Bunker Project Log

The finished product:

I’ve been bitching about the cable bundle for a while now, and finally decided to post it up at avsforum.com?to see what the AV masters could come up with. One of the users over there, rgroves, suggested that I look at Checkers. So I did, and immediately requested a quote, mentioning the situation.

I got a call back within the hour, and I found myself ordering “The Fastlane“.

It was roughly an hour later that rgroves responded to my thread suggesting that I just build something rather that buy something that would “probably look hideous in your room”.

That made me feel a little toolish, but whatev, I’m a busy guy, so I can cut corners somewhere right?

However, this is supposed to be a project log, and there was a tiny bit of elbow grease expended to make it all work, so here are some pictures…

This may void my warranty!

When I cut it, it vomited out these black wormy shavings, it was kinda creepy. The pic doesn’t do it justice.

For those of you concerned with the obvious aesthetic problems, here is what the average bunker attendee will see

So, it’s all good, sort of.

??

I thought I was pretty clever the way I mounted my projector. It is basically a piece of melamine shelving material dropped into the ceiling grid.

Unfortunately, If anyone walks anywhere near it on the floor above, the vibration causes the projected image to bounce.

This is nearly impossible to avoid when you have a hyperactive 3-year old! (Luckily, Bunker Parties and movie watching usually happens after bedtime.)

I don’t know whether this is a function of the cheap eBay mount, the ceiling grid, the construction of my house, or some other hidden x-factor, but it sucks.

As always, looking for theories and solutions,

One of the design goals of the Bunker Lan was to keep all the hardware tucked away. No big beige boxes, no fan noise, no power buttons. The only thing players need to concern themselves with is the mouse, keyboard, monitor, headset, and the stick.

The only problem with this is the big fat bundle of USB and VGA cables that snakes its way from a crude hole in the wall to another cruder hole in the seating platform.

So far, there has been only one trip that I know of, but I worry about it every time.

And… sure it’s unsafe, but more importantly, it’s ugly!

I’ve looked up cable covers, but none of them are big enough. I’ve also thought about masonry work, but that is scary, and I’ll probably screw it up worse and end up _really_ messing up the house.

So… is there anyone out there with cleverer ideas?