HAHA




Same here....

I've modded my zoombox. Just slightly but I have noticed a marked increase in the clarity of the picture. The picture is still the same brightness. But much sharper. Which means you see more of the "HONEYCOMB" effect, when it is focused to its sharpest level. But it also means, if you "DE-FOCUS" the pictutre just slightly, the "HONEYCOMB EFFECT" almost disapears, but the picture is still watchable because of the generally improved sharpness. Another words the picture is so sharp, it improves the pictures even when you slightly unfocus the picture to minimize the honeycomb effect. All I know is I compared the picture quality with the original ZOOMBOX bulb, and the new one I picked up, and I "personally" wouldn't ever go back to the offical zoombox bulb. The picture looks mushy/blurry even on the best focus. The honeycomb lines are slight blurry. With this new bulb they are super sharp. But as I said the benefit comes from having such a sharp picture to begin with, you can de-fucus slightly and still have nice picture quality, while ridding yourself of some og the honeycombing.

I purchased the bulb on ebay. Actually I purchased 3 of them, so I'd have some one hand for replacements in the future. Here's the specs:

MR11 HALOGEN LAMP
::BULB:: ( MR11 )
::WATTAGE:: ( 35 WATT )
::BEAM TYPE:: ( SPOT )
::BEAM ANGLE:: ( 10 DEGREE )
::VOLTAGE:: ( 12 VOLT )
::BASE:: ( GU4 BIPIN )

The key is to get a bulb that is a NARROW SPOT version. The beam is more focused. I found the best success with a beam of 10 degrees. This one also has no glass cover over the front of the bulb. People are thinking that if they buy a 50w bulb the picture will be better. I purchased one. But the 50w bulbs only come in wider beam formats. Basically they are all variations of a FLOOD beam. The light beam is quite wide. So yes the picture is "JUST SLIGHTLY" brighter, but just as fuzzy, if not more fuzzy than the original ZOOMBOZ BULB. The key to improvement is narrowing the light beam, for better picture quality. That for me comparing all the bulbs. This has been the best. The brightness is comparable with the original bulb, but better clarity, (considering the low resolution we have to work with). Don't waste money buying 50w bulbs. Only a slight hardly noticable improvment in brightness, but picture is just are bad. The NARROW 10 degree spot, sharpens the picture, just great.

Also my zoombox, had some issues with overheating. (even before I started replacing the bulb) It seems the cooling fan that pulls off the heat from the bulb would occasionally get locked and I wouldn't notice. Then is would overheat. I tried a few different fan replacements. The measurements of the fan are 50mm X 50mm X 15mm. I purchased 3-4 fans, none of them had enough cooling power. I found this fan below worked GREAT, as an improved cooling fan replacment! It moved 17 CFM of air. And the projector hasn't over heated once since I put it in. Even when it is on for HOURS!

SUNON 50X50X15MM BALL BEARING FAN W/ 3PIN #KD1205PHB1
Product Description:
• 50x50x15 mm
• Ball Bearing
Model Number KD1205PHB1
Cubic Feet per Minute (CFM) 17
Decibels (dBA) 34
Revolutions Per Minute (RPM) 5800
Pressure (inch-H20) .23
Connector 3-Pin
Voltage 12v

I of course snipped off the extra wire. And soldered it into the projector. It claims it is 50mmx50mm. I found it was just a hair thicker than that. So it wouldn't fit into the slot for the previous fan perfectly. I had to take off the bottom lip of plastic, that frams the fan and holds it in place. But after that I was able to screw it into place, and it worked just perfect. This fan is the perfect replacement for the fan in the zoombox. It runs the machine cooler, and is very reliable.

It sounds like a good mod. Can you show some pics of the differences between the two if possible?

It's amazing how different brands have different results. DO NOT buy GE bulbs. They may be good for normal use. But they are not as bright as a japanese brand bulb. I've been using narrow flood bulbs. Spot MR11 bulbs are hard to find in your local hardware store. I need to get a spot bulb and see what happens.

Do you think you could post pictures on the mod Judah Smith?

It's great to know that there are efforts being made to improve this interesting little projector. I just finished up an overnight "drive in movie" marathon on my white garage door. For the $50+ invested into the Zoombox via e-Bay, I'm getting more then my money's worth for midnight viewings at home and classic gaming at parties.

Any modification news would be great to keep tabs on. Brightness is, of course, my first aim. The resolution isn't so bad. Especially regarding that my garage door must be pretty darn close or just over the maximum recommended measurements listed by the unit.

Why so cheap, you might ask? Simple. I bought it as a defective unit. So what if one of the two speakers wasn't working. (Could be as simple as a wire going to the speaker isn't connected. Though, I suspect it would never be that simple. Haven't opened the case to look, yet.) I planned on patching it into my truck's stereo system via a transmitter, which it does beautifully. Or as a classic gaming projector, which are in mono, anyhow.

Will have to give that alternate light bulb recommended by Judah a try.

Hi,
I've been viewing this thread as aguest but thought maybe I should post. I paid $175(us) for the Zoombox after X-mas "06. While I know it's not a real projector it seems to work fine. Recently I tried both the 20watt and 35 watt upgrades, both work and do help alot with brightness, but I agree with the post on de-focusing off a little. The reason I posted today was that no one really discussed what the were usin screen wise. Modding would be great to up the quality but you also need a good or DIY screen to help out. Satin white ceiling paint helps if you want to look up all the time, or want to paint a screen sized patch on your wall(black borders). I've been searching for a way to mod this thing and have hit the wall. maybe wea are all overthinking this TOY. Because all in all it is just that. I wanted a projector but couldn't get up the $1300 for a "good" one, bought this instead and I'll tell you what my 3 year old loves it. Sponge Bob as big as he is, WOW! I don't think it'll be good enough for Star Wars or LOTR till we dream up a good mod. Thanks for reading all ny random thoughts....lol

amen brother...you just can't polish a turd.

I'm all about saving money, but pouring money into this thing is a waste.

many of you have shown that you are willing and able to spend the extra money and do the mods like replacing the lcd and replacing the light..so you really have no excuse for not going ahead and just making a projector that will be 100x better than this thing. You will end up spending the same, maybe putting forth a little more effort, and having a much better end product.

A couple of months ago I bought a projector from Divineo China, which I thought at the time was going to be superior to the Zoombox.


Here are the stats on it from Divineo China:
- Compatible with all consoles and AV devices - x-box, PSX2, PSX ONE. PSX, NGC, SFC. FC. N64. VCD, DVD, VCR payer or PC VGA.
- High resolution <300000> - magnify up to 50".
- Support AV, S-video or VGA input.
- Built in stereo sound amplifier and speakers.
- Comes with a remote control
- Comes with a multi-voltage A/C adapter : 100-240V
- Comes with 3in1 S-AV cable, VGA cable, 3.5 Audio in & out cable

Sounds pretty good right? Well, like many owners of the Zoombox have already noticed, the picture isn't that bright compared to most projectors on the market, there is barely any saturation control and the lens is very lousy at times. Even the VGA support is bad. On 640x480 watching a DVD, it looks like every other pixel has been downsized to match the screen's resolution.

My final "nail in the coffin" for this projector was buying a 50w LED bulb rated at 300 lumens. (the default was only rated at 100 lumens) I can definitely say that the whites are more pure with the LED bulb but once again it doesn't really fix the saturation and focus issues. The projector is best when watching regular TV, but if you're into high-def gaming, this projector is not for you.

I'm willing to give up this projector at a small price for anyone who's willing to mod it. Considering I'm making a new projector to replace it, I have no use for this projector now. Any takers please PM me.

Just add a QHV-1 socket and a 360w ENX lamp. Wire it like this: direct 120v + from power plug-->5 amp fuse (in holder)-->power switch (if it handles 5amps, if not wire in your own)-->2 rectifier diodes wired in parallel (can be found here)-->socket-->power plug negative. Add a fan for cooling, or even use a lower wattage bulb (not sure how that would affect the rectifier setup). Just have fun with it. Your hours would drop to around 75-100 but you'd only be using this thing for fun every now and then anyways Play around with it.

Judah, the lamp does improve the picture greatly, thanks for the tips about defocusing it as well. i found that moving the zoombox closer to the screen (only four 1/2 to five feet) after the lamp mod got the best results.

I have yet to have a problem with the fan shutting down, but it does get warmer than it used to with the old bulb.

Any one interested in modding this toy, should just stick with the lamp upgrade, getting an lcd and controller for it is a waste. because then your lens would suck. Get a lens from craigslist, then upgrade your mirrors..... if you want to build a projector start from scratch, don't start out with a zoombox, or a Torpedo.

The toy projector this year is the Torpedo, and from what I can tell from searching for specs, it's worse than the zoombox.

I still want an Evo, I'll have a modded zoombox for the kids to watch cartoons on. Right now they only get to borrow it for sleep overs.

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When your fan would shut down, what did the projector do? Mine kept making a louder fan noise, then the light shut down. I turned it off, waited a min, restarted & it would run ok for awhile. It kept doing this on/off for about a week..now & then. Now the fan & light does not work at all. It started making a funny clicking noise just before it finally shut down. Is the light not working because the fan is dead?
I did order the fan you mentioned, but I am wondering if my problem was the same. I hate to junk it because Ifeel it may be a simple thing...

My light bulb prongs keep snapping do you think it could be overheating from a broken fan maybe?

I also tried this mod and disagree with the results. I purchased a high quality MR11 35 watt 10 degree bulb that had the highest CBCP I could find, which was 6200. It definitely was a little brighter but the narrow beam left the edges of the picture very fuzzy and dark. My thoughts are that the one tried above was not quite as good of quality so there was more spread due to the poorer reflector. This one definitely had a much better reflector than the original factory one, not a good choice in the 10 degree spread though.



This fan is not a good choice as a replacement. If you read the actual specs on Allied Electronics, you will see that this fan although called a 50 mm is actually 52 mm hence the reason it does not fit. Cutting the shroud will affect the airflow so that is not desireable as well as the power leads do not come out at the same spot as factory making another mod necessary. But Sunon does offer an even better quality fan that is an exact fit with the same airflow as the one listed above. There is no modding needed whatsoever, even the power leads were the same length as factory and came presoldered ready to install. Just lightly touch the old fan leads and install the new one. It was a little harder to locate this model but Allied had them. This is the part number for the fan I would recommend using since it is a direct exact fit replacement with the higher CFMs.

Sunon KDE1205PHV1 17.0 CFM which is the same CFM as the one above.

Just thought I would save someone else the trouble of finding out that the fan listed above is not a good choice like I did since this is one of the only threads around about doing this. A lot of people give this machine a bad rap but they fail to remember it is a toy, not a HD player. We use ours outside and have a great time with it. If the bulb would blow, a couple of bucks would get it going again. The grainy picture, well used outside as an outdoor theater, you really can't tell that much. For the money, no hassle of having to build anything, and having everything built all into one portable unit, it is acceptable till something better comes along for the same money.

For Zoombox fans I found a new low cost projector at Linens and Things (which is going out of business BTW)
It's a "Wonderwall" entertainment projector. It does not have the built in DVD player as the zoombox does but does have the following for specs:

- Stereo input...although it just outputs to a single speaker. (lame)
- MR-16, 12 Volt. 50 Watt
- LCD 1.7"
- Resolution 480x240 (which I think is less than the zoombox)
- Fan cooling.

Anyway, I just picked it up...haven't even turned it on yet. But, the best part... $60.00 on clearance.

It's a toy ...just like the zoombox but, fun to play with. I used my zoombox at halloween to project some scary images and it worked just great.

vonroll, let me know how that turns out. I was looking at that too (just to play with). Think you could get some screenies of the projected image? Thanks

Yep... I plan on running my zoombox side by side with this one just to see if the 50 watt vs. 35 watt bulb makes much difference. Also, even though the resolution is about the same, they may have implemented something different ...maybe it's better. We'll see tonight. ..and yes... I'll try to get some screenshots. I figured for 60 bucks I could gamble a bit. If it's trash...hey, I can re-gift my nephews.

I know, I know it's asking too much, but....... a peek inside would be even better NO! Well fine, I didn't want to look inside any!

Well... I just ran a side by side comparison of the Wonderwall vs. the zoombox and now I WONDER what was on the wall. If you can believe it, it's even worse than a zoom box. If you could even see my pics, the wonderwall barely shows up. Even though it has a 50 watt bulb, it's a weaker display. I think it's just the way the insides are probably built. The optics are much better on the zoombox. I can't believe the original list price on this was 199.00 at Sharper Image. So, YMMV if you buy one. I was really shocked at how nice the zoombox is in comparison. At 60 bux, it's probably priced about right.

First off I would like to say hello. I'm a Newbee here but I decided to go ahead and mod one of these pieces of crap for my apartment and use as a 60" little theater in my living room.

I agree with 80% of the posts before me. That this thing is not bright enough and the last post on here was almost a year ago. But I have solved atleast 75% of the problem with this machince to make it good enough to watch with some clearity and better brightness. So if anyone has one of these still, the mod I did isnt going to make it play like a million dollars of course but definatly makes it twice as better than it was before.

I spent $150 on this through Craigslist and seemed like a good deal. It's not the best thing in the world. But when i first seen it I almost didnt buy it. I've built racecars for 8 years now using 12 and 14 volt systems. I seen it used a Mr11 bulb and thats honestly the only reason I got it. I was going to install a MR16 50 watt but seen the spacement issues inside of the housing it was not going to fit.

So I took it 1/2 apart. took it and flipped it upside down. Took all the screws out of the bottom. And took the part with the metal that the bulb housing goes in a modified it to fit a MR16 Bulb. Then i went to advanced auto parts picked up a MR16 50 watt bulb that they use for foglights that genrally last about 1000 hours and put everything back together and bought a da-lite screen off of craigslist for $20 and BAM hometheater... Heres some of the pictures of the process...







Note: The pennies just pull the bulb back a bit to keep the bigger MR-16 off of this little thermister looking thing that sits infront of the bulb

I turned a Regular Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX into a 11 second 1/4 mile high revving race machince. Now I turned a POS Projector into something that is actually pretty nice to watch. i wonder whats next. Might put some JL's inline with my home theater system as 2 of my 10's in my home theater speaker boxes are blown up.

Thanks for reading...
Wes,

C'mon... you can't make a comment like this without backing it up.
We want to see pictures of the projected image!

I dont have a Digital Camera. I only Have a Verizon EV2 with a 2 megapixel camera. It doest offer that much adjustments to take a picture in a dark room. What im trying to say is it looks better in person that it would if where to take a picture.
Im not good with my cell phone anyway.

But as a FYI. I was looking around in Lowes and switched my Bulb up a bit. I took out the Foglight MR-16 and when i was at lowes i seen a GE Lighting MR-16 "REVEAL EDITION" That produces a more of a Bright White light like a HID kinda. It is 12 volt with a GX5.3 Base Simular to the Zoombox's MR11 and with some carefullness you can squeez the pins in. I have tested to see if it overheats or melts. But i didnt find any diffrences but a slight temp incline with a infared lazer thermometer used for automotive puposes. And that 3 degree incline is between the stock little Mr11 and the GE REVEAL MR16. I will try and borrow my buddy's digital camera to see if i can get a desent picture.

Im still trying to find a MR16 with a GX5.3 Base 12 volt 100 Watt Bulb that atleast last's 1000 hours with atlest a 36 degree range. I will find one in time.

Well I just picked up another bulb from a Local Lighting store about an hour ago. It's a MR16 75 Watt 12 volt with a GU5.3 Base. We was looking at the Tempature ratings between the GE REVEAL 50 watt and the 75 watt and they both a 38-degree flood style bulbs and get within 1 degree of the same temp. Just one is made by GE Ohio and the other is made by a company called Athalon thats based out of China. It's in a White and Yellow Box. Best of all it was only $3.54... I know this is the final bulb upgrade for my zoombox. Next step I think would be buying a lens set for it then go to the LCD to find one that is a little better resolution than the one thats in it currently. I know that other LCD projectors use 3. But hey i just want to make what i have better.

Just wondering what all would be needed to upgrade the LCD to a better resolution and if anyone knows of a direct upgrade replacement for this. I think seriously i might be the first to upgrade the LCD in this terd.

http://izzotek.com/achat/produit_details.php?id=147