DIY projector, first attempt

[Llama16]

Hey all

I'm new to this forum. I stumbled on this forum when looking after more info to continue my DIY amp way. I just recently caught this DIY bug and now it won't let me go.

To be honest, the reason I registered is solely to know more about this DIY projector.

Now I am very very new about this so I was planning to put up a small list and ask some questions before continuing. As most of the useful posts are about 6years old, I thought that making a new thread won't really be that bad.

This is what I have learned and am planning to do here.

As far as I know, the concept is pretty simple; strip an LCD monitor so the light of an OVP can shine throught it and project the image onto a wall. Because of the (maybe just on the surface) simplicity of this project I couldn't hold myself to start thinking about making one myself

Now this was what I was thinking.
I buy a simple OHP, I think our school has some old ones left that still work. Now: will those do fine? big enough? What about the bulbs strength? Will it go through well enough with the original bulbs (I don't plan on spending alot of cash)

Then I was thinking about getting an old 15 or 17" LCD monitor (you know for computers). Which one shall I take? Is 17" to big and won't it fit on the OHP? Would standard 15" screens do fine, apart from the resolution, and will they project a pleasant (as big as possible XD) screen? Are they easy to take apart? What to take notice of?

And that's about it I guess. I have a nice blank wall, so a screen will be for later.

O yeah: what about the cooling? Is it really very important? or will 2 fans blowing under the LCD screen take the heat of the bulb away enough?

Thanks alot everyone, I hope to be posting my results on here as well

Srry for my bad english

[Llama16]

bump

[giorgos18]

check diyprojectorkits.com for an active forum where folks should be willing to help.

In short, 17" will most likely be too big. 15" fits most overhead projectors and 2 fans should be fine blowing air just under and over the LCD

You can also check Lumenlab.com and Allinbox.com for OHP modifications. The lamps in the overhead projectors are the major downfall, usually too short life, not bright enough and kinda yellow. The light engine can be modded to fit a metal halide lamp (make sure that it will fit first though), but I suggest first try a simple setup and see if it works for you before you decide to mod anything

[Llama16]

Thanks for the info and reply
I will check the sites out, because yeah I noticed that this section is pretty dead