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Thread: DMX Lumia Wheel Addition to 1W RGB Projector

  1. #1
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    Default DMX Lumia Wheel Addition to 1.5W RGB Projector

    Greg's great lumia presentation at last month's SELEM convinced me to finish a lumia upgrade to one of my Chinese projectors that's been sitting on the bench. I thought I'd share the results of this small project.

    GOAL: Get one of my analog RGB projectors a DMX controlled lumia upgrade without sacrificing its ability to do graphics and beam shows.

    APPROACH: Gut a new / cheap DMX flat mirror scanner for the controller, stepper motor and anything else that is of use out of it. Cram said items into existing RGB projector without screwing up anything else.

    PARTS:
    Meierlight 1W RGB Analog Projector I chose this projector for the upgrade because it was the only one that had the space to install the upgrade. I needed room for the DMX panel on the outside of the case, a place to mount the transformer and room to mount the motor and lumia wheel without causing a disaster if something shifted slightly.

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    StageApe Phoenix flat mirror scanner. I chose this unit primarily due to its low cost and necessary functionality. It comes with a very basic gobo wheel with 10 positions including open. All I need from the controller is the ability to stop on each gobo position reliably and slowly index via DMX and this unit does it. The DMX controller's gobo channel also includes shifting between two adjoining positions quickly and adjustable indexing speeds.

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    Glass Lumia Wheel built by Rick Poulin. There was a reference to Rick's work here on PL so I contacted him. He built the wheel to my exact specifications including leaving two open spots so I could continue to use the laser projector for beam and graphics the majority of the time. As the expert, I had him choose the glass for each of the remaining 8 positions. The result was a solid build about half an inch thick including the glass base. Based on what I learned subsequently on Greg's lumia tutorial at SELEM this year, I'm glad I had someone with glass cutting tools and expertise do this work.

    Transformer The one that came with the mirror scanner was a 6 pound behemoth. No room for that in my already tight build.

    COST:

    $115.50 + Shipping StageApe Phoenix purchased from Cheaplights.com
    $100 + Shipping Custom Lumia Wheel built by Rick Poulin (Canada)
    http://www.sniffinfo.com/page14.php?...age&category=1
    $5.95 + Shipping Transformer (10VAC 1.2A) from Jameco
    $250 Total

    IMPLEMENTATION:

    This was a quick and straightforward build. I simply took mounting parts from the scanner and modified them to the correct height of my optics deck.

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    The weight and associated torque of the lumia wheel required additional support. As I didn't have any bearings on hand, a plastic spacer mounted to the optics deck was an adequate compromise. It won't be getting many hours of active run time nor will it be spinning fast enough to cause much wear and tear, but a bit of white lithium grease was included to help increase its lifespan.

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    The DMX control panel was fairly large and the only space left on the case was the top panel, so that's where it and the transformer got mounted. As the transformer sits above the diodes, having it completely enclosed in a plastic case gives me some comfort if it were to ever come loose.

    The lumia wheel gets jerked around fairly quickly by the stepper moter when going directly to a gobo or bouncing between two gobos, so it needed to be tightened down to the shaft adequately without causing too much stress on the glass to crack it. I ended up using a rubber washer on the inside of the lumia wheel and locked it down with steel washers over washers made from foam insulation. The result is a tight enough fit to keep the lumia wheel from rotating on the shaft without putting too much stress on the glass - or so I hope. I also made sure that the default DMX position is clear glass.
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    RESULTS

    I captured the following video using the projector's normal mounted position which goes through a scrim. Between the fog and the scrim, some of the effect is lost this way, but it is still pretty cool without losing the projector's ability to do beam or graphics, as the video attempts to highlight. An even finer mesh material for the scrim may help offset the loss. Withdrawing the scrim completely allows for traditional lumia projection onto the ceiling. Of course this can also be seen with the scrim in place, albeit with some loss.



    After the first attempt at this project I noticed a few things that needed adjusting. First, the projector needed diode upgrades to allow for a brighter lumia projection. Doing some swapping of components left me with a 1.5W projector with good white balance. I also attempted to disassemble the glass lumia wheel in order to remove the silicon adhesive in beam path. Even after soaking the wheel in a variety of chemicals for a week, the silicon held firmly enough that I snapped the glass wheel when removing the lumia glass. I had another one manufactured and glued the lumia glass to the wheel only on the edges. This helped significantly.

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    Last edited by dkumpula; 02-07-2013 at 06:51. Reason: Added final results after modifications
    "Help, help, I'm being repressed!"

  2. #2
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    Very inspiring.
    I am sitting back watching all your videos now. What a great room.
    Do you have more info on it? Gear, photos etc.

    Awesome stuff.

    Cheers
    Rich

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by neutrino View Post
    Very inspiring.
    I am sitting back watching all your videos now. What a great room.
    Do you have more info on it? Gear, photos etc.

    Awesome stuff.

    Cheers
    Rich
    Many thanks for this, Rich! The 'home disco' is always a work in progress, but this video covered how it was set up almost a year ago. It is set up in the top floor of my home and surrounded on all sides by accessible roof. (That gave me a lot of flexibility to run cables without making the room look too messy.)



    Note that the RGBs are only working on DMX in this video, so expect them to look poor. Since then, I finally built my own RGB projector and added some other toys. Several other projects and upgrades are on the drawing board awaiting funds. Fun stuff!

    -David
    "Help, help, I'm being repressed!"

  4. #4
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    Very cool, one day I will get round to doing this in my own home - not sure the wife will be best pleased though.
    Thanks for the videos.

    Cheers
    Rich

  5. #5
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    Bradfo69 is offline Pending BST Forum Purchases: $47,127,283.53
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    Wow....


    Your need more than 15 characters to reply to a post so, I'll just say, "speechless". That room is insanely awsome.

    Rarely do I make it all the way through peoples posted Youtube videos but, I watched this twice... full screen on a 27" monitor....
    Last edited by Bradfo69; 09-09-2012 at 04:48.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bradfo69 View Post
    Wow....


    Your need more than 15 characters to reply to a post so, I'll just say, "speechless". That room is insanely awsome.

    Rarely do I make it all the way through peoples posted Youtube videos but, I watched this twice... full screen on a 27" monitor....
    Many thanks, Brad! It is most kind of you to say. It's a never-ending labor of love. Lasers and light is a significant $$$ and time sink that most of us are all too familiar with.

    -David
    "Help, help, I'm being repressed!"

  7. #7
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    Amazing.
    There are no words left to speak.
    my webpage
    http://stevemilani.jimdo.com
    Skype ID: stevemilani957

    my RGB analogue projectors:
    3.9 W (640/532/445) 30kpps
    2.6 W (655/532/450) 30kpps
    2.5 W (638/532/450) 30kpps
    0.7 W (test unit)(635/532/473) 18kpps

  8. #8
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    David,

    Nice room... I think you've set the bar for us here! (pardon the pun)

    I like the gobo-to-lumia DMX conversion.

    Greg
    "Information not shared, is information lost forever"

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  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Displaser View Post
    David,

    Nice room... I think you've set the bar for us here! (pardon the pun)

    I like the gobo-to-lumia DMX conversion.

    Greg
    Thanks, guys! There's always room for improvement, however, so suggestions are welcome. Better laser work to accompany the light shows is my current priority and is being implemented slowly.

    -David
    "Help, help, I'm being repressed!"

  10. #10
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    That's quite the party room you have setup there!
    that video work was awesome, I have been watching the other videos on your channel also

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