Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by jasonlky

American/English Sci Fi Spacehips and Figures

jasonlky — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:06:40 +0800

Duplicate Thread. Proper thread found at this linkhttp://forum.lowyat.net/topic/561763.

Please refrain from posting in this thread.

Thanks,
Jason

American/English Sci Fi Spacehips and Figures

jasonlky — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:01:55 +0800

I though it would be nice for us to share some of the toys from the American based science fiction tv series and movies that we all grew up with. Who still can remember shows like Star Trek (All series), Star Wars (cannot leave this one out!!!), Battlestar Galactica (old and new), Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, Thunderbirds (Ok this is English), Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon (this is really old), Voyage to the botom of the sea, Seaquest, Space 1999 (English again), Airwolf, Knight Rider (everyone wanted a KITT!!), Batman (animated and live). Just so many!!! Lets share share the poisonlah.

Let me start off, who still remembers Space 1999 that aired around 1975-1978..... during what I consider to be the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Its about occupants on the moon, living on "Moonbase Alpha". The story begins as the moon is knocked out of earth's orbit by a nuclear explosion. The occupants then meet Aliens and encounter strange phenomena that require them to work together. Their primary mode of space transportation is via a spacecraft called the Eagle. Gerry Anderson, really pulled this one off, very nice spacehip.

Excerpt form wikipedia:

QUOTE

The Eagles are powered by four nuclear fusion rockets and carry fuel reserves for 48 hours of flight. Artificial gravity force fields built into the Eagle enable it to accelerate up to 15% of the speed of light, giving it a maximum range (with extra fuel reserves) of several light-days.

The Eagle also has the capability to enter the atmosphere of a normal-gravity planet and then land using its chemically-fueled landing rockets, and take off and return to Moonbase Alpha.

The onboard computer system can handle guidance, astronavigation and interpretation of sensor data; it can even be flown using remote control from Moonbase Alpha and guided safely down for a landing.

And I have just received a specialized version of the Eagle called the "Laboratory Eagle" made by Product Enterprise, sold in Japan under Aoshima and lastly made in China.

QUOTE

which carries equipment of a more scientific nature than the standard Eagle, they are usually fitted with additional airlocks for decontamination purposes, and appear to have small but well-equipped laboratories on board, that can be detached from the main space craft.

Enjoy the pictures....

Box art
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Laboratory Eagle just out of the box. The ship comes with a cardboard backdrop of Moonbase Alpha. Very thoughtful of the manufacturer... very nice to display together with the ship.
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The ship is held very snugly in its plastic packing. The Eagle is really beautiful. We will never see this type to ingenuity ever again.
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The Cockpit and the superstructure that attaches the cockpit to the engines. The cockpit, the engines and the laboratory module are completely Die-Cast. So its a very heavy toy. And the paint work is top notch, look at the black speckling over the white cockpit.... just lovely.
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The standard Eagle vehicle with the Laboratory module detached...
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The complete Laboratory Eagle with the Laboratory module attached....
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Closer look at the cockpit.... there is some paint smudges that I will need to clean up!!
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Undercarriage with the laboratory attached...
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Engines, nicely finished...
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More engines, the rocket bells are nice...
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Laboratory Eagle with Moonbase Alpha backdrop.... nice, brings back memories.
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Jason

AV Room / Home Theatre Build Report

jasonlky — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 04:02:01 +0800

A very much long awaited dream will come true for me very soon. I will be builiding my AV / Home Theatre room!!! Yay for me . After almost a year of designing and redesigning the room, I finalised the designs about 2 months ago. The contractor just finished fabricating the parts, cabinets dewign accents and started bringing them over to my house.

But first here is a glimpse of my AV Room before the build..... actually I have the electrician doing some wiring already.

The room is situated on the 3rd floor, has a funny shape, but it is generally rectangular staircase (see black grille) and an access door on one side. The staircase picutred leads to the 2nd floor. The door leads to a flat roof where I place the water tanks, air conditioner compressors and water filters for the house. The wall with a lamp will be where the screen will eventually be placed.
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This next picture shows the other end of the wall where the screen will be placed.
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This picture is of the rear of the room. I will be placing build in display cabinets here and the Epson projector will be housed at the top of the cabinet just below the Air Conditioner. I have a dedicated fuse box for the AV Room. Notice the black grille, thats part of the staircase that leads to the 2nd floor.
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A closer look at the wiring mess... The suqare box you see in tis picture is my DIY 12" servo subwoofer.
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More wiring mess
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And the contractor brought the fabric wall panels... somehow the reds did not turn out as dark as I had wanted..
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Base for the screen housing
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Cabinets...
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And yet more cabinets...
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I'll take more pictures and go thru the build as the contractor starts work tomorrow. I'll keep a close eye on them to make sure everything is doen up to my standards.

Jason

Home Theatre Projector Talk

jasonlky — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 10:47:56 +0800

If you own a projector or have viewed / audition them before, come share your thoughts. I'll start off...

I auditioned the Panny AX100E project last Saturday morning. This model is a replacement of the AE900 projector. The shop arranged to do the audition in my theatre. So bright and early Saturday morning, there was a knock on my door and Mr.Projector Man was at my doorstep with a smile and 2 boxes in hand. One BIG box containing the Panny, an unopened set (with 0 hours on the bulb) and another smaller box containg ceiling mounts. A word about my setup, its situated in the 'attic', the 3rd floor of my house. Fully light controlled, rectangle in shape with a size of L20' x W15' x H10'.

So Mr.Projector Man had to lug everything up 2 flights of steps. Set up was quick and in no time we had the picture on the wall. The projector is physically larger than I expected. I do not have a screen and Mr.Projector Man did not bring one. Out of the Box the projector's picture just blew me away. We cycled through the varios aspect ratios, colour modes and quickly settled in on Theatre 1 and Theatre 2 modes. At this point my theatre had some ambient light and was not fully darkened. I popped in various DVDs and sampled the beautiful film like quality of the projected image. The projected image was about 120 inch wide. Other settings.... dynamic iris ON, light harmoniser Off, bulb Normal. Eating was at about 15' from the wall/screen. The project was quiet throughtout, i.e. could not hear the fan or iris in operation.

However after awhile, once I have had some time for the initial euphoria to subside, I found myself nitpicking. I found myself trying to constantly focus and refocus the image. While the image was bright and colourful and film like, it just was not sharp. My dad and wife who was sitting in the sidelines echoed this finding. Don't read this the wrong way.... in reality the picture is sharp enough, however there is the feeling that the focus ring just needs a 1 mm of turn to either side. I went into the menu and selected the test pattern and got it as sharp as I could. When we returned to the movie, the result was the same. (reported issue on AV forums). This is due to the smooth screen technology that is used to mask the pixel structure... which works rather well. I did not notice any pixel structure until I was 5feet from the wall/screen.

At this point the projector was projecting a white picture, I noticed a red band (1.5cm wide) running the full length of the left side (reported issue on AV forums). I went right up to the screen/wall and noticed that there is a misconvergence of 2 pixels upwards by red... and down 1 pixel by a greenish tinge (reported issue on AV forums). Note that none of this is noticeable on movies at my sitting position.

There were no stuck or dead pixels.

I also noticed a lot of detials lost in the darker images and shadows. I guess I need a good screen... high contrast gray you say!!!

On fast moving scenes there was a lot of 'noise' and pixelisation, however this could be my player or the source (ahem DVD)... do not know, I have never noticed this on my 34inch TV before.

Could I live with the Panny, a most definite YES, at this price point it will crush any wide screen LCD/Plasma TVs. Despite my nitpicking, I was really sad when Mr. Projector Man packed everything up. However, I would like to see what the competition has to offer before handing over my credit card . My next stop is the Epson TW700. It appears, none of the dealers have a demo unit, but Epson is helping me arrange for a demo at one of their distributors. Failing which, at their HO/service center.

Other projectors that I have reviewed are the Sony VPL-HS60, VPL-VW50 and VPL-VW100. I did not find either of these outstanding. They projected a dull image and was not film like at all. They may have the best colour and contrast, but th picture just put me to sleep. Plus they could only work in a fully darkened room, thereby reducing their flexibility. The Panny is miles ahead on this note.

Anyone for a 120inch plasma like bright and colourful picture (that does not need a darkened room)!!! Contact me if you are interested to know more about this. Plus I have access to special pricing too!

Cheers.

DIY ESL III (ER Audio) Electrostatic Speaker Build

jasonlky — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 18:25:11 +0800

I want to share my ESL build. The package arrived just after christmas and I stated the build almost immediately. This package is purchased from ER Audio of Australia. The kit is the ESL III which is a 3 panel design.... 1 treble panel sandwiched on either side by a full range panel. I placed the order about a month or so ago, Rob the owner sent the build manual, so it gave me plenty of time to get acquated in the build steps. I cannot say enough good things about Rob and Jan Mackinlay, they are both honest and helpful, eveready to offer advise and assistance at a moments notice.

Feel free to ask me any questions.

On to the build.

See pictures below.

Happiness is when a huge package is delivered undamaged by the courier. This box is huge and heavy.
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After a brief inspection, averything was complete and in order. Nothing was damaged... perfect packing.
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First thing that caught my eye were the audio transformers. Humongous lumps of black iron. They were the heaviest items in the package. Here they are:
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Further rummaging in the package revealed the CNC'ed support structures tucked at the bottom of the package. These support structures hold the stators and the diaphragm in place. Very well machined.
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Close up of the CNC'ed support structures.
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Steel Grids that are used as the the stators. They are black powder coated.
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The Support Structure and stators laid out in a dry run to make sure everything fits.... and it does, perfectly. Note the white bottle, its the polyurethane glue used to attache the stators to the support structure.
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These are the Full Range Stators. They come with the terminal for electrical connection attached, see the little screw attached to the bottom corner of the grid.
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I finally start the build, the stators are laid out on a "production line" where the polyurethane glue is rolled onto them.
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The Support structures are laid out on the table, ready to accept the stators once the glue is applied.
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At this point, all the stators have been attached to their support structures. The next step is to attach the diaphragm.... stay tuned.

Double post

jasonlky — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 18:05:37 +0800

I want to share my ESL build. The package arrived just after christmas and I stated the build almost immediately. See pictures below.

.... just noticed this double post, pls do not post to this thread....

[WTA] Where can I find Full Range Drivers in KL?

jasonlky — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 10:48:31 +0800

I am looking for Full Range Drivers for a DIY Speaker project. I have a 12" pioneer coax from my dad which works reasonably. Although its almost a single point source, some how the bass is trailing the rest of the music.

So I am looking for a true full range driver that is both affordable and plays music really well. Sensitive enuf to work with 2-3watts of amplified music. Simple to build, e.g. folded back loaded horn or bass reflex. No Crossover.

I have searched the LYN forum, but there is no information. I would appreciate it is anyone knows a KL distributor for these stuff. If you know of an affordable international distributor, please let me know.

(My definition of affordable is less than RM1000)