2 Place Collimated Display

[fsaviator]

Looking great, John. I'll tell you, I can't wait to get back to the Springs and come over to fly that beast! You know I'll be looking to build the next one if this works out.

Warren

[castle]

Looking great, John. I'll tell you, I can't wait to get back to the Springs and come over to fly that beast! You know I'll be looking to build the next one if this works out.

Warren

"if this works out" WHAT? No faith. With such great guys like Gene and Wayne providing support, advice, and encouragement how can I fail.

Check out the YouTube video at

http://youtu.be/UxbusKPiYkc

Impossible to get all the mirror in a single view. The room is only 22x17x11 feet and can't get back far enough and shooting through the window won't work either; besides it is 4 degrees F and snowing outside.

The mirror is not perfect, a few goofs attaching the mylar, but good enough for a leak check and tuning of the pump controller as well as throwing up an image for adjusting the warping software.

Started on the projection screen this afternoon.

If you have the occasion for a TDY stateside to the Springs, give a call and come over.

JW

[castle]

The projection screen ribs are installed.

[castle]

It has been one long day. Started before the sun came up; out here that is 7:15 and finished after the sun had set. Still need to add a top coat of EkoBond ( the green areas ) to permanently seal the fabric to the frame. And then apply a hot iron at 275-300F to shrink the Ceconite and draw it tight.

Then we'll apply two or three layers of spackling and then sand. And finally a layer of projection screen paint or may be just plain white. You might notice the mylar has been removed. Going to spend some time with the warping software and setting up the projectors. Once that's done we'll reskin and reassenble the 737 cabin; hopefully by the end of January we can start flying.

Cheers
JW

[fsaviator]

Hope you had a great Christmas, Jack! The project is looking great! I am trying to get back there for a couple of days in February. I'll try to peel some time away to swing by.

[castle]

Hope you had a great Christmas, Jack! The project is looking great! I am trying to get back there for a couple of days in February. I'll try to peel some time away to swing by.

That would be great, Warren. If you decide to build one, you will appreciate the size and space required to house it. The woodshop over on 31st street off of 24 have saved the CNC program so that would save a few dollars on setup costs. They did a fine job and the price was very reasonable. Learned a few things along the way and will be happy to share them with you.

JW

[castle]

Time for a project update.

First, January was a lousy month. Came down with a nasty cold that lasted over two weeks and nothing got down. And second, had a bunch of "honey-do's" that needed attention and that left the last few days until the end of the month. Trying to catch up...

The projection screen is not done, the bad news but as the pics show it is just a few more days. The Ceconite fabric is a wonderful piece of technology, around 7 to 11 dollars per yard, work with a water based glue, and is heat shrinkable.

Here are a few pics --- a finished center section with a primer coat of paint, a right side with Ceconite ready for painting, and a left side waiting for fitting, gluing, and heat shrinking of the fabric. Maybe by the end of this month, we'll have a draw down with a full wrap around visual image on display.

Cheers
JW

[JTRACKER]

That's an amazing piece of work! I can hardly wait for the follow-up.

[fsaviator]

I'm in the Springs and looking forward to seeing this. It will be a few years before I am able to build mine but I can see the effort involved

[castle]

Here are a few more pics.

ATM working with equipment I have on hand --- three different projectors and nVidia graphics boards and edge blending is turned off. Not going to spend a lot of time and effort tuning and tweaking and aligning, although might spend a little time refining the warping software to make it more flexible and user friendly. At sometime in the near future, budget permitting, hope to upgrade to HD home theater projectors and high end graphics.

For the math geeks here is a pic of the warp mesh generated by the software. All you have to do is define a point for the projector position, a plane specifying the image size, location, and orientation, and a surface for the projection screen. Then draw a ray (line) from the projector to the image plane and calculate where intersects the screen surface. Go to Paul Bourke's website for the nitty-gritty details,

Need to get on with the task of reskinning the mylar and setting the PID value for the mirror controller. These will be different than the values Gene and Wayne used for their smaller mirror.

Cheers
JW