I tried powerstrip, and that didn't do anything. I think it might be something with the controller, but I can't find enough data on it to know what kind of color depth it is capable of displaying. At this point I'm just ready to give up on this panel for watching movies and keep it solely for video games, as long as I can get a good vga box. Any ideas? Thanks!!
Here's a bit of an update for those who may have an interest in my progress. I got a 3m 955 ohp off of ebay for $50, but got charged $30 for shipping so I'm not as happy about as I would have been. Oh well. Anyway, I've been trying to figure out why I can't get my desktop to appear on my overhead panel. Right now I have it set to be an extension of the desktop, but that means that I can't get games to work on the wall, only movies. Is there any way to make programs run in a window instead of full screen (like warcraft, myst, etc)? If I can get them to run in a window, then I can drag them over to the extended desktop area and make them appear on my overhead panel. Let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks!
Okay, then, time to revive this old thread with a long post about some progress and a lot of plans (and questions, of course).
The college year is done and I'm in the midst of packing up all my stuff to send home before I get there. My projector stuff is all safely packed away in individual boxes with bubble wrap and styrofoam inside larger boxes that are awaiting UPS to come haul them away.
The last post I made on this thread was about the issues I was having with the LCD I had stripped. I solved those by building myself an HTPC and using it to run the panel. I tried all kinds of things with powerstrip but still couldn't fix the color depth, so I'm resigned to using the panel mostly for watching cartoons and video games. Also, the trial version of powerstrip I downloaded decided to lock my color on a weird temperature, then refuse to open again until I registered, which I have not done. If anyone has a crack or a way to make it let me install the trial again, please let me know.
For the trip home I reinstalled the backlight in the lcd so now I have a pseudo-monitor again. Unfortunately, somehow along the way i banged a tool of some kind against the screen and now there's a circular blot of dead pixels in the upper left hand corner, but regardless this panel has definitely been a good learning experience.
Now for the plan for the summer:
I am going to work on building three separate projectors:
1. Using the 12" LCD and a 175w 4000k metal halide bulb with magnetic ballast, OHP fresnels and possibly the triplet out of the 3M 9550 OHP. I'm going to use a modified flashbulb reflector behind the bulb (regular mogul base bulb) and a 90mm condensor from surplusshed.com. For cooling I bought a bunch of computer fans off of ebay and I also have 2 120v fans that I've been using to cool my dorm room which I'll add if the smaller fans aren't strong enough. This one will stay at home when I go back to school so my brothers can use it to play video games or whatever else they feel like.
2. My old 5" lcd will be built into a small enclosure with shorter focal fresnel that I have yet to find. I have an objective lens of unknown composition from American Science and Surplus with a focal of 190mm or so and a matched set of 1.5" reflector and condensor from an old slide projector that I will mount around a 600w DYS halogen bulb (hot, I know, but I'm hopeful that I will be able to cool it). I'll make a focusing mechanism out of some gears that I cannibalized out of an epson printer that was sitting round the dorm, and maybe even motorize it if I can find out how to power the little motors I tore out of the printer as well. (I will do the same for the first projector as well).
3. This one I will be taking back to college with me (hopefully). I bought a CTX EzPro 580 projector off of ebay for $130 with shipping with a blown bulb. The seller did not guarantee that it woudl work with a bulb, but I'm hopeful (I'd better be, since I already bought the damn thing). I am going to go one of two ways. I will either tear apart the projector and build my own enclosure using the optics and electronics with an hqi or halogen bulb setup, or I will try to retrofit another light source into the projector itself. I have been following the current threads on this topic with a lot of interest, and hope that someone finds a good method for doing this that I can confidently follow and get good results.
So those will be my summer projects. Now for the questions:
I want to add IR and UV filtering to all of these. What is the best way to do this? Should I get UV camera lens filters to place behind the condenser? Is a cold mirror the same as an IR filter or should it be used in addition to the IR filter? Surplusshed.com has a 5" heat reflecting filter. Would that work? Also, I'm trying to find a good source for a socket to use with the DYS halogen bulb. Does anyone know a good cheap supplier? Thanks for all your help, and I will hopefully post my progress as soon as I get home.
Also, if anyone wants a huge flash reflector (circular, about 7" diameter) let me know. It might work well with one of the large 400w metal halides, or just give you a lot of flood light, I don't know.
The college year is done and I'm in the midst of packing up all my stuff to send home before I get there. My projector stuff is all safely packed away in individual boxes with bubble wrap and styrofoam inside larger boxes that are awaiting UPS to come haul them away.
The last post I made on this thread was about the issues I was having with the LCD I had stripped. I solved those by building myself an HTPC and using it to run the panel. I tried all kinds of things with powerstrip but still couldn't fix the color depth, so I'm resigned to using the panel mostly for watching cartoons and video games. Also, the trial version of powerstrip I downloaded decided to lock my color on a weird temperature, then refuse to open again until I registered, which I have not done. If anyone has a crack or a way to make it let me install the trial again, please let me know.
For the trip home I reinstalled the backlight in the lcd so now I have a pseudo-monitor again. Unfortunately, somehow along the way i banged a tool of some kind against the screen and now there's a circular blot of dead pixels in the upper left hand corner, but regardless this panel has definitely been a good learning experience.
Now for the plan for the summer:
I am going to work on building three separate projectors:
1. Using the 12" LCD and a 175w 4000k metal halide bulb with magnetic ballast, OHP fresnels and possibly the triplet out of the 3M 9550 OHP. I'm going to use a modified flashbulb reflector behind the bulb (regular mogul base bulb) and a 90mm condensor from surplusshed.com. For cooling I bought a bunch of computer fans off of ebay and I also have 2 120v fans that I've been using to cool my dorm room which I'll add if the smaller fans aren't strong enough. This one will stay at home when I go back to school so my brothers can use it to play video games or whatever else they feel like.
2. My old 5" lcd will be built into a small enclosure with shorter focal fresnel that I have yet to find. I have an objective lens of unknown composition from American Science and Surplus with a focal of 190mm or so and a matched set of 1.5" reflector and condensor from an old slide projector that I will mount around a 600w DYS halogen bulb (hot, I know, but I'm hopeful that I will be able to cool it). I'll make a focusing mechanism out of some gears that I cannibalized out of an epson printer that was sitting round the dorm, and maybe even motorize it if I can find out how to power the little motors I tore out of the printer as well. (I will do the same for the first projector as well).
3. This one I will be taking back to college with me (hopefully). I bought a CTX EzPro 580 projector off of ebay for $130 with shipping with a blown bulb. The seller did not guarantee that it woudl work with a bulb, but I'm hopeful (I'd better be, since I already bought the damn thing). I am going to go one of two ways. I will either tear apart the projector and build my own enclosure using the optics and electronics with an hqi or halogen bulb setup, or I will try to retrofit another light source into the projector itself. I have been following the current threads on this topic with a lot of interest, and hope that someone finds a good method for doing this that I can confidently follow and get good results.
So those will be my summer projects. Now for the questions:
I want to add IR and UV filtering to all of these. What is the best way to do this? Should I get UV camera lens filters to place behind the condenser? Is a cold mirror the same as an IR filter or should it be used in addition to the IR filter? Surplusshed.com has a 5" heat reflecting filter. Would that work? Also, I'm trying to find a good source for a socket to use with the DYS halogen bulb. Does anyone know a good cheap supplier? Thanks for all your help, and I will hopefully post my progress as soon as I get home.
Also, if anyone wants a huge flash reflector (circular, about 7" diameter) let me know. It might work well with one of the large 400w metal halides, or just give you a lot of flood light, I don't know.
Well in reply to your question about IR filters and cold mirrors being the same, yes they both achive the same job (but they don't do it the same way) of removing IR for us, but cold mirrors are more efficient as they do not use so much of your light, but you will need something behind it (not in contact with it) that can take the heat.
So would it be better to put the IR filter/cold mirror between the bulb and the condenser or the condenser and 1st fresnel? If it is placed before the condenser, then a non-tempered condenser would stand a better chance of not breaking (i know several people have had the surplusshed condenser break) and I would have to have enough cooling to force the hot air out of the light box. I guess I can't really think of a reason why it should be placed after the condenser, but please enlighten me if your views differ. Also, would glass treated to repel UV light be good to place before the 1st fresnel or between it and the LCD? I know some people are using Lexan with a UV coating or something similar, but I haven't read of anyone explicitly using basic UV treated glass (like I would find at a basic hardware store and have them cut to size).
Most of the light boxes I've seen are being made out of metal. Is wood out of the question, even for a lower wattage lamp like the 175w metal halide? I made an older enclosure with it and without any cooling the wood got only mildly warm near the bulb. I also made an older enclosure with a 600w dys halogen and 2 100 cfm 120v fans, but it got too hot for the LCD because I didnt' design any separation between the bulb and the LCD and didn't have an IR filter. So i'll definitely be reworking that with a metal light box and good forced cooling. Answers and opinions would be appreciated, thanks.
Most of the light boxes I've seen are being made out of metal. Is wood out of the question, even for a lower wattage lamp like the 175w metal halide? I made an older enclosure with it and without any cooling the wood got only mildly warm near the bulb. I also made an older enclosure with a 600w dys halogen and 2 100 cfm 120v fans, but it got too hot for the LCD because I didnt' design any separation between the bulb and the LCD and didn't have an IR filter. So i'll definitely be reworking that with a metal light box and good forced cooling. Answers and opinions would be appreciated, thanks.
Well if you used an IR filter you would (you could put it somewhere else though) put it before the condenser and after the bulb, if you have a gap between the filter and the condenser this will protect the condenser from heat. But if you use a cold mirror you would put it after the condeser and before the fresnel, this is because a cold mirror transmits IR and reflects everything else, so you would mount it at 45 degrees to the light and this would not allow the condnser to be close enough to the bulb. With the UV glass you can put it where you want as long as it's behind the lcd, but if you used it before the fresnel, then the fresnel could sit on the glass.
OK, I'm home and staring at all my parts arrayed in the hallway. Lots of stuff, and I've started a little bit on the light engine for my 12" LCD. I mounted the flash reflector to a cut out fan grill, then to a piece of 1/4" MDF. I then ran into some problems with the bulb. I have a magnetic M57 ballast which runs my 10000k large mogul base lamp perfectly, but when i connect it up to a smaller socket (possibly intended only for incandescent lamps, i got it at a hardware store because it fit the bulb) with my new 175w bulb, the bulb doesn't light at all and i hear a low buzzing from inside the ballast. I've tried reversing the wires on the socket, screwing them in differently, and I really don't know what I'm not doing right at this point. Do I absolutely need a special socket for the MH bulb? The larger socket says Pulse Rated 5kv on the center contact, do I need to get something like that?
Here's the second problem. I got the EzPro 580 projector and plugged it in, and nothing happened aside from the bulb inside the power switch turning on. I disassembled most of the projector to look for obviously unplugged/cut leads, didn't find anything. According to the auction the bulb is blown, but I don't see how only a blown bulb could prevent everything else from turning on. The fan doesn't even turn, and pressing the power/standy button does nothing. The lamp itself is a 250w MH that looks like the inner part of an HQI bulb, so it would be relatively easy to mod an HQI in there in place of it.
Any advice about the 175w MH or the projector would be very helpful. I will post pictures and more progress later. Thanks.
Here's the second problem. I got the EzPro 580 projector and plugged it in, and nothing happened aside from the bulb inside the power switch turning on. I disassembled most of the projector to look for obviously unplugged/cut leads, didn't find anything. According to the auction the bulb is blown, but I don't see how only a blown bulb could prevent everything else from turning on. The fan doesn't even turn, and pressing the power/standy button does nothing. The lamp itself is a 250w MH that looks like the inner part of an HQI bulb, so it would be relatively easy to mod an HQI in there in place of it.
Any advice about the 175w MH or the projector would be very helpful. I will post pictures and more progress later. Thanks.
vassarguy in my case the EzPro 550 (it has an Halogen Lamp) when you turn on the rear switch it gives power to the internal cooler, then with the stand by button you just turn on/off the lamp and the LCD begins to work.
In my case what enables the stand by button is an internal switch that is pressed when you close the lamp compartment. The display in this case will be always on, no matter if there is a lamp or not. Of course in your case the power supply may be different because of the different lamp implementation.
I think you first have to check if the power supply is working or not, and if the LCD part is independent of the one that supplys the lamp.
Did you manage to see the condenser lens I was asking for?? If you do please follow the thread I started, or contact me through email.
In my case what enables the stand by button is an internal switch that is pressed when you close the lamp compartment. The display in this case will be always on, no matter if there is a lamp or not. Of course in your case the power supply may be different because of the different lamp implementation.
I think you first have to check if the power supply is working or not, and if the LCD part is independent of the one that supplys the lamp.
Did you manage to see the condenser lens I was asking for?? If you do please follow the thread I started, or contact me through email.
I saw the condenser lens but I haven't been able to successfully get to it. It is glass and looks to be about 70-80mm in diameter and is a PCX (plano convex) with very high magnification. The lens is very curved, almost hemispherical .
The inner electronics of the projector (LCD controller) are actually the same as the 550, even labeled EzPro 550. I also have the switch that is closed when the lamp compartment is closed, but it still doesn't turn on the display. The one thing that is really strange is that the fan doesn't come on at all. Anybody have any answers for that one? Thanks.
The inner electronics of the projector (LCD controller) are actually the same as the 550, even labeled EzPro 550. I also have the switch that is closed when the lamp compartment is closed, but it still doesn't turn on the display. The one thing that is really strange is that the fan doesn't come on at all. Anybody have any answers for that one? Thanks.
Ok, i got the new bulb to work, apparently it just doesn't fire up as quickly as the old one. So problem solved, I'm going back to work on the light engine. I'll post picks when i'm done.
heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!! I've just finished reassembling my projector 'cause of you. I was measuring and taking photos of the power supply to help you solve your problem.
Well....fortunatly you've already do it.
(if you still want my inside pictures just let me know)
Well....fortunatly you've already do it.
(if you still want my inside pictures just let me know)
actually, i still would like the pictures because the bulb that works is actually for my other projector, the one i'm building with a stand-alone lcd screen (the ezpro is my second project). Did the description of the condenser help or do you want me to try to get pictures? Let me know. thanks.
Ok, getting all my projects underway now, lots of fun. Mocked up the light engine for the 12" lcd projector using a 5" steel flashbulb reflector and the 90mm condenser from surplusshed. I also started making the rough lcd tray so I can get all the measurements and tweaking done before I build it into an enclosure. I'm also going to start on my 5" car lcd projector, which I have changed to use FXL halogen bulbs instead, which I have a bunch of sitting around from my old overhead. I have a few surplus 3M ohp fresnels that I will have to cut down to fit. My question is, do I simply cut a rectangle out of the very middle of the lens or is there a special way to do it so that I get a specific focal lenght. Does the focal even change if you cut it down? I've heard differing opinions over the last year or so I've been lurking, so a definitive answer would be appreciated. If the focal is short enough i'm going to build the LCD into an enclosure modeled after the EzPro projector.
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