Because I'm a plug-n-play kind of person, I wanted to build the simplest projector that I could.
Also, because I had a wheelchair-confined person in my household I was terrified of the amount of heat created by the lamps used in the standard build. So, to hopefully defeat the heat issue I decided to use compact flourescent bulbs and make them work for me.

I started out with a PSOne LCD screen, and I love it. It has composite video input, easy AG removal, and a simple brightness mod that increases the brightness of the projection three-fold. If the resolution was better, it would be perfect. As-is, with 320 X 240 resolution, it is OK for 65 inch or smaller diagonal projections. I got a six-inch ffc extension from mouser.com so I could put the controller board where I wanted it.

The lens is a TV projection lens from Herbach and Rademan for $15.95. The PSOne LCD fits against it just fine, and there might be enough wiggle room for a little bit of lens shift, but I haven't tried that yet.

Note my high-tech use of cardboard and masking tape.

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More to come.....

(For those who like to skip to the end of a story, you can find a listing of all the parts you need here ..... A recap and some tips - post 242 .
To see screenshots with the right color temperature bulbs go here........Good Screenshots - post 99
To see how it looks with a light on in the room......Screenshots in Living room - post 110)

looks good, cant wait for more pics

Looks great. Can you possibly post some more pictures, especially the florescent bulbs how it is placed etc.
Also some picture of the actual projected image would be neat.
I have a very dumb noob question, do all PSOne systems come with an LCD screen? I might bid on one on ebay, if this looks interesting.
Thx
-Sachin

I'm building a PSOne projector (link in my signature) and am wondering: What's the "simple brightness mod that increases the brightness three-fold"?

I'm using the same lens, too. The only difference is that I am using a bulb from a slide projector (same as an OHP bulb). I would rather use fluorescents because they are easier to get and, like you said, cooler.

BTW, the PSOne screen has RGB in, so you can mod it to have VGA and/or component. Instructions in mydiazclan's PDF, link below to my Comcast page that has the PDF. Please donate to him (read why in his posts).

edit: Forgot the link. Here it is:psone.pdf

Next comes my Fluorescent bulb light box. I originally went to Walmart and got two "reading light" fluorescent bulbs. They were the highest lumen output ones that I could find on the rack and cost $8.00 each. The entire bulb is about eight inches long, with the actual Fluorescent tube part about five inches long. I wish now that I had kept the original packaging so that I could give more specific information on them. I'll go back to the store and get the info if anyone wants it. (I ended up adding two more bulbs I had lying around the house because I wanted it brighter.)

Using my high-tech cardboard cutting skills I made a tapering box with the big end large enough to cut mounting holes for the light bulbs, with the holes the same size as the ballast base. I mounted them this way because I only wanted the actual light producing part of the bulb inside the box. They are hot-glued into place. The opening of the narrow end of the box I made to the same dimensions as the LCD. (It turned out a little bit small, oops, so one edge or another is a little darker, darn it.) The five pieces of the light box were wrapped with aluminized mylar, with the holes for the bulbs trimmed as needed, and assembled.

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I used regular lamp sockets from Home depot for the bulbs, and spliced two sockets into one plug (cannibalized cheap extension cords for that). The powerstrip I'm using has six outlets, but I'm using two wall-warts, one for the fan and one for the LCD, so I had to be careful about the space available.

Here's another view:

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You can see where I put the fan on top, it is pulling air through a slot in the top of the lightbox on the LCD side (just a shorter section of the lightbox, really). The intake air comes in from the bottom of lightbox through an identical slot. That way, cool air is always flowing over the LCD. The whole thing barely gets warm after a running a few hours.

More in a little bit....

The fluorescent bulbs are angled inward in the lightbox so that the bulbs don't touch the inside of the box.

I think that PSOne systems don't usually come with the LCD screen. Search Ebay for "PSOne LCD" and you can usually find some.

Tgreenwood

Here's a picture of the brightness mod:

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Only for Sony branded PSOne LCD screens.

Since I can't solder anything that small I used a "Circuit Writer" conductive pen that I picked up at Radio Shack and just drew a line over the top of the component. Worked like a charm.

Tgreenwood

Here's another view of the lightbox:

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I got the aluminized mylar from a hydroponics supplier on Ebay, but I think that a "Space blanket" or "Emergency blanket" that is made of aluminized mylar will work just the same. Like this I found on Ebay EMERGENCY/SURVIVAL/THERMAL/ SPACE BLANKET/MYLAR SOLAR, or from any sports equipment store. Shouldn't cost more than $5.

The fan is just a regular computer fan wired to a wall-wart. Works OK. I think I got it from Alltronics.com or Herbach.com for less than $5.

The view of the inside of the lightbox shows how reflective the mylar is. I didn't bother trying to get the mylar smooth because the light from the Fluorescent bulbs is diffuse anyway.

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The lens assembly and the lightbox together next.....

Nice. I like it.

One thought for you:

IANAEPJB (I Am Not An Expert Projector Builder), in fact I've yet to build one, but it seems to me that you've got your 2 long lamps in the box so that they give you the least benefit, even with the mylar.

If you turn them so that they come in from the side, "pointing" at the other side, that would expose the maximum amount of the bulb to the LCD. As it is, the LCD only "sees" the end of the bulb.

I can imagine that it's expensive to experiment by making a new lightbox, but it might be worth a try.

Interesting build, i wish you the best of luck

WOW! Up to 65" diag. projection. The G-Kids portable DVD player is looking better all the time... On a serious note, is aluminized mylar conductive? I didn't see any ground wires in your pics. Maybe some non-con tape on your wire nut connections. Also be careful of putting those flourescent bulbs in a outlet with a volt\amp limiting or fault sensing device as they don't seem to last very long. I put these in my new kitchen fixture. When I turn it on it sends a pulse; presumably, to check for ground fault and then powers up. Bulbs didn't last 3 days All I got. Once again WOW! Will definately be watching your progress. Wow ! BORG.out

I think that the mylar is key to this, and bounces all of the light all over the box and eventually to the LCD.

But, I think that I'll give it a try, and mount the bulbs from the side. I'm going to go to walmart tomorrow and get two more of the long bulbs so I'll have four matching bulbs. The way it is now, I have two long and two short ones. Doesn't hurt to try it, huh?

Let me at that cardboard, and where is my glue gun?

Tgreenwood

Aluminized mylar is most probably conductive, I've been building on the assumption that it is. I don't have it touching anything that has current running through it. I think that I will put some more nonconductive tape in some strategic spots just to be on the safe side.

I'm using a regular power strip, no GFCI, to power the whole thing and I haven't had any problems with the bulbs so far. It is supposed to be a surge protector, I think.

Tgreenwood

Now the two pieces are shoved together, everything plugged in and running.

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Of course, since the two assemblies aren't attached to each other I had to use various handy things to prop pieces up.

Not much light leaking given the limits of the design, and it should be easy enough to tape or weatherstrip the sides. I have some pretty porous filter material that I'm going to use for the bottom ventilation slot that should block a lot of that light leak but still let air through (and catch all of the dog hair and dust around here).

Dimensions so far:
8 1/4 inches high
8 inches wide
20 1/2 inches long to the ends of the lamp sockets
It'd be good to add a couple of inches for room for the lamp wiring.

Tgreenwood

Sorry to be presumptive.... But glad you thought of conductivity...reg on/off power strip shouldn't be a problem even with 8-10 little flo ballasts starting off of it.. I hope.. Need new category for Hall of Fame, Alternative Light Source Beamer.
Not so good with smilies , Borg

The moment of truth cometh....

Screenies!

Hooked my little portable DVD player to the input.....
Added a set of powered PC speakers plugged into the headphone jack.....
Had to rearrange the plugs in the powerstrip for the speaker plug to fit....

Whoohoo!

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The Incredibles (lights off)


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The Incredibles (kitchen light on in background)


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Another Incredibles shot


It is six feet from the end of the lens to the wall.
My wall is a textured buttercream color, so the colors are a little off, but that didn't stop me from watching the Incredibles!
The projected image measures 65 inches diagonally.


Tgreenwood

BTW, those little powered PC speakers sound freakin fabulous. I'm gonna take them apart and incorporate them into the projector.

Just because I can't get over how well this is working, I have some more screen shots.

FYI:
The projector isn't quite perpendicular to the wall (furniture in the way) so there is some keystoning and slight blurring on the left side of the image.
I finally got my digital camera two days ago, so I'm still learning how to use it.
When taking these screenies, the camera was set on the table next to the lens, so the camera was six feet away from the image.
One of the light bulbs was switched off and I didn't realize it until a little while ago. Four keyless light sockets go on my shopping list for tomorrow.

One of my favorite films. K-Pax.

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All lights on. Why it looks reddish, I don't know.



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All lights off



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Talking to the dog



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Love the sunglasses



Tgreenwood

I believe I'm correct when I say that you still lose light every time it hits something, reflective or not.

If you get the chance to build the new light box using the same bulbs that you're using now, I'd be interested to know if you notice an increase in brightness, everything else being equal.

Nice screenies. For some reason, I've never seen the whole of K-Pax. I think I've seen the middle and end 3 or 4 times, but never seen the beginning.

Very cool to see this working, im glad it's working out for you!

tenzip, yes you lose light everytime it hits / reflects off of something, but often it's like 95% or something reflectivity, so most of it will probably pass through out of the LCD after a few bounces.

Also, I would like to add. Why do people often paint the inside of the box (before the LCD Part) black?.

Engergy can not be destroyed, only converted into other forms. Painting it black will just convert the light energy into more heat energy. If it was white or reflective more light would stay in the useful light form and increase brightness over painting it black.

I can only speak for myself. I painted the area before my LCD black to reduce reflected light leaks through the fans. As I understand it, only light originating from the first fresnel's focal point will be properly collimated by the fresnel. If that is the case, stray light entering the fresnel at odd angles will not increase the brightness of projection. At least that's my understanding. I painted the entire interior of my box black before I fired 'er up, so I've not tried it any other way.

Painting the inside of a projector black, as stated above, reduces the chance of light entering the fresnel at odd angles. This is beneficial because the stray light would cause ghosting (not fun, also kinda diminishes some of your bragging rights )

Be careful when taking apart computer speakers and just using the bare speaker. Part of the reason that they sound so good is because of the box that they're in. I would recommend just taking off the front part and mounting them flush with the sides of your PJ box.

The mylar I got is supposed to be 98% reflective. Looks like its working pretty well, huh?

Are you sure that the stray light would cause ghosting in the image?

The reason that I ask is because the light entering the LCD from the fluorescent bulbs in my projector is coming in from all kinds of angles and there is no ghosting.

Also, from my understanding, the part of a standard build from the LCD to the projection lens should be painted black to keep stray light (light not coming directly from the LCD) from getting through the projection lens and washing out the image.

Tgreenwood

Sure does work well

Thanks for the info jdmlight, but tgreenwood does have a point. If that was the case, then this projector should have bad ghosting of four different ghost images (as four lamps are used), plus others from the reflections.

I can understand painting it black after the LCD, but before the first fresnel, I am curious to try. Has anyone ever done a decent test on the "black" theory.

Maybe there is no ghosting since the light "cannon" is fully enclosed and matched up to the size of the fresnel. Basically he is taking 4 bulbs and by putting a full reflective enclosure around them, the output at the front is like one big bulb? I haven't done a diy, but that is what it looks like to me anyway.

I figure on the DIY boxes that are built, there is a reflector then nothing but open air to the fresnel after you measure it all out and get the light to optimally hit the fresnel. Then you paint the rest of that open area black to prevent the stray light. The alternative is to enclose the light path so that nothing around it bothers that light path all the way up to the fresnel.

I am just learning about all of this, so I may very well be completely off track.

I remember reading somewhere on these forums that it caused ghosting (or maybe it was that it washed out the image, like stated above). Maybe the person who I read it from was wrong. Or maybe it does make a difference, but it's so small that we can't see it. I've never done a test on it - I just made sure to spray paint my computer case's inside black, as normally it is quite reflective.

Maybe I've missed something here. After re-reading this plog, I don't see any fresnels in this PJ, only a light sorce roughly the size of the LCD, the LCD itself, and a large projection lens up against the LCD. If this is the case, there is no reason to paint anything black. Considering its simplicity and low cost, it looks like it does rather well. Congrats tgreenwood!

I was taking some screenshots of Ice Age the melt down when I noticed something wierd. I don't think that the blue signal is making it to the LCD. I mean, the image looks OK, but definitely blue deficient. Take a look at the screen shots and tell me what you think.

(I tacked a white sheet to the wall for a screen for these)


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General screenshot


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The sky doesn't look very blue, does it?


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Now, the DVD Video screen is supposed to be blue, but it sure aint.


I'll be taking a look at the FFC and the extension to see if anything is wrong with them, and try again.


Tgreenwood

Thanks for the congrats!

True, there are no fresnels in this, no need for them. Just the lightbox, the LCD and the lens.

The LCD, light bulbs, fan and speakers are powered by an ordinary powerstrip. It's as plug and play as I could make it. I like to keep thing simple.

Once I figure out my blue signal problem, I'll build an enclosure for it.


Tgreenwood

Great to see your plog..

I think this is a first for Lumenlab..a lot of people have talked about fluorescents mostly in the negative.. but you have had the courage and tenacity to make it real well done !


btw didnt catch the fluro's output ?

The lack of blue may be a characteristic of the fluorescents. From my photography days, I remember that compared to daylight, fluorescents output more of a greenish light, and regular incandescents more reds and yellows. The CRI (color rendering index) of a bulb tells us how well a bulb can produce visible light overall. A CRI of 100 is considered perfect. A low CRI bulb will produce weak or severely tinted colors. The color temperature of a bulb, measured in degrees Kelvin, tells us the overall tint of those colors. Some bulbs will show "spikes" emphasizing various parts of the color spectrum.

Here is a graph showing the color rendering of a 2800°K incandescent vs a 5000°K fluorescent: Spectral power distribution plot. Notice the fluorescent's spike in the green and violet areas.

For those tehno-geeks out there, here is the entire article: Color temperature.

Still a worthy attempt, maybe use 4 100 watt daylight bulbs?

So the parts list is?

1) 4 receptacles, source = home improvement store
2) 4 bulbs, fluroescent or not, source = home improvement store
3) Power strip, source = home improvement store
4) FFC extension cable, source = ?
5) lens, source = http://www.herbach.com/Merchant2/merchant....tegory_Code=OPT for $16
6) Mylar (would foil or acrylic mirrors work?), source = ?
7) Case, like a rubbermaid tool box, source = Walmart or Harbor Freight for $20
8) Computer fan, source = favorite computer store
9) PS One, source = Ebay for $30

Do the AG removal and the jumper cable on the component for improved brightness

Does this sound like the list of components needed and critical step(s)?

Oh yes, definitely a worthy attempt! Just offering a possible reason for the apparent lack of blues.

How to these look.

http://www.1000bulbs.com/product.php?product=31681

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That bulb looks interesting, 500 Watts Equivalent is good, 5 times a normal household bulb.

So if you had four of them you would have the power of 20 100w normal bulbs I guess. Sounds pretty good to me & good colours.

Edit: I think arizonavideo should have linked to http://www.1000bulbs.com/product.php?product=31682, it's the same but 5000K rather than 4100k. ?

What about this one:
http://www.1000bulbs.com/product.php?product=31739

It's 200 watts, Equivalent to 850 Watts, and the colour is slightly better at 5000k. 12,000 lumens, full spectrum . Costs more though.

If you had four of these, thats 48,000 lumens,. What is the standard lumen output from the LL lamp?

Salty, I would think the first one you found would be better, cheaper by less than half. 8000 hours, and would not overheat the LCD. Also, I bet TGreen could do better with just two of these instead of the 4 he has now. Less footprint, more output.

That is a 277V lamp.

I was thinking a flat wall of tubes would be best. Arange the lamps parell with the LCD.

The 4100K is just fine but they make a 5000K too.

do you guys really think that the bulbs that tgreenwood is using are so bad on the blue? i really doubt it, it might be something else. The backlights of most lcd panels are also using some kind of fluorescent lamp right?
TGreenwood,
very nice attempt, do you still have the backlight of the psone lcd, maybe u can shine that one and see how the colors come out.

I will definitely try this once i get my portable dvd player. except i dont know where to find the aluminized mylar though, anyone have any ideas? tgreenwood where did u get yours?

I think he got the mylar from ebay, he came a link to one.

I was just offering a possible explanation as to why the sky looked green in that one screenshot. There are many varieties of fluorescent lights out there.

I didnt mean to offend u in any way, just doubted the possibility of his bulb being so bad. Especially the DVD blank screen got me thinking.
Now again i am no expert, so i could be completely wrong.

Why not just pick up some 120v 250w enh lamps? Super easy to wire. I think im going to get this lens and play around with it.

I found another possibly cheaper source for the lens. Also it is closer to me, so i might save a few $$ on shipping. U c how cheapo i can go. here is the link

http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prod...p?number=G16170

Now these lenses are only 4.5" or 5" diameter, and the portable dvd player that i am getting is gonna be 8" diagonal, does it mean i wud need to add a fresnel in front of lcd before tv projection lens?

Thanks for the info, it made me search for the specs of these bulbs.

The big ones are Lights of America 42 watt that I got at Walmart. All I was looking for at the time was high lumens, and the packaging said they were 2700 lumens, if I remember correctly. Here are some of the specs I got off of the Lights of America website:

Model No. 2342
Watts Used 45
Incandescent Wattage Equivalent 200
Size (H x D) 6.12" x 2.32" (wrong - bulb is 7.5" long)
Lumens 2,700
Efficiency 77%
Life 10,000
CRI 82
Color Temp 2,700

The model number is printed on the bulb ballast, so these numbers should be right.
The CRI sucks and the and the color temperature is atrocious.



The two small bulbs are GE compact fluorescent 26 watt FLE26HT3/2/XL2PK
Specs for them:

Watts used 26
Initial Lumens 1700
Rated Life 12000 hrs
MOL 5.2 in (132.0 mm)
Color Temperature 2700 K
Color Rendering Index (CRI) 82

And these suck just as bad, according to conventional wisdom.


Total lumens in the lightbox - 8,800 lumens.

Interesting.

Wow,
according to conventional wisdom anything with color temp < 4000K and CRI below 85 is bad, but it is amazing that it is so bad that there is a complete lack of blue

BTW i found the link for ur mylar space blanket , so i am hoping a local sports store like Big5 sporting goods or similar might carry those.

Where is my damn portable dvd player that i won on ebay now, never have things around when u need em.

Hey! I think your results are pretty good for such a simple, relatively inexpensive build. I've seen some people on these forums sink a lot more into their PJs and not get as good results.

Yup absolutely, for something less than $100 not bad at all.
As soon as I get my hands onto my portable dvd player i am gonna try this idea out. off to buying the space blanket and the lens now...
hopefully the strip on the dvd player wont be very painful. and also the ag strip hopefully shud be ok.

I don't think that it is the fluorescent bulbs that are so bad on the blue, but I could be wrong.

Here's what I did.
I hooked up my projector to my portable DVD player so I could compare the colors on the DVD player screen to the colors on my projector screen.
Then I replaced one of the flourescent bulbs with an ordinary sylvania 75 watt incandescent light bulb, and turned off the flourescent bulbs and turned on the DVD player. I found a shot with plenty of really blue sky in it on my portable DVD player screen and then turned on the projector LCD. Nuts, still green. I turned off the incandescent bulb (it got hot quick) and turned on one of the big fluorescents to see the difference. A little bit greener, but also brighter. After going back and forth a few times, I concluded that it was the LCD because I still wasn't getting any blue.

Crap.

I was hoping it was the bulbs because I don't want to mess with the LCD or the FFCs.

I have another PSOne LCD around here somewhere that should give me a definitive answer. I also just got a couple of large full spectrum Fluorescent bulbs that I could try out.