I got in all my parts: HP-A305 SD, TV-4000, and NEC 1545v. I took apart the NEC 1545v.. all I can say was that I was shitting bricks when I was taking that apart... whoever said it took them 20 minutes to take it apart must be a pro! So I assembled all the stuff, turned on the ohp, crossed my fingers, and then turned on the lcd monitor. To my amazement a fuzzy image of "no input source" blinked on my wall!! I flipped on the TV-4000, focused the ohp, and there I had an enormous image playing on my wall! I'm just so happy everything actually works after all the stress of taking apart the monitor! I still have a lot of work to do... I need to mask the part of the ohp that is not covered by the lcd, and I need to build a cabinet for the setup. Although there is a lot of unwanted light leaking out right now, the image looks clear and is consistent from corner to corner... no hotspotting! I gotta go to bed now!
sounds cool man, I have been eyeing some panels to check out for the same thing. How about some pics for a little divine inspiraton?? Thanks -peace
Now that it's been several more days since I first got the projector running, I thought I would post some more comments on it. Sorry no pictures yet.
First, I showed two of my sisters and my brother-in-law a small demonstration of what my setup was capable of. I have a small 150w kenwood minisystem wired for sound right now. I loaded a DVD into my xbox and fast forwarded to a WW1 battle scene (forgot the movie name). The first thing we saw in this scene were some soldiers in a trench talking to each other... there are bright flashes from munitions going off every so often... the camera is relatively close to the actors faces and the detail is stunning... definitely "the next best thing to being at the movies." Then the camera shifts up to the night sky and all you see is an aerial flare travelling from the left side of the screen to the right side and that heightened our sense of how big the screen size actually was (80 inches). Then the battle ensues and there are tons of explosions and stuff... again all I can say is that it was really awesome. And the thing is, the entire scene was quite dark yet the images were still great. My two sisters and brother-in-law that it was fantastic and they are very excited about me finishing this project. One even said "why bother paying to go to the movies anymore."
My bro-in-law played my xbox with Amped (snowboarding) and then Ghost Recon (fps). Amped was insane. We both said that it felt like we were actually moving. With a screen this big taking up so much of your visual range, it creates a "3d" effect that immerses you much more than a regular sized tv. Then we tried Ghost Recon and that was insane also. The only thing I noticed about ghost recon is that it seemed to be hard to see the enemies but two things: ghost recon is known to have muddy graphics at times and also I didn't optimize any of the monitor settings.
Bottom line: This project is great. And I'm saying this about a uncompletely project with only preliminary results.
A lot of light leaks out of the projector and also sound from the cooling fans. I am in the process of building a cabinet to house the projector. This should cut down on most of the leaking light and also help with the fan noise. If I need further noise reduction I might experiement with sound proofing material inside the cabinet. I can't wait to show you guys pictures of the design.
A screen is also on my list of things to do. I heard of a material to Parkland Plastic Polywall that is supposed to be pretty good. I'm going to buy a 8 by 5 sheet of it and mount it to a wooden frame. It's supposed to have a nice result by itself but enother good thing about it is that if I want a different result the plastic can be painted. The polywall screen should improve the image quality a noticeable amount over the regular wall I'm projecting onto right now which I think is an earthy white... almost with a hint of green in it. Far from an optimal surface.
Another thing for me to do is to get a couch for the audience to sit on. By the way, I expect the final seating to be about a screen length's away from the screen... which I think is a little closer than most home theaters but from the results I've had, there will be no issues with it. Then I need to get better sound. I'm thinking of getting a decent sub-$500 surround sound system... something that's not crazy but yet would definitely be better than anything my audience and I are used to. Heck, my $200 kenwood stereo produces good sound for my ears.
That's it for now!
First, I showed two of my sisters and my brother-in-law a small demonstration of what my setup was capable of. I have a small 150w kenwood minisystem wired for sound right now. I loaded a DVD into my xbox and fast forwarded to a WW1 battle scene (forgot the movie name). The first thing we saw in this scene were some soldiers in a trench talking to each other... there are bright flashes from munitions going off every so often... the camera is relatively close to the actors faces and the detail is stunning... definitely "the next best thing to being at the movies." Then the camera shifts up to the night sky and all you see is an aerial flare travelling from the left side of the screen to the right side and that heightened our sense of how big the screen size actually was (80 inches). Then the battle ensues and there are tons of explosions and stuff... again all I can say is that it was really awesome. And the thing is, the entire scene was quite dark yet the images were still great. My two sisters and brother-in-law that it was fantastic and they are very excited about me finishing this project. One even said "why bother paying to go to the movies anymore."
My bro-in-law played my xbox with Amped (snowboarding) and then Ghost Recon (fps). Amped was insane. We both said that it felt like we were actually moving. With a screen this big taking up so much of your visual range, it creates a "3d" effect that immerses you much more than a regular sized tv. Then we tried Ghost Recon and that was insane also. The only thing I noticed about ghost recon is that it seemed to be hard to see the enemies but two things: ghost recon is known to have muddy graphics at times and also I didn't optimize any of the monitor settings.
Bottom line: This project is great. And I'm saying this about a uncompletely project with only preliminary results.
A lot of light leaks out of the projector and also sound from the cooling fans. I am in the process of building a cabinet to house the projector. This should cut down on most of the leaking light and also help with the fan noise. If I need further noise reduction I might experiement with sound proofing material inside the cabinet. I can't wait to show you guys pictures of the design.
A screen is also on my list of things to do. I heard of a material to Parkland Plastic Polywall that is supposed to be pretty good. I'm going to buy a 8 by 5 sheet of it and mount it to a wooden frame. It's supposed to have a nice result by itself but enother good thing about it is that if I want a different result the plastic can be painted. The polywall screen should improve the image quality a noticeable amount over the regular wall I'm projecting onto right now which I think is an earthy white... almost with a hint of green in it. Far from an optimal surface.
Another thing for me to do is to get a couch for the audience to sit on. By the way, I expect the final seating to be about a screen length's away from the screen... which I think is a little closer than most home theaters but from the results I've had, there will be no issues with it. Then I need to get better sound. I'm thinking of getting a decent sub-$500 surround sound system... something that's not crazy but yet would definitely be better than anything my audience and I are used to. Heck, my $200 kenwood stereo produces good sound for my ears.
That's it for now!
Sounds sweet man, Take tons of pictures, Everyone wants to see pictures, Once I get carpet for my theater and a few couches I will put all of my pics from barren space to full theater on probbably a yahoo group or something. OH BTW to many of you I want to have your babies LOL, what did we ever do before the net? Crazy, talk to u L8er
Can you give more detail on exactly what was involved in taking apart the 1545v, and how difficult it was?
My reasoning is that I want the same LCD. I know the basic idea of how LCD's work but I'm no electronics expert, so I'm wondering if it will be a bit over my head. I know you have to be RIDICULOUSLY careful.
My reasoning is that I want the same LCD. I know the basic idea of how LCD's work but I'm no electronics expert, so I'm wondering if it will be a bit over my head. I know you have to be RIDICULOUSLY careful.
i'll get pics soon guys. i have to rely on someone else to get me the pics so it will take a bit of time.
I had never taken apart anything electronically complicated before either. I was scared taking it apart but just use common sense... don't put excess stress on the lcd or any wires. First you need to take off the pedestal that it's attached to. Then you need to unscrew the screws that are holding the back plastic housing to the panel...there are some on the back and some on the sides I think. You shouldn't need to take out the screws holding the power plug and vga plug. After you get the back plastic off, the circuit boards will be exposed. From what I remember you want to unscrew the metal frame that the circuit boards are attached to so that it comes loose... I think there are a couple screws on the side that hold two small ribbon cables... these are for the backlight and you want to detach them. In this same process there is a rectangular circuit board underneath the metal housing... this is used for the buttons in front and you can detach the ribbon cable to it for now. You'll notices that there are 2 wider ribbon cables close to each other that go through a hole in the metal and plug into something underneath. These cables are fragile and they carry the power and image information to the screen... don't break them or you are screwed. You should be able to lift the metal housing up about an inch to gain a glimpse of what they're attached to. I forget if there are screws holding them but if there are, take them out carefully. Then you can take a butter knife or something similar to pry up the ribbon cables (they are simply snapped into a little plug underneath). At this point you should be able to take off the the metal housing and circuit boards. You are left with the lcd and backlight. Take off all the screws you see. Some are quite small at this point so you'll definitely need a small set of screw drivers. I actually stripped one of the tiny ones that are right on the backlight, so I had to drill it out very carefully using a bit that is the same diameter of the screw (including the thread). You'll take off all the screws and wonder why the hell the back light isn't seperating from the lcd. That's because the metal housing is glued together in parts... exactly where they look like they could be glued together. So take a knife and run it through the two glued pieces of metal and they will seperate. You will have to peel back any metal flaps that are keeping the until together. After you get done with this the lcd will seperate from the backlight and you're golden.
Place the lcd on your ohp with the little plug that's on one of it's attached circuit boards facing the rear of your projector. Build a temporary platform in the rear of the ohp to sit the rest of the circuit boards on. You need to plug in that little plug with the two ribbon cables attached into the lcd. The ribbon cables are quite short so you'll need proximity. Tape the grounds together (see another thread about the 1545v for pics) and plug in the vga and power cables. Turn on your ohp and then turn on your lcd. You should have an image!! The ribbon cables that go to the lcd are the achilles heel of this entire setup. That's one reason why I'm buiding a wooden cabinent to enclose everything and lock everything in place. I will have the circuit board vertically oriented on the rear cabinet wall... this will keep them close to the lcd and also out of the way of everything else.
Let me know if there are any other questions and if you need to post pics of your partially taken apart lcd and post them if you are in a bind.
I had never taken apart anything electronically complicated before either. I was scared taking it apart but just use common sense... don't put excess stress on the lcd or any wires. First you need to take off the pedestal that it's attached to. Then you need to unscrew the screws that are holding the back plastic housing to the panel...there are some on the back and some on the sides I think. You shouldn't need to take out the screws holding the power plug and vga plug. After you get the back plastic off, the circuit boards will be exposed. From what I remember you want to unscrew the metal frame that the circuit boards are attached to so that it comes loose... I think there are a couple screws on the side that hold two small ribbon cables... these are for the backlight and you want to detach them. In this same process there is a rectangular circuit board underneath the metal housing... this is used for the buttons in front and you can detach the ribbon cable to it for now. You'll notices that there are 2 wider ribbon cables close to each other that go through a hole in the metal and plug into something underneath. These cables are fragile and they carry the power and image information to the screen... don't break them or you are screwed. You should be able to lift the metal housing up about an inch to gain a glimpse of what they're attached to. I forget if there are screws holding them but if there are, take them out carefully. Then you can take a butter knife or something similar to pry up the ribbon cables (they are simply snapped into a little plug underneath). At this point you should be able to take off the the metal housing and circuit boards. You are left with the lcd and backlight. Take off all the screws you see. Some are quite small at this point so you'll definitely need a small set of screw drivers. I actually stripped one of the tiny ones that are right on the backlight, so I had to drill it out very carefully using a bit that is the same diameter of the screw (including the thread). You'll take off all the screws and wonder why the hell the back light isn't seperating from the lcd. That's because the metal housing is glued together in parts... exactly where they look like they could be glued together. So take a knife and run it through the two glued pieces of metal and they will seperate. You will have to peel back any metal flaps that are keeping the until together. After you get done with this the lcd will seperate from the backlight and you're golden.
Place the lcd on your ohp with the little plug that's on one of it's attached circuit boards facing the rear of your projector. Build a temporary platform in the rear of the ohp to sit the rest of the circuit boards on. You need to plug in that little plug with the two ribbon cables attached into the lcd. The ribbon cables are quite short so you'll need proximity. Tape the grounds together (see another thread about the 1545v for pics) and plug in the vga and power cables. Turn on your ohp and then turn on your lcd. You should have an image!! The ribbon cables that go to the lcd are the achilles heel of this entire setup. That's one reason why I'm buiding a wooden cabinent to enclose everything and lock everything in place. I will have the circuit board vertically oriented on the rear cabinet wall... this will keep them close to the lcd and also out of the way of everything else.
Let me know if there are any other questions and if you need to post pics of your partially taken apart lcd and post them if you are in a bind.
Hi everyone,
I have been reading about this NEC 1545 LCD monitor on this thread. It seems to be a popular one to use for modifying. I am thinking that someday I might like to mod one myself but I haven't really seen a complete set of instructions on how to do the mods.
I was thinking if anyone with a successful experience with modding an NEC 1545 could post some of their results, pictures, comments and instructions I would summarize it in a hopefully easy to follow website so we could all share it.
You can post your info here on this thread or email it to me at parkandsusan@yahoo.com.
Just trying to be helpful.
thanks
I have been reading about this NEC 1545 LCD monitor on this thread. It seems to be a popular one to use for modifying. I am thinking that someday I might like to mod one myself but I haven't really seen a complete set of instructions on how to do the mods.
I was thinking if anyone with a successful experience with modding an NEC 1545 could post some of their results, pictures, comments and instructions I would summarize it in a hopefully easy to follow website so we could all share it.
You can post your info here on this thread or email it to me at parkandsusan@yahoo.com.
Just trying to be helpful.
thanks
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