Hi Forum,
nice to know that the diy-projector community still exists!
I sort of have a related project that I always wanted to start, but I need some help:
I own a Mathmos Space Projector (in case you don't know what I am talking about: LINK ) that I bought quite a while ago, but that gets lots of use from my girlfriend...
Basically it is a 20W Halogen spot, a rotating disc filled with colored oil (heat sensitive) and a plastic tube with two cheap plastic lenses that is used as a combined focus&zoom.
This thing is really cheaply produced and I always wanted to improve on the concept, here's what I want to do and need advice on:
1. replace the existing lamp with a high power LED Spot:
- I figure something in the 8-10 Watt range should be good?!
-> More light for a better picture, less light spill due to the directionality of LED spots, plus less prone to hotspot (you always have a darker spot in the middle of the projection, since there is no sort of fresnell in the light path). 8-10 watt should have enough heat output for the oils to react, yet should stay cool enough for the system not to overheat?!?
2. replace the optical system with something cheap (old photo optics?!?!), yet better than those plastic lenses...
- basically a small cctv lens fits inside of that tube, but maybe just replacing the lenses would be the better, yet more complex way to go?!?
I don't want to spend too much money on this thing (then I might as well save on a Solar 250 or some other professional system), but getting a nicer picture for a couple of bucks would make my gf very happy... 😉
So: can it be done? Any thoughts?! Any info / pictures needed?
Cheers!
Steffen
nice to know that the diy-projector community still exists!
I sort of have a related project that I always wanted to start, but I need some help:
I own a Mathmos Space Projector (in case you don't know what I am talking about: LINK ) that I bought quite a while ago, but that gets lots of use from my girlfriend...
Basically it is a 20W Halogen spot, a rotating disc filled with colored oil (heat sensitive) and a plastic tube with two cheap plastic lenses that is used as a combined focus&zoom.
This thing is really cheaply produced and I always wanted to improve on the concept, here's what I want to do and need advice on:
1. replace the existing lamp with a high power LED Spot:
- I figure something in the 8-10 Watt range should be good?!
-> More light for a better picture, less light spill due to the directionality of LED spots, plus less prone to hotspot (you always have a darker spot in the middle of the projection, since there is no sort of fresnell in the light path). 8-10 watt should have enough heat output for the oils to react, yet should stay cool enough for the system not to overheat?!?
2. replace the optical system with something cheap (old photo optics?!?!), yet better than those plastic lenses...
- basically a small cctv lens fits inside of that tube, but maybe just replacing the lenses would be the better, yet more complex way to go?!?
I don't want to spend too much money on this thing (then I might as well save on a Solar 250 or some other professional system), but getting a nicer picture for a couple of bucks would make my gf very happy... 😉
So: can it be done? Any thoughts?! Any info / pictures needed?
Cheers!
Steffen