Widescreen Projector, update: DEC 12 - 2006

I have built one of these. I built a psone one for starters and yes it is a horrible resolution. but I think its worth building one with a 15" lcd

 

I'm sure he's aware of this.

 

Yes i know i could do that now. But when i started this project almost 1,5 years ago i couldn,t. The cheapest around that time I could find in sweden was around 800$ and they had all very bad reviews. And the replacement lamp for those cheap projectors was around 500$ almost as much as a new projector. But today I would probably have bought a projector.

 

but where is the fun in that.
i would make my own buy 1. i have no job at the moment (i hate being a poor highschool student) and 2. i would of done something wrong and it would of sucked.

 

Time for some more pics.

Here is the lamp housing. It's made out of an old m-atx PSU.


The fanguard is cut away and holes are cut on each side to fit the condensorlens and the IR-filter.


testfitting the condensor lens.


the lamp housing is painted using heat resistant 600 C engin paint. To make it cure it needs to be heated slow to 225 C. This was probably not needed in my case but I gave it a try. So I put it in the owen And it turned out well. It looks and feels like black anodized aluminium


Here you can se the conensor lens on top and the IR-Filter on the bottom. The IR-filter is for removing some of the heat from the light directed forward. This will make the tft run a little bit cooler.


The lamp and the lamp attacment with a reflector.




I used wet sanding paper to smoothen the surface where the Heatsink will be. Put some thermal paste on and attached the heatsink with M3 screws/nuts.




Done!

 

...you can also buy a factory "modded" computer case, complete with a chromed plastic robot head at the front and all the CCFL's and LED's you need to out-shine an airport landing strip...
Then again, where's the fun in that? It would not only look boring, it wouldn't really be 'kosher' in the modding community and you could never look at it with that special pride and say to yourself "I made that..".
(Though it would probably be cheaper that a personally customized case)

This project describes the essence of the modding spirit in a great (and very stylish) way


Now for a question about the project itself. What exactly is the heatsink cooling? I'm probably missing something here..

 

Hopfully the heatsink will help the lamphouse and lenses get rid of the heat from the lamp. The heat will spread over a larger surface and make the effect of the fan a little better. Actually I think the heatsink might be to small to make any larger difference because there is a lot of heat. But we'll se

 

To be honest I don't think that a heatsink (no matter what size) will do any difference at all compared to even a slight increase of airflow over the lens and lamp... It seems like the heatsink is only really cooling the top of the lens-holder, thus not affecting either the lamp or the lens in any way.

Though... it's not a bad idea to actually cool the lens holder, less heat spread to the case I suppose.

 

I like your project and it looks like a great design. I have a couple of questions.

1. The image will be reflected off the mirror and through the lens. Is there a concen that dust will invade the interior and interfere or distort the image?

2. When projecting the image, if you don't have the projector aligned perpendicular and in the middle of the screening area, do you get distortion? I'm thinking if you had the projector on a low table and projected upward at 20 degrees or so to fill the top of a wall area. Would the top and botom of the image look different?

 

Isn't this adjustable in the menu of the tft/lcd? You can correct trapazoid images, isn't that in fact the same?

(God I hope this makes sense)

 

Very nice!

The model is just awsome. I too wish to some day build something like this.

Can't wait for another update!

 

Yeah I agree. Saying that it would hopfully help to remove the heat from the lamp and lenses was maybe a little bit to optimistic of me. I guess i thought that if the heatsink cooled the lamphouse the air from the fans didn't have as much heat to remove from the housing and the temperature inside the lamphouse would decrease, resulting in a lower temp . I dont know if thats possible ... But atleast I know it helps to cool the lamphousing, that gets really hot, and I wish to keep the temp down on as many parts as possible

Nice to hear you like it.

1. I plan to use dust filters over the two 80mm airintake fans. This will stop the largest dust particles. Dust on the TFT display will show on the projected image but the dust have to be large to be vissible. Like a small piece of hair etc. Since the focus of the projected picture is on the TFT panel, dust on the fresnellenses, mirror or the triplet lens is most likely not vissible because the dust is so tiny and out of focus. But cleaning it somtimes would be the best. Even the commercial projectors needs to be cleaned from dust in between.

2.Yes, you will get distortion. This is where "Keystone" comes in to place. By tilting the fresnel 2 lens (the one closest to the mirror) you also "tilt" the projected image making it possible to get a normal picture without distortion from a 20 degree angle.

 

hello Mr. The_Gnu I need just 2 minutes of your expertise...you have a private message. Thanks in advance

 

Time for a new update... its been a while since tha last update but I have been busy doing nothing .. will try to keep the updates more regular in the future.

So...here are the new pictures showing the fabrication of the left-front-right wall(s) of the projector case.

All three parts will be constructed from one big pice. Its cut out from the same aluminium plate as the bottom and back plate, using a dremel. I had to use a lot of "cheap" cutting disks because I was out of my original Dremel cutting disks.



I attached the plate to the workbench with some support wood (the dark ones) to get a larger "clamp" surface and avoid bending and misshaping the alu plate.To get the perfect size and nice edges, I used a normal file..??(i think thats what it's called in english) And some 120 , 240 grit sandpaper to get a smooth edge.



The plate is attached to the bench with double sided tape and brushed using the same method as mentioned earlier.




Time to bend. The whole plate is masked exept the parts that will be bent.


to get a smooth and round bend, I use a piece of old broomstick attached to a piece of wood. I clamp the whole structure to the work bench and use another piece of wood to apply even pressure and bend the whole thing


Voila!!



I used the rest of the broomstick to bend the plate a little bit more ,like this to make shure the angle was 90 degrees as the plate was flexing back after the first method.




front


The front is masked and ready for the giant hole to be cut out.


I used a lot of protecting maskin tape as I know that sometimes the Cutting disk might slip away and if that happens 1 layer of masking tape won't do the trick.... but 4 layers will do better safe than sorry.

 

whoa, thats some SEXY work on that aluminium. Thanks for the quick guide on bending it. i have to bend some ally for a project, and i had no idea how i was going to go about it until i read that

Could you tell me what thickness it is?

 

Thx..yeah i relly like those bends to , they turned out much better than I ever expected. The thickness of the alu is 1.5mm and it was no problem bending it at all. B T W whats your project?

 

Ohh, very nice way of getting a smooth curve! I'll have to remember that

Just out of curiousity, whereabouts in Sweden are you?

 

Its linked to in my sig... not much real work on there yet as i'm in the middle of exams and still collecting parts

 

Time for some more pics of the projector case assembly.
CLICK images for larger pictures



the cutt is finished with a file and 240 grit sandpaper to get a perfectly smooth edge.


I will use a big piece of frostet plexi in that big hole. I will paint it black to prevent any light leaks. This is the plexi I am using. I got it from my temporary work at a drugstore. They where in the middle of moving the whole store and they had a lot of plexi that was about to be thrown away. So I got it This big piece of frosted plexi is actually a commercial stand for women make up.


Here is some of the other plexi I got for free. Take this amount x3...couldn't fit everything in the picture.




easy way to get nice edges quick without extra tools.




The piece of frosted plexi is spray painted black using heat resistant engine paint. The heat resistance isn't needed, it was just te only black paint I had and I liked the smooth and thick layer it creates.


Here you can se how it looks from the other side, the one that will be vissible.


This is the painted side of the plexi....two alu bars where cut and drilled. These will be the support for the plexi plate.






never min the finger ...please


test fitting the lamp


you probaby wonder where all the screws and nuts are that will hold this together. They are not there yet, this is just a test fitting and support brackets will be added later. But I will try to keep the screws as stealthed as possible.







I am going to create computer cases with the same theme....think it would be cool. I got the idea when I took this last pic. First of is my HTPC case that can be seen in the alchemy case design contest modding thread. Will hopefully start that project as soon as this thing is Finished

Much more to come.... /GNU

 

gah >.o i want to build one of those nice project cant wait to seep how it performs though, good luck to ya!