Constructing an Enclosure

[wigalo]

I started with a 3/8" 4x8 piece of osb. I framed it with trim strips and filled the center with left over carpet pad foam. I was originally just going to staple the foam pad to the sheet then cover with carpet. I then thought better of it since i wanted to be sure that the panels were perfectly uniform when i hung them on the wall and butted them together.

[wigalo]

This is the completed photo of the first panel...1 down, 7 to go. I'm glad i decided to add the trim strips on the perimeter of the panel. I really stretched the carpet tight as I stapled it over the frame. Not sure if you can see it from the photos, but the corners are extremely tight and defined.

the first panel is hung. Now that I've completed the first, the next 7 should be done by the weekend. Notice the 2 foot space at the bottom of the wall. I wont complete the bottom panel until I determine flooring. (won't decide on flooring until I determine which sim) Once floor is in, I'll fit the bottom panel and it'll rest on top of the flooring...current white trim will be removed.

[Tracy C]

That is going to be incredible!! Be sure to post more photos.

[TheGolfer]

This is the completed photo of the first panel...1 down, 7 to go. I'm glad i decided to add the trim strips on the perimeter of the panel. I really stretched the carpet tight as I stapled it over the frame. Not sure if you can see it from the photos, but the corners are extremely tight and defined.

the first panel is hung. Now that I've completed the first, the next 7 should be done by the weekend. Notice the 2 foot space at the bottom of the wall. I wont complete the bottom panel until I determine flooring. (won't decide on flooring until I determine which sim) Once floor is in, I'll fit the bottom panel and it'll rest on top of the flooring...current white trim will be removed.

great lesson learn on putting the carpet on the panels first then applying to walls / ceiling. WAY WAY EASIER and get a tighter cleaner pull.

i went wtih putting the plywood panels up first then applying the carpet. holy *hit gravity is a *itch to fight against rolling carpet on the ceilings. no wonder the carpet installers i called said no way they will touch hanging carpet on the ceiling. once on the panel two people can easily and quickly put up on the ceilings with little effort.

also great idea of using the trim strips to the panels.

curous how it looks when you butt all the panels together.

good luck and great work!

[wigalo]

The Golfer. When I get home I'll post some more photos. It came out nicer than planned. I think I've got the sim narrowed down too. Don't think I'll need floor trigger so I'm going to lay the foam carpet pad down and complete the lower panels too.

And yes, installing the carpet to the panel first, then hanging is the way to go. I hung All 8 wall panels by myself with no problem at all. (just the help of 2 24" pieces of wood as braces)

[wigalo]

Here are more pics of the progress:

I still have some adjusting to do, but will wait until the floor is in before i try to start dialing the panels in.

[TheGolfer]

wigalo - very cool setup.

[psace]

Congrats on a top notch job! Can't wait for the grand finale,

[wigalo]

Thanks Guys... I'm really close to closing in on the sim too.

@The Golfer, I've taken a lot of good ideas from you. The Acer Touch Screen is awesome!! That's on order soon. Question for you. I would love to save some $$ with the pr 20 screen. While this will be a dedicated golf sim/wii/xbox room, I would hate to lose out on pic quality to save a couple hundred bux. Sounds like ur pretty happy with the HiDef pic on your Pr20. Do you think there is much of a drop of from say Cory's hq screen? I would hate to buy a nice hd projector only to lose it on the screen.

[TheGolfer]

I have not tested the HQ screen so I can't offer a comparison unfortunately, but can talk to two I have used. Heard Cory is going to start offering a mesh like screen that is not as expensive as the HQ.

I tried foresight's screen which was a textiline material - mesh with a plastic like feel. Picture quality was good but no matter how I connected or just let hang free the ball rebounded back at my head and equipment. They accepted a return.

I purchased the pr-20 from Preston at westcoastnetting.com. Recommend you talk with him - honest and straight forward. Great customer service and good products. I have bought thick golf netting from them before that is still holding up. My main concern at the time was not having the rebound effect. He did not market the screen as a cinema screen which I respected since several people talk up the movie quality but don't report what the reflective gain is on their screen.

pr-20 is an impact panel so its meant to accept golf shots. it is quiet but that wasn't a major requirement for me. i use the launch monitor ~ 6 days a week so my main priority was accepting golf shots without rebound and durability. My room is also dual use as a cinema room but I may watch one movie a week so that was a lower priority. Using the optoma gt-750e projector I get a 8x14 image from 9 feet in 16:9 (does 16:10 and 4:3 if you want) and its 720P/WXGA not 1080p. I was surprised that the image looks good. i was hesitant on wxga/720p without 1080p but couldn't find a 1080p that gives an image of 8x14 from 9 feet.

i am told that all simulator screens form "puckers" from the impact of the golf ball. The screen fabric does stretch with the puckers but I suspect most screens do. Curious to hear from others if they have a screen that does not pucker at all. The puckers and stretch marks do cause some waives in the image when watching movies. Is it ideal and perfect, no. I would love a cinema quality screen for HD movies with no imperfections and have it accept 170mph golf balls on a daily basis. Not sure if one exists. Is it acceptable for me, yes for now. If over time the puckers increase with usage and picture quality does become a problem my plan is to use two screens. I always thought this was the ideal solution no matter who you go with. I found a vendor that sells the raw da-lite high quality cinema screens with reflective gains from 1.5-2.0 at a reasonable price because its the raw material without the attachments / mechanicals. Keep in mind the image is 8x14 so the drop down and mechanicals get very pricey. Since I use the sim almost every day my main screen would be the sim screen. I would then find a way to quickly roll out and attach the cinema screen in front for movies then when done detach, roll up, and store behind the cinemea screen. Don't need to do that yet but I would suspect that over a course of time these screens of taking shots every day will probably continue to stretch out.

If your priority is high quality cinema screen for movies with simulator as second priority maybe there are other choices to consider. I am please so far with the product and customer service. Again, anyone who says they have perfect / excellent cinema quality I would want to know are they using foam balls or real ones, hitting > 150mph shots on a daily basis, or not using it that often. If someone is using real balls on a daily basis with driver and over 6 months there are no imperfections I think they would own the market and it would warrent a premium.

I still like my original idea of dual screen. I just don't see how any material can serve both needs with high quality - image quality with no imperfections and accept golf balls on a daily basis up to 170mph. If someone has found one of these please post.

Keep us posted. Good luck.

[wigalo]

Thanks for your feedback The Golfer. I've gone back and forth and decided to order the HQ material from Cory. Although we have a dedicated theater, the girls will probably watch a few movies in the golf room. You have a nice image size. I'm not going quite as big. Mine will be 16:9 12.5 x 7. I'm getting a smokin deal on a used Optoma HD20, so even if it's not bright enough, I can move it to my dedicated theater until I can afford a 3d Set for it and get something brighter for the sim room.

My hope is that All will be finished within the next 3-4 weeks or so. (depends on how long stuff takes to arrrive)

Have ordered:
1. Modified GSA CX5 (optical sensor instead of line scan trigger cam. Includes SX spin cam, Martin says that it's near ready)
2. Used Optoma HD20 (hopefully it's bright enough for my screen size)
3. Acer T231 H Touch screen
4. Raw HQ screen material from Par 2 Pro...(well will put the order in shortly)

Will Order, but doing research on
1. Swing Analysis Software
2. Camera with fairly decent FPS. Bubba22 likes the PS eye web cam. 30 FPS i think. I wonder if it's fast enough to render good slomo pics.
3. Flooring. still trying find a nice turf for putting, but decent on the feet when barefoot.

[CPA]

PS eye 120 fps

[goatbarn]

PS eye has 320×240 pixels at 120 fps. Very low res for being able to see anything if you want to use it at 120 fps, slower frame rate, more resolution....but,

If you want to do swing recording I'd recommend getting one of the cameras mentioned here: http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/topic/...1#entry3115759

Or many of the other cameras mentioned in other threads on that site.

[bubba22]

I have the Casio camera and would recommend it. PS3eye may is ok but Casio is better. Good choice with the HQ screen Wigalo, you will be happy. Good luck with the CX5. Tell me which exact CX5 are you getting?

[wigalo]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'll take a look at the threads and cams...

@bubba My modified CX5 will include:

1. HCam
2. VCam
3. Ccam (with hitting and sensor mat)
4. Bcam (ball spin Cam)
5. Instead of line scan trigger cam, I have the TX optical sensor. Saved some $$

It only took me a year to figure it all out, but I'm pretty happy with my choice. At least at this point. Even if the Bcam turns out not to be completely operational yet, my system is less than protee base pack 2 and just a smidge more than the both the GSA px5 and protee base pack, due to me not using credit card and right time of year? (not sure if Protee's prices are negotiable)

Oh and by the way...I've gone back and forth with Martin and he's been available and responsive.

[bubba22]

Good luck and keep us posted!

[linkkingx]

Here are more pics of the progress:

I still have some adjusting to do, but will wait until the floor is in before i try to start dialing the panels in.

I know I'm digging up an old thread here, but I'm currently in the process of planning a sim room. Out of curiosity, how did you actually hang the panels on the wall? I was thinking of using something like z-clips but your setup looks great. Thanks

[wigalo]

@linkkingx...sorry so long getting back to you. I haven't been on the site much at all lately until my game got so horrific and my friends gave me such a hard time for a having a sim in house with such a terrible game that I finally vowed to get my sim working once and for all. (which I have. In fact, all of the bad thoughts that I ever had about Martin over at GSA are now gone, with a few more tweaks, it will be working perfectly)

On to your question...I just used brass colored screws. I was initially going to sink them kind of in a four square patter at each corner, but ended up countersinking them under the carpet material. After a few passes from a hair brush you can barely see them.

I'll take some pics when I get home. Also for anyone interested I'll revise my CX5 post from quite some time ago with my new experience with my now working sim.

[wigalo]

In Fact now that the sim actually works, I am planning on doing some upgrades. When I initially put the sim together, I went with outdoor black carpet which looks nice, but this outdoor carpet comes in 4' sections I believe. For my room, that means that there are 3 seams running from left to right down the length of the room. The carpet install guy used seam sealer and all, but it's still a problem.

Upgrade #1 will be to rip out the black carpet and replace it with turf. I'm hoping that the roll will be wide enough so that there will be no seams.

Upgrade #2. While the carpet is out, I'll sink a couple of putting Cups.

Upgrade #3. I initially purchased an Optoma HD20 projector. Allthough my room is light controlled, it's still not quite bright enough and I have to strain to read the smaller print being displayed like yardage to hole. Just now starting to research projectors. I'll get some before pics posted tonight and some after pics...well after.

Upgrade #4. cut a hole in the back wall to create a bar area on the other side of the wall (now just a play/TV room) this way when friends are over, instead of everyone hugging the walls, they can sit and watch from the the newly created raised counter area. (have to sell this one a little bit, but shouldn't be a problem)

[wigalo]

I am attaching photos of how my sim sits now. My plan is to replace all of the black carpet with a nice indoor putting turf. The front to back photo shows where I intend on cutting into the back wall to create a bar area to keep the other players out of harm's way when they are not hitting.

I've also included some extra photos of my screen wall and other parts of the sim.

[akyyyy]

Nice looking setup. Can u explain what kind of trim u used? How high,can I find this @ home depot,? What it's original use?

Any updated pics?

What'd u decided on the turf, I'm looking for something for my concrete floor also. Need something with rubber backing and not having luck finding much.

This is the completed photo of the first panel...1 down, 7 to go. I'm glad i decided to add the trim strips on the perimeter of the panel. I really stretched the carpet tight as I stapled it over the frame. Not sure if you can see it from the photos, but the corners are extremely tight and defined.

the first panel is hung. Now that I've completed the first, the next 7 should be done by the weekend. Notice the 2 foot space at the bottom of the wall. I wont complete the bottom panel until I determine flooring. (won't decide on flooring until I determine which sim) Once floor is in, I'll fit the bottom panel and it'll rest on top of the flooring...current white trim will be removed.

[goodmatt78]

reviving this thread again....What type of carpet did you use on the panels that pull that tight and was able to hide the screws?