Hi all thought it is my time to give input back to the forums after indulging myself with knowledge and how to ideas from everyone.

Hey Rene, Why so many post all the same???????

My approach to building the projector was to fill my self as much information as I could. After that I started to buy all the parts.

Ballast and all lighting.....lumenlab store

triplet lens, split fresnals from lumenlab

Sony SDM HS53 monitor from ebay.....White colored model.....NO FFC issues with this one.
3/4in MDF enclosure from Home Depot along with some hardwares to mount parts
Very heavy I must add. Wish I had something lighter.

Rocker Switches from Radio Shack

I used a Fish tank's water pump power cord and stripped the ends to use as a power cord for the box.

I have everthing mounted tested it and all runs well. Just need to mount my fresnals (a pane because I don't know how), and my LCD. I have a focus box that is similar to another users design. Not sure his name right now but he has a dog with glasses on.

all the post were an error I guess. first time doing this

Probably just too quick with that mouse.
Hey rene156, what happened to your panel? I read elsewhere about your Sony, can you give a little more detail and what you intend to do - is it FFC issue?
Thanks.

Sounds good so far. Any pictures?

wrote you a pn.

I would not use a power cord rated at less than 10 amps, please confirm.

My Sony Panel got Fried. I was testing the panel in the box when I pluged it in I didnt notice the power board was touching the lcd control board then sparks flew. I was sad for the day. But I called sony and the have the board in stock. will cost ~127.00 usd if anyone has this same board and accidently fries their also.

Hey brain.
I test ran the bulb and the fan and didn't have any issues as far as power wise. the cord was similar to the cord used on your PCs. Regular house outlet cord.

[Not sure his name right now but he has a dog with glasses on.]

That would be Djudki ... link focus box

This is the monitor I am using. It came kind of damaged there were cracks in the frame. When I pluged it in the Screen flicks alittle after start up. Was very easy to strip. Took about 15-20 min. I mounted it in its alluminum frame with some Glass to metal silcone II from Home Depot.


here it is
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...5104522017&rd=1

Also like to add the Fan I am using is the ARTIC FAN 120mm 120 v. This was easier for me to install. Didn't want to deal with transformes and converters. The least messing around with the power the better.


Also if anyone is from South Florida let me know.

Rather than cannabalizing a cord from an appliance I would suggest buying a amperage rated cord from your local hardware store. Cheap, new and ready to install. Just my opinion.

I'll keep that in mind brokengrnd.
thanks

Today I was fitting the lcd and the boards for installation. I cut the lcd controls from the plastic frame it came in. Tommorrow I will cut a hole in the side of the box to mount the controls. Also today I ran the power cords from the back of the projector to the front th conect to the Lcd power board. I will be grounding my boards with a wire that will conect back to the ground on the main power cord.
I am very excited about finishin the projector. Every day I just look inside the box for a few minutes and think of ways to desing the inside.

Most of my design is inspiration I got from mooses projector and Djudki.

Hopefully I will have pics for everyone soon...need to go buy some film.

I'm done. Will provide pics as soon as I can.

sounds cool rene,
i'll be watching for your pics. good to here that we have another success story .
toby

Ok everyone I went to walmart and bought some film. three rolls. Last night i fired up the camara and modeled my projector and emptied one of the rolls on it. Today I will be going to develop them. As soon as I get them I will post some goodies for everyone. Hope you all will like the pics. I had to double pics, one with flash and one without. Didn't know how well the exposures would come out. Any way hope you all like. I would say no later than tommorrow afternoon i will have them up.

trying to get some pics posted here.

sorry about the time on the camara. didn't notice till after I developed the pics

too big though.

here are some views of my work so far. In this pic you can see the panel control. The Sony SDM HS53. I used the rotory tool NIKOTA to cut the eges of the plastic case to get that little piece. It was very tricky at first. Oh and my focus box. Inspired by Djudki, Also moose's thank you for all your help and assistance through my building process. You Rock.

more

this got burned during the test process. waiting for the replacement part to come in the mail.

back, rocker switches from Radio Shack.

lcd mounts I just used the metal frame and used a seringe and applied liquid nail (Glass to metal one) from home depot and glued it. I then snapped the plastic frame that held the lcd and light panel back on. I screwed the metal frame to the wood spacers I cut on the sides to keep it tight.

lcd mounts I just used the metal frame and used a seringe and applied liquid nail (Glass to metal one) from home depot and glued it. I then snapped the plastic frame that held the lcd and light panel back on. I screwed the metal frame to the wood spacers I cut on the sides to keep it tight.

right

more

my favorite pics in the forums are the triplet alignment. It is so critical for all of us when we build are projectors that we don't mis calculate this important part.

test

Under the Hood.

in the rear view of the eye bulb at home. As you can see this is what was inspired by moose. the rear extended cab design. was very helpfull for first time builders like me. I personally didnt want to deal with all that metal flasing, cutting bending and getting stiches is not for me. no sir. I didn't mention that in the front were you see the black on the sides i am using foam board found at any hobby store. I didn't readily have any black paint, and I don't think I want to take a chance masking of my lcd and fresnals to paint the interior. Plus the foam board was what was left over after I was fooled into thinking I can make "Big Screen TV" out of a 9in tv and a thin piece of fresnal lense. Thank goodness I came across Lumen Lab and bought the plans. When I saw the site for the first time I new this was the real deal. Thanks guys, Especially you Brainchild. You rescued us.

In this pic and some of the other ones, you can see where I ran the power(black), neutral (white) and ground (Green) from the rear along the sides to the front and use regular female wire crimps to connect to the LCD power socket. I used a staple gun to keep all the wires out the way of harm. I did this so I can have one power source for everything. I wired everything as the guide states. Fan powers up then light and lcd. I love making things more convenient.

another favorite view. here you see straight threw the projector and all it's parts. I feel very proud that got this far. Looking at my projector daily was like watching your own child grow up. That's how good It felt. When things get better I will plan to build another one of these. I certaintly learned alot of things by building my first. and now second time comes I will know how to approach problems as well as use of different materials. I hope that when I am ready for project 2 I will be building a smaller more compact projector. One thing after building this one is...How the hell am I going to take this mobil.

A work in Progress. still need to cut light leeks, find weather striping for cover edges, install my new lcd control board, hope that one doesn't fail.
I need to prime and paint my box, and add some trimming around the sides and edges to make it look like furniture. get my focus box to stay sturdy, some time the top part hangs either in or out of the enclosure depending on position. Overall I am very satisfied with the results. I have a huge image. I pulled the projector about 10 ft and got a 12-14 ft wide by 7 or 8 ft tall light image. I'm anxious to see what the images will look like when I get the LCD running. I have a list of movies ready to go and one bag of ACT II popcorn saved for that glorias day.




Please everyone I am open for critizism. Any suggestion and comments will be greatly appreciated. I want this projector to be the best it can be.

Wow, big pictures. But hey, the project looks pretty good for a first time build. I can only home mine will look as good.

Can I ask you how hard was it to line everything up?

Looks good so far, the only thing i can see is that the light is hitting the upper portion of the triplet lens, could be just the picture, I usually wait until i have everything put in and make the center of the light where it hits and then make the hole for the tripley, if you notice that the top of your projected image is slightly darker than the bottom you may consider, just makeinf another center block for your focus box whould not be that hard to do, but then again like i said may just be the way it looks in the picture.

Joe

When I built the enclosure I pre drew out guide lines that centered all my components. When I assemble my Screen and fresnals in their frames I also drew guide lines on the frames, doing so when I was ready to permanently mount I lined up all my axis or guide lines to on another. The most dificult was the Lamp for me. I had to hold it with one hand and try to draw out the mounting location with the other hand.

Yeah you have to move the lamp up and down until all of the light is centered on the pj lens.

Hi folks I'm getting very discouraged and dissapointed at this time. I recieved my new lcd control board in the mail today. Now I'm wondering why nothing is working. I still don't have a working screen yet. Were am I going to get money from to buy a new screen now. Everytime I try to bid on a monitor someone else out bids me. Oh well. I won't give up though.

I did manage to get my hands on this

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=5108710752
I won it tonight on ebay. I will use it for salvages parts since the screen don't work. This will be my last resourt. After this I will have to wait a while till I can buy a new monitor. Wish me luck all.

Hello again,
Today in the mail. I recieved my donor Sony SDM HS53 monitor. I will be stripping for part because my original boards got toasted. I am excited to see this thing work. Wish me luck please. I bid on ebay for the Monitor and won it from a guy in Tampa Florida for $20.50usd. I was very lucky. I guess no one wanted a broken monitor because the screen was cracked.

Well I will post pics as soon as I strip it down and plug in the new parts.

Wow , that is luck .. Glad things worked out for you

Well guys I got the projector up and running. I was nervous that it wasn't working.
I recieved to donor monito on friday, striped down to the bare control boards. When I placed the new parts in the projector nothing came on. I got sad and blank emotions felt like crying. everyone was standing over me the kids my girlfriend. I was feeling like a total failure right then. I looked everything over and noticed the power board wasn't pluged into the control board. Now I am good to go. I so far tested with a spiderman demo from my computer. I used my wall which is a dark tanish color. Even with that the images were very impressive. All corners were well lit I Demoed spiederman and I felt like I was swing off the buildings with him. Also I Played Microsoft's Flight simulator. I was clinging to the wings of the aircraft as they took. I was overall impressed with the quality. The sharpness was outstanding. Immense detail. I can't wait to get a tv tuner to view my dvd movies.

Thanks to everyone in the forums for your help I will show pics as soon as I can.

My post have been out for a while. I should be getting some pics of the quality of my projector. I purchased an n5 on ebay. The discription of what the ad said was nothing what the actual product had. He said he got the specs off the Viewsonic PDF site. I sent the item back to the seller he had agreed to refund my money. As soon as I get my money back I'll buy the N6. Also if anyone wants to buy the N5 with the component video and the extended res of 1280*1024 make sure the title is Viewsonic Nextvision N5-2, There are two versions of the N5 out there so to save yourself time and money make sure your getting the one you really want. The regular N5 is just title as it is...N5.

Today I checked me ebay account and noticed I won the bid for a Viewsonic N6, brand new factory sealed for $132.00 usd + shipping. I am very excited to try this new product out. If I had done my research more I probably wouldnt be going through this situtuation. This will be the third video tuner device I have purchased. I feel this one will be more promising though.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...bayphotohosting

I have some pictured results of my projector comming soon. Placed a few movies on and took some visuals.

Went to Home Depot and picked up a 8 feet long by 1"1/4 thickness round wooden rod. Going to build a screen . I have black out cloth 54"x 7ft. Bought some grey primer and flat black paint. I'll be taping and priming the edges. Then take liquid nail and bond the top edge of screen around the wooden rod. My girlfriend won't let me get away with building a permanent screen. She has her plans to buy a 65" tv box. This was my alternative, a roll away screen. I'm planing to make a 16:9 screen since That is the setting I am using my Viesonic N6.

Currently My setup is a Harmon Kardon 230 Reciever. High Current amp for cleaner low distortion sound. My DVD player is a Cyber Home. Progressive scan. Will be upgrading this soon since it doesnt have optical output.
My speakers are Sony 3way 6" woofer floor speakers and 2way 5" small speakers. 2way 5" woofer center and 12"120W sub Handles base pretty good.
On average I run my projector through two full length movies with no problem. I still need to control some light leaks with the fan exhaust and top intake holes.

Surely more than one ?

Did I mension that it was a wooden rod.

Hey just saw in your earlier post you were in Florida - I'm in the Tampa St.pete area - where are you located?

CCCrum,
Me too, Largo