- edit -

This started out as a thread to figure out how to make the smallest projector
from a 5" panel and still make it look like a commercial PJ, but I've since changed
LCDs to a 12.1"... so it's changed.

Then last week (9/4/06) I found out the 12.1" wouldn't work, and after searching
went with a Goodmans 14" TFT LCD, which is working GREAT. Pretty sure that now
the first page is pretty outdated, so if you want to skip ahead to page 2. Unless you
really want to see my Google Sketchups of the smaller case.

I guess if you wanted to go for a small case design, mine would work fine especially
with a 5" 4:3 or 7" 16:9 screen. I would definitely suggest using a 220mm FL fresnel
on the bulb side, though.

- end edit-

Click to view attachment

I see it as 18-20" long, with a height and width of 5-7".
Obviously I would make it a bit wider anyway, and fill in
the spaces.

Does this look right, or am I messed up somehow?

220 mm is the smallest FL fresnel that I think would work
well, correct? Does the FL change when you trim a fresnel?
Do they need to be bigger than the LCD, at least slightly?

Are there projection lenses with a FL of 170mm?

Thanks.

You could use a shorter FL lens and move the light source closer to the LCD possibly eliminating the Fresnel completely. Heat may be an issue depending on the lamp and setup used. There may be a lens available on LL that would work or use one like this 114mm that was posted elsewhere in the forums.

http://www.herbach.com/Merchant2/merchant....tegory_Code=OPT



There are also specialty fresnels in smaller focal length at fairly decent prices available here

http://rolynoptics.thomasnet.com/viewitems...?&forward=1

How about Joe2000Chevy's 7" PJ. It's pretty small. Dual horizontal fold with an OHP bulb.

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=4114

That looks like a great idea. I may use that in part of my design.
The only thing that drove me a bit nuts was trying to find the
design for the new mini-haas... ahh well. C'est la vie...

I have one of these I am not using...
http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/l3297.html

170mm focal length, and the diameter is 40mm.

If you want it, it's yours.

BTW, that is a dead sale item on surplusshed, IE, they don't have it anymore so don't try to add to cart.

Modified design with light and fans:

Click to view attachment

None of the lengths have changed except I moved the tempered glass
and the lexan shield. Cheers.

Nice, clean design. I wonder though, why so wide?? What do you plan to do with all the extra space??

I see you've gone with 2 layers of heat shielding. Most people usually go with one as each extra layer of glass involves a drop of light. Are you concerned with heat reaching your LCD??

Dave

I was thinking a quiet home in the country. Nah, I just want
it to look somewhat like a normal projector, instead of a tube.



I'm really not sure... Being such a small space, yes, I'm worried,
but I was also thinking the Lexan for it's UV cut ability... which I
think tempered glass doesn't do?

For the IR/UV protection you want, you should look into www.rosco.com, they offer a product, #8000, which blocks both IR and UV. Another user on this forum recommended it (I can't remember who though), as he uses it in his PJ.

It's expensive for a large piece, but is only $12.50US for a 2" x 2" square. I've custom ordered a 3" x 2.25" and hope to pick it up next week. It's going to cost me $24CAD for this piece, but from what I understand it does exactly what we want - lets the visible spectrum pass, and reflects IR and UV.

Oh, as for your non-tube like design, if you place the LCD and fresnels and such along one edge of the box, and then use a mirror, you can get the size of your box down a bit (length wise). Just a thought.

Dave

Can't find it. Any chance of a link?



Is it stronger than Lexan against heat? That's my only problem with
just having Lexan, and missing UV protection is the reason I don't
want to go with just T-Glass.



Actually, I'll try something and post it. I could use a double fold like
I did with my current projector, and possibly make it just about the
exact size of my friend's commercial PJ. I love it.

Well, I ordered my piece today and asked about the operating temerature while I was at it. He said it is designed to operate up to 200'C over long periods of time, but will withstand up to about 450'C over short period. This seems more than sufficient, particularly if you are cooling the glass. I told him about the situation it would be used in (filtering 400W MH bulb at about 6cm from bulb arc) and he suggested it would be no problem, especially if there was active cooling in the light box (as opposed to just convective exhaust).

So, the UV/IR filter is a coating applied to a clear layer of the company's permacolor glass. Here is a link to the specifications of that type of glass:

http://www.rosco.com/us/filters/permacolor...yFile=TechSpecs

Here's a link to the actual UV/IR filter page (doesn't contain much information):

http://www.rosco.com/us/filters/permacolor...isplayFile=IRUV

Hope this helps. Once my shipment arrives next weekend, I should be able to comment a bit better as to the quality of the product. But the final judgement won't come until it sits in my light box.

Dave

Figures.

It looks like I may be changing the size of my new projector. I just
found this on eBay, and submitted an offer for it. Hopefully he takes
it. 12.1 inch at 4:3 makes it 9.7 x 7.3 inches, so my width and height
are set to at least that. When I was thinking about the LCD
for this, I was going to have to find something that was high res but
close to that small size, which just isn't happening right now without
shelling out quite a bit (at least to me).

Really, I was mostly concerned about getting 480i out of the projector,
since that's what DVDs are in, which this should allow me to do. 30ms
makes it 33 frames per sec, which is just enough for video, and I don't
play games except on game systems anyway, which have crappy frame
rates anyway (still don't know about the XBOX 360, since I refuse to buy
one)... and to continue the beginning of this paragraph, I can get a vga
transcoder to do the 480i. (I think, unless I'm just expecting too much
out of those things)

But, thank you for the link, it sounds like just what I needed!

Sorry for the rant.

And it looks like the day is gonna be a good one. I won one of those.

So the 5" is no more?? I hope your new panel does the trick.

It's actually kind of nice that I won this one, since I'll actually have
an OSD where I can control brightness and contrast, etc... The
digital photo frame I was using was missing the controls, so I think
that might be part of why I've been having white washout issues.

But, the 5" was 960x234... this is 800x600, which should be able to
be used with 480p with a transcoder like this. Which would be really
sweet!

Click to view attachment

Here's the new basic plan with the distances correct. This version
will require a PJ lens with an FL of ~280mm. I'll modify this post
with a version that has lengths on it tonight.

Looking good, once again. Two Qs. What program are you using for the diagrams? Why the increase in focal length??

The triplet I'm using is adjustable from 274 to 320mm, I took it out of an Apollo Odyssey 11000 OHP (bought the PJ off ebay for $70CAD). I think it's a pretty good lense, maybe the is a little small at 45mm - nobody wants FOV issues.

I think LL also sells a varifocal lens that could put you in the ball park of 280mm.

Dave

Google Sketchup... it's fantastic! An idiot to technical drawing like me
can actually draw something in 3d.



Wasn't really sure. I'm still having an interesting time understanding the
whole idea of the way optics work. I'm guessing you want your light the
FL away of the collimating fresnel, and the PJ lens the FL away from the
collector, but you want the focal length of the PJ lens to be the distance
away from the LCD, right?

If so... it's 245mm (9.68") now at it's closest, and 300mm (11.81") at the
furthest available LCD distance. I'm pretty sure. The LCD just needs to
be completely covered in the light path, I think, which is why there's a
variable as to how far away it can be, and it gives you some leeway with
the PJ lens. How's that for fuzzy reasoning? Probably completely
wrong, and if I am, someone correct me.



The only two lenses I have at the moment are the on from the OHP that
I gutted, which I think had a FL of like 11" or something, and one that
tgreenwood sent me which is 6" in diameter with a FL of 12". Neither have
variability... and I'm cost locked at the moment, especially after buying the
12.1" LCD.

Especially.

Anyway... here's the updated graphic with the LCD as far back as I want it
to go:

Click to view attachment

Well, I think you got it, for the most part. Here's how I think of it for unsplit fresnels:

The triplet focuses on the LCD (ignore the light source and 2 fresnels for now).
Basically the distance from the LCD to the triplet is dependent upon the distance from the triplet to the projected image and the focal length of the triplet. The equation is 1/focal = 1/LCDdist + 1/IMAGEdist.
So what's primarily important for a focused image is that the LCD distance and image distance correspond to the focal length of your lens.

As for the fresnels... You want a field fresnel (the one that 'collapses' the rectangle of light to a point as it passes through the LCD) to match the focal length of your triplet because you want all of the light to fit into the triplet lens. This way all the light that goes through the LCD makes it's way into the triplet.

So for a 317mm triplet with a 50mm diameter, you can see that the cone of light will fit into the lens nicely at a certain distance from the LCD (probably something like between 270mm and 350mm in this example). If you don't match the two properly, then the light cone from the fresnel is too large to fit into the triplet, and you lose all kinds of light. This is called a field of view problem.

Well, that how I see it.

Dave

Okay... newest smallest straight shot plans with the dimensions added in:

Click to view attachment

- edit -

Just realized that I should change the name of this topic.

This is also incorporating the ceramic lamp from the next post, thus I'm
losing the heat shield / uv block.

Ok... think I've figured out what I want to use, but it's going to take just
a little bit of figuring out.

What I've got:

12.1" LCD Panel - 800x600
2 OHP Fresnels - Need to figure out FL, may buy new ones (220 and 317
set, probably)
6" Diameter Projection Lens - Similar to OHP lens I'm using, just huge... if
it's too hard to use I'll just use one of my OHP lenses.

I need to get:

150/250w Ceramic MH Lamp

As to the last, I've been watching Elken's thread about using ceramic,
and I think that the trade off of more accurate color rendering is much
more important to me than viewing my projection in broad daylight.
Heat also seems to be much less of an issue, which is fantastic for me.

I live in Florida... I hate heat.

So, once I figure out those OHP Fresnels and see if they're usable, I'll
post the new plans and start to buy up the stuff I need for my second
build.

I'm going to spend more time on design this time now that I've proven
that I can actually build a projector. I want to go with the MH bulbs now
so that I don't have to replace them as often. I also want to spend time
on designing a good focusing mechanism and also want to figure out if
I'll need any keystone adjustment.

Looks like good news today.

The 12.1" I got seems to have NO FFC issues. I opened it up and all I could
see was wires... beautiful wires.

Ok... don't have the thing sitting in front of me, because I'm at work...

I finally got my light source. One of my friends introduced me to her friend
that worked at a light bulb store, so I was able to get a 250w universal MH
ED28 (yep... big, wanted BT), mogul base, and ballast for $90 after tax.

Not too bad, I think, especially because now if there's something wrong with
anything, I have someone to go talk to unlike eBay. I'm still trying to
figure out the way I'm going to do the case.

I'd like to do vertical, if only to save floor space, but I worry about all that
heat rising. I'm not that worried, because I know how to cool things, but it
still gives me the jitters. Guess if I do that, I'm going to do the threaded
rod setup since it seems to be the easiest way to get everything set up for
the right distances.

Gonna try it out in sketchup when I get a chance.

So I've been kinda busy... and this weekend was taken up by my rediscovery of
virtual machines. I've always been fascinated by them, and the new VMWare
Workstation is awesome. I've already built like 3 linux and 2 windows images, and
now I'm working on an OSX VM with PearPC, which is installing (slowly) at the
moment.

However, I got my bulb mounted on a test board, and over the next few days I'll
be starting it up. Anyone know how long the first burn is supposed to be? I've
read rumors that these need burn in time.

Also... against all reason, I'm going vertical. I just really like the smaller footprint.
Plans to come in the next few days as well.

So, while there was supposedly a tropical storm headed our way, I went to Home
Depot for projector supplies instead of things to nail in front of my windows...

Got a 3 day weekend coming up in a few days, and I think I'm going to knock out
the projector then. Tweak it during the week...

Only thing going on this weekend is a show with my band on the local college radio
station at 3am on Sunday morn. If anyone wants to listen, it'll be on the station's
webcast at http://www.rollins.edu/wprk/, just click on the link for listen online in the
top right corner. Our band's name is FWD: ... Scary futurerock stuff.

With a 250 watt setup you won't have to worry about heat. My first build was a 250watt vertical and I'm working on a smaller version of it now. You can use just one 92mm or 120mmm fan to pull the air out no worries. If you plan to use the fresnels from the ohp it shouldn'g be a problem for you more than likely though the rear focal length will be 317mm. If you are stripping the fresnels from an ohp setup just measure thebulb to fresnels distance inside of it, if it has a mirror then add the distance from the bulb to mirror then mirror to fresnel.

250 wattvertical build
pages 1-20 of this plog were also with a 250watt bulb and a 15" lcdtv so its possible 250 watt lcdtv

You may want to look into purhcasing a regular triplet though if the one you have is a doublet then it will give your image a more yellowish tint the triplets handle colors much better.

Looking forward to seeing some of your plans though hell you should be able to build a pretty small setup but you'll still need to place it on a stand to give it the extra height or just build it tall and use the space on the bottom for storage.

Good Luck

DM

Glad to hear things are coming along. I havn't yet done my bulb burn in, but from what I hear, you want about 2hrs minimum (some burn overnight upwards of 8hrs).

I don't recall reading that your PJ lens was a doublet, but I've seen projections from doublets. Compared to triplets, well, there is no comparison. The 6" diameter, though, should help you capture most, if not all, of the light passing through your LCD.

Keep us posted.

Dave

Yep, got a fresnel set and tempered glass from the last OHP I gutted that I'm
going to try out. I think they're of the 220/330 variety. If it doesn't work, then
I'm ordering a set from LL (that'll just mean it will take longer...). I've already
got a couple 80mm fans, but I think I may go over and get one of those quiet
120mm (or larger) fans, since it will be pretty much sealed (unlike the last one).

And I'm still trying to talk myself into vertical. I did some measurements the
other day, and figured out it's only going to be a shade longer than my last PJ,
but half the height (with no fold, of course), so I'll be able to use the projector
stand that I built... which I keep forgetting to take pictures of, now that it's all
done.



Yeah... no doublet or triplet. It's a single lens... I have like 3 of them. Two
three inch diameter ones, and the one six inch. I'm wondering if I could make
a poor man's triplet or something. Just kidding!

However, when I was playing with the lenses, I was having a little fun. I held
the six inch one in front of the other and made a perfect little tiny projection
about 6-12 inches away from the lens. Weird. Maybe that's how you get super
long throw or something.

It's looking to be about 24" for the main "box" so far, and an additional 3-6" on
the front for the focusing dependant on how I decide to make it focus. I'm
pretty sure of how I'm going to do it tho. I'm gonna draw it (sketchup takes too
long) and scan it in later.

Thanks for the encouragement from both you and Dave!

No probs I must admit that I have neglected my 250 watt setup for some time now it works in a ugly ghetto kinda way. I'm going lazy with it though and putting my cousin to work on the box he's a carpenter so all I need is to giv ehime the measurements.

You should be able to shave off a good couple of inches off your pj the only place that you can't get away with making too small is the bulb and ballast area. After that section you should be able to trim the enclosure down quite a bitt especialy with such a small lcd. Just thinking about it makes me really want to get mines as small as possible.

Looking forward to those pics... and yeah pic up a triplet it'll be worth it.

DM

Well. For the moment I'm going to use what I've got, just to see what happens
if I give it a go. I can always re-cut the front board and replace it with the
triplet if I need to, and the inside is going to be completely adjustable, so I'll be
fine if I need to get new fressies.

- edit -

I just realized that the way I did this lens is how most people do the standard
triplet... so no real change of the front. Hah. Must be tired.

- end edit -

Now, I don't have that drawing like I said, but I did take some pics for fun:

Click to view attachment

^ In the spirit of tripletness, I stopped by Lowe's today and picked up one of the
shower drains that everyone uses and adapted it to work with my OHP lens...

Click to view attachment

^ This is the reflector I'm gonna use, since I can't find anything else. This is the
"Target Special" that's been talked about. Probably going to have to cut a bit out
for it to fit the bulb right. Speaking of:

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

^ Dis de bulb an label. If you look it up, it's nothing fantastic. 4000k, 22000 lum.
But it was really really cheap, which is always a good start. I've already found a
lot of bulbs that I will be replacing it with once I have more disposable income for
the projector.

Click to view attachment

^ The current fressie / tempered glass set. Anyone familiar with this knows how
it's setup. tempered glass on the bottom, with two glued / sandwiched fresnels,
approx 220 bottom FL, 330 top FL... or maybe just 317/330 on both sides. Didn't
look like it would work that way in the OHP, though.

Click to view attachment

^ And to finish off all our dialup friends, a shot of the ballast box. The ballast
looks the same as every other core and coil I've seen. Hadn't heard of Keystone
before, though. However, the guy I've been talking to about lamps and stuff says
all of his commercial customers get these since they last forever.

So, that's about it for tonight. Tomorrow night I have to go practice / set up a new
way of doing our live set, so I'll get started on this on Saturday. Got a good plan,
though. I'll draw it up tomorrow afternoon at work and post it Saturday.

Ta.

Click to view attachment

- edit: the back panel is 13" x 14", not 12" x 14". -

So these are the cuts I'm going to make for the main pieces of the projector.

The internal dimensions are 24x12x13, so since I'm using 1/2" MDF, the top
and bottom are 14" wide, and will sandwich the two sides (12" tall) for my
internal dimensions. There are two slits on each side, where I will make a
bolt setup for the LCD and fresnel/glass frames as well as the large focus
box. Then I can do fine focus with my shower drain.

The reason the focus box slides so much is due to the fact that I'm not the
best person at calculating the distances necessary for throw and focus, so
I'm doing MAX adjustability.

I'm going to use aluminum flashing to close off most of the light, since we
basically use the arc. The flashing is about 4" deep, so there will be only 4
inches of visibility for the bulb, and I'll probably pick up more flashing so
I can cut it off even more. I'll make some drawings later when I get home
and post them tomorrow.

So I was all happy today... woke up, got some breakfast, got everything set up to
cut the MDF I bought this week, and ended up with this:

Click to view attachment

Which I was even more happy about. Everything went perfect. Oh, I need to change
the measurements on the back piece on my sketchup drawing tho. It's not 12 x 14, it
is 13 x 14. But, everything went perfect. Which brings us to me tearing down the LCD.

I hate FFC cables. Whoever invented them should have interminable heartburn or
something.

I was going to post all the pictures from my teardown of this LCD, but I'll just show
you one:

Click to view attachment

It wouldn't be so bad if the FFC cable was the only thing wrong. I might actually be
able to solder normal wires into it. But push connectors are a REAL pain. You can see
that the FFC has really big spaces on it, so soldering wouldn't be too hard.

What really sucks is that I really don't remember how to put it back together so I can
sell it. Oh well. I'll keep you all updated. Wonder if I could find another LCD that
would work locally.

Well... I spent most of today scouring eBay for a new panel, and finally got around
to putting together the cabinet, since everything was cut. It went...

FANTASTIC!

Click to view attachment

That's my new baby. It came together beautifully. It really does make a difference
when you use sturdier materials (1/2" MDF instead of 1/4"), and take your time to
really measure everything perfectly. Even then, a little bit is off just because there
is an error factor in everything, but nothing bad at all... not like last time.

And if it's not obvious, I still need to cut the hole for my projection lens... kinda forgot
to do that earlier.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

^ This shows my new rough focus, which I suppose is pretty standard. Made 1/4"
router cuts in the sides and embedded nuts in the focus box so I could have my
thumbscrews with a washer on the outside. I'm going to add a ruler to each one so
I make sure to adjust all of them to exactly the same spot. I'm also going to add in
a top and bottom to the focus box... I just kind of forgot... again.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

^ It was also good that the clasps and hinges went on perfectly this time. The only
problem I had was to grind down the wood screws that were holding on one of the
hinges since it was keeping the focus box from moving. Kind of pointless if I would
have had to open the case just to move the focus box.

That's all for now... once I have my LCD screen, then I'll bother cutting the frames
for everything. If I end up ordering a new LCD online and not getting it locally, I'll
probably get the good fresnels from LL or someone so I can have a projection that
is nice and clean instead of re-using the OHP stuff I got. Not sure tho... depends on
how big the replacement LCD is.

Wish me luck, and if anyone has an extra LCD they want to sell, EMAIL ME!!!

So I went ahead and found the bit so I could cut the hole for the projection
lens. And, well... I did. You can see the temporary feet (so as not to ruin
other furniture with the screw heads), and got the shower nut glued into
place with nary a problem. The only problem I forsee is that without a real
triplet, I may end up having to make it a little less long so I dont' cut off the
FOV.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

It's depressing, though... the more I get done, the more I realize that I don't
have anything to project through it once it's complete. Guess I'll still hook up
the bulb and ballast tomorrow, so at least that is one less thing I would have
to worry about.

Unfortunately, though, it looks as if I may have to attach the ballast to the
back of the case instead of having it inside. Just not enough room, so I guess
I messed up leaving it out of my calculations. Oh well, at least it won't be
overheating that way.

So a little while ago I drilled the hole for the reflector and the holes for
the mogul, and:

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

I got it SO CLOSE! The arc tube is just a slight bit too far to the right, so
I just need to add a 1/4" MDF spacer to make it the right distance. Lucky
I got those new longer screws.

Click to view attachment

Also, it looks like I was wrong. Plenty of room for the ballast, and I've got
these little aluminum flashing sheets that will protect it easy. I'll probably
have the fan above it drawing air out the back of the case.

It also looks like that little Target bowl is gonna make a great reflector. The
ED28 bulb fits right in...

Gonna go to Best Buy now and see if there's any 15" LCDs on sale.

Well things are really looking good despite the problems you had earlier with the monitor. You will probaly have to cut down the focusing mount for your lense just a bit so it doesn't interfer with the projected image. Looking forward to a fellow 250 watter getting his pj up and running.

DM

Yeah... I've got a couple of LCDs on eBay that I'm watching, hoping that if it hasn't
had any FFC issues here that I'm going to come out clean. I kind of figure that the
focus mount is a little deep. However, since I'm going to have to order a 15" LCD,
the fresnels I have won't work, so if I have to order off LL, I may as well get the kit
unless someone has a set they want to get rid of.

You have no idea how badly I want to get this running. The 3 day weekend was
supposed to be my "Getting the Projector Running" weekend. So... ick. Guess I'll
live.

As a side note, I added 2 80mm fans to the back of the case since they were the
only ones that I had lying around. I figure 70CFM total should be enough for the
250w bulb. Once I've got the LCD nailed down on position, then I'll be able to cut
a hole for the air to pass over it.

Wish me luck everyone.

Well... got all my wiring done today, and decided that I would test everything
tonight (minus the LCD and fresnels of course).

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

So I guess the bulb is working. I've had it on for a few minutes now, and
everything seems to be not catching on fire. I put most of the wiring behind
a piece of flashing, but haven't put the ballast out of harms way yet. However,
with the 250w, there's really not much heat at all being drawn out the back by
the fans. I've got 70CFM+ coming out the back, so I know that I would feel
the heat if it was really being produced badly.

I'm really enjoying the hell out of the lighted switches I got from Radio Shack,
and it doesn't smell as bad as the other projector since I didn't paint the part
where the bulb is yet. I'm still wondering whether or not that's a good idea or
not. I may just paint the flashing so it doesn't reflect.

Of course, now I really can't wait to get the LCD and fresnels. Got a friend at
work who's bringing in an HP 15" tomorrow so I can check and see if it will
work, but I'll still have to buy new fresnels at some point. I know I can use
Powerstrip, but I'd rather not.

It's pretty amazing, though, that this little 250 watter is putting out more light
than my 410w FXL halogen bulb. I mean, I'm happy with the halogen setup
NOW, especially since I see that I got pretty good results compared to some,
but I really can't wait to get this thing setup and projecting some 1024x768
GOODNESS!

So, I'm gonna post some more pics of how I did the wiring and stuff once I
am done being amazed that I did something right. I am actually using a PSU
from one of my old computers, rewired to come on with the lighted switch on
the right. You also can't turn on the lamp unless the fans are on and running,
which was a feature that someone figured out a while ago that I really liked.

I think this one is a bit quieter than the other one, too... but I'll have to get
that one in here next to this one to check. Can't really tell if the ballast is
humming or not with the two fans on... I also love the fact that the light is
only coming out of the places I expected it to, instead of ALL THE HELL OVER
THE PLACE like the last one.

Well... I'll post again later with the pics of the wiring inside (even though it's
not cleaned up yet).

As Stimpy would say, "Joy!"

It's good that you are building a horizontal design. When I built my first 250 it was a vertical build so I lost some brightness because of the fold. It still worked though and I was suprised at how bright it was. With your hoirontal build you should be able to push out more light... I'm leaning more and more to he horizontal though I know you want to use a 15" but just try not to compare your 250 to the 400 watters in here. When I switched to a 400 watt the brightness difference blew me away.

If you are a big ebay person keep an eye out for a lcd projector panel. It will be smaller in size so brighter and you might be lucky enough to buy one with 800x600 or 1024x768 res you only need 640x480 to get 480p anyway.

And yes that enclosure does look pretty neat all you need is to be patient whiles waiting on that screen

DM

Well... pretty much I'd like to find a smaller panel than a 15", but price may keep me from
that. It all depends on what I can find for a good value. Because although I do have much
more freedom this time, it's not a ton.

I think I've found my match, though. I'll post what I decide to get tomorrow. Plus, I'm not
so worried about the brightness that I'm going to die... I've already spoken to arizonavideo
about what cap I would need to add a little spunk to the 250, and if this setup isn't what I
need, I can trade a little bulb life for a bump on brightness.

I'm going to have to PM Arizona about that might as well push mines as high as I can..

DM

DM: Let me know if you do it before I do and tell me how it goes.

As promised last night (yeah... yeah...) here are the updated inside pics:

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Decided on side by side. On the left is just the overall, and the right is kind
of a detail of the ATX power supply and ballast. Love my horrible shielding
job? Thought so. It's pretty great mixing angled flashing and aluminum tape,
but it works just fine. I can open it back up after running it for 20-30 mins
and the wires barely get any of the heat (not much surface area) and the heat
from the ballast, if any gets sucked out the back by the fan above it.

There are wires there (from the ATX PS) but they don't get in the way. I have
yet to paint the flashing, nor did I really feel like peeling back the top one to
really show my wiring which, as always, is a bit messy. I just ended up having
the wires too long for some of the stuff, so I just wrapped them for the moment
and will clean them up later.

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Wanted to show the back a bit better, and now you can see that I've added a
chest handle to the back (and the front) which I utterly love having. Never put
handles on the last one... now thinking I should get a couple more of these and
put them on.

But, all in all... the projector case is sitting there waiting for it's panel.

Damn I'm tired right now.

Alright, everyone! Finally chose my panel and ordered it. I had seen on several
different websites that people had used these for projectors / OHP projectors, with
no FFC issues:

* 14-Inch Goodmans TFT LCD Flat Panel Monitor

* General Features:
* Silver bezel and Black cabinet
* 14-inch XGA TFT LCD display
* 1024 x 768 @ 75 Hz maximum resolution
* 300:1 contrast ratio
* 180 cd/m2 brightness
* 262 K display colors
* 20 ms response tine
* 80-degree horizontal viewing angle
* 60-degree vertical viewing angle
* On-Screen Display (OSD) controls
* Built-in speakers
* Built-in 15-pin VGA connector

* Power Specifications:
* DC 12V, 3A, 36W

Considering that the other panel I was going to use I think was a 150:1 contrast,
30ms delay, and an 800x600 res, this should be great. Looks like the same amount
of colors as the other, which looked fine on the 12.1" so I'm happy.

Now I just can't wait to get the damn thing!

So I got the Goodmans 14" today... it was so ridiculously easy to strip I'm not even
going to bother detailing it. Less than 20 minutes later it was stripped. The absolute
easiest way to mount it was to use one of my 1/4" MDF frames, cut it to the size of
the LCD's metal bracket, then mount it back into it (after cutting the plastic out of the
way), and use aluminum tape to secure it (even though it fits snugly in its frame).

Now, the 250w isn't as bright... obviously. I didn't have the fresnels necessary to get
the full screen... so that sucks. I also got some kind of glue on the fresnels so I'm
going to have to replace them. The reflector from Target seems to work good even
from the distance it's set to, but I'm going to fix it at some point.

Now, picture time! Nothing too exciting, since I didn't have a good screen to project
it on (moving it to the living room right now), but it's still nice to see.

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As you can see in the picture it was still light outside, so there was ambient creeping
in, but it's still very visible.

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You can see the old school Dalite silver screen has a crappy viewing cone, but I was
so happy to see text... GLORIOUS TEXT...

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I only took a pic of a dark scene so far, because I was so suprised that it was good
and visible. I wasn't expecting it of the 250w 4000k 65CRI bulb, you know? I'm
going to post pics of the enclosure next... I'll get better screenies in a bit.

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So as you can see, I opted at the moment for LCD casing attachment to the side
of the enclosure. It was either that or hold it. Couple of wood screws later,
no problem.

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Model and control shot... nothing interesting. Great monitor, though.

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Look at how easy it was! Look! One little thin board with a couple of wires on it.
It fit right back into the plastic from the backlight and then I fitted it to the frame.
Done and done.

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I'm using the Lexan for a heat shield again, since I hate UV. I made extra big
holes when drilling so it could expand. Everything just kinda came together real
easy.

Now I've got to go try some really brilliant stuff, just for eye candy's sake.

Okay... not brilliant, but still really good. These pictures are a bit darker than what I
was actually seeing. Also remember that my fresnels aren't the right size.

Here's some Finding Nemo:

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Had to do the obligatory at the end. I'm SO FREAKING HAPPY! Man, has it only been
since last Friday that I've been waiting for the panel? So here's my needs list:

1. Need to adjust the reflector (meaning cutting it)
2. Need to get some new Fresnels (a 220/650 pair) [edit]
3. Need to get a projection triplet. The distance away from the wall matches how big
the screen is diagonally. As much as I want it to be a big screen, it doesn't need
to be HUGE. (with a 550-600mm FL) [edit]
4. Get a capacitor to add in parallel to get a boost of brightness from the 250w MH.
5. Get the Venture 5000k 80CRI bulb ED28 bulb.
6. Show it off at work!

Let me know if anyone is getting rid of any 550-600mm FL projection lens & some new
fresnels (a 220 and 650)... Other than that. I'm gonna go try and set this up at the
apartment.

Two side notes:

The OHP lens I'm using needed to be turned around (so the concave side is pointing
toward the screen) in order to get focus across the whole image. I did this before
taking any of the photos. I just wanted to make sure I mentioned it.

The image at the apartment is CRAZY BIG. I'm really going to need to get something
with a different throw. Easily 7 feet diagonal at the same distance as the old one
was to the screen. At the moment everything's running through the computer before
hitting the projector, so at least I can resize the window that the video is coming into
but it's not going to work once I get something like an Avermedia TV Box.

Keep up the good work man wouldn't worry about the brightness or focus issues right now. The 250 can be pretty bright as long as you get the everything lined up properly I haven't PM'd Arizona yet been caught up in Resident Evil 4 for the last couple of nights... game is disturbing but I can't stop playing it I'll have to look at that monitor you purchased seems like an interesting buy.

DM

Yep, I'm in love with that monitor. It was so easy to strip and mount, I'd definitely use
it again. Once I've got it down to a manageable size and can see everything with some
new fressies, I'll check out whether or not it can get strange signals (and whether or not
it can sync on green for component). I got caught up in getting everything set up so I
didn't get to measure it, but I'll do that when I get home tonight. I really do need to
spend the time now tweaking for brightness,once I get some new fressies. Gotta figure
out what I need to buy now, first.

The depressing thing is that I just realized that getting the standard triplet won't help
my size issue, only clarity and color-correctedness (?). I would have to <gulp> "go pro"
for a longer throw.

It sucks. Using the FL calculator it says I need a PJ Lens with a 550-600mm FL. Guess
I'll need a longer FL fresnel as well. Anyone have any good places to find lenses other
than Surplus Shed? I can find the fresnel on there. I don't need a triplet, just want
one... but if I can find a single or doublet first, I'll totally get them.

Trying to spend under $50 for the lens... any more and I'll be sleeping on the couch. My
wife was pretty funny, though. My dad and her talking after I set it up:

Dad: "That's a bit big, isn't it?"
Wife: "So? Isn't that the point?"

Plus we spent a few hours last night watching TV through the capture card on my PC.
Seemed to work pretty well, but it's only capturing at 640x480. Not enough!

So I finally got some shots of the screen in the apartment, going through my
crappy capture card and being projected on a thick white tablecloth.

Live TV (best show in the world!):
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Shot of the room for size:
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Couple shots of the Incredibles:
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I remembered that I had put a lens with a longer FL in my other projector so
I just switched the two, and now it's just about perfect size.

It's going to be a little bigger than it needs to be right now because when I get
new fressies, it will show the WHOLE screen. I'm missing a bit left and right
and all the corners. I'm not going to worry about brightness until after I've
got all that figured out. That and getting a real screen may be ideal.

Still would like to find a new PJ lens... there was some site that I found the
meniscus lenses with a real long FL, but it was a little on the small side diameter
wise. The lenses I'm using right now are ~3", whereas the ones I was looking
at were ~1.5"... <sigh> Like I want to lose more light.