DIY Projector Project - Pre-Pre-Planning stage

[Hirudin]

I was wondering, have any of you made a "do it yourself" projector?

I stumbled appon a pdf with instruction to make one. It seems like it would be pretty easy (as long as I took the time to make everything accurately). More or less what you do is build a box with a bulb in it, get a LCD monitor, take it apart, and stick it inside. Then you need a couple sheet lenses that make the light from the bulb pass straight through the LCD and back into another lens that projects the image onto your screen.

Long story short you can build a 1024x768 projector for around $400 (based on a 15" monitor), or if you want to use a larger monitor and get up to hi-def.

I think this would be an awesome project, the main problem is the website that distributes the PDF is very concerned that you purchase a membership to their premium forum ($20 for lifetime).

[nudone]

i think i've seen a similar project in Custom PC magazine - if i can find it i'll let you know.

edit:

just had a look in google - there appears to be quite a few sites talking about such projects.

[Hirudin]

Welp, I've been pouring over the $20 forum for the last week or so (time really flies when I become obsessed with something!). I've decided that I'm going to do it. I've also decided to go big with the projector (not go home)! If everything goes as planned (which it wont) I'll have a HD (1080p) projector within a month or two. I expect to "save" about $12,000 by not buying a comercial projector too! I might scrap the whole thing still, but I don't plan to. (Sorry, that last sentence was only written so that I could have 3 sentences in a row that end in a homonym of the word "to.")

I plan on taking tons of pictures while I build it, I haven't decided if it would be fair (to the greedy forum) to post the pictures on the 'net (for the general public) or if I should post them to the forum...

[mouser]

looking forward to seeing the pictures!

If everything goes as planned (which it wont)

lol

[f0dder]

Hrm, you should look around some more before you start this project - I remember reading about it sometime (I think it was with a fresnel lens?), but quickly found some other sites stating that the quality was pretty poor, and required some pretty insane lighting to even work.

[Hirudin]

Yeah, the light source is pretty serious. The forum reccomends an Ushio S400DD lamp. It's a 400 watt, 33,000 lumen, hot-ass light! You have to take precautions not to melt your lenses and I think even your LCD! I'm going to add a little extra cooling/heat sheilding, as the LCD I plan to use is pretty darn expensive!

This website I'm on (LumenLab) seems to be a very good resource. There aren't very many descenting opinions on there, which could be either good or bad. I've probably spent about 20 hours of research on there.

Before I actually start ordering parts (next week) I'll probably branch out a little and see if I can find anything better or the same stuff anywhere else. I've done that a little, and there doesn't seem to be much else out there so far.

I know it wont all be peaches and creame, but I think it'll be something I can live with. I'll never really know until I try.

One thing that will be nice about this is that since I'm building it myself I'll know it inside-and-out. If something comes along that would make my projector better I can always put it in later. If the picture is too dim I can put in a better reflector, or a higher power bulb. Maybe since LED technology is progressing so rapidly I'll be able to make the light source an LED in a couple years.

[mouser]

and you can always use it to heat your house in the winter.