DIY Projector 2.0

[rembetis]

Well, after finishing a projector for my little brother (see my Media On-the-Go Kart thread), I was pretty eager to start one for myself. I won't go into the nitty gritty, as the details are already spelled out in gruesome detail in my PLOG (projector log) on the Lumenlab forums, but I thought some specs and pics might be of value to anyone else interested in DIY projectors.

Specs
LCD: Toshiba SD-P2800 portable DVD player (ebay find & fix), 800 x 480.
Lenses: 165mm FL precondenser lens (surplushed), Rear fresnel 200mm FL (3dlens.com), front fresnel 385 FL, projection triplet 342 FL (latter two harvested from 3M 9750 overhead projector)
Lamp: 150W GE ceramic metal halide
Ballast: 150w F-can / m102/142
Other: Schott KG1 heat absorbing (IR/UV) glass, super high contrast polarizer from polarization.com

Total cost: ~ $200

(Very rough) Initial sketch


parts for light engine


light engine assembled


test bed (red circle indicates where hirose cables from portable player are connected)


first test fire (light leak across Darla's face)


enclosure (needs finishing)



Screen shot (after some tweaking, about 100" diagonal)

[Marbles_00]

THAT'S F%$KING AWESOME!!!

Seriously...good job.

[rembetis]

Thanks Marbles. You're a good man for a pat on the back

In in the interests of full disclosure I should say that the projection (and DIY projectors in general) is only that good when the room is in total darkness and you're watching an animation movie. Films with very dark scenes are sometimes problematic, but I believe that is true of some commercial projectors as well.

[dalanik]

My god! Really unbeliveable! Cool...

[samgreco]

WOW! I am indeed impressed. You have me wondering what I can do....

My wife is so going to hate this....

[scottw]

That is one of the best DIY projectors I have seen. I have always wanted a projector but they are still expensive to me. I looked at the DIY's before but a little out of my league.

Keep the pics coming!!!!

[rembetis]

Thanks for the kudos, guys, but honestly my projector is half-assed compared to some of the designs over on Lumenlab and the German site Allinbox. Lots of people are doing 720p designs now, and even a few 1080is.

Check out some of these links. Truly awe-inspiring.

Projet de Slize


The Gnu's Widescreen

[scottw]

That does look great but don't cut yourself short, good job

[stomp]

Where do you place your super high contrast polarizer ? in front of lcd between lcd and F2? Or after the Schott KG1 heat absorbing (IR/UV) ?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Umake some gooooood jobs !! o.O thx alot!!

[abobader]

My god! Really unbeliveable! Cool...

I second that!

[rembetis]

Where do you place your super high contrast polarizer ? in front of lcd between lcd and F2? Or after the Schott KG1 heat absorbing (IR/UV) ?

The order of components now goes:
reflector > bulb > Schott glass (now replaced with a hot mirror which still blocks IR buts lets more visible light through) > pre-condenser > rear fresnel > polarizer (affixed to fresnel) > LCD > front fresnel > projection lens.

(In the picture above both fresnels went before the LCD. This is called an unsplit setup and typically results in a sharper image, but the split setup I'm using now allows for some keystoning).

And just to clarify, the polarizer replaces one I removed from the front of the LCD with the antiglare layer (which increases brightness and contrast). Because the lens inverts the image. the LCD faces backwards and is upside-down.

[bigbill117]

Good to see a fellow lumenlab member over here.

[rembetis]

Just thought I'd pop back in and display my latest project -- I ended up upgrading the LCD in the 2.0 projector mentioned in this thread to a 10" 720p panel (hi-def baby!), which freed up the old panel. On a lark, I decided to try to fit it and a bunch of spare parts inside an old pc case.





Not bad for spare parts

[bmblank]

Gladiator!



You could probably pass that computer case projector off as a store-bought one.. Then again I don't know why you'd want to. Half the fun making it known that you built that from scratch..

[Marbles_00]

rem, if i wasn't such a homophobe, I'd kiss ya (not really a fear, but don't care to be around it). I have a couple of old computers kicking around, and the wife's been bugging me to get rid of them...you have given me a new front in reasons to keep the cases at least.

I seriously have to start looking more into these DIY projectors, now that my zoning project is starting to wind down.