Official D&D projector table Project

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xTimx
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Official D&D projector table Project

Post by xTimx »

Sooooo as u have see in the title, our D&D group is upgrading to a projector table set up!

as we speak right now, the projector is being sent and it'll arrive tomorrow, shipped to my door. I have looked over a bunch of table plans from other people making sub-raised tables whether they were for projector surfaces or just a regular table set up.

as of right now our gaming table is pretty long and wide. we're gonna modify the table so it'll accept the projector and build a different surface.

i'll keep you guys posted with LOTS of pictures!

Stay tuned!

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Re: Official D&D projector table Project

Post by Sydious »

<---- Jealous!

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xTimx
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Re: Official D&D projector table Project

Post by xTimx »

little bit of an update here! the projector came!!! woooooooot!!

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tomorrow (weds) will be picking up the materials for the virtual white board set up. so that'll be the Wii remote and also gonna get the infrared LED with battery and housing. after that we'll be holding a meeting altogether, mock up the projector and see how much of a distance we need to do and how big of a picture we'll get with it.

STAY TUNED!

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Bone White
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Re: Official D&D projector table Project

Post by Bone White »

Take good care of the lamp, they are the most expensive part of a projector. Think the whole "razorblade" selling model. The razor itself costs as little as five blades, yet you go through one a fortnight. When you do handle the lamp, don't touch it with your bare hand - oil from your skin will draw heat towards that part of the bulb and decrease it's life. Be very careful with what you use to clean the lens also.

Projectors are only ever as good as the surface they project upon, and the angle at which they shine light upon the surface (so for a top-down projector table - perfect)

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xTimx
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Re: Official D&D projector table Project

Post by xTimx »

good Tip! thank you bone! and actually these bulbs are 15$ each shipped from china. lol

any recommendations on how to clean the lenses though??

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Azhrei
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Re: Official D&D projector table Project

Post by Azhrei »

My main recommendation: don't attempt it. It is very easy to put a microscratch on the surface. You won't see it on the lens but you'll see it on the projected image. Ever see those little pieces of lint that get in front of a movie projector? Same idea.

If you feel you must, use a scratch-free cloth. The kind you buy for reading glasses would be a good choice. I have had my projector for 5+ years now and never cleaned the lens. Yet you can't tell by looking at the image. :) I keep the lens cap on whenever it's not in use. I believe the primary advantage of doing so is to prevention convection from bring dust into the machine as it cools off. I've heard stories that compressed air is either good or bad, depending on who you talk to. Some say it can blast sand and dust into the lens and scratch it, others say that it eliminates the need to physically touch the glass. :?

Be sure to clean the air filter on your projector if it has one. Mine is older and it has one.

Try not to bump it or jar it while it's on or off. Think of a quick bump like dropping it on the ground -- only it's lateral. It can mess up the filament in the bulb (you'd need to replace it) and depending on the technology it can mess up the optics. My unit is a DLP (best I could get for the price at the time) and they are the most susceptible to sudden movement.

The area around the projector will get warm so keep it ventilated. When you turn off the unit, the surrounding area will cool and that may cause condensation if you live in a high humidity area (I live in Tampa!). So I never built any kind of box enclosure as I felt keeping it open as much as possible was important. (The house A/C should prevent most condensation anyway, but after spending my money I wasn't taking chances. :))

Edit: Oh, and definitely true about the projection surface. Projecting onto a finished wall painted matte white will look slightly washed out. You should be good with your surface unless you get a lot of glare. Depending on the angle it might not be a problem...

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xTimx
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Re: Official D&D projector table Project

Post by xTimx »

Small Update!

Today i went out and bought the White board set up for the Wii mote and the infrared LED sensor set up. the only thing that i couldnt get is the battery holder and the housing to house the LED.

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xTimx
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Re: Official D&D projector table Project

Post by xTimx »

Update:

sooo today I got the coin battery housing in! I went out and bought the necessary bolts and nuts to bring the assembly together. and tonight I went ahead and soldered the IR LED wires altogether. It works! still havent tried to set it up with the Wii mote though! that'll be soon!
we ordered the panes of glass to be set into the table, our projected image will be around 32x40". we got the glass for cheap since one of the players works in a glass warehouse :D

anywho....here's some pics of the IR LED and housing.

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xTimx
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Re: Official D&D projector table Project

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UPDATE!:

so tonight we started ripping the table down the middle lengthwise and then we spread the two pieces wider to accomodate for the two panes of glass. yes we're left with a huge gap in the middle but that will be filled in tomorrow!

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we bought the glass big enough so that we can use the board as a lip and sunk in the glass deep enough so that it'll be flush
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overview shot
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blurry pic of me (right) and my game mate scott working on the routering together
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the table starting to come together slowly as we route the edges
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more pieces coming in! we'll be bracing just outside of the glass with 2x4 and around the edges of the table (underneath of course)
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the two panes of glass put in for a mock up
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another shot
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you'll have to turn ur head for this one
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here we're measuring the space needed for the fill in wood that'll be going in
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ok we then put the shower curtain in between the two panes of glass! this is what it'll look like (with out the wrinkles) when we're playing
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View from the GM's (me) side
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tomorrow will be buying more materials, building the projector stand and the stand for the mirror.
we're also gonna put 1/4" trim/moulding around the outside of the glass up top, we're also gonna buy more fabric to make the top of the table faux suede and also put a "curtain" hanging down on the inside of the table surrounding the projector and mirror to maximise the contrast projecting onto the surface.

i'll keep you guys up to date with things!


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Azhrei
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Re: Official D&D projector table Project

Post by Azhrei »

wolph42 wrote:a shower curtain... brilliant.
Agreed!

On the final layout you try getting rid of minor wrinkles using a hair dryer to slightly shrink the plastic. But don't overdo it. :)

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Re: Official D&D projector table Project

Post by Phergus »

wolph42 wrote:a shower curtain... brilliant.
I'd recommend going by a drafting supply house and see if you can get a piece of matte plotter film instead. The opacity will be better for back projection and there won't be any wrinkle issues. It is essentially a 3 or 4 mil sheet of plastic with a white matte coating on one side (sometimes both). A shop that services architectural firms may have roll ends that you could get for little or nothing.

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xTimx
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Re: Official D&D projector table Project

Post by xTimx »

Phergus wrote:
wolph42 wrote:a shower curtain... brilliant.
I'd recommend going by a drafting supply house and see if you can get a piece of matte plotter film instead. The opacity will be better for back projection and there won't be any wrinkle issues. It is essentially a 3 or 4 mil sheet of plastic with a white matte coating on one side (sometimes both). A shop that services architectural firms may have roll ends that you could get for little or nothing.

.......or.....you could get a white shower curtain from your friend for free and turn off the lights and it'll be just as effective.

when using maptools, its a pretty basic program for imaging resolution and we're not going HD (well we are but you wont see the difference).

and about the wrinkles, yes we will be fixing that later once everything is in :) today we'll be getting more materials

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xTimx
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Re: Official D&D projector table Project

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UPDATE:

got some more done little by little. tonight i wish i could of gotten more done but my back was giving out on me :( (bring on the flames ya ya)

anyways...the projector mounting system, i used a previous project stand i had to mount the projector. the projector is mounted onto a plate then mounted onto the stand with one bolt screwed into a tee nut along with a couple of other plates.
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the mounting rig has "slits" into the board so u can raise and lower and tilt the projector all u want, here is a pic of the projector at its highest setting, tilted, then I chopped a piece of 1/4" board in half to make "memory locks" with bolts to lock the angle of the board in place. this way when i want to detach the projector from the rig to bring it upstairs, i can then put it back to its memory setting with ease.
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now onto the table. we got 12" board and filled the middle of the table.....NATURALLY when we ripped the table down the middle....WITH OUT a frakking guide fence.....the cut was all wonky and not straight at all! (wasnt my doing i swear) so then we tried to get it as close as we can and then routered the edges to fit the glass like the other pieces of boards.
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see what i mean?
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Sooooooooo tomorrow evening will be the deadline for completion. all we have to do is make up the mirror holder, finish the bottom of the projector stand to make it more steady. squeeze the table together and brace it better and then put the fabric ontop and then set up everything for monday evening's FIRST DIGITAL D&D game!
I make all my D&D sessions live and i broadcast them on a website!
if you want the website to my channel to watch the broadcast on monday evening, i'd be happy to give it out to you all! please let me know!

MORE PICS TO COME! STAY TUNED!

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xTimx
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Re: Official D&D projector table Project

Post by xTimx »

UPDATE

sooo last night we were Ssoooooooooooooo close to getting it done except we ran into a few snags while doing a dry run of the projector.

we started on the table by making it more stronger and stable since the pieces we ripped and cut in half were hanging over the edge of the table more so than last time we had it.
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here's a pic of the mirror set up we came up with. its a pretty big mirror 20x40
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i finished the projector mounting system by putting 3 2x4s under the base to keep the projector from flipping on its side
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so we got the mirror set up sorta and we did a dry run of the projector image and to see how big it was going to be and to see if it was all wonky or what ever lol
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so once we kinda figured out that we needed to brace the mirror in a different sort of way. we went ahead and started to cover the top of the table with suede
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all nicely covered up :)
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then i cut the hole in a the middle in an X cut pattern
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yes this is me fooling around :P
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with the glass in, and what i did is i tucked the cut flaps to the inside and stapled them
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and you got yourself a nice covered table with the glass in
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here's a look with the two panes of glass in (its kinda protruding above the table but thats alright and two gamers sitting at the table to simulate the look of it
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TODAY is the day! IT HAS TO BE FINISHED! lol tonight we'll be playing a session on MTs we're going to be broadcasting it live! at 6pm central time.

if anyone wants to watch the session the link to my website its:

www.justin.tv/xtimmyx

HAPPY GAMING EVERYONE!

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