DIY Video Projector

[ryans]

Anyone ever seen that York Peppermint commercial where the old man says "...I'm just glad I get a sensation"? Thats the way I feel, I'm just glad I got a rise out of some people here. Just call me penis-head from now on. heh.

XGA/HD quality of course is what I desire at a minimun, but I have some LCD's that I can do some testing with before having to spend cash on a LCD like that.

Budget is always in mind as it is with any DIY'er, but not so as much as to have a POS project at the end result. My current budget limits my testing at the moment and that is why I have read so much on the subjects at hand. It just appears to me that all parts are available to make such a projector as you could find for commercial use...and that includes light source. Has anyone disected an up-to-date projector and tried to come up with comperable parts yet to build a replica or something built on that design to achieve that quality?

I noticed something the other night when i took this laptop's LCD apart. The laptop was some crazy brand but the LCD was a GOLDSTAR. After I disected it and had all the seperate components, I started the laptop up and held the "wand bulb" behind it so i could see the picture. It was very dim without the reflective materials behind it as you can imagine. I was then, just in messing around, put the light in front of the LCD and looked from behind it. The picture was extremely bright where there was a picture or white text with the light directly behind it! On the back side of the LCD it was smoothe with no anti glare filter. On the viewing side it had some kind of antiglare thing going on. Has anyone tried to "flip" the LCD around backwards and use it that way? I would be interested to see the outcome in comparison with a working diy projector. ANyone have the capability to do this? Please let us know what you found.

It appears that for ~$3500 these days you can get a very good commercial projector. I wonder if you spent that money on a DIY project.... what would it be like... better?...worse?... or just a hunk of junk in comparison....

[contrapasta]

Just ordered some gear from Inventory Solutions. I talked to Bob (choice 1 on the system). He has talked to at least of a few of us now, so he knows what we want. Decided to get he the elmo a305 system ( $150).

I know that at least jjasniew has this projector. How is the noise on this system? Does the ballast seem reuasable ( uses a standard mount, voltage) so we can use a cheaply currently available MH bulb ( maybe lower wattage) that cost ~$40??? The exact replacement looks like ~380. Ouch.

As far as the LCD panal, I don't think anyone should buy it for use in there final system. Bob said it is around 5 yrs old and its qualitly is not so good ( for HT). Very noticeable motion ghosting. I decided to get it as a interm solution before I pluke down 300 for a 14 or 15 incher

$226 total ($26 shipping from GA to CA)

addtional s video/ video input available on the LCD's for additional 25$ 800 X 600 avail for 100$

So anyways, I kinda want some input on the noise of the Elmo 305 DX as well as its usuability for parts..
-Mike

[camelion]

Hi,

I'm from Malaysia and I am very interested in creating my own projector. However, I have no leads whatsoever at this moment.

I was given an old 486 notebook.The motherboard of hte notebook is cooked. The notebook was pretty old and I just open up the note book yesterday. I wasn't sure what type of LCD it is cause there ain't go no marking on it.How sould I proceed now? The Notebook has a two row of 10 pin connector connecting to the LCD Controller board which has a lot of Goldstar chips, There is a luminating sheet which used to be the notebook's backlit.

Is there a way for me to put the 20 pin connectors to a 15-D connector (vga)?

Has anyone here actually use a notebook's LCD to create a projector?
the screen is 8.something inch. The notebook used to be running 640X480.

What type of light source can I use? I have a friend working in Phillips which told me that he can get for me some Phillip Lifesaver Cool light which can be the lightsource for my projector. I tis a 8000 lumens lightsource, I don't know the wattage but I was told that it is really bright and its classed as energy saving light.

I also have no idea how the lens work and basically, after snipping through this forum, I manage to learn that a fresnel screen will distribute the light evenly. I am wondering where can I get a fresnel screen in Malaysia?

I hope all the good people in this forum will help me ito achieve this DIY pet project of mine.

I have devided to put a pictorial chronolog of my project on a homepage.

Thanks

[jjasniew]

Mike,

I think it's noisy, compared to the Dukane I had. But almost double the lumens!

The thing has two fans, so you can imagine. I was thinking of putting it on the other side of the wall, have the beam bounce back off a FS mirror, through a hole and onto a rear projection surface...

Hung upside down from the cieling, maybe not so bad. But I've had it right in front of my face (or so) and the noise is annoying.
I imagine just behind you, projecting over the top of a sofa, probably annoying also.

I'm thinking of ways to put a different fan into it; get the same flow at less RPM. I have all the equipment to measure this at my work...

I've seen the bulb on the net for $149.99. Well, at least it's half!
Bulb experiments may be in order here (like bust open a mercury vapor arc lamp and extract the element)

There's quite a bit of circuitry inside - comparable to a, well, 500W power amplifier! The HV coil looks like a giant monitor flyback transformer. I dont know what market they were going after, but t's really some amazing design effort.

I'm less impressed with the lens setup on this unit, compared to the Dukane.

Oh, and the thing is REALLY bright inside. Light leaks out through various vents and actually illuminates the room and screen some.
You'll see

For the DIYer that doesnt like the OHP form factor, one of these could probably be disasembled and the electronics used to light the bulb in some other enclosure. Be careful with the high voltage and cooling method if anyone attempts this sort of thing!

[fender4]

Does anyone know if the OHP panels suffer the polarizing light effect to a lesser degree than other panels (since they are designed to work with converging light from a fresnel)?

camelion,

Welcome to the board. Unfortunately, I haven't heard of anyone that has been successful with salvaging a laptop LCD and making it suitable for this project. Different companies, or even different models from the same company, seem to use different standards for delivering a signal to the LCD. You would also need a good bit of circuitry to get it going, even if you could get the correct inputs. AND THEN, you might find the quality of the video to be poor since it is from a 486 (probably not designed with video in mind). Sorry for the bad news.

The good news is you can get a 640x480 panel for a good price that is designed for projection with an overhead projector from the Inventory Solutions website. jjasniew's post (I think 8 posts back) would be an excellent place to start if you wanted to take that route. It would surely give you higher quality for less money that the 486 LCD would.

contrapasta,
Did you find out any additional info on the 800x600 panel? Is it better suited for video? I won't be able to call Bob until next week, so I am just curious if you have heard anything.

Thanks, and good luck to all.
f4

[markprojector]

800 x 600 is a better choice. I got one from bob last week and it works great!

[Hellfire]

Scot_lad

I am not an electronics-expert but the basic electronics for driving a CRT is present in a standard TV. The signals for eatch color is handled separatly all the way up to the tub. So why not just divert eatch cabel for color to a separat tube?

The only problem is to match the tubes with the electronics . . . :-s

You can find lots of diffrent CRT:s at:

http://www.surplussales.com/Tubes-So.../CRTtubes.html

I do not know if those CRT:s are the right kind . . . . . ?

By for now

[oftheend]

If you run the CRTs off standard tv electronics, you are hindered by the horiz scan rate. You could not use a scaler or line doubler. It would just be standard tv resolution. Unless it can be modified somehow, it seems the better soulution would be to buy a cheap crt projector, like the barco data p/c, which is hidered by its single scan rate as well, and can be found for less than 300. If you found good tubes and ran them off a compter crt, that would be the ticket, provided the theory applies eqaully and works at all.

[Hellfire]

Oftheend

Good point!

By for now

[camelion]

hi guys,

I've just found out that my lcd screen is Sanyo LCM5483 24NTK. At least that is what it said on the small prints on the circuit board.

It has a long ribbon going into a changer which connects to a 20 Pin Molex Connector that goes back to the Driver card on the Notebook

I will post some picture when I got home.

cheers,