Tuba-Goose: Test Shots

I had some trouble getting the test shots I needed last night. The "sweet spot" for the retro reflective fabric expands as the projector gets farther from the material, so it is not effective if you are not very close to the projector, when the projector is close to the fabric.
My laser power meter died recently, so I am going to grab a multimeter, and do some more tests with a calorimeter tonight....

I have 2 Thorlabs SM05PD1A and some other miscellaneous photodiodes to put together a light meter.

I do not have a spectrograph, and LED light is very different from what I expect to find in the environment (tungsten, high pressure sodium, and mercury vapor), so the results might be a bit off, but it is a place to start.

1 lux =

1683wattsm2 @ 556 nm

Light Measurement Equivalents and Common Illumination Levels:

- 1 square meter (M2) = 10.7638 ft2
- 1 LUX is defined as 1 lumen/ M2 of a surface; thus 1 LUX= 0.0929 FC,
- 1 foot candle (FC) is 1 Lumen/ ft2 of a surface; thus 1 FC=10.7638 LUX
- There are 12.57 square meters on the surface of a 1 meter radius sphere.

In real life objects are illuminated and measured in LUX:

- Full Daylight is about 10,000 LUX (imagine 10,000 lumens each and every square meter!)
- Cloudy day is about 1,000 LUX
- A lighted parking lot at night is about 10 LUX (average)
- A full moon is about 0.1 LUX

Possible fixes:

1. I could get more, smaller projectors. The smaller size makes it wasier to get in the "sweet spot", and with more, I would have "sweet spots;" effectively enlarging the viewing angle. This would mean bringing a large number of expensive tiny electronics to a large crowd that is likely to have a number of pick pockets and intoxicated people.

ShowWX

Laser pico projectors have a crisp image with no need to focus, but they are more expensive (retail at $350) and often not as bright as LED
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Microvision-ShowWX-Laser-Pico-Projector-/281787157456?hash=item419bd2cbd0

No Name

Only $45, but it's bigger, the contrast is terrible, and the resolution is 320X240... 400 Lumens? (right)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HDMI-LED-Mini-pico-Projector-with-TV-USB-For-Game-Movie-Laptop-story-beamer-US-/161479486495?hash=item2598ed6c1f

MP60

Open Box for $115 Retails for $250), Good contrast, HDMI input, 854 x 480, 85 lumens (gets good reviews)

Optoma PK100

$140... 10 Lumens?!... yes, really.

2. I could build a zoom for the projectors and mount them farther away, but I am not sure if I have enough achromatic lenses of the diameter I would need. I might have a couple old camera lenses I could scavenge.

3. Build some kind of puppet
The hard part would be the small tuba (sousaphone). Used off brand trumpets are cheap (many under $50). French horns are a bit more (Some under $100), and old melophones can be cheap (often around $50 for a beat up one), but I can't find anything with the bent bell under $200. Tubas and sousaphones are not cheap at all.