After a couple of months of doing extensive research into this world called Lumenlab, I have decided to see what DIY can really do. After reading some of the amazing work that many of you guys have done, I have become very excited about the possibilities. I told some of my family members and friends of what I was intending of doing and they laughed. This is my chance to show them what people can do to beat those over-priced commercial projectors. And so... the journey began...

First, the parts:
1. Polaroid FLM-1511 15" LCD Panel (Deal on eBay because of broken stand, great specs. I went the route of LCDTV for the built in tuner which is perfect for me, as I don't have a seperate computer to run this in the living room.)

2. 400W Pulse start coil ballast Metal Halide Kit

3. Standard LL 15" Lens Kit

4. 2 120mm 110volt fans

5. Many other smaller electrical, wood, and wiring parts.

Here it is:


The connections:

Buzz,

Let us know how the strip goes on that panel. I want one like that for my next PJ.

To get an idea of what I've gotten myself into, I stripped the LCD Panel tonight. It was a pretty easy strip that all in all took me only about 15 mins. Mostly wire connections between the panels.
After first prying off the cover, here is what you get:


Next, I removed the screws around the perimeter, and removed the metal casing to reveal...


From there, its simply unplugging the connections and unscrewing the boards from the metal casing.

I did find an interesting FPC problem however at the end. I believe it is a 10-pin FPC. Here it is:


I'm not sure how I'm going to extend this type of cable. I remember reading a forum topic in the past that a member had the exact same connection and I couldn't find his solution posted. he mentioned using the 12-pin FCC extension from Lumenlab and simply cutting the connector to 10-pins. However, I am not very confident in that approach and will keep trying to find a solution. Anyone with any ideas?

I did find a surprise in the panel in the backlight housing. There was this piece of glass with a fine white grid pattern printed on it. I guess it is used to help even the light. Here's what it looks like:


As far as design goes, I am going to use a modified Hass design. (Great design Hass, thanks for allowing use to use your inginuity ) The projector will be on a stand in between two couches in the living room, so I am going to use a flat bottom. This will also allow me to have more flexibility in the placement of the parts with so many connections to use.

Here's an idea sketch in Google SketchUp:


Also as a side note, I think I am going to try and use the speakers in this build along with the IR reciever and remote. I think it would help give it that next level and the "Wow" factor

Update: Been a busy week of classes and haven't had much time to work on the projector, unfortunetly .

As a side note, this weekend I did finish making a coffee table for our living room. My housemates were pretty impressed by my painting skills. I think it turned out pretty well and suits the house great . Here it is:


I did recieve the FFC extension from Lumenlab today. Great service and fast shipping. Thanks! I am going to try and see if it fits by cutting the 20-pin in half and fitting it into the 10-pin socket this weekend. We'll see.

I am really curious to see if your proposed solution worked. I am considering buying one off ebay. Can you take a few pictures? Thanks.

Hey, a fellow Atlantian! Welcome!

flashnolan,
I'm still working on the FCC fix, so I'll try and post pics whenever I figure out a solution.

GLAPPE,
Thanks! Nice to have local advice. By the way, you're projector is a great piece of craftmanship. Great work.

As a humorous side note, went to Home Depot to pick up some parts for the projector, and when I got the attic thermostat, I felt as if it was made just for us and this application :

haha

Thats awesome.

LL baby.

I also dwell here in the ATL...
My god...look at how that lcd was put together! LOL...It looks like it was a diy job.
So...Your design is kind of like a half-haas?
How big of a screen are you going for?

Limbfilter: Nice to have so more support in the area. Yea, my plan is like a half-haas style, and I'm hoping for around 100".

Update: Awesome news! IT WORKS! I got the FCC problem extended. I got a 20-pin FCC extension from LL and then decided to try and cut it in half. This was the scary part. This is where you have to take your time. I used a brand new craft hobby exact blade (not a utility knife blade), magnifying glasses and patience. I took my time and went about a half inch at a time. Making several slight scores until it went through. Here it is after the cut:


When using the zif connector clamp, and they say that the contacts must be PERFECTLY ALIGNED, they mean it. It took me a few times to get it right. It also took me a few times getting the connector lined up right in the connector on the board. But here it is at the end:


And finally, the most beautiful picture I've seen in awhile on this :

(I was using the original backlight so thats why there's a bar of light.)

So onto the build now that the big problem has been overcome.

Hehe, so you're saying he's doing a half-hassed job?

Are you having any trouble with your LCD? Have you used it for any extended period of time? I recently got the exact same LCD. I hooked it up to a computer through the VGA connector and my brother, his friend, and I played a three player game of Warcraft III. The LCD seemed to run perfectly the entire time. I ran the game in 800x600 resolution since the graphic card in that particular PC is only a voodoo 3200.

Anyway, I am building a new PC for my other brother. I assembled the parts and turned it on and to my delight it booted. I was in the BIOS for a while looking at all of the settings when the screen started to shake. First it was subtle, but it grew worse and worse. After a while (20 min?) the screen was shaking so badly that you could not make out an image on the screen. The LCD does heat up after a while of use so I am not sure if that has anything to do with anything.

I powered the LCD off for about 1 min. turned it back on and everything looked fine. Again, after being on a little while everything started shaking again. The screen will shake in DOS (XP boot disk installer) too. While viewing the BIOS or DOS the LCD reports that it is running in 750xsomething at 70Hz if memory serves me correctly. I can adjust some frequency setting from 900 +/- and that does not seem to help. I tried adjusting the phase too, but that didn't seem to do anything.

The LCD ran for over 3 hours perfectly in Windows at 800x600. Maybe it just has a problem with this resolution for extended periods of time?

I asked someone at my work that actually writes firmware for LCD panels. This is what he said when I sent him the above picture. I asked him what it was and how using or not using it would translate to a DIY projector project:

"Try it both ways. That diffuser is likely to be oriented toward side-mounted light - hence little pyramids reflecting light 90 degrees from side to front. But you could need a diffuser of some kind for back-mounted light. Some fresnel lenses do that well - it depends on how they are made."

Turn the refresh down to 60hz and the problem should clear up. If you run the LCD at a rate higher than it
can support you can permanently damage it.

The LCD automatically chose 70 Hz and that resolution. It is still new so I am still learning how to operate it. Maybe I can manually turn it down. Thanks.

Crikey you've got even more inputs than mine. Liking your PLOG - I guess yours will be fairly similar to my creation (to be.....) Bad luck with that FFC thing but nice solution

flashnolan,
When I tested mine, I was running it at 60 Hz refresh rate with no problems. I haven't tried running it at any higher rate, so KevintheCake is probably right, just turn it down to 60Hz.

Richster,
Thanks for the compliments. Lol I didn't know it was a competition, but since it is, I'm glad I'm winning I hope that they all work once I power it up and test it this weekend. I like your build and PLOG so far as well, it seems like you have it all planned out.

Now for an update:
The past two weekends have been very busy for me working on the projector. I've even made some real prgoress to the point that I'm almost done with the building and wiring portion. Here's the progress:
The Enclosure:


And here is the close-up of the back:


Here is the back panel set-up after I did the wiring of the distribution block. I only had 1 8 circuit block, so I divided it up to carry the hot and nuetral. There is no ground in my setup as neither the ballast, nor my LCD has a ground circuit:


Here is where I am mounting the control panel and power grid for the LCD on the outside of the right side panel. I will be making a cover that houses it completely:


Then as a side project, I had to lengthen the cable that connects the panel to the control board. I cut open an old serial printer cable that had approxiametly 40 high-gauge wire to use. Here is the final product with the shielding and the connections all soldered back together:


This coming weekend I am going to hopefully assemble the projector in its entirety and puts some paint and final touches on it.

Oh, I forgot to mention about my other side project. After getting a great suggestion from vonneuton and other members here on how to attach a heatsink to a ballast, I attached a heatsink from an older Pentium II processor to the top of my ballast using thermal adhesive:

Hopefully it will really help, plus I will have a small 80mm fan directly on the heatsink. This combined with the two 120mm fans moving air in the bulb area, I don't think I will have a problem with heat.

I've decided to mount the ballast in the front of the enclosure, because after moving the lamp to where the arc was in the center of the enclosure, it would have been too tight of a fit to have everything crammed in there and I don't want to cause a fire hazard. I'm going to have aluminum sheilding around the bulb, and between the fans and the bulb, but it's better to be safe than burned to a crisp

Looking good Buzz, you definately gots some skilz. I'd mention the vertical bulb to panel idea but you don't seem to have the room for it. Nonetheless, good job so far.

What do you mean just turn it down? This LCD TV automatically detects the signal and automatically adjusts itself to what it thinks it should be running. I have looked and there is no way to adjust the LCD manually. The panel will run at what it thinks it should run at plain and simple. When it decided to run at higher than 60Hz I was in the BIOS. There are no controls on the computer side to adjust video output at this point; There is no way for me to adjust the refresh rate. The same thing happened in DOS. If you boot into DOS there is no way to adjust your resolution or refresh rates.

It seems this panel does a poor job of detecting the incomming signal. I was in Windows XP running at 800x600 @60Hz when I turned the LCD off to go to bed. I turned it on the next day (computer untouched) it decided that it should display the signal at 1920x1080. If I changed the computer from 1024x768 and back down to 800x600 then it detected the signal correctly. I showed the LCD to a co-worker that writes LCD firmware and BIOS' for a living. It would not even boot one of his computers he tried it on. He says the EDID is messed up. So a firmware patch might fix it. I am beginning to think that VGA on this LCD TV was an after thought as it is a TV first and a computer monitor second.

Only one place I have found so far has stated the response time for this panel - bottom corner of the retail box. The manual, official webite, and retail stores all do not state the response time in the specs for the display. I played DDR on the panel to test ghosting. On the fastest songs with arrows scrolling by from the very botton to the very top faster than 200beats per minute created no visible ghosting. I have an older 7" LCD TV and DDR just kills it. DDR is extremely difficult to play on my 7" LCD because the ghosting is so bad.

According to my LCD co-worker response time is not a big selling point on an LCD TV. He thinks that it is quite possible that the response time is better than 30ms even though not stated as such. Appearantly a company like Polaroid does not make their own LCD panels. They could have gone with many different manufactures to source their LCD. Each manufacturer could have varying response times on their LCD panels. Just as long as the response time is not worse than stated they will not get into any legal trouble. The response time on the LCD seems to me to be closer to 16ms.

If the ballast isn't going to be in the same compartment as the bulb, you may want to
cut down on noise from the fan by running a 12v fan at 7v. You'll still move decent air
and they don't get that hot, but you'll cut down on the noise.

Of course, I think I saw a couple of people that set up dual 60mm fans on theirs...

Glad to see everything's coming along well.

Where did you get that FFC cable you cut? What is it called exactly? Thanks.

**Edit I think I found it**

Thanks SIMUL8R,
I've read your PLOG a couple of times and am very impressed with your craft and quality.



Yea, I have it hooked up to a regular 12V AC/DC adapter, so I might try to find a different smaller adapter to use. The main noise is coming from the two 120mm 120V AC fans in the rear. But I am going to have my 5.1 surround system hooked up to it to drown out the noise of the fans

UPDATE: A milestone has been reached... I finished all the connections this weekend and tested it out. IT WORKED!!!! It was such a good feeling to see an image up on the wall. Unfortunetly, I don't have any screen shots yet as I didn't have a camera with me, but when I finish it up completely this weekend, I will take some shots of the interior.

I did have a few issues with the projection. As others reported it was quite dim, but I had none of the light shields in place, as well as the interior was not painted black. I also did not have the reflector in place, so with the combination of all these things, I should get a much better image.

One of the problems I need help with is a alignment problem. When everything was put together, the image was about an inch too high at the triplet lens. I checked my fresnels, and they were both in line and level, which leads me to believe it is the light placement. If my bulb is too high above the center line, would this cause the image to be too high? I'm going to play around with it and see.

More to come, next weekend along with images. This week is all about final exercise review for my studio class. Yay.....

Just so you know, I do believe that you can get a dimmer switch for a house lamp and
hook it up to those 120v fans to slow them down a bit thus cutting down on the noise.
Someone else would have to verify that, though. Never did it myself.

I'm also extremely happy to see someone else getting their projector up and running!
I'm sure you'll figure out what's wrong... I went through like two weeks of tweaking to
even get mine where it is now!

light dimmer for 120v fans??? ...BRILLIANT!!

Thanks vonneuton for that idea. That should work perfectly. At least I can't see anything wrong with that since it is regualr AC House current. I'll def. try that out when I get back to it this weekend, cause we have a couple of light dimmers, and even some ceiling fan dimmers that would also work beautifully.

Did you find an AG (Anti-Glare) layer? If so have you attempted to remove it? Good work on your project so far!

flashnolan,
To be honest, I'm not sure if it has an anti-glare film over it. I've read a lot about them and how to remove them, but i've had trouble figuring out if mine has it. On most of the models that I've seen it done, they remove the film on the side that faces the lamp. Well with my panel, this side has amirror like finish on it already. Most people report having a finish like that after removing it. I've also heard of people removing something called the TAC. This is usually on the reverse side of the AG. I think that my LCD might have that, but again I'm not sure. Here is what the side facing the projection lens looks like ( you can see this is the side with the blurry reflection on it):

So.... to anwser you're question:

No, I haven't removed it because I am not sure if I have it. I wanted to simply get the projector working first before I tried any kind of modification to the LCD. I need to do some more research into it to find out if I do indeed have one. I'm sure there are plenty of more knowledgeable people on here that can lead me in the right direction

How's your progress coming? Haven't heard an update since you're components have started to arrive...

Here is an image that I took of the mirror-finish of the LCD after I stripped just the panel. This is the side facing the lamp:

I could be wrong here (so someone feel free to correct me if needed), but I believe you have it backwards when it comes to anti-glare and screen orientation (or maybe I'm not understanding you correctly). Typically, the anti-glare is on the side of the monitor that would be facing the viewer when used normally (which is the side that will be facing the lamp in your projector, when using a straight through horizontal build like the haas design), and the shiny side of the lcd is the side that would normally be facing the back light. In your picture showing the blurry side, isn't this the front of the monitor that you would be looking at before you stripped it? If so, then this side will be facing your lamp, not your projection lens as you previously stated, and it is this side that you would want to attempt the AG removal.

From the looks of that picture (the picture in post #27), it definitely appears that you have anti-glare on your monitor, but if you're hesitant about removing it, I would not attempt it right now.

dslod18,
Thanks for the notice. You're right. I have it backwards in my post . The blurry side is what faces the lamp in my projector, which is a horizontal straight-through design. You're are probably correct and that is in fact the AG.

So... even though I now know that I DO have one,I have many mods I want to attempt before removing it though to see how they help first. I'm going to try these things such as adding a reflector, painting the interior black, and properly aligning the bulb.

Thank you for your keen eye in pointing that out for me.

My PLOG with the same LCD as you.

Well after another productive weekend of building, its time for an update. I spent this weekend disassembling the projector to prepare it for its final construction.

The Good: I also added the final components. I fabricated the reflector from a Target double-walled bowl that I found after another member here used it first. (Sorry forgot who) But I cut out the inner spherical-bowl and notched it so the bulb's arc fits in the center of the reflector. I think it might be causing a few problems however. More on this in a second...
I also fabricated the inner light and heat shields for the area around the bulb and painted the interior black. I used a heat-resistant oven paint in the rear bulb area, and a normal flat black in the front. It did help with stray light and increased the contrast. I also got the speakers mounted and installed in the projector and they still work perfectly . It helped me feel a sense of accomplishment including even these small details that help make this a complete project.

The Bad: I'm still having a terrible time with light spillage around the triplet. It is about an inch to high on the triplet. I have no idea what from, because I checked the fresnels and they are both aligned properly. I didn't have much time to test the adjustments because it was late at night and had to get back to campus.
Anybody think that it could be the bulb height? Would the arc being too high create the image too high on the triplet?
I assumed that as long as the fresnels are aligned that the light didn't need to be exact for focus simplybrightness. I guess I was wrong. I will adjust it and see what happens.

I am also having this "halo" effect around the image. There is this ring of light around the image. It isn't the fresnels because the entire image is in focus, and not bowed. I think it might be the reflector, because the ar is about 2 or 3 mm away from the true center of the bowl. Anybody know if this is the culprit?

Sorry for no pictures of the problem, long story... short version: My laptop is locked in the trunk of my car because the trunk is apparently broken now and wont open. :angry:

The Ugly: My screenshots of what I was seeing, because something was really out of alignment.

The Upside: At least I am at the adjustment stage and have come a long way from the beginning.

Big udpate coming this weekend after I watch the Yellow Jackets clinch the ACC Coastal divsion.

YELLOW JACKETS BABY!!!

Buzz0515,
I think you will ultimately have much better results if you spend some time making sure that the center of your lamps arc is centered with your fresnels, lcd and triplet lens. It sounds like one of these components is off center, and is causing negative effects in your over all image. Also due to the fact that the triplet inverts the image, if you're light is too high out of the top of your triplet, I believe that means your bulb is too low (I could be wrong on that part, but it sounds very familiar. . .). Also, have you tired experimenting with the distance between your bulb and col. fresnel, such as 210mm instead of 220mm and noticed a difference?

Regarding the halo effect, I think that the easiest way to narrow this down would be to remove your bowl reflector, and see what happens. If it's gone, obviously you've found the culprit; if not, then there are a few other things you can narrow down, such as bulb and fresnel alignment, making sure that one of your fresnels isn't turned around the wrong way, etc.

Keep up the good work, I'm anticipating seeing your final results.

P.S. Saturday looks like a good game. Can't wait for GT to win (I am another Georgia local after all . . .

Well I've finally found the time to post an update with construction pictures as I am currently in bed with a bag of frozen peas bandaged around my face...
Wisdom teeth. Lol
I feel like I've lost some wisdom.. or gained some. Lol I don't know why they call them wisdom teeth.

So on to the work at hand:
Here are some shots of the completed box. Un-painted, but complete in fabrication

The right side with the power supply and connection board mounted


The left side with one of the speakers and the fan exhaust for the ballast


The back side with the fans, grills included, and power supply and switch


The front piece with the lens installed on its slide and you can see the interior with some of the components and it painted black all in the inside


The interior next...

Here are some pictures of the layout on the interior:

This is the rear with the bulb, reflector, and heat shields in place. You can see how big two 120 mm fans really take up the whole rear of the panel.


Here is the same view with everything in place.


Moving forward to the fresnels and the LCD panel. The first piece is the Lexan XL10, then the framed 220mm fresnel, then the LCD panel, and finally the 330mm fresnel using the gravity keystone method.


Here you can see everything that is crammed into the front side. Believe it or not though, it all fits and I don't have anything blocking the lightpath. The lens assembly is mounted on drawer slides and will have a motor attached to it, driven by a car window switch.

Here is one of the extra's I put into my projector, the original speakers from the LCD TV:


Next I need to show you a very unfortunate set back that has occured...

On to the sad part of this epic story...

On the past time reassembling the PJ as a whole, something must have snagged on the FFC fix that I had on the panel. I looked down and saw that the cable was flaping freely. This is what I saw when I looked closer at it:


This is what it used to look like:


The ffc has completely riped off, but it appeared to be a clean rip straight through. The place it is attached on the board has these long contact points that are spaced the same and about 3mm long.

So now I have to find a way of reattaching this 10 pin small connector. My plan to fix it is place it back down and use very fine, .015 dia. solder on each lead under a microscope, then use a set of micro files to make sure that the solder isn't shorted out between connections. This is the only possibility I see.

Any suggestions you guys have would be amazing and def. welcomed. I might begin searching for another 15" LCD TV that has a bad backlight or something similar to see what else I can come up with.

Well after many unsuccessful attempts at reattaching the ripped FFC, I had almost given up. Desperation set in and I even began looking for a new panel.

Then, I had an idea to salvage the panel and it was my last chance. I traced the leads on the circuit boards of the LCD Panel and noticed that right after the connections to the FFC connectors there were points that I could solder a new real wire to the board. I used very high gauge wire from stripping a spool of telephone wire, and began soldering the wires to the boards. I used a new fine tip on the soldering iron and magnifying glasses and very fine .015 in. dia. solder. After about an hour of soldering this is what I ended up with:


I moved onto the other board, and making sure to match the wires to the correct places on the opposite board, I attached them using the same method. This is what the final solution looked like:


And IT WORKED!!!

I actually saved myself another 150 bucks and it works better than ever. To make sure it couldn't rip again, I put hot glue onto the board around the connections and it is much stronger and should last in the projector.

Next, the final construction...

sweet

After I fixed the panel, I was very anxious to get back to the final construction and get this thing up and running.

I built the cover to the controller board on the outside of the PJ. I made a frame for the boards, and then created a slidable cover to cover the boards and still be able to access the connections. Here is the final outline of the projector with the covers, and taped off, ready to paint :





And here is where the controls for the LCD TV will be placed with the buttons:


Unfortunetly, with classes coming to an end and finals coming up, the next few weeks are very busy for me and I wont be able to try and paint it until mid- December, maybe. I'm going to try and find some time to get it done soon. But since I put all this work into it so far, being patient and taking my time, I don't want to rush this step either and have it look poor.

Plus, this weekend I'll be in Jacksonville because the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets are in the ACC Championship



Thats exactly how I felt

Wow nice recovery! That is quite the dedication to getting it working. Let me know how bright the screen looks when you start using it.

flashnolan,
Thanks. It was a def. pick-me-upper and boost of confidence that this thing will actually work out.

I also need to thank you for the avatar face-lift. Great Job and it looks awesome!

I'll let you know once it is up and running for good, how bright the screenshots are. I still am hesitant about the AG strip because of the problems I have heard that this panel has in removing it so it might be a very last resort.

I also think I need the expert advice of the community here. I am not sure what color I should paint the projector. I am leaning towards a metallic blue like this kinda of paint, since it will match the coffee table that I showed earlier that the PJ will be sitting on. I was going to use that Cobalt Blue Metallic. I was also thinking of maybe a nice gloss-black like the Black Midnight Metallic. I've used the metallic RustOluem before on the sub enclosure I built for my car and it looks like this:


Here it is from another angle:


It has a real nice metallic flake look to it when viewed up close. I think it would work, but I'm def. open to suggestions if someone has a better idea, whether it be a different color, type of paint, or different way to cover the PJ entirely.

Well I had a chance to get back to the workshop for a few hours to do some work on the projector. Unfortunetly not enough to start the paint job on the enclosure, but enough to make a needed addition to the box. After a great idea from vonneuton on here, I added a switch to control the two 120v fans in the rear. In:stead of using a light dimmer though I used a ceiling fan swith with 4 different presets. Here is is mounted in the box:


And here is what it looks like on the outside:


I think I might have made a slip up in the wiring though because it cut out the attic thermal switch of the circuit. I will have to go back and re-wire it into the correct location.

I also added adjustability to the bulb mount by making it slide either forward or back. I had already tested it and determined the correct hieght for the mount but wanted to control the forward or back movement. Here is how it came out:



Now I think the final thing is to paint it and figure out where and how to mount the IR reciever for the remote... Oh, and I need to design a stand for it to attach to the bottom. Something that will allow it to tilt, since it will be placed on a table in front of the viewers. Anyone with any suggestions?

Been doing a few hours of work on it over the holiday break from school. Got everything sanded, primed, and painted. Also have everything wired back up and working.

First screen shots coming soon!

Merry Christmas to everyone

Excellent design. This is shaping up VERY nicely, great work!

-Thanks Blake

Alright its been awhile since I've been able to get this PLOG updated, but boy do I have an update this time.

Had a lot of time to work on the projector over Christmas break and here is the progress I made and also, the first screen shots!

Here is the painting process:
1. -Two coats of primer/sealer after multiple passes of sanding the entire eenclosure



First coat of primer

2. - Sanding the primer down with 320 grit to achieve a very smooth surface to paint

3. - Two coats of paint with 320 grit sanding inbetween



After two coats of paint

4. - Finally two coats of lacquer with 400 grit sanding inbetween to give the paint a deep shine

Here is the final look with the paint all completed:


The top was a temporary piece cut just for the painting process. I still have to cut and paint a new top for the box. I think the paint turned out very nice and had some imperfections in it but overall it will be in a dark room for the most part so it will do just fine .

More next...

Like the fade.
There are all kinds of IR recievers that are USB are you going to be building HTPC as well.

The paint does not look streaky at all in person. THe camera's flash picks up different parts of the metallic flakes and shows that streaky look. Here are some close ups of the paint to show the metallic look:


And here is where I mounted the monitors old controls above the input board and then mounted the sticker to label the buttons.


Here is a shot of how the side board looks like with the slidable cover in place and all the inputs available:

The smaller cover is for the bulb adjustment plate.

Then to finish off the bottom, I added angle aluminum around the bottome plate. It was prertty easy to add. I just notched it where the corners need to be then folded it around and screwed it to the bottom:




And next are what really matters... the first screen shots!...

Here are the first screen shots I got after finishing putting everything back together
Here is my desktop hooked up via VGA input:


The halo effect at the top has been eliminated by moving the lcd up and fixing the light leak. These screen shots all have them but I have them removed now and helped brithen the images slightly.

Here are some of HD content available from Windows Media download:




And here's a screenshot from Need for Speed: Carbon, which the entire game takes place at night, so a great dark game to test contrast:


And finally the screenshot to judge by:


All these images are projected onto a old projector screen from my father's office building that was renovated. The images spilled over the screen to the left and right by about a foot on either side. The image was probably about 80" diagonal.

I was very happy with the image projected. I have even lighting across it all (even though the camera makes it look like the center is brighter, in person its really not).

The only thing is that my right side was slightly blurry. I think this is due to my lens mount. Which is alright because I think I need to re-do do to focusing issues once I added the motor driven part. I am going to be re-doing it this weekend along with building a screen for the projector. I have the blackout cloth and the wood, just need to put the two together.

More to come very soon...

I was very pleased by

Thanks burkeerr2.
-The fade doesn't really show up in person, but thanks. No, I'm not building a HTPC for this projector. It will be sitting in my family room on a table so I wanted just the projector itself. Since it has all the inputs I will need, its good just by itself. Thanks for the tip about the IR reciever. But since no computer, no USB. I was referring to where I'm going to mount the original IR reciever from the LCD TV. I re-used the speakers so I'm hoping to do the same with the IR Reciever. Just need to come up with a clever mount for it, and I think that place might be on the top once I re-cut it.

Wow great screen and the paint job is sweet i like it. You should be able to mount the ir receiver in the front or the back i have a logitec 880 someone gave to me and the IR bounces off my screen very well and back to the receiver which is behind the seating. I found with mine old habits die hard and eventhough i known the receiver is behind me i still point the remote at the screen, glad it works.
Is the halo a reflection problem?