pipe mount on the other side.

So home made i didnt even paint it

Here are some pictures of my brothers drawer slide mount. It works well like everone has indicated.

Where can you buy a lens mount? For the DIY

You can buy one from the various companies that make the lenses such as Panamorph and Prismasonic etc. but they are obscenely expensive, that is why we make our own

McCall, have you got other photos of your CIH set up? Have you emailed the photos to Alan?

Mark

I do have other photos on photobucket that I am going to post in my Mickelodeon Theater thread once I finally get it DONE. which I hope will be soon, been a year now. Then I will also send them to Alan for the CIH set up area.

Cool, can I have a link?

Mark

McCall,

I took a look tonight at your system photos and have to say that your cinema is looking very good.

I love the cinema seating - a very nice touch.

Is the lighting on your screen front or rear light?

Mark

The lights are three cans in front of the screen in the Procenium ceiling. I am still working one the final decorative touches of the theater now, also still have a lot of work in the concession/equipment/DVD storage areas and the LONG hall leading to the theater building. But the main theater room itself will be done soon I HOPE a year is a long time especially when my husband was working on it more or less full time for a few months in the beginning after being laid off. since his new job he has spent most every weekend working on this thing. and as much as we love the theater, it is taking a huge toll on us both.

Yes, it becomes an obsession...

Mark

Randy ,

Did you use the supplied wood screws that came with the drawer slides or something else ?

I'd like to bolt the slide onto my upper wood PJ support and I'm wondering what kind of hardware people are using . There isn't a lot of space between the slides so something with a very flat head is most likely .

I'll post a pic when I'm done .

Scott...............

I used Igus Drylin N linear rails and carriages for my lens mount.
Not the cheapest solution but they work very well. The only issue is the VERY tight tolerances needed to get them to slide freely. A little bit out of square and they bind up. I have 300mm rails that allow me to slide the lens back and forth, and 600mm rails that the lens carriage is mounted to for the left-right movement. I can also rotate my lens and adjust it's "pitch" and "roll".
I also found some ball bearing slides used in rack mount PC cases that look like they would have worked as well for a whole lot less money.

Check the link in my sig for some pictures of my lens (an Aussiemorphic based lens) and the mounting arrangement I devised.
Regards,
Michael.

My DIY turned into a product (CineSlide). I respectfully disagree with McCall, I don't think it's obscenely priced. But if you want a cheap lens slide, you can do better than drawer slides fairly inexpensively. Watch ebay for some used "linear bearings". New they cost a fortune (Obscene in McCalls book ), but people sell them typically out of parted out industrial robotics. Used ones on ebay can be had cheap. THK is a good brand. You typically won't need more than 12" of travel. 2 "trucks" are good for the DIY'er.

As mentioned previously, Igus makes a wide variety of linear bearings. Theirs are plastic bearing based and also pricey as mentioned unless you have direct accounts. I tried several of their linear bearings in the original CineSlide (1) prototypes but chose not to incorporate them due to some performance issues I ran into. They tended to bind some in my testing with long term testing. So I used ball bearing linear bearings (the obscene ones ). But for a manual slide Igus should work fine, properly installed. Another popular lens transport uses an Igus W linear bearing rail in their slide, so they appear to be working for someone. I considered selling a "maunal" slide based on the Igus linear bearings, targeted more at the DIY'er, and may in the future, but right now I have my hands full with the CineSlide.

Edit: Didn't meant to poo-poo drawer slides. I'm sure there are high end drawer slides than can work, but most arent' designed to run in a horizontal (flat) config. like a linear bearing.

Cheers, Scott

GetGray (Scott),

I just took a look at the video Art attached in the other thread - NICE WORK

Mark

Thanks Mark! Further in that thread Art posted a still photo. The flash was a little hot so it made the CineSlide look a little color washed out, but in real life it's very black; anodized just like the lens. You can see the jet-black IscoIII is washed out in the photo, too. I kidded Art about the video though. He has the CineSlide upside down on the floor and unlevel and is activating one of the 2 12V triggers by hand, with bare wires . Broke every rule in my manual about not playing with it till it's mounted. I would have done the same thing I expect .

The CineSlide snowballed into so much more than I ever would have done for my own DIY thing. With the (2) 12V triggers and RS32 inputs on the CineSlide II, I had to do a lot of extra electronics work and a good deal more microprocessor programming, but I'm tickled with the end result. If it had stayed a DIY, I might have used the Igus bearings and forgone many of the "perks", but for reliability reasons I just couldn't with something I was going to sell. Glad I did it all now that the R&D is behind me.

For selling vs. DIY I can say definitively that FCC compliance testing was painful ($$$ ). Now there's some obscene pricing for you! That's one thing you don't always have to worry about if you are a DIYer (only making one for yourself), but if you are gonna sell, or even if you are giving them away to all your friends, it becomes a whole 'nother ballgame with electromagnetic interference compliance testing required (FCC, CE, AU's C-tick, etc.) . Fines will bankrupt you without the certs. Even though I passed without incident, I had to pay the $$$ to test and prove it .

Best, Scott

WOW thanks for the heads up. That is the CE logo you see on virtually all electrical equipment, correct? I was looking into an actuator for the Aussiemorphic Lens' sled, but that is one reason not to pursue it for now...back to the manual design for a while I think

Mark

Yep, that's it. And CE is even worse than FCC. In Austrailia they require a "C-tick" mark, which is different from CE. Canada has another mark that is required, although their test requirements are the same as the FCC. I *think* C-tick is the same as FCC (radiated emmisions and conducted emissions only) except at 220V vs. 120 for FCC. CE total tests costs $8k to $10k. And that's if you pass. If you don't, it's back to drawing board, then back for another test. If you are selling a million, then the testing can be absorbed, for low volume specialty stuff it bites big time! But alas, if you skip it, the FCC can levy charges of $10,000/day/device for operation out of compliance

Ouch! 10 grand per day?

Mark

That's what I understood from several sources. As much as I'd like to have skipped the testing, it was way to risky not to do it. Apparently, they are quite serious and unforgiving about their radio space protection. Several of the labs said CE was worse about compliance and enforcement. Of couse the test labs would lead you to believe the worst, but in the unlikely event that 90% of what they said was wrong, it was still too much to risk.

Kinda stinks really, hard on the "little guy". But I guess if my neighbor had some thing-a-ma-gig that hosed my HDTV every time he turned it on, I'd be royally ticked. And we don't want any planes falling from the sky when they fly over one's house ala "Lost" .

Good news for DIY (to keep on topic a little ) is that at least with the FCC, the gist of the Part 15 rules say it's OK to make an electroinc device ("unintentional radiator") yourself as long as you don't sell it, it's for your own use, and you don't make more than 5. And of course it doesn't interfere with anyone else. One can't even sell a "kit" that someone else could use to make a non-compliant device. They've got all the bases covered and loopholes closed tight. I don't know the EMI rules that apply to DIYers with CE or C-Tick.

Cheers, Scott

Hi Scott,

Question. Aren't units like the actuator discussed in this thread already tested? From my end, I would simply be mounting the kit to a board. Maybe I am missing the point...

Mark

Well, the rules vary some by the certifying organization. Mostly they are additive. The FCC for US markets seems the most lienient. Basically if you assemble electronic parts to make something else, then it likely has to be tested (depending on technical details of the device).
They only require a radiated emmissions and conducted emmissions test. Other orgs are much more aggressive. You'd have to read the C-tick rules for their nitty gritty details. Import issues come into play here and for EU countries, CE is the cert. and is a whole different, more aggressive animal. In addition to the tests above you have to do electrostatic discharge suseptability testing, safety testing (like the USA's UL, which isn't a requirement over here), and more. If it is an off-the-shelf unmodified electronic part, then it should be OK. (CE still would still require the safety part of the test if it's an assembled product.) For electronic items, if you add anything that can become an antenna it has to be retested. And the higher the frequency the more problematic because the antennas get shorter and the EMI is harder to contain.

Best example I have is the CineSlide uses a power supply that has every certification in the world. But because I use it in conjunction with something else electronic that can produce a frequency over 9kHz, it has to be retested and certified. Sucks. It depends on what you are assembling. I'm no expert, but I know way more about it than I ever wanted to, now that I've had to go through it.

Thank you for the detailed explanation, I appreciate it. Looks like I have some serious home work ahead...

Mark

I'm building a motorized sled and I'm kinda stuck on how to trigger the actuator remotely. Any Ideas?

I would love to use my Harmony 1000 but i have an 890 also.

thanks in advance

As opposed to those who are discussing motorized sleds, etc., my situation is a bit more mundane and low tech.

As others may have seen in my other posts, I am doing CIH a little unconventionally, by combining a 4x3 projector with a Panamorph VC lens AND a DIY HE lens. With the stretch provided by my projector, I can get a very nice 2.35:1 image.

However, trying to incorporate it into our living room is another matter. My projector hangs from the ceiling. In front of it hangs the Panamorph, and then in front of that would have hung the DIY enclosure. However, WAF is a constant issue regarding these things, and it has been requested that I do one of two things:

1. Get the projector to slide from the side of the projector (back against the wall) out in front of the Panamorph, which would require some kind of L-shaped or curved track; or

b. Develop a system whereby the DIY HE lens is removable, since I will only need to put it up if we are settling in for a nice long scope movie.

Any thoughts?

Other issues I am facing. The housing has to have some kind of ability to move backward as well to sit directly in front of, and pretty much be placed in contact with the front face of the Panamorph (this would be to eliminate vignetting issues). I was thinking of having the housing hang from two rotatable "legs" off a main board, whereby the housing itself could then swing backwards to abut the Panamorph, like so:

Can't get much more simple than this:



It's a center under mount slide, a dowel, and a 1x4.

Here is one that is installed inside a hushbox...




Hushbox View: