DIY Video Projector

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#2,283
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Well I got all the stuff laied out on the table for some testing but Im not sure about the light, its extremely bright and very focused but i really think the bulb needs to be turned 90 degrees. Right now the top of the bulb is pointing at the lcd and I think im loseing alot of light that way and a get a small dark spot in the middle when I dont use the lens to spread the light onto the frensal. I guess i will try some other kinds of reflectors to see if I can make it brighter.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
 
#2,286
The lens is the one off my dukane 680 has 327mm focal length and that screen is 17 foot away from the lens that makes it about 10 foot wide. Thats way to wide for me I bought a da-lite 8'X6' screen so it to big for that Im trying to find a lens that has a focal length of 450mm I think that will make it fit perfect and I just tested the light sideways with a small reflector in the back and damn it was WAY dark I think the way I had it is the way to go plus Im bout to order a new bulb that has 8000 more lumens so it should work fine. As for the distance to the fresnel if i put it closer after the light goes through the lcd the beam gets big like 7 inches or bigger across right now the light beam is about 2.5 inches across so all the light goes through the projection lens. From how I have it layed out now it seems my projector is going to be 4 feet long talk about one giant monster! any one have any ideas about building a box? and how to make something so I can adjust the focus easy cuz if I just cut a hole in the box and secure the lens to the front I cant adjust the focus 🙁
 
#2,287
as for a box, use either cardboard, or plywood. (particle board works too).

for the focusing, i would suggest this... put the lens in a flat piece of board. exactly how you have it now...

now, make edges for that box, so it looks like this from the side: ]

then, make it a size that can fit perfectly inside the end of the box, and slide in and out. this will allow you to focus. if you wanna go a step further, make a small frame inside the box, so you can attach screws in all 4 corners of the front panel. when the screws are, well, screwed, it moves the panel forward and backward., thus focusing. get it? i could draw a diagram if you want.
 
#2,291
DIY Projector - Central Site

It's been three days now since Krazzyed and I decided to start our very own "project big screen". Without a doubt, this forum, Undreams website, Zarks website, Gunawans spreadsheet, and the great posts by Cowanrq and SushimasterX have been the soulfood of our project. The only problem, and it seems to only grow with time, is the unordered nature of the information.

Krazzyed and I have collected notes and information all the while into a test website with the eventual goal of having a one-stop, quick reference for all things related to DIY LCD projectors. We'd love to start a collaboritive site with all the info and work with you guys to create it. Hosting location, site design, layout are all still up in the air but that can all be settled quickly. What do you guys think? Who would like to start this up? Could it possibly be a part of diyaudio.com such as diyaudio.com/diyprojectorguide/?

Now, by all means, if we are stepping on someones turf (we are newbies after all) then let us know. But if not, lets start a thread and start a site!

Btw...we may be DIY newbies, but I've got 5 years web/engineering experience and Krazzyed's no web newbie either.
 
#2,292
Re: Good Ish

contrapasta said:
rmccoll said:
I have hit pay dirt


For people who want to use a 8.4, 9.4 or 10.4 lcd screen from a laptop i found a website that sells vga controller boards for a number of Toshiba laptops all of the boards are $39.95 they dont give any specificatoins and I dont know if we can use them or not. They sell the lcd srceen to put they are High as hell you find these lcds on ebay or you take them from Toshiba satellite T1960cs, T1960, CS100 mostly the older models make sure it is a color screen tft.
www.impactcomputers.com



Holy sh!$ that is a great find, there are many there, here is one http://www.impactcomputers.com/p000224960.html
Can anyone confirm that is what we need, and anyone have any ideas how to hook it up?? The Power supply req? It looks like we need to buy the contrast thing too...another $40, still at $80 a good deal though. I've got finals, so I won't really look into this till after thurs, but I think I know what I'm going to try this summer break!
Click to expand...

sorry, but these laptop replacement modules won't be useful really. What they are is the equivalent of a vga card from your desktop, ie a PCI bus or something on one side, and VGA on the other, except they would generate LCD timing signals instead of VGA analog outputs.
It is a bit frustrating, because I have seen quite decent TFT panels on laptops that could be used if only we could drive them conveniently. There are products that have been linked to from this forum that can drive a whole variety of LCD's with video or VGA inputs, but they are not cheap...
Unfortunately the best solution at this stage is to obtain a panel with a controller already attached with the inputs you require.

biteon
Somebody said that your Delta IV lens might be not focussing the whole image because of its CRT projector origins. I think they could be right. I have Delta 77 and Delta 67 lenses, and both of those were designed for curved CRT screens, so when you use them with a flat LCD, you can only really focus the centre of the screen. I don't know what the specs are on the Delta IV, but it is possible that it too was intended for a curved CRT.
I have a 4" fujinon lens on order from SurplusShed, and from what I have read, that one was designed for flat CRTs (probably a lot older, I think newer projection tv's use curved CRTs for better brightness uniformity). As soon as it arrives and I try it out I will post success or not...
Click to expand...
 
#2,293
Just got back from vacation....😎....very nice. Projector is on hold while I wait on new fresnels and new light. Good posts, everyone! It sounds like a good bit of progress is being made by many.

Macrovision -- I hate this stuff. It is supposed to keep people from copying material, but it has overextended inself into the realm of fair use. It seems that most DVD players, when playing Macrovision encoded DVD's, will corrupt the signal when passed to certain products, especially older products like our panels.

I think the only way around this one would be to try a product like this or something similar. It may or may not work with your situation, so buyer beware. I haven't tried it, so I'm not sure how it fares with the Toshiba SD3750. In the "Macrovision..." thread in the Video Forum, SushiMasterX mentioned that these didn't work so great on some movies. Someone in another thread mentioned that feeding the signal from DVD to Audio Receiver to LCD would help, but it produced no beneficial effect for me.

If anyone comes across a better solution, please let us know. Thanks.

Gotta run...
-f4
 
#2,294
people probably hate this but...

After finding about being able to make my own LCD projector, I was so excited and read thru a good chunk of this forum but i gave up and now i have a favour to ask of you all.
who's been able to create the best systems so far and how can I make one myself?
I've never built anything like this before so instructions will have to be fairly descriptive.

I moving out to Vancouver soon and the possiblity of havin a cheap home theatre unit is just too tempting.

Big ups to the pioneers of this forum for gettin the ball rollin and inspiring everyone

Thanks
 
#2,295
I was wondering if someone with a website (or in here if possible)would post a compilation of lamps tested, something like this:

Lamp type: Lamps Price: bought at: Lumens: results etc. (I'm sure some of you guys can come up with a better feature list)

I'm available to help out in maintaining this list if my help is required, but as a newbie, i'm really looking for everyone's leadership.
I thinks that if a few of us could start testing with common equipment, it would make it easyer to compare apples with apples...

Just an idea...

<P>
 
#2,297
SuperZoboo, and all others... I plan on building a site with as much useful information as possible. I have recently registered www.diyprojector.com and I would like to include progress on my project and as much detail from other peoples projects as possible. I also would like to include as much information as posssible on various pieces of hardware (i.e. LCD, lamps, ballasts, and lenses) and links to hardware and other information. I would be more than happy to have help or input from anyone that has something to offer. I am not out to make a site that I can say "Hey look what I can do and how cool am I"....but rather a site with plenty of information for others to make a DIY projector.

So...if anyone has suggestions or ideas as to what I can have on my site...I am open to suggestions and hope I can build something useful for everyone on this forum.

Please post responses to this message on this forum or directlly to me at dhensley@csun.edu and I will do my best to build a worthwhile site.

Thanks, and good luck.
Dave
 
#2,298
Well, I have some bummer news. I had never tried the S-video and composite inputs on my Sharp QA-1750 before. I just always used VGA - dreamcast /w vga box, and laptops were all I used for testing.

I just assumed they worked.

Well, I tried plugging in my DVD player, and VCR to the s-video/rca inputs last night, and I couldn't get a darn thing to come up on the screen 🙁 I just got a 'no signal'

I don't know if they just don't work, or I'm doing something wrong. Does anyone else here have a Sharp QA with RCA and svideo ins? i need some help. I'd be bummed major if I found out that I am going to have to buy an upscaler like a Cheesebox or XGA Theater by TVONE
 
#2,299
Also, SuperDave, I'd be interested in helping with the site. I'm a long time Photoshop and HTML junkee. You'd never know it by my little sham of a DIY projector site, but, the whole point of that site was just content, not design.

Also, I've got a CGI buddy that I work with tightly. we are working on a site right now here that is driven by SQL and cgi scripts. its neat, I did all the graphics and HTML, and he put it into his scripts so easily, we're a good team. Anyways, if I could talk him into programming a foundation for a sweet high-traffic site, I would be happy to dump all of my content onto diyprojector.com, as would many of the other people here I imagine. Everyone interested in their own .plan (like a lot of video game designers track their progress with updates/comments, etc) could have a section on the site where you could add your progress via CGI scripts (nice user interface).
 
#2,300
where theres a will....

i typed my make and model into google, along with "marcrovision" and "remove" and i found heaps of sites where i can modify my dvd by using my remote not only to disable macrovision but to play all regions of dvds 🙂 looks like my ebay bits can drop down for movies now 'cos i can bid for the region 1 ones over here ....wohoo! here is the link in case someone else has a samsung... http://www.hometheater-hardware.com/dvd/samsung_dvd/samsung_dvd-811/samsung_dvd-811.htm

i know not all dvds can do this - some others need a chip 🙁
 
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