This Isn't my Win95 desktop !?
And why is that notebook screen drawing vertical blue lines ?
Must be the heat...
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Ripped LCD-screen from notebook(486-25 so no big loss) |
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Add 500W Halogen lamp |
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Avoid light spoilage |
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Switch on light |
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Result: This Isn't my Win95 desktop !? And why is that notebook screen drawing vertical blue lines ? Must be the heat... |
| LCD projection panel: 640*480*24? | €45 + €25 transport + €20 payment method |
| Lamp : 400 Watt Metal Halide | €170 for lamp+ballast+ignitor+socket + €60 if you drop one lamp ;-) |
| OverHead Projector : broken | €0 includes fressnel lens, sferical reflector and an projection lens |
| Case : Big cardboard box | €0 unless you have to buy a monitor to get one |
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back->front Reflector from OHP, lamp, fresnel pressed against LCD-panel Don't mind the magnifier-glass-lens between the lamp and the fressnel. |
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View from the side Once again, Don't mind the magnification-glass-lens on the right side of the lamp |
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Ballast + Ignitor for MH lamp heater is for cooling |
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Fresnel attached to LCD-panel, zero gap |
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On the other side of LCD : projection lens |
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Cardboard box to keep room dark |
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To reduce possible problem-solving I used the best movie to test the setup. This way I had absolute certainty that any problems occurring weren't caused by the test-movie. |
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These pictures were taken with an Hi8 video-camera and captured with a TV card, therefor the results aren't really representative of the image quality. |
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replaced the small sferical first-surface reflector from the OHP with a big inox ladle (€15) which I had polished till an acceptable level of "shinyness" |
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removed the double convex lens (magnification glass) mentioned above; no condenser will be used in this projector |
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put a gap between fresnel and LCD panel to increase the light through the LCD (bigger fressnel than LCD) |
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turned the "projection lens"/objective (last lens in the optical pathway) around; I had noticed I couldn't get the image sharp on the sides when it was sharp in the middle and the other way around; I figured this out rather fast, unlike those lousy Hubble Space Telescope scientists. |
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theory; blue=LCD |
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before projection lens: image upside down |
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Light converging to projection lens (fresnel working) |
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projection 2.54cm = 1" |
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Distance projection lens - screen |
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Close-up |
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Even with one curtain open, the image remains visible |
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preparing panel |
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milling cutter |
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adjust hight |
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adjust dept; panels have to fit, otherwise you have to use more glue |
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this thing turns @ 15000 RPM (a guess), I had to use a 1/10.000.000sec shutter speed for this picture :-) |
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pic taken from behind of upside down box, notice the white isomo/polystyrene foam (for insulation) on the garage door on which the first test-screens were projected |
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front |
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back + top, all holes in lid are for cooling (hot air out) |
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left side, the socket of the lamp will go through this hole I chose this sollution above making the whole box 6cm wider my next projector will make use of a double ended 250W MH lamp to eliminate the bulky socket of a 400W MH |
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the small holes in the sides (near the front) are air-intake for LCD cooling |
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front, the 2 small holes just beneath the lid enable a sliding projection lens |
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back panel, 3 large blow-holes (cold air intake), ATX backpanel and cutouts for switches/LEDs |
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optics and glass-heat-shields will be mounted on sliding panels, there are 5 of these |
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looking through 12cm blowhole |
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sliding mechanism |
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back panel put in, switches + relais (€20) and LEDs are mounted but not yet glued in the panel |
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here you can see the panel for the projection lens, which can slide away from the box to focus and slide back in to reduce space when not in use |
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some wires, the cable that goes through the back panel is the signal cable for LCD, which I created from a monitor extension cable and a 15 pins gameport cable. I didn't get an LCD-signal cable when I bought it but a nice guy at diyaudio reverse engineered his cable for the good of mankind. |
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the switches in all their glory I know the 2 push switches aren't properly aligned but I have crappy modding skills The red switches feature a built-in 240V mini-lamp; they will draw attention away from the push switches |
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My trusty workmate |
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glueing glass to frame, it's allways nice to have a lot of clamps at your disposal |
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the LCD controller board in the front end of the box an ATX power supply stripped out of its case and reflector-spoon |
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looking through the lamp-socket hole |
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the first piece of glass will keep the heat of the lamp away from the fresnel air can go passed it by the sides |
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look through front |
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use the cramps, this is to cover the protruding part of the socket |
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attached fresnel lens(es) there are 2 of them, one to converge diverging rays from lamp to parallel rays and one to converge those parallel rays further. they are pressed against glass because they were curved a little In a next projector I will SPLIT the fressnel and mount one on every side of the LCD LCD's prefer parallel light rays going through them, I hope this reduces the "HOTSPOT"-effect |
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there are some minor scratches visible on the sides of the fresnel; I f*cked up sawing the sides off but since there is no image yet at this stage, only light, there's no major problem |
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I had to align these screws correctly, else they wouldn't have been of much use. I used a pensil and a ruler to accomplish the alignment, if only I could have figured that out a bit earlier |
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mounting LCD |
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LCD |
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projection lens, it was allready glued in the front panel but in a rather girlish whim I wanted to add the darker wood for decoration. |
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the result, still have to remove some glue and clean the lens, allthough cleaning things is girlish too ... I'll ask my sister to do that. the projections from the BIOS below are made using this uncleaned lens |
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400W MH lamp, very efficient, hot, bright, white and big. mounted in socket |
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added reflector, this will prevent direct light-leak through back-panel |
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3 4cm front fans, the bolts to hold them were barely long enough... |
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...that's why I had to piece the heads into the wood, so this really is not decorational, its functional. |
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ballast (big white box) and ignitor |
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top view, I used my broken lamp for testing, didn't want to break the other one too.. the hole at the top in the bottom of the case is to let IR light from LCD-panel-remote-control through the bottom panel to the LCD controller |
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the connector to make lid removable and give juice to the 3 front fans |
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I will change this connector later to something more appropriate |
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back panel glued in place (big mistake), added 12cm fan and fan-grills the grills are functional, not decorative !! they protect fingers |
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added 4 squares on which the motherboard will be placed |
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motherboard with builtin CPU (Duron @ 892MHz), VGA, Sound & LAN (SIS chipset): ECS K7SEM + 128 MB SDR SDRAM €100 for motherboard, took the RAM from another system I will remove the CPU fan later on, since most of the intake air (by 12cm fan and 2*6cm fans) will leave the system through the hole above the CPU and cool the heatsink sufficiently (i hope) UPDATE : will keep CPU fan (with resistor) added another 128MB RAM (€8) |
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left->right : 12V * 2A for LCD+controller , 12V (will change to 10V) for 3 fans and signal-cable |
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first "drawer" is to prevent heat to reach the (plastic) fresnel lens second is fresnel fourth is LCD third and fifth are glass and serve to create a seperate (cool) environment for LCD |
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added the two 6cm fans, I wanted to use 8cm fans first but I couldn't fit them in, that's why the holes are too big and yes the hole for the 12cm fan is 13cm, I have no valid excuse for that. |
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thermal insulation between socket and ATX cables I will need to reroute the black high voltage cable away from the PSU because the 5000V(?) starting-current shuts down the PSU or/and the PC |
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problem, the lamp didn't start while gluing in the switches on the back panel i hadn't noticed there were small holes in them through which the glue penetrated and screwed the switching mechanism while trying to open them the hard way one died, the other suffered major injuries, that's why the white cable was used to supply current to the ballast |
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close-up of what once used to be a switch with builtin mini-lamp some things could have been done slightly "cleaner", I marked a few of them... ...and entered the projector for "Extreme Makeover" |
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test without motherboard, displaying LCD test-screen (nView Spectra C), no projection lens yet |
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lights out, projecting on garage door, no projection lens so no image but look at that tiny (broken) red light !! |
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motherboard + power cables + LED cables + switch cables; the hard disk will be placed on top of the PCI slots |
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CPU fan will (UPDATE: ...not...) be removed |
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added projection lens, projecting BIOS screen, put some weights on the lid because there's no locking mechanism yet to hold it down, the bent ATX power cables tended to push the lid up |
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temperatures: 51°C for CPU and 35° for system, those are quite acceptable values note that this projection was on PS-foam through the uncleaned projection lens |
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that's it for today (after 19 houres of work) |
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rerouted lamp-cables away from PSU, an improvement, now the PSU switches down only occasionally when lamp is started, not allways so I still start the lamp before I start the computer/fans |
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route cables between PCI/AMR/AGP slots |
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added HD CPU fan removed, had to add it again (not on heatsink) a bit later since I couldn't switch fan-detection off in BIOS |
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HD came out a little on top the solution proved rather obvious.. |
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...milling the lid |
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added objective/projection-lens and clamps to hold lid down |
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Is there a malfunction? Why is that cute bright red light burning? The 3 LEDS are always on because of reflected light from the MH lamp through them, will have to add some tape |
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projecting on projection screen (instead of garage door) |
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temps acceptable, this is without fan on CPU but with a lot of air leaving the case through the hole above the heatsink projector has been running in this configuration for 45 minutes without getting much hotter |
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these pictures really don't do justice to the image quality in real life its bright and sharp and high-res my crappy camera doesn't work in the dark |
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had to pull half of the box to pieces to get to the electric circuit notice my tidiness |
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resistors to silence fans, cleaned up the wire-mess too |
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dust-filters |
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locks to keep lid down |
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reduced weight of projection lens |
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external HD the mouse is a modded(duck-taped) MS optical... |
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with the fans running slower everything got hotter, still 60°C isn't that bad |
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at last !! a large-screen aquarium |
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even with background light on my camera takes grainy pictures |
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close-up of taskbar |
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Amélie in 4:3 |
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Asterix & Obélix 2: The return featuring Jamel, 2.78/1 |
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Lagaan; best Indian cricket movie of the year |
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Allmost done |
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Allmost Done: The Return |
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Allmost done strikes back UPDATE: back then I didn't know that DIY-projector is NEVER "done", building a second one as we speak |
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Action Quake2 |
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hugging screen / diagonal |
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added floppy drive :-) |
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insulated wires (lamp + ATX power supply) with thin foil and blue tape to hold thin foil |
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to no avail |
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PSU still shuts down when I start the lamp, so I have to start the lamp before the PSU... |
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bigger than the shuttle but smaller than a maxi tower |
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but it has a built-in display device ;-) and not a small one |
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2.30m diagonal, projected on the wall |
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15" monitor = 1/42 miss UK BTW |
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black borders |
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and black clamps |
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black filters |
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tripod mounted |
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case badge |
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projection lens |
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keyboard & mouse |
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these(post-its) reduce a "haze" on the final projection UPDATE: make them round instead of rectangular or use a triplet lens (3 pieces of glass) instead of singlet |
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Le Grand Bleu |
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projector on the fridge |
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projector on the fridge 2 |
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2 contacts for LCD-fans instead of connector |
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upper panel = lid |
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finally connected all the LEDs never considered this important; how wrong I was, look at them shine !! |
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new dust-filter for 12cm fan, disconnected the 6cm fans, they just weren't of any use |
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new rectangular "diafragm", it took some time before I understood that the diafragm should be round |
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entered this pic in a "modding contest", won a few Zalman coolers !! |
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Jonathan Ross |
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close-up the colors are washed out because the camera needs more light to function properly |
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that's a 17" underneath |
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and an 75" above |
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pic with flash |
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and another |
