Just another quick update.
I made a few more adjustments to the projector frame and gantry over the last few days. The first major thing I did was move the projectors higher up. As I observed last time, in the Icarus Avenger 180,which is my inspiration for this project, the projectors are placed rather higher than mine. Mine are placed level with the top of the screen, whereas the Avengers’ were placed at least 200mm above it, maybe more. They are then angled down to direct the light towards the screen. This has the disadvantage that horizontal keystoning occurs – that is, the bottom of the projected image is wider than the top – but the degree of keystoning is small at low angles and can be corrected for quite easily. So I raised the gantry by about 200mm and then angled the projectors down to compensate. This has one immediate advantage: I no longer have to duck to walk around any more. Taller people may find their mileage varies, but I’m not moving them any higher.
The horizontal keystoning is not at all bad
Because the gantry brackets were now much higher up than they were designed to be, the gantry itself was starting to ‘lean back’ as the brackets bent a little – the attachment part is made of 18mm pine baton which is not rigid. So I purchased a couple of metal shelving brackets from B&Q and used these upside-down to brace the gantry.
Lastly, I ran some power and HDMI cabling up to the gantry. I placed a 4-way adapter socket on the gantry itself in the middle, and ran the power cables for the projectors to this. This gives me two more sockets which will come in handy when I put in place the overhead monitor that I’m intending to mount – of which more later. See, I do think ahead sometimes! I might cut down and re-make the power cables for the projectors to custom lengths to avoid having to coil them round the wood like that.
Power wired up – HDMI was added. The shelf bracket is just visible on the right
I need to clean up the build area. Then I can set up a workstation to begin the screen warping configuration. For this I will resurrect my previous Sandy Bridge gaming rig – into which I’ll place a newly-purchased GeForce GTX 980 Ti – as this is close enough in horsepower to my new rig to enable me to set up and test without losing my ability to go on simming in the other room.
I’m mostly stuck working at the weekends still, so progress is slower than over Christmas, but look forward to some warp action maybe this weekend, if not then next week at some point!
backbedroompilot.com 