CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[rob17]

I picked up a Runco 980 with about 3100 hours on it. I was looking through the instruction manual and Curt's "Definitive CRT Projector Setup Guide" Right now I have it on a table where the manual says I should have it located, which is 170" from the screen. In Curt's guide he says to maximize the the raster size on the tube, my question is if you make the raster size as big as possible wouldn't that make the image bigger so that you would have to mount the projector closer to the screen?

Also what menu do I go under to center the raster. I think I am close but I was using the alignment one which in Curt's guide he uses after he gets the raster centered, not to center it.

many thanks,
-Rob

[Brooklyn]

Yes, the manual can be a bit conservative. However you don't want to over do it on the Nec's, it will stress the electronics too much. If you can get the raster 1/4" from the edge of the tube I'd say that would be the limit of what you want to do. Someone else maybe can double check that number?

I don't remember much of the Nec menu anymore. Also, I would make sure you lense toe-in in right for your screen size.

[CasetheCorvetteman]

About 7-10mm from the edges id say.

Foget the bull**** in the book about throw distance, set up the rasters as perfect as you can, then move the projector closer to fit in the screen.

DO NOT set the raster to suit the screen, position the unit to suit the screen instead, this should insure you get a good life from the tubes.

If you havent taken the lenses off this rig yet, take them off and see if you need to bleed the glycol, if you dont have a bubble in there, you should bleed them. This can become important, cause you could stike serious tube or chamber failure if you neglect this step. With heat, the glycol will expand in the chamber, and that can cause one of 2 failures to occur, youll either have tube face implosion, in which case you chuck it away and replace it, or you could have chamber failure, in which case you may have glycol spill throughout the set, which can potentially cause alot of serious damage to the circuitry it comes into contact with.

Better to be safe than sorry

[rob17]

Thanks Corvetteman, thats what I kinda thought about the distance but I was not too sure since the manual said different.

I took the lenses off and the glycol looks fine. No bubbles as far as I can see.

[CasetheCorvetteman]

No bubbles means you must pull the tubes out and bleed the pressure out of the chambers. No bubble means youve got no room in there for expansion. You need to relieve the pressure in the cooling chambers, then suck out some glycol so when you hold the tube with the display face pointing upwards, you have a bubble between about a 1/4 inch up to 1/2 inch round.

[rob17]

Im back at school now so I will hopefully be home this up coming weekend to play with it some more.

Last night I learned the menu pretty well. I learned that the amplitude adjusts the size of the raster and the linear adjusts the raster position. Originally I thought that the raster and image was two different adjustments. I had it roughly set up last night and I must say I was surprised with the picture even though it was just mechanically aligned with the toe in.

I moved the projector up quite a bit so that the width is almost right. I will take the lenses off just to make sure that there is 1/4" gap between the raster and the tube. So if I mount the projector where I have it now should I adjust the screen so that there is a 12 degree angle from the projector to the center of the screen? Or should I just mount the projector where the width is right and then adjust the screen up or down to fit?

When I take the lenses off again and check the glycol and make sure that each of them have a small bubble.

Thanks again, I am impressed with crt projectors so far. I was going to pick up a digital projector for my home theater but I saw the crt section at the avs forum, which sparked my interest in crt and now I am here. I am glad I went this route, I like the combination of diy and electronics. The digital ones you pretty much mount it and plug it in.

[CasetheCorvetteman]

I think youll find the raster and the image is 2 seperate items, im not quite sure what youre talking about changing to set the size.

There is two rings on the deflector yoke to center the raster on the tube face, and there is a couple trimpots on the deflection board to adjust the raster size.

Read this: http://www.curtpalme.com/NECPG_Layout1.shtm

Then this: http://www.curtpalme.com/NECPG_MechSetup1.shtm

[rob17]

I understand it now. I originally thought the raster and the image where the same thing, or at least dependent on each other. If I increased the image size the raster would get bigger.

I did not realize that there was a section on mechanical setup on the projector page. That helps a lot with giving me an idea of what I need to do.

[rob17]

I am working on the mechanical setup at the moment and I cannot get the projector to display anything other then 480p or 480i. Every time I select the 720p I get nothing on the projector when the dvd player is running. Its a Pioneer dv-400 upconverting player. I have also tried it at 1080i

[Brooklyn]

Does the DVD output VGA right to the RGBHV on the front of the projector? Or how do you have it connected?

[rob17]

Sorry, I am running hdmi out from the dvd player to a HD Fury then from that to the RGBHV.

[Brooklyn]

If the Fury is working and the light is on and all, it should work, so it could be a problem with the projector. Can you test it on a TV or monitor to double check?

I had a similar issue with my 6PG which turned out to be the deflection board. Do you ever get scrambled menus or anything? I used to get those occasionally.

[rob17]

The Fury's blue led is on so its working and it outputs the 480p. I just plugged my computer monitor in it (BenQ 24" TFT) it has dvi, and hdmi inputs in it so I think it should take 720p. Only the 480 worked on that as well, I unplugged the hdmi to dvi cable going to the fury and plugged it in the monitor. I can try the dvd player on a 32" hdtv tomorrow with 720p support.

[Mr. Green]

Try the DVD before the PC. I found the PC to be a pain in the a$$. Start simple and once that's working, hook up the PC.