Custom LED Star Ceiling - Shooting Star and more! - Page 8

WilliamsburgHT - I had done a search for poster printing software I think. I ended up just using my projector because it was easier for me, but I did end up printing a copy up on paper just to see what it would look like. I don't remember the name of the program though.

I finished running the fiber, mounting the hardware, and got the ceiling into place last night. The ceiling is only on temporary mounts, but I just had to get it setup to see what it would look like

Some sample pictures, many more in the thread in my signature.

naevity, hoping to see pics with the fibers trimmed. It's looking good.

Hi,
he used our SCD fibers, 0.5mm and 0.75mm and some 1mm.
The glow, results from the shutter time of the camera what captures that light what gets lost in the fiber. Thats why we try to keep our fiber runs under 10 ft.
So the light lost is not so big, and u need not so much light power.


WilliamsburgHT:
have u googled for poster software, and found non?
here is a link http://www.postersw.com/download.html
Or just google "free poster printing software"


Best regards
StarDesigner

StarDesigner,

Did you get my PM from this weekend?

Greg

yes i did, and i just read it.
The shooting star module is good for a shooting star 48-64 inch long.
U could make it longer, but it would not look good. No each module is for one shooting star.

For the constellation stars u would need twinkle white light units. on port 3
and for the blue milky way RGBW unit on port 1-4 in a loop.

The new firmware will allow u to set the rgbw light units with one button to any preset color, and with another button to a color cycle mode.

Just send me a email with some more info on how big u plan to build,
on what type of material u have in mind to use.

Best regards
StarDesigner

Exactly what Star Designer said, because the room was so dark, my camera's shutter was open for much longer than normal. In person, only the tips glow. I'm hoping to get the painting and trimming done saturday morning.

StarDesigner,

Thanks for the info - I sent you an email to the address on your website.

Greg

Naevity, did ya get yer gosh darn fiber optic ceiling installed ? Yes, I have been watching too many westerns lately...

This stuff is amazing. I've always felt the one thing missing from my theater is a starfield when you look up. The price was much too expensive, but now there's hope!

not yet The weather was too nice and I spent the day putting some hood stripes and a light bar on my mini cooper. All I was able to do was properlly mount the ceiling.

All that I have to do is paint and trim.

Hopefully this week

Quit fiddlin' with yer vehicle and get er done...

I have this posted in my thread as well, but I'm planning on getting some painting of my star ceiling done this weekend, and I had a slight change of plans. Originally I was just going to paint the entire thing a dark blue, but I've been looking at some other options.

I found this image on google.

I would love to create an effect just like the one in the image above. Basically, I would love to have the sky ceiling look like dusk when the rope light is on, reddish clouds, reddish light, and as it dims, the coulds disappear and all you see are the stars.

I am assuming that all this requires is some fancy paint work, but no special paint or lighting, just proper colors. Would that be correct?

Has anyone done anything like this before and have any tips?

I believe that company advertises here on AVS. Their name is Numinus. They are way too expensive. I'm going to build my ceiling with stardesigners product hopefully in a month or two.

What i have used on a ceiling shortly uV light in the rim of the ceiling, and then the aerosol UV spray paint u get them in different colors, and the best thing is u don't see it with out uv light, so when u use more uv light strips and can control them individually you can let some clouds come in and some go out, and also spiral nebula's are good to make to.

Best starDesigner

I was going to use black velvet for my panel, until I considered how it would look during the day. I'm having an artist friend paint a sky and clouds mural on my panel.

I'm planing on using black velvet in a dedicated theater room. What is wrong with the look of velvet durring the day?

Nothing. My projector and screen are in my living room, so I don't want to have a black rectangle on the ceiling. A sky and clouds mural, framed to look like a skylight will work better for me.

I had a long description typed up and my browser crashed. :\\

the short version:

I was away most of the weekend, but I did manage to get some work done tonight. I clipped all the strands down to about .5", which was a huge pain in the shoulder . I then painted the sides of the ceiling and did a few test runs on the ceiling itself. It looks like with a proper brush, it won't be too difficult, just time consuming.

Here's a few pics. The first one is after the strands were clipped. you can still see some full strands because of the camera lens being open for so long, but for the most part it's a much closer representation of how it really looks. The 2nd photo is the paint testing, the paint is a midnight sky color from BEHR

No pictures until tomorrow morning, but I got the first two full coats of paint on this morning. It's looking great.

I think I am going back with the moulding idea. I also think I am going to do some clouds. The plan is to make them kinda textured. Not super textured, just enough to blend some of the imperfections. Then I an do the moulding w/ dimmable rope lighting.

I ended up buying a cheap electric paint gun from home depot this afternoon. I wish I had it this morning I had been using a super rough serface roller, which had 1" of material on it, but I was afraid of breaking the strands. Out of 496 stars, I only broke 1 of them, thankfully it was one of the 'filler' stars.

It's looking really awesome so far. I trimmed the painted ends off of a few of the stars to get a better idea what it will look like, and loved it.

The plan for tomorrow is to get the rest of the paint up there, maybe paint some clouds, but I am going to get the moulding up and painted.

naevity that is awesome! I can't wait to see some more pics. I have talked to Star Designer about my options - looks like what I want to do is a bit $$ so am looking to see if I can afford it or not. I really want to, the effect is amazing!!

Greg

The star ceiling is finished!!! (well, for now).

After much deliberation, and a few failed attempts, I'm scrapping the ropelight/moulding tray. My test runs were not very successful, there really isn't enough room for the light to spread out, and it really does highlight every single imperfection up there.

So, after putting on another coat of paint, I trimmed all of the strands flush with the ceiling, and lit it up. It looks amazing.

We had some people over today to break it in, they were very impressed.

All I have to do now is configure my Harmony remote to work with the controller unit. I did some quick setup, and I can get to the dimming and twinkle menus, I have no idea how I do it.

As always, a few pictures below, the rest in my Construction thread, linked in my signature:


Same view without the camera flash, but room lights on:



Same shot, just with the lens open a little longer, the stars look like they are really twinkling


Same photo, lit by the flash, star ceiling on:


Room lights on, no flash, ceiling on:


Last one, this is a close up of Orion's belt, with Mars:

Very nice...

Awesome job. I wasn't sure how the high star density would look, but it really turned out great.

The good new is I had 9' ceilings in my basement when my house was built. The bad news is they ran all my ductwork through my future home theater room. Luckily I was able to clear out a 4' x 8' section in the middle of my theater room to house my projector. I wanted to do something special with the ceiling in this area over my projector shelf when I stumbled across this forum. I purchased the basic 100 cable kit from the star ceiling designer - it was perfect for covering my 4' x 8' section of the ceiling.

Here are some pictures of my completed fiber optic star ceiling. I'm sorry I don't have more pictures of the construction phase, but my wife had the digital camera in her purse the day I was installing the stars into the panel


Picture 1 - Initial framing for 4'x8' panel


Picture 2 - Panel painted and attached to the ceiling


Picture 3 - Finished panel with room lights on


Picture 4 - Finished panel with room lights off and projector running

If you want to see more information on how I created the star ceiling and how I framed around the ductwork, I tried to document everything at www.hometheaterstepbystep.com.

-Jason

Hey Jason,

That's pretty cool, what is your frame made out of besides the wodden frame?

Any word from Stardesigner on the status of the new and improved versions? Also what may be in the planning stages?

Naevity-

My frame was made out of 2x2 boards. I used some small nailing plates (I don't know if that's their technical term or not) where the cross members attached to the sides of the frame. I did attach the cross beams with screws, but I wanted the nailing plates there for some added stability.

If I had more room up there I would have used some boards that were a little larger for the framing, but I wanted the ceiling as high as possible so it wouldn't interfere with my projector. Once I attached a 1/4" hardboard to the frame it was pretty sturdy. I spaced the boards in the frame so they lined up perfectly with the floor joists above so I was able to firmly attach it to the ceiling. I just hope I never have to access the led modules up there

Nice job on your star ceiling! I really like the visible constellations on there. If I could do one thing differently on mine I would have purchased some different sized fiber optic cables - I think the different sizes make it look more realistic. I did find that trimming my cables shorter made them look smaller so I was kind of able to vary the sizes, but I really like the way yours turned out.

-Jason

Very nice job musicmaniac,

I like the cloudy effect you added to the panel.

A tip if you have all the same sized fibers. If you push in the some of the fibers further into the LED module this will make those strands appear slightly dimmer. I found this out when I was adding some recycled snipped fibers.