# New Project: Decoupling Projector mount from floor above



## mpompey (Jan 5, 2007)

Actually just came across another project: Decoupling projector mount from upstairs.

I recently moved my Xbox360 & Kinect into the living room above my theatre room. As I do not see myself purchasing any more Xbox titles before the new consoles come out. With my PS3 downstairs and the very little exclusivity titles I'm interested in, I went ahead and gave it to my wife and kids to play with.

Of course they love the Kinect; which brings me to a new issue I never had before. My projector vibrates when they walk or jump on the floor above. It is currently mounted to the floor joists above, so of course when the floor moves it moves.

I've been trying to catch up on methods to decouple the projector from the floor above and reduce vibrations and have confused myself silly.

I found this site: http://www.pac-intl.com/decoupled.htm and am trying to figure out how these things get installed. It looks like I would built a platform for the mount and then connect that with these bracket thingies to the floor joist?


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## MrAngles (May 1, 2012)

I did that!

I built mine into a soffit, but you could do it in the ceiling as well:
http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/home-theater-design-construction/57739-mrangles-tornado-shelter-theater-45.html#post599710
http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/home-theater-design-construction/57739-mrangles-tornado-shelter-theater-49.html#post603644
One comment I have is that if you raise the platform above the ceiling level, you're going to have a really hard time making fine adjustments to the projector mount.


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## mpompey (Jan 5, 2007)

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it. I'll check out your pics for ideas: 

I've pasted a quick pic of my current mount setup as well as a couple of ideas I had for decoupling to reduce the transmission of vibrations from the floor above.










The top pic is the current mount setup. I have a piece of plywood secured to 2 of the floor joists above the drop ceiling in the basement room. The projector mount is mounted directly to the ply. As such, any vibrations go through the joists into the ply and into the mount/projector

The middle pic was an idea where I have a plywood tray decoupled from the sides of the joists with a hole in the middle. Through which the projector mount come through to attach to another piece of wood that is decoupled from the first plywood tray.

The third pic was to use RSIC clips (or something similar) and have the plywood mounted to that and then the projector mounts through the dropped ceiling to that. Very similar to the current setup.


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## mpompey (Jan 5, 2007)

I just took a look at your pics, thanks for posting them. How does the platform work for damping vibrations from above? Also where did you buy those brackets with the pink things? I think I'll adopt that design to work with my room. 

In the other thread (where you are installing the projector) it looks like you have blocks of wood on top of the pink washers. Is that to compress them or for some other reason?


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## MrAngles (May 1, 2012)

I got mine from the soundproofing company, they are called IB-3 brackets and they cost $5 each plus shipping. As far as I know they are pretty much the same thing as the PAC DC04s you linked to.

They can be used horizontally like you show in your middle pic, I used them that way in a couple of spots in my double stud walls when necessary, but you can really feel that they provide much better decoupleing and stability when used vertically like how I did it.

I designed my mounting panel to be easily removed and replaced as necessary for wiring, etc. The blocks of wood are above the rubber parts just to keep the stupid lag bolts from popping out of the brackets when I am putting the panel back up. Since you have a drop ceiling, I would just screw the rubber part of the brackets to the panel first with #10-#12 wood screws, then reach around from the side between the joists and over the panel and screw the brackets into the joists, no need for bolts and washers and all that nonsense.


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## mpompey (Jan 5, 2007)

Okay, thanks for the update. I'll look to redesign my plan to take advantage of the vertical position.

I like your design better than the dual decoupled design in #2. I'll try it that way first and see how much of an impact it makes, before I go for the more difficult design.


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## MrAngles (May 1, 2012)

A couple things I should say about mine. It hasn't been tested yet, so far I haven't had the projector on while kids were jumping around upstairs either before or after hanging it from the decoupled panel. Also, the soffit frame the brackets are mounted to is already decoupled from the joists with a standard clip and channel system, so the projector is actually decoupled twice. 

That said, the IB- 3 brackets seem very effective, much more forgiving to bigger vibrations than clips and channel, so I think they should work just as well on their own.


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## mpompey (Jan 5, 2007)

Okay, so I went back to the drawing board and I think I came
up with a design not so complicated but still giving me the
benefits of dual decoupling the projector mount. So here is
a quick phone pic of what I am thinking:










I'm thinking 4 clips, 2 rails (depending on how long they come), 4 IB-3 brackets.

What do you guys think?


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## MrAngles (May 1, 2012)

The only thing I wonder about that design is how structurally sound the connection I circled is:








I think in this situation I would start with the IB-3s on the joists and add the clips and channel below, maybe something like this:


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## mpompey (Jan 5, 2007)

I like that last design a little easier to install as well. I'll mock up a new design.


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## mpompey (Jan 5, 2007)

TLR
Thought I would have to do a ton of work making a decoupled mount, but my original design
already had a plan for decoupling that I forgot about.
...

Ok, last week my kids had a sleep over and were running around like monkeys upstairs. Since my projector mount is screwed into the floor joists, every foot step would shake my projector. I could even watch anything while the kids were over here because I was afraid they'd somehow damage the bulb. Plus I could only yell so many times.

So I went ahead and ordered the parts. Ended up having to work from home today and decided between conference calls to go ahead and work on it. Imagine my surprise when I popped the drop ceiling panel 
to discover that my mount wasn't mounted directly into the studs, but instead was mounted through a 1x8 via cut 2x4s just waiting to be decoupled. 

So needless to say in an hour's time I had a new double decoupled projector mount. The kids just got home from school and it drastically cut the motion when they run upstairs.

Enjoy the pics...

http://imgur.com/a/TB4Tt


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