Can a mirror drum TV be made using square mirrors?

[aussie_bloke]

G'day all.

I've recently been to a local arts and crafts shop and they had packs of square mirrors on discount for an insanely low price of 49 cents a pack of 25, so I bought 5 packs which each have 13 tiny square mirrors and 12 mirrors twice the size. I've attached a photo of them.

Anyways can I easily construct a mirror drum TV with square mirrors or do they have to be rectangular according to the picture ratio eg. 4:3?

I've been thinking on having a crack at a mirror drum TV for sometime, now I have mirrors I am gonna try making one .

[Harry Dalek]

G'day all.

I've recently been to a local arts and crafts shop and they had packs of square mirrors on discount for an insanely low price of 49 cents a pack of 25, so I bought 5 packs which each have 13 tiny square mirrors and 12 mirrors twice the size. I've attached a photo of them.

Anyways can I easily construct a mirror drum TV with square mirrors or do they have to be rectangular according to the picture ratio eg. 4:3?

I've been thinking on having a crack at a mirror drum TV for sometime, now I have mirrors I am gonna try making one .

I had a go some time back trying with a laser infact using the mirrors you are //

I shouldn't of given up as it would of worked if not for the fact i didn't understand the electronics before the laser diode filtered out the NBTV video signal /

i ended up junking it for a different idea in the end which you can have a look on my you tube site .

A better idea for mirrors drum mirror wise is plastic mirrors you can cut out with a stanley knife you can get if not sheets some thing shape wise to cut out from spotlight .

The trouble with glass mirrors is if they come off at speed which they did for me once or twice and its not good ! in the end i worked out if i could not pull them off by hand i was safe

Which ever way you go a laser pointer is a good tool if you end up doing a angled mirror drum .

Again remember you don't want those glass mirrors flying off at high speed in your direction !

[aussie_bloke]

Thanks for the info Harry. I did have in mind the possibility of the glass mirrors flying off so I actually plan to have the mirror drum assembly fully housed in an enclosure which the image of course will be projected to a screen so should any mirrors fly off they'll just hit the walls or ceiling of the enclosure.

Anyways the plastic mirror idea sounds real good, will see if I can source me some plastic mirrors, but having these glass mirrors, will give them a crack anyhow and see how I go, I can see in the old mirror drum tellies they are pretty well secured in with braces, so might try that.

Big question is, do the mirror segments have to be rectangular in shape to the aspect ratio of the type of television signal to be displayed, whether it be general 4:3 standard or Baird 3:7 standard or the other mechanical standards of the day?

[Harry Dalek]

Hi Troy

Thanks for the info Harry. I did have in mind the possibility of the glass mirrors flying off so I actually plan to have the mirror drum assembly fully housed in an enclosure which the image of course will be projected to a screen so should any mirrors fly off they'll just hit the walls or ceiling of the enclosure.

Get it right should be ok lots of ways of doing it ....good idea to Box it ,it was my first thing to do as well those mirrors worried me .

I do recall one flying off and i was glad i wasn't it its path.

Anyways the plastic mirror idea sounds real good, will see if I can source me some plastic mirrors, but having these glass mirrors, will give them a crack anyhow and see how I go, I can see in the old mirror drum tellies they are pretty well secured in with braces, so might try that.

I made my square mirror for the frame speed on the octagon laser tv project from plastic mirrors ,i cut them out from butterfly shaped stick on type versions of this mirror type from spotlight ....think you have spotlight in NSW ?
Yes brackets so on is what they used i the past and i sort of tried as well at first .

Big question is, do the mirror segments have to be rectangular in shape to the aspect ratio of the type of television signal to be displayed, whether it be general 4:3 standard or Baird 3:7 standard or the other mechanical standards of the day

Well it will end up the shape of your mirror because the size of the mirror that dictates start and end lines so yes i think looking at mine again looks a little off aspect ratio i have to look again but i am pretty sure most look 2 inch long on the horizontal and 1 by the vertical so none are really baird standard from what i can see from old photos ...its a good Question as perhaps its just a matter of keeping the drum size down a long mirror on the vertical would make the drum twice as large.