has anyone modded a zoombox?

i was thinking that this would be the perfect projector to mod.

ok....so i bought one and now i'm waiting on a mr11 LED bulb i bought on ebay.

if the picture turns out unbelievable i'll post some pics here....if ur lucky.

p.s. zoombox in a dark room rocks!

Please do so. I would love to see some screens.

Unfortunately, the VHS-like resolution isn't too encouraging. I'd still like to see some screens without the mod in a dark room though.

Keep us posted!

Just wondering how it turned out?
Also any pics form the zoom box in the dark?
Thanks

Bought one in hopes of getting a cheap FP with hopes of modding.... this community interested me enough to join.... half the $$ i spent on hasbro could have gone to an eVo... now i can be sad right??

so with the led bulb will only help the dim lumens... why are not a lot of high end projectors using led??

they have longer life... use less power,... and generate less heat, softening the noise created by cooling fans.... I see lots of pluses here... there must be a down side.... what is it?

that's too many questions for this thread isn't it? ..... .. . oops there goes another one

I borrowed a zoombox, unfortunatly I was very un impressed.
least they could have done was use a TFT panel with square pixles
to hide most the dithering thats goind on.

Hi, I'm new to the forum and was wondering if there were any ways to mod the Zoombox - I recently got one as a gift, and if I'm not satisfied with the quality, I am thinking of making an experiemnt out of it. Or just make the DIY from the forum here as I had originally planned. Any suggestions or ideas?

Thanks for the input!

Should have warned earlier. Keep your receipt- you'll need it!

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread....mp;#post8983081

You were right - I won this zoombox in a raffle and I was excited to get it home and see what it can do. Well, the answer is very little. The brightness is OK- acceptable - but the picture quality is sub standard. I watched Family Guy DVD (since I'm used to the colors of the show I was going to use that to "calibrate" the picture) but turned it off after a half hour of fruitless tinkering to make the picture even minimally acceptable.

So here is the new question - I'm going to make the leap to a real PJ, but what does everyone recommend more - homebuilt or Evo? Just in terms of picture quality. Also, what are the main differences between the two Evo units?

Basically, is it worth the time and effort to perform the home built versus going with the Evo? I'm capable of building all of the hardware, but I'm wary of tearing apart an LCD screen.

Any input would be appreciated, and have a good holiday everyone!

I went the cheapest way possible- overhead projector and stripped 15" samsung lcd, picked from craigslist for $50.00 total. The result- brighter (esp. with ag removal), cleaner, better delay time and a picture 100x better than the zoombox. Yeah, I'll need some sort of converter to allow standard inputs like dvd or cable tv to watch it, but even buying a walmart $50.00 dvd recorder and a vdigi transcoder for another $60.00 its still gonna blow away this hasbro toy.

i bought a zoombox and i actually found it pretty watchable.

that is, from 8 feet away


i honestly think you could upgrade the bulb and add a fan and you would have an ok to nice projector...

when i first saw the zoombox i was amazed by the price, but it got me thinkin that it wasnt the best quality. and its not. but for what is it around $250? its not bad.


so have you modded it in anyway yet?

Hi,

I also have a ZoomBox and for a $120, this thing is a great TOY. I would also be interested in any mods, especially around increasing the brightness

Thanks,
Skeeve

According to the Tiger/Hasbro website it uses a 12w MR-11 halogen.

Click to view attachment

They make other 12V bulbs in that size that are a higher wattage, like these:

FTD 20W Halogen MR-11
FTF 35W Halogen MR-11

If there's not a fan already, I would add a little 40mm chipset fan from a computer wired to
the same circuit or a wall transformer on the right side of the compartment where the bulb
is inserted blowing cold air in if I were to add the 35W. The 20W might not be a big jump for
it, but either new lamp would raise your rated life hours from 500 to 2500, which would be
the definite plus to changing the bulb.

If I had one I would totally play with it, if only to see what would happen.

How big is the lcd?

It might be worth it to see if you could find another lcd with better res and colors that is the same size. You wouldn't need an lcd controller - it already has one.

Then take out the other lcd and replace it with the new one. See if it helps.

well that is not quite true .you would most likely need a new controller . the odds are that the old one would not work with a new lcd.

I do not want to belittle someone else's purchase or gift but this is my first impression of this product.

A friend bought it for her son (super 1/2 price sale at $150 can) and brought it over when she visited the house on New Years. The unit itself looks great until you turn it on.

No matter what the specs might say, I wouldn't even consider it to be vhs quality because that would deceive someone who might want to buy this product thinking it looks like a vcr image which is not so bad.

The brightness is not the primary issue but the heavy screen door effect is awful (hard to describe). Even with a 40-50" diagonal size or less, the lines are pronounced and highly visible in the picture and almost diamond shaped it seemed to me. I tried to soft focus them out but you can't. The front lens is about the same size as what you find on a slide projector so that leads me to think that the lcd must be very small not much larger than a slide. Slides are smooth so that's ok but expanding pixels from a small lcd panel are bound to show up pretty badly.

What a shame that they didn't put a better panel in there. The major mod needed is to replace that lcd.

Changing the bulb wouldn't do anything to improve the picture if you leave that panel in there, so I can't see what else you would mod on this unit to make it better.

btw) Again! Please, no offense to those who bought or received one. If I had bought it, I would try to do the same as you. I agree it is a toy and probably fun to play with but don't get your hopes up thinking that you can get a good picture out of this. I tried to convince myself that you could ignore the lines after a while but it just isn't so. For those in the USA, the EVO priced at $499 with free shipping is a far superior option which I wouldn't even put in the same category at only $200 above the original asking price of the ZoomBox..

It depends on what you expected from a $300 Hasbro projector... and btw this is about modding a zoombox, not reviewing it...

Anyways maybe you could even try taking off the triplet lens somehow and replace it w/ a pro lens from lumenlab.com... might make it look a little better...


But I don't think its really worth that. You could just take out the fresnels, the reflector and the triplet lens, and build your own 15". All you would have to buy would be the fans, a bulb, a ballast, and the lcd.

Now that I think about it, you would need to buy a lcd w/ a controller. But the controller may have more inputs than just rca which would be a giant bonus.

Hey first off, im a noob-- whats modding?--i have purchased a zoombox and im wondering if any1 knows if an mrll LED bulb will work in it even though its white (like will it distort color...)i have a feeling it will improve the brightness / lumens but....

Thanks for the help

It isnt much brighter than this, and the room is a light controlled home theater. image size is about 50" 4:3 with a 7ft throw on a grey wall screen.





This is the same image but I zoomed and cropped to note resolution "detail"



In short, putting in brighter bulbs won't do anything but expose the inherent flaw of this pj (ie crappy lcd). And for $300, there's plenty of builds on this forum that cost that much (or less) and shows an image 1000x better than this. This isn't a review or a warning, this is what you get with this product. To your 8-10yr old, he/she probably wouldn't care. But it's still your $300 and there's wayy better stuff out there.

Victor

Certainly sounds like the fluorescent light PS one projector is the way to go over the Small Screens forum then. The screen shots say it all, thank you.

I don't get it - my zoombox is set up on a homemade diy screen and it is way brighter than that - even during the day.

And once more --- this isn't a review of a zoombox, this is a "modding a zoombox" topic.

BACK ON TOPIC:

Modding means to modify it so it works better. If you were to add a brighter bulb you would have to add another fan which could be ugly.

SO by all means someone should try it... but not me. I got my zoombox as a gift and I don't want to do anything that could break it.

Now that I have that out of the way...

It would be soo cool if someone opened the zoombox up so we could see some pictures of it's guts. Then we could see what we might be able to do.

@ElectricGuitarBBALL121 wrote



Please, there is no need to chastise other members because you don't like their opinion or mod suggestions. Whether you personally think it or not, part of modding is reviewing the product you have and identifying good points and its flaws before deciding what to modify and which change will bring the most benefit. The comments made are well on topic of modding the Zoombox even if they do not favour a certain modification as having a great primary benefit.

I still believe that the best mod is to replace the lcd with a larger one if it would fit. After this a bulb replacement might be helpful.

OK listen... it is very hard to get your mood into text. Basically I was just confused... I wasn't yelling even though it kind of did sound like it.

Also I never said I didn't like someone's mod suggestions. I just wanted to defend my new toy.

Sorry if I got on anyone's nerve...

it doesnt look to bad from a distance

yep... its awesome for $200

I just found what might infact be the lcd used in the zoombox. It is a 2" LCD made by Sanyo (ALP230CCX)


It was built for the use of digital cameras...

Model: ALP230CCX
Resolution: 557x234
Type: Low-Temperature Polysilicon 2.0" LCD
Operating Temp: -10 - 60 degrees C

Of course, I am not sure if this is the right one... but this might be useful info.

Oh, also here is all the info: http://www.digchip.com/datasheets/parts/da...0/ALP230CCX.php

----------------
OK, so I was fiddling around with my zoombox and thought the bulb died on me.. turns out it just won't work with out the lid switch pressed.. (i had the bulb lid unscrewed)
anyway since I thought it might be broken I took it apart.. and took some pictures of the inside.
thought you guys might like to see the inside of this thing.


from this first picture you can see the brains of this thing.
the lcd controler is on the top of the projector shaft.
and there is only one shaft from the light source to the outer lens..
very simple design.. no mirrors or anything.. (I tried pulling out the LCD but it seems to be glued down or maybe you just have to unscrew the lens shaft)


from this picture you can see the DVD drive from the other side. and the controler buttons. (was thinking I might try to make a corded remote out of them)


this is an image I took before I removed the ribbon connecting the DVD player to the bottom unit.
(that and the lid sensor cable has to be removed if you want to open it properly)

I was wondering about the LED thing my self.. and decided to do a little testing..
I have two very bright LED flash lights I don't know the lumens of them but they dam near blind you if you look right into them.
here is a picture of the led set up of the first flashlight I used

as you can see the image it projected isn't very bright or very clear.. granted the batteries weren't new so it wasn't at its brightest.. but I doubt it would make much diffrence since the LED's are all spread out to make a large light area.. it doesn't really work for the projector.
I shined the light from the other side of the lens to see what would happen and I took this picture from inside where the light blub goes.

see how you can still see the spaces between the LED's I think that is what cause the light to be so dim. I think a curved lens over the front of all the LED's might fix this and make it work. (I may test that later)

my second LED flashlight is a round thing that runs on button batteries.

fits perfictly inside the bulb casing..
but it isn't easy to point in the right direction cause of it's round shape.


the image it projected was a bit brighter and clearer.. (you can't really tell from this picture. but notice you can almost read the "No disc" sign)
Even thougth this flash light only has two LED's on it.. I think cause they are angled towrd each other to make a bright center light.. it works better as a projector light.. but neither of these flash lights work as a replacement for the halogen bulb..
but proves the consept of an LED replacement bulb isn't completely impossible.
infact I just read about a 1000 lumens LED flashlight from Foxfury.com
if someone out there will give me $1000 bucks to buy it I'd love to test it out.

but untill then I will continue testing other light sources and stuff and post anything interesting I find.

Welcome to the forum, digitalzen! Great discovery, too.

I will look into that. Maybe you could just try putting like a 100w incandescent lamp right behind the old bulb and see how it looks. That would be pretty cool...

Anyways, thanks for showing us that.

Hey, I just found a 100watt mr11 12v bulb for like 21 dollars!!!

Of course you might need to add a lot of fans, but it would be pretty bright with 100 watts...!


http://www.topbulb.com/find/Product_Descri...ProductID=45796

I wonder if you could replace the LCD panel with a higher quality one from a digital camera or cell phone? I think if you were to mod this item, replacing the panel would be priority ONE. I'm sure you could easily replace the bulb with a brighter one... but you would need to make sure you added a fan or two!

I'd like to see a few more pictures of the output from the zoombox. All I ever see is the stupid peguin and car images everywhere.

I'm sure the zoombox will make a very fun project to mod. If I could pick one up for around $100 I'd sure give it a try!

evo-guy

P.S.

You could "bounce" a VERY bright light through the zoombox by setting up a light and mirror behind the opening. That way the light would not actually be inside the zoombox (less heat). Or not even use a mirror at all... just set up a really bright light behind the zoombox.

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?s...st&p=200565

I just got a new camera, I will take some pics and upload them tomorrow.

After opening the case last time I seem to have gottne some dust or something stuck to the LCD so I had to take it apart and clean it.. here are some pictures

after removing the top and the front panel you have to unscrew the four screws holding the front lens bracket in place.
I made the mistake of unscrew int the two holding the lens to the bracket. but turned out that wasn't nessary.


here you can see the actuall LCD. to the naked eye I would say its quite sharp. I think its sharper then my digital camera's LCD screen.


and as a size comparison that is a Quarter. it isn't much bigger then that. about 1 inch high by 1 and 1/4 inches wide.

I didn't want to unscrew it more then that... I'm not at the point where I'm ready to take it completely apart yet.

awesome! Here are some pics with a 25w ambient light in the background.


General Settings Menu.

Individual pixels.






Sorry bout the quality... need to adjust the quality or something on my camera.

I have one, and i bought a 35W bulb for it. It increases the brightness a little bit, just a bit.
What about making a custom fitting to put some sort of bright bulb into the place you put the light bulb?

I'll take some pics with my ps2.. but they will be on the roof..

I just snagged one of these at walmart yesterday for 139 in the toy dept. I got the last one. So run there today if you want one. Now for my use, in a haunted house the resolution is fine. As far as brightness is concerned, I do see that there are MR11 bulbs that come in 50W values too. Here's one I found.. https://www.etoplighting.com/Bulbs/MR11Halo...Bulbs/MR111250/
the one thing I'm not sure about yet are the angles on the bulbs, spot, flood, etc. and the angles for them. I haven't opened mine up to get the exact bulb replacement yet. I'm sure that will tell me the type angle.

I've ordered a narrow & wide LED Bulb $9 each from
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/sto...gi?product=MR16
We'll see how they work if they suck I'll proably throw a 50-100 watt bulb and some fans in & see how she does.

If you need S-Video input ( I understand completely ) then all you need is a cable that converts s-video to composite. you can buy a plug at you local "rat shack" for $20 or a cable at
http://www.svideo.com/svideorca.html for $8. However it's not hard to add one right into the Zoombox with very little skill here's the guts of it. http://www.tkk.fi/Misc/Electronics/circuit...deo2cvideo.html
I will add a step by step one day so stay with us.

My 1st major mod will be adding a remote to the thing.

All in all for the price around $200 it's not bad. One biggest draw back is the pixellation sucks bad. However if you have been watching an older TV you may not notice at all. It very dim compared to most projectors however that will be over come soon with all of the tinkering. The res. is about the same as a TV so you can't see all the quality of you DVD however you can't on most of the TVs still in use. The keystone lack is over come with the use of a stand or shelf. (I use mine off the ceiling so it not an issue at all).

Thats my 2 cents any ways. I will add Pics. and step by step info for every thing down the road.

P.S. I know that my spelling sucks.

Hi,

Newbie here

I just bought one of these for my kid in Walmart last night for $113 CAD including taxes. I find the brightness acceptable but the LCD is BRUTAL. Those dots are VERY hard on my eyes and I don't want the kid to need glasses because of this (it gave me a headache watching it with all those dots).

Now, since I only paid $113 I'm interested in modding it. Can someone out there in the know please let us know what we can do to mod the LCD? I'd prefer one we can just swap out without changing the controller... Is it possible?

If not, can we get a new LCD with controller that will fit and work? I don't know much about the technical aspect of the LCD and Controller etc....

Any help would be great!

unless you consider you could build a XGA resolution projector for that much that blows this out of the water

Even a PS1 screen projector would be brighter and better looking than this thing and it would be well under $200 to make.
A step up from that would be a small 800x600 projector..again..for under $200.

I have a zoombox and the resolution is fine to me when I
have the projection at the size of a 25" TV. I can even watch
it in full lighting. When I pull it way back beyond 8 feet, I can
see the pixelation, but it still doesn't bother me. I'm sure your
kids' eyes will be fine. I'm waiting to see if the LED replacement
bulb is worth it. The 35W Hallogen only generates 8 lumens.
That's like a one-LED flashlight.

I tried both LED bulbs in it and they were not nearly as bright as the 35 watt factory bulb. The narrow was better than wide but both sucked horribly. Thats not to say there isn't a good LED buld however the "superbrightleds.com" bulbs aren't that bright. (At leased there MR11)

While I agree with greymalkin, I simply meant that for those with out the skill or ambition to build one that it's not bad. There is no dispute that there is a lot of better stuff out there.

My goal is to help people get the most out of what they have already.

According to http://www.ylighting.com/mrdicref1.html A 35 watt MR11 puts out 1500 Lumens and can be bought for only $4.05

Where as http://www.ledtronics.com/ds/mr11-30/ 4 watt puts out 65 Lumens and cost $50

some how those figure seem like crap however when I tested my 2 led bulds they were only a small fraction as bright. And mine were (as state before) $9 with 12 LED in each. Where as $50 ones have 30 led per bulb. So I don't know if your measuring after it goes thru the lcd and lens, or if ylighting has a typo or just has no idea what their talking about. Like I said the bulbs I used ran off 0.7 watts so it may be the I bought crap, however they are painfull to look at.

The 8 lumens figure is quoted by sources that tested the Zoombox which
is most likely after it's gone through the lens. I've tested the lumens
myself by staring into the light and seeing if I go blind. So far, the
LED flashlights at Fry's and the Zoombox are about the same.
I tried using that testing method on more expensive projectors but
the sales guy yelled at me and told me to stop screwin' around.

Has anyone tried to replace the socket with a M16/M11 socket (http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?product=MR16)
and then use a M16 LED bulb like a Cree Xlamp ?(http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=220085823181&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=012)
They seem to have much higher brightness compared to the smaller M11 bulbs.

Based on the specs I saw online for a MR16 and some crude measurements with a ruler, it looks the diameter of a M16 bubl might fit but the length looks a bit long and would stick out of the box. I was just wondering whether anyone did some extreme modding to make a M16 bulb fit.

I've been doing some research and discovered that the sharpest Digital projectors use filters or seperate the colors of the images being projected. like DLP projectors use three diffrent LCD's one for blue one for red and one for green or yellow.. then use mirrors to merge them back together.. this hides the pixel lines that we can see on the Zoom.. but some of these projectors use LCD's not much better then the one in the Zoom.. but by merging the diffrent color lcd's at diffrent angles it just makes the over all image seem more smooth...
I'm not sure yet how to duplicate this effect in the zoom.. but I thought it was information worth sharing..

I tried an MR16 35W bulb, but it turned out to be dimmer than the mr-11 because I
couldn't shove the MR-16 all the way into the slot. An easier solution was to buy a
dimmer bulb for my room. It wasn't very fun but I can watch 60' South Park on my wall
and still surf the web.

So has anyone actually modded teh thing yet???? lol i get paid Friday and i was wonderin if any of the mods worked out nicely?