Home made projector!

[Chernobyl]

Chaz I got powerstrip working after installing it again and well, how to perfect a project
It works brilliantly.

I found the same settings in the NVidia drivers, but they are a bind to set up (they change values by themselves, give errors and dont let you get back to where you were!). They are no way as easy to adjust as using powerstrip.
Everything is now on the screen and you wouldnt know its not the default size.
Powerstrip rules.

[Chaz]

Nice, I'm glad it worked. I has a pair of the edimensional stereo glasses, but I sent them back for a refund, because I was disappointed. The 3d-ness was nice, but FPS's were impossible to use with it (no crosshair, haha) your framerate roughly halved in every game, and having to use the special stereo drivers caused all sorts of graphical errors for me. Maybe I should have kept them just to see what they would have looked like with a big screen. I was very short on cash back then.

[MiccyNarc]

Here's a picture of the damage. Sorry for the large size.

[MiccyNarc]

I think I'm going to give up on my monitor. *slaps self for stupidity*
It was a lesson learned and learned well. A mistake I'll never make again, I guarantee it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824024509

I'm looking at this now. Fairly good price for a great spec LCD. The only question now is dissassembly.

[Chernobyl]

The screen may be good to go, heres a bit of translated text from googles cache from this page
http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:O...518A+ohp&hl=en

Loud diy audio.com the "Polyview PT-518A" should be identically constructed to the CMV 1515. Greeting

The CMV 1515 is know to be good for fitting to an OHP.
You may also get one of these cheaper?

[Chaz]

I think I've discovered what's causing me to get the blur/smudge issue. I took the fresnel lense out to clean it, and noticed that it was very disfigured. See images. In image 2, the lower piece of glass is the glass on the top of the OHP, which is completely flat, in order to show a comparison.

I thought the idea of a fresnel lesne is that light can be directed without curvature, which causes distortion. Am I right? Should I try and flatten my lense?

Miccy, you could try and put the monitor back together and sell it as faulty on ebay, say you dont know a thing about computers and that maybe the monitor cable is loose and you darent fiddle with it! Might get you a bit of a refund.

[Chernobyl]

Originally Posted by Chaz

Nice, I'm glad it worked. I has a pair of the edimensional stereo glasses, but I sent them back for a refund, because I was disappointed. The 3d-ness was nice, but FPS's were impossible to use with it (no crosshair, haha) your framerate roughly halved in every game, and having to use the special stereo drivers caused all sorts of graphical errors for me. Maybe I should have kept them just to see what they would have looked like with a big screen. I was very short on cash back then.

The glasses are fully supported by NVidias own 3D driver!
I must say I have been quite blown away with how good they are now. Eye fatigue is really low and the stereo effect is quite something. This was tested on my iiyama CRT monitor.
Theres a performance penalty, up to 50% but it is something to behold.
Nvidia have also added a nice util to put a crosshair in games as well!

I'll let you know if they work when I find all the bits from the kit
I'm not sure if the LCD support is built into the NVidia drivers, theres no mention of it anywhere on Edimensionals site except to say the glasses now work with LCDs.

The 3D driver is for Forceware version 71.89, I hope they bring out a newer version, we're due one.
I tested to see if the twin stereo image becomes active on 3D apps and it does. Gotta get the glasses going now
Cant wait

[Chaz]

Sure it is impressive, my jaw dropped when I first loaded that demo and the spinning nvidia logo came out of the screen. But in games, its nowhere near as good. Things rarely actually come out of the screen, instead you just get a very nice sense of depth. It was like everything was spread out as it should be, all the way to the back of my monitor.

But again, in games, the HUD never worked properly. In games like UT2004 and Freelancer, when the HUD is very important, you need to 'unlock' your eyes in order to read the HUD info, and then 'recross' them to get back to the stereo. Very offputting.

Do you actually always use them for games? I never did, I would have them on for ten minutes, and then just take them off. Possibly my eyes just werent used to it, but my eyes did feel uncomfortable with them on. I've never had any problems with my eyes (dont wear glasses, and an optician tells me I dont need to), but I dunno. Maybe I'll hazard them again some time.

[Chernobyl]

Originally Posted by Chaz

I think I've discovered what's causing me to get the blur/smudge issue. I took the fresnel lense out to clean it, and noticed that it was very disfigured. See images. In image 2, the lower piece of glass is the glass on the top of the OHP, which is completely flat, in order to show a comparison.

I thought the idea of a fresnel lesne is that light can be directed without curvature, which causes distortion. Am I right? Should I try and flatten my lense?

Miccy, you could try and put the monitor back together and sell it as faulty on ebay, say you dont know a thing about computers and that maybe the monitor cable is loose and you darent fiddle with it! Might get you a bit of a refund.

I will be surprised if it can cause a smudging effect (its difficult to know without seeing tho) as the focus is controlled purely by the lense above the LCD.
If you use the projector without the Fresnel in place, does the smudging go?
Try rotating the lense 180 degrees so the bend is at the other side of the screen. Does the smudge stay in place or goto the other side of the screen?

I've read about a few people curving their fresnel lenses at the edges to get more light in the direction of the LCD at the edges of the screen. It does apparently work.
Maybe yours was fitted upside down?

[Chernobyl]

Originally Posted by Chaz

Sure it is impressive, my jaw dropped when I first loaded that demo and the spinning nvidia logo came out of the screen. But in games, its nowhere near as good. Things rarely actually come out of the screen, instead you just get a very nice sense of depth. It was like everything was spread out as it should be, all the way to the back of my monitor.

But again, in games, the HUD never worked properly. In games like UT2004 and Freelancer, when the HUD is very important, you need to 'unlock' your eyes in order to read the HUD info, and then 'recross' them to get back to the stereo. Very offputting.

Do you actually always use them for games? I never did, I would have them on for ten minutes, and then just take them off. Possibly my eyes just werent used to it, but my eyes did feel uncomfortable with them on. I've never had any problems with my eyes (dont wear glasses, and an optician tells me I dont need to), but I dunno. Maybe I'll hazard them again some time.

Yes the stereo effect was 90% into the screen, I think the games would need writing with 3D glasses in mind to come out of the screen more. When the image comes out of the screen, it does add a little eyestrain, so perhaps thats why they dont do it?
Some games did have issues with where to place the HUD in the stereo field. I suspect the game writers cheated a little with the 3D coding
Newer games were really good!

There is now an adjustment for vertical positioning as well as horizontal, this makes all the difference as when it is not set up well, it feels just like it used to with my old H3D stereo set from Voodoo2 days! (those glasses work with the EDimensional kit as well, the lenses are smaller and ultimately not as nice)
There is no feeling uncomfortable with using the glasses now, NVidias drivers allow you to configure to exactly your own comfort level.

I did play games with them a fair bit but ultimately stopped using them as the batteries ran out and they arent cheap. I should have got the wired version.
I've now fitted mains power to a pair so am raring to go once I find my Infra red transmitter.

I had best try them and give an appraisal after I've turned my house upside down!

[Chaz]

Well it wasnt that long ago, a lot of the things you're describing were around when I had them. I had the wired version. I did play with the stereo-ness setting. But anyway, the main reason I sent them back was the huge hit on performance. I only had an MX440 at the time (oh god) so while using them I was getting framerates around about 15 to 20.

[MiccyNarc]

what would you all recommend for temp monitoring and cooling? So far I don't have a cooler so it would be useful. By the way my replacement monitor should be here today.

[MiccyNarc]

okay I just used a kitchen thermometer and the temp seems to hold steady at 123, not good. Gotta fix this.

[Chernobyl]

Originally Posted by MiccyNarc

what would you all recommend for temp monitoring and cooling? So far I don't have a cooler so it would be useful. By the way my replacement monitor should be here today.

I use these
http://www.componentsuk.co.uk/catalo...2d15a2da9a7e5c
You may as well get more than one they are so cheap

[MiccyNarc]

Hmm looks good
Would a fan like this:
http://www.business-supply.com/offic...ip-on-fan.html
work if I found a good way of mounting it?

[Chernobyl]

lol no sadly, I have one of those. They are quite noisy.

The cheapest and simplest solution is an 80mm fan or two plugged into a 5 to 12V mains adapter.

[Aedan]

Originally Posted by Chernobyl

The 3D driver is for Forceware version 71.89, I hope they bring out a newer version, we're due one.
I tested to see if the twin stereo image becomes active on 3D apps and it does. Gotta get the glasses going now
Cant wait

Two graphics cards can solve the slowdown The Quadro cards support a 3D mode whereby they throw one image out of one video connector, and the other image out of the other. That way you can use two projectors with polarisers to project a stereo image. Yes, you need glasses, but only with polarised lens.

The original Elsa drivers were WAY better than the nVidia ones. However, you do learn quickly which programmers knew what depth to put things at. Some games are much better, as the programmers used good 3D techniques. Others used very little depth, so there's not much 3D effect.

Don't hold your breath with a LCD screen - they're usually a bit on the slow side for 3D glasses to operate.

[MiccyNarc]

lol no sadly, I have one of those. They are quite noisy.

I don't really care about noise. My computer is a beast anyway.
Will it not cool it?

[Chernobyl]

yes

[Chernobyl]

Originally Posted by Áedán

Two graphics cards can solve the slowdown The Quadro cards support a 3D mode whereby they throw one image out of one video connector, and the other image out of the other. That way you can use two projectors with polarisers to project a stereo image. Yes, you need glasses, but only with polarised lens.

The original Elsa drivers were WAY better than the nVidia ones. However, you do learn quickly which programmers knew what depth to put things at. Some games are much better, as the programmers used good 3D techniques. Others used very little depth, so there's not much 3D effect.

Don't hold your breath with a LCD screen - they're usually a bit on the slow side for 3D glasses to operate.

Cheers Aedan, I spotted that Nvidias drivers do indeed support 2 independant outputs for stereo now. The polarised glasses solution is very nice for the user as the glasses only break if you sit on them (no electronics), they are very light and cheap and can be big!

I found the infra red sender unit for my glasses and gave them a go. There is a minor 3D effect, they dont really work.
Edimensional (the maker of the glasses) replied to an email saying the "new" wireless glasses now work with LCDs. Looks like I need to buy one to try.
Firstly I am contacting them again to see if the polarising effect of the OHP mirror will upset the 3D system. Fingers crossed it wont.