[Prof.]

I've had a ceiling light tray in my theatre since it was built..It's looking a bit worse for wear of late with some warp-age and swelling of the plasterboard panel..

I have an almost flat roof of "Cliplock" with very little space between roof and ceiling and certainly not enough room for anyone to crawl through..and moisture tends to build up in the cavity..

I decided to take it down and replace it with a centre ceiling light..
I looked around for a suitable light fitting from both local suppliers and on the internet and couldn't find anything large enough or of the style I was looking for..
I didn't want an oyster type light nor a pendant type..The style I was looking for (a more futuristic style) was only available in fairly small fittings..with very big prices!!

So I decided to make my own!..I originally thought of making it out of alum. which needed to be curved and folded..but in my neck of the woods, there are no sheet metal shops capable of doing the job..and I didn't feel like driving 200k just to get some metal bent..so I decided to make it out of timber instead..

The light source I will be using for the fitting will be a multiple string of 12v. LED's, in the order of 600 LED's..so there isn't going to be a heat problem using timber..

The light output will be controlled by an IR remote control dimmer, which will be programed into my Logitech remote..to be dimmed at the start of a movie..

One other thing I'm going to have to do is re-route my existing wiring for all the downlights and IR controllers, as they are currently wired to the ceiling tray!

I will post photos as I progress..

 

[ironglen]

You truly are mad! :dumbcrazy: Let the photo uploads begin!

 

[Prof.]

:bigsmile: That's how I got my nickname at 19..I was doing mad experiments then as well!!

 

[bpape]

:nerd::T

 

[Zeitgeist]

Look forward to pics!

 

[Mike P.]

The light source I will be using for the fitting will be a multiple string of 12v. LED's, in the order of 600 LED's..............

Store bought strings or are you making your own?

 

[Prof.]

There was a time many years ago when I would have made my own.. But I don't have the time or the patience or a steady enough hand to do that anymore, so I bought two 5M. rolls of string LED's..

 

[Prof.]

Well the light tray is down, but it's left a bit of a mess of the ceiling!
The anchors I used to attach the hangers to the ceiling for the light tray were of the fold down type that flatten out when you screw them in..They are supposed to straighten out again when you undo them..but they didn't, and so in getting them out I had to virtually rip them out while the arms were still spread..which took a large chunk of the ceiling with it!!.:gah:

Also there was an old ceiling exhaust fan that the ceiling tray had previously covered up..so that had to come out as well, which left a 12" diam hole in the ceiling as well!!..What a mess!! :hissyfit:
Being time poor, I decided the easiest way around the situation was to place panels over all that mess and paint it the same colour as the ceiling..Hopefully it would all blend into the ceiling..:innocent:

Then a brilliant idea came to me!.. I had to run new wiring for the ceiling light and I couldn't run it through the ceiling because the only way I could do that was to remove a section of the Cliplock roof..It's been constantly raining here and not a good time to be removing roof panels!!

What I decided to do was to cut a small groove down the length of the new panels on the ceiling side and run my new wire through that for the ceiling light..At one end of the panel, the ceiling light will butt right up against it, so you won't see any wiring and at the other end the panel will extend beyond and behind the screen wall, so that it will be out of sight..
It's only 12V. DC wiring so it will be perfectly safe..All problems fixed! :yay:

Here are some shots of the progress so far..The colours are not good and a bit grainy..My camera doesn't like taking photos in poor light conditions!

Here are two of the MDF panels in postion..These cover up the exhaust fan hole and some of the hanger holes..

Here you can see the wiring for the light protruding from the panel and one of the holes the anchors left!

The panels have now been painted and do blend in better than what the photo shows...although it looks like they could do with another coat of paint..

I'm still waiting on the LED strips and the IR remote dimmer to arrive..Hopefully there might be something in the post today..

 

[Owen Bartley]

Looks like an interesting project, Prof... I swear, there's nothing that people won't DIY these days. Furniture, light fixtures, there is some serious customization going on around here. Keep us posted with lots of pics, and I'm interested to see how the dimming works out too.

 

[fitzwaddle]

Looks cool! :T

Has me thinking though - you could make it do double duty as a ceiling cloud. :T:T

 

[Prof.]

Looks like an interesting project, Prof... I swear, there's nothing that people won't DIY these days. Furniture, light fixtures, there is some serious customization going on around here. Keep us posted with lots of pics, and I'm interested to see how the dimming works out too.

Thanks OJ..My philosophy is..If you can make it yourself..why buy it!
I think you get greater satisfaction from your own efforts..if the end result turns out well..

Looks cool! :T

Has me thinking though - you could make it do double duty as a ceiling cloud. :T:T

An interesting thought..but my skills don't extend to artwork!

 

[fitzwaddle]

I meant an acoustic cloud (absorb ceiling reflections), not a painting of a cloud

 

[Prof.]

This was one of my concerns about taking down the ceiling tray..
Since it was covered in velvet and inline with the centre speaker, I felt that it was probably helping with some dampening effect for the front speakers..
After taking it down I re-ran MCACC in another preset to check to see if there was any change in the reverberations in the room..It was almost identical, so obviously the tray wasn't doing much acoustically speaking..
I've played a couple of movies that I know well since taking it down and I can honestly say that I can't tell much difference..But with an acoustic panel in that position, it just might help improve the clarity of voices..

 

[Prof.]

The lighting gear still hasn't arrived so I've been concentrating on the other side of this DIY project...The re-routing of the power and downlight cables..

I have now set up a master switch to control the power and lighting to all the equipment in the room..including the projector..
It is located just inside the entrance door, so I can turn everything on as I walk through the door..
Sorry about the poor quality pic.

All the light controllers and dimmers, along with the IR Remote Extender unit will be fitted into a panel section that will fit under my existing acoustic panel, nearest to the seating..
This will be covered with the same cloth I'm using for my panels and the finished result will just look like a long panel on the wall..when it's finished..

 

[Owen Bartley]

That's a great idea Brad... Prof., is it too late to mess around with your design to include a section of acoustic panel in some way? Here's a couple of ideas off the top of my head since I'm not feeling very productive at work today:

 

[Prof.]

Thanks for the ideas..Probably the centre drawing idea is what I would do..Having one large panel to give maximum coverage for the front speakers..
That would also cover up those timber panels I've just put in and would give it a cleaner look..:T

 

[Owen Bartley]

Well it couldn't hurt, as long as the lighting area is self contained and you won't have any heat buildup issues. If you were used to having some treatment up there, it might be nice to incorporate it into this new project since you're building it to your own specs anyway. Just a thought.

 

[Prof.]

It's certainly something I'll be looking at further down the track..

In the meantime while I'm still waiting for the lighting gear to arrive, and not being able to even make a start on the ceiling light until they arrive, I decided to modify the panel on the opposite side wall, to match the new panel that will house the lighting controllers..

I still have to add some base mouldings to the bottom of the panel, but this will give you some idea of how the panels will look..They look more like columns now!

 

[Owen Bartley]

pic doesn't seem to show, Prof...

 

[Prof.]

Finally! the lighting gear has arrived..
I thought I was being a bit extravagant by buying 10M. of the LED strip lights, but it is so narrow that I think I'm going to need all 10M. to get enough coverage across the width of the ceiling light!

It looks like the final dimensions for the light will be 600 x 600 x 140 deep..
Here is the timber I'll be using for the sides of the light.,.

And the lighting gear..

I'm now just waiting on some gold vinyl to arrive from the UK.,but now that the weather has cleared I'll be able to start on the timber work..