Hello - and I am beginning my simulator build

[Jay28]

Projector has turned up which is a relief. It was bought via ebay from abroad. Big relief as DHL lost it... took a month to get delivered.
Panasonic EZ590 with short throw lens. Picked it up second hand for £1600. 5400 lumens so should be bright enough even with ambient light.

[Jay28]

Roof removed from double garage...no going back now.
Very excited - should be building my enclosure in less than 2 weeks.

[Jay28]

Building work has now started on replacing the garage roof - to vaulted.
It's going to take 3 weeks.

Meanwhile I have decided to go with a wooden structure for my enclosure with square padding on walls and ceiling of the enclosure I will be building.
Will probably see if I can get away with 3*2 instead of 4*2 for the side walls... frame for the screen will be 4*2 as it will need to span 3.8m
I will be attaching angle irons to the screen frame.

The plan is that the padding on the interior of the walls and ceiling of the enclosure will be covered with foam squares on backing board. I will be covering the squares in either vinyl or velvet. They'll be about 40mm thick.
The side profile of the padding will be the cover for the bungees that will hold the screen to the angle iron. That way no part of the wood - at any place in the enclosure - will be exposed to shots. Basically a box completely encased in padding apart from the screen and of course where I hit from.

The inspiration for my finished product is something like the below with smaller squares for padding - and overall a smaller enclosure (external width of my enclosure will be 3.8m).

It will be interesting to see how it turns out - probably a much less professional version of the below!

[Brettster]

Yes, I know that feeling! I'm about to start the update on my shed to turn it into a sim. I will be swinging the length of a 16' (4.88m) x 12' (3.66m) frame built shed with a gambrel roof behind the house and I will soon be starting on that remodel cutting out the ceiling joists as I have roof collar ties at 10' (3m) height all the away across the top, I think it gives me about a 6' wide area to swing and max out club height. With the flooring (which I hope to keep to 6" (15cm), I should be good with 9'6" (2.9m) height. Going to be a challenge squeezing everything in that's for sure.

[Jay28]

Hi Jay,

Congratulations on getting started, and you've done it in the right way... with detailed drawings first Did you draw that all by hand with the graph paper, or are you using software to make your drawings?

Thanks - very excited to have initiated the building work on the roof - hoping to avoid any snags / blockers to the work!
I did all the drawings and measurements in excel - setting the sizes of the columes and rows the same to simulate graph paper.

[Brettster]

Hi Jay,

Congratulations on getting started, and you've done it in the right way... with detailed drawings first Did you draw that all by hand with the graph paper, or are you using software to make your drawings?

[Jay28]

I am taking the plunge on a golf simulator. I've held off for now because I have not had the headroom anywhere in my home and my garden just isn't big enough. So, I decided to change my double garage roof and make it a vaulted ceiling. Builder has been engaged, quote in, structural engineer and building inspection engaged.

Once complete, my garage space will be 5.4m wide, 5.2m deep. At the walls I have 2.3m height, but a metre in from the wall this jumps to 2.9m because of the roof pitch.
My plan is to have an enclosure that is 2.7m high at the screen (back) and 3.4m high at the front. The enclosure will be 2.7m deep, and I will be hitting from 2.4m from the screen, leaving me 2m behind. The width of the enclosure is 3.8m.

This will give me a hitting area side profile that looks like this - rough drawing. The blue lines representing the pitch of the roof is at the bottom of the rafters. The hitting enclosure is in black with the top sloping from the wall to the hitting area. The image of the golfer is representative of my height.







I am going with a 16:10 1920*1200 and the brightest projector I can get - I have just found a used Panasonic EZ590L for £1600 and I bought it (it has the short throw lens included) - pictured above is the exact position it needs to be based on throw ratios and screen size. Bit of a risk buying it unseen from Ebay - especially as I have yet to get started on the build work!... Still the retail price for that projector and lens is nearly £5k so perhaps the risk is worth it.

The back of the bay will be 2.7m high by 3.8m wide - so my screen size will be 2.7m high and 3.6m wide (exclduing bezels)

Projection screen will look something like this (again my size represented and about the offset I will hit from.



I am looking at an enclosure that is built to have the screen 1ft away from the back metal.
Have not decided on the simulator unit yet.

Here is the floor plan:



Quite a tight area - but seems to be big enough - 2.4m from the screen is close but will have to do, otherwise I will not have enough room for my backswing.
The blue box in the middle is the projector which will be 3m above my head and the blue boxes at the sides are small chairs. The wavy black line is a curtain.
Everything to the left of the enclosure is garage stuff and there will be a ceiling over that small area for storage. Behind the sim is some shelving.
The black rectangle on the right will be a cupboard for the PC and a flat screen to sit over it on the wall.
The black rectangle on the upper left is the back door into the garage.
The red squares are solid concrete / brick that protrude into the space.

The vaulting of the ceiling should be done by the end of Feb - I will be posting pics of progress.

Any advice very very welcome.
One area I need to think about is the sloped of the enclosure rook and what it might do to the ball on wedge shots that go over the screen or richochet off high up on the screen - I have read about baffles and foam but still looking into it. I want the roof to slope because I want no chance of a skied shot hitting the front metal bar, so have I planned to be completely under the enclosure and thus made it 3.4m high where I hit.

many thanks

John