And So It Begins.... - Page 2

great tip hlopez. i just happen to have that listed on things to discuss with my contractor this coming week. i think they may get the electrical started next week too.

you gotta love the suburbs and the cookie cutter homes! actually, i really like our home and we live in a relatively smaller subdivision of 50 homes by the same builder.

later.

did some wiring today and it was very exciting. seriously, i had no idea i would take such pleasure in running a couple runs of Cat5e and setting up a 110 punch down block.

later.

i picked up some 25' length HDMI cablies from monoprice. however, doing some measuring (yes i should have done that first!) it looks like i could get away with 15' length cables and 20' would do for sure.

the question is, do i ship back the 25 footers and get the shorter distance? i like a nice clean look and dont want a bunch of extra cable length filling up my equipment closet.

could i just bundle up the extra feet not needed and tie off with a cable tie? at 25' i for sure have an extra 5' not needed. returning online purchases can be a hassle .

what do you think?

later.

that is my first obsession, 06 giant tcr c2. i love riding it.

yep, its my avatar.



i plan to have an inwall rack. it will be located in the outside wall of the closet under the stairs. it will face out towards the HT and behind the main seating. this way i can access the back of the equipment via the closet.

later.

the two soffits have been framed out. they are as small as my guy could get them, which is 31" into the room . i decided to have them angle it into the corner at the front wall. kind of draws interest to the screen wall. there will be no soffit across the front wall as my darn ceilings just aint tall enough.





equipment rack.



rear wall. there will be two poster boxes with a DVD shelf in between.





framing should be wrapped up very soon. then electric time! later.

i still have cable length on my mind. why are we guys always worried about length?

seriously, i have 25' HDMI cables, but measuring shows i only need 15'. do i go through the hassel of returning the longer ones to Monoprice and repurchase?

i know it's silly, digitial is digital, but i just need to hear it from you all, the experts.

later.

electric work is under way. i am running across an issue with the two can lights i want to put in the HT behind the main seating (a sofa), but above the second seating (a 6 foot bar). the issue is with them placed above the secondary seating they are in the area where i want to mount the PJ.

the side wall soffits come out 31" each. the ligths are placed between the soffit obviously. this leaves only 27" in between the lights. can i mount a PJ that close to two can lights? if the lights get moved then they likely will not be directly over the bar seating, but behind.

i may outline the seating and post a pic later. any thoughts?

after much staring and measuring i had them take down the two can lights mentioned above. in order to place them above the rear seating area they would be mounted in the area of the PJ with limited room between them. so down they came.

i hope the 5 sconces will produce enough light for the limited times we want more light in the room. like the superbowl and so on, because who watches the superbowl in the dark?

this weekend i plan to run my low voltage stuff for the basement. i will have two runs of 2" conduit to the PJ. one for future proofing and the other with my 2 HDMI & 1 Component cables.

any tips for securing the speaker wire, sub coax, cable coax, and cat5? i have a wire staple gun i can use or should i pick some other type of fasteners?

later.

where's the love my HT friends?!@ .

this is the DIY part of my HT build and i dont want to mess it up. man, the pressure is on. i am off to lay out the wiring and tools for tomorrow. wish me luck. or not. later.

the projector in my future is the black pearl. the inputs for it are on the side, unlike most others. when ceiling mounted they will be on the left side. it will be flush mounted.

based on my pictures where would you place your cable and power outlets? if i mount them to the rear then they will be some 12" behind the PJ. i could run the wires over the top of the PJ and place the outlets of center and to the left of it. that might be too short with too much of a bend for the HDMI though.

i mocked up the rear locations with the smaller one being the power and the larger one being the cables.

obviously the shorter the distance the easier it will be to obtain a clean look.





much thanks.

well that took longer then i thought it would. i would say i got 75% of the basement wiring done. i plan to finish it up tomorrow. no issue yet besides the where to put the PJ wires and power outlets. anyone got any thoughts on my previous post.

later.

i think i may NOW be an official member of the AVS DIY Club. this weekend i ran 1020 feet of low voltage wires for my dedicated HT and rest of the basement.

it breaks down like this: 300' of speaker wire, 325' coax, 250' cat5e, 100' sub/rca coax, 25' romex, & 20' of raceway conduit. my neck hurts.

by far the biggest pain in my arse was the coax. very stiff and difficult to work with. next up on the pain in the arse scale was the raceway conduit. they call it flexible raceway, but it is very difficult to work with. especially when jamming it into a tight spot.

i actually pulled down the romex. i am running a powerbridge setup, but cant seem to find the best place to run the power line. i am trying to avoid running it parallel and/or next to any video and audio. i may have to hit my contractor up for suggestions.

i still have two 25' HDMI and one 25' component to run from the equipment closet to the the PJ. i am waiting on these until i get the power outlet run figured out.

equipment rack from the front, before clean up.


equipment rack from the back, after clean up


all TV, ethernet, and phone.


conduit run from rack to PJ location


conduit run along support beam from rack to front wall area.


oh yeah, looks like i am adding a plasma to the mix. so a little plasma future proofing.


when can i expect my AVS DIY official club membership welcome package to arrive?

time for bed. later.

hey there craig!

i purchased the conduit through Amazon.com, but it came from SmartHome.com. doing it this way gave me free shipping, which saved around $25 bucks.

Amazon

SmartHome

Hometech

where ever you get it from dont forget the mounting clips.

as for my ceiling height it is 7"4" unfinished. the side soffits drop down 8" even after the HVAC was reran to maximize space. running it across the front would put the screen almost to the floor. this would leave no room for my center channel.

if the budget was bigger then a false wall, stage, and AT screen with front speakers behind it would have been the way to go. at last, the budget is what is.

later.

i used 12' of the raceway from the equipment closet to the projector. once i get the power line ran to the PJ i plan to add another run of it. i will leave one open (future proofing!) and use the other for my 2 HDMI & 1 Component cables. i will use a bulk gang plate on the ceiling and just run the wires out to the PJ.



these two conduit runs end in the equipment rack and i have not decided how to finish them off. you know, make them look more professional and all.

i have a run of 25' from the equipment closet to the front screen wall. it is a straight shot down the support beam. down this run is my front speaker wires. outside the conduit, but still along the beam i fished 2 coax and 2 cat5 runs.

the remainder of the low voltage stuff was not run in any conduit. i just ran it to where i wanted it, stapled it, and mounted some low voltage gang boxes. i keep thinking maybe i should have used the smaller smurf tubing conduit, but it's all done now. i just made sure to staple the wires out of harms way.

currently everything ends in the equipment closet with no gang boxes or connecting plates. i may keep it that way. i like the idea of direct connecting the lines to eliminate the potential for any issues that a wallplate might cause.

romex is NOT up to code in Will County either. all my electrical will be ran in conduit. except for the possibility of my power to the PJ. i may cheat here as i am using the Powerbridge Solution. dont know yet.

how is your project coming?

later.

hey Pete, where is you build thread?

i have noticed a bunch of chicagoland folks on the AVS boards. very cool.

no wires in the conduit running to the PJ at this time. once i get my power ran, i will know where the best option is to run a second conduit for the HDMI and so on. in the end it will be two runs to the PJ with the one you see in the picture being left open.

i like the idea of being able to pull back the HDMI if it were to go bad, be bad, or whatever.

last night and tonight is dedicated to wrapping duct work for me. later.

funny you should ask.





what a pain to wrap HVAC ducts AFTER the soffit is done . this was thanks to a little miscommunication between me and my contractor.

no linacoustic for me. i went with John Mansville basic duct wrap that can be purchased at any Menards. its with the regular insulation in the building supplies area. it comes in a roll that is aproximate 15' long, has an R-Value of 6.7, and cost $18 per roll.

next up on my DIY list is insulating the ceiling. i am itchy just thinking about it.

later.

so i spend one day reading this and that over in the Plasma forum and BAM,



it seems my excersice nook is turning into a lobby slash snack bar area complete with plasma viewing and 5.1 sound. get this, its the wife's idea .

good times.

and good night.

today i finished off speaker wiring for the plasma, installed a second conduit run to the PJ, pulled two HDMI one componant to the PJ location, AND insulated the HT ceiling with JM's R25. my first ever workings with insulation and i am not eager to do it again. but i will, cause i still have the balance of the basement to go. .

as for my contractor he finished off the bathroom plumbing and installed my shower. his day was a lot shorter then mine. lucky dude.

later.