Howdy

My adventure started with looking for used projectors on ebay, looking at that "supersize you tv" or what ever the pitch was (I didn't bit thankgoodness), and finally deciding to build one. It took me a number of days to wade through all the doit yourself sites. finally found this one. I've been lurking and reading up about the project for a couple weeks and now I'm ready to get started!

I ordered two used lcd monitors off ebay. on is advertised as "does not power on" (worth the ten bucks, if just for the practice I'll get taking it apart) and the other is untested. I figure I can get one screen to work out of the two

I'll post pics when they come in

Great site, Thanks for all the help so far Ya'll

Well granite -- good luck! Let us know if you need anything. The people on this board have been ever so helpful to me during my build and I plan to do the same for others!

Tom

Still waiting on the LCD's.... I plan on ordering the lens kit and T15 bulb and mogul base from LL, but I have a few questions about the ballast I plan on ordering the V90D6413K ballast from HIdirect (mid way down on the page) http://www.hidirect.com/framesets/ballast.htm
Will this work with the T15 bulb? also what are the advatages of pulse start or eballasts over this one

I'm a senior Civil engineering major at Texas A&M and usually do well with diy projects, but when it comes to anything over basic wiring I get a little nervouse

Any feedback will be helpful

Thanks again Ya'll

V90D6413K is the correct ballast for the LL bulb. Its best not to use an m135 (pulse start) ballast with an m59 bulb (LL t15), even though it will work.

Awesome! thanks a bunch

Good luck! These things are significantly more difficult and time consuming than the beautiful PLOGs you see would suggest.

Do you have access to the school's shops?

Unfortunately no, but I do have access to machining equipement through my girlfriends family (I picked a winner). I am considering making the "box" out of an old aluminum tool box. It will be black on the inside of coures, but I think the diamond plate will look cool on the outside. The only thing I am concerned about is the amount of heat that will be transmitted through to the outside in the bulb area.

Almost forgot, My first LCD came in yesterday. It was supposed to be completely dead, but when I plugged it in it powered on (well atleast the LED in the controls is getting power though the power button doesn't seem to work) I stripped it down to the metal bracet holding the screen lastnight. I'll post pics later today

probably a dead backlight.. pretty common and leads everyone to believe the monitor simply 'stopped working'

sorry forgot to upload the pictures

I stripped it all the way down no problems. I plugged every thing back in and hooked it up to my laptop. My laptop knows the monitor is there I can even switch my screen to the monitor. I could not however see any image through the lcd. I think I may not be testing it in the right way. I was in my bedroom with the fan light on. To "test" the monitor I held it up towards the light. I hoped I could atleast make out a dim image on the screen. I had to run some errands shortly after this "test" so I was not able to test it more extensively. Please tell me that I'm a morron and I have to test the screen in a dark room with a flashlight to get anything to show up.

Thanks again
I'll post the pics tommorrow.

Forget that monitor . It didn't have the specs I wanted anyways. Has anyone ever stripped a Hanns·G JC-151A its ~$129 from http://www.tigerdirect.com . If anyone has anyother monitor suggestions from that price range it would be much appreciated. I got a EE friend interested it this project so the wiring is no longer an issue

Thanks again ya'll

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. I'm building my girlfriend a bed and she made me promise to finish it before I did anymore on the projector. I still haven't found a monitor, but will soon on ebay. I've noticed that no one here has used a metal halide light fixture pulled from a building. They seem to be all over ebay and for resonable prices. Would using one of these be a viable alternative to purchasing all the lighting components seperately. It seems like an attractive option to me. The design is still coming along. I saw something similiar to the basic design I'd like to use on here (I can't find it now or I'd be happy to give credit) today. I'll post sketches a bit later.