Hello everyone!!
a short introduction first,
I am a 16 year old who has always been good at building things and working with electronics. I have built multiple computers and remote controlled cars. I also have already tried to make a couple projectors.

This time I plan to make and finish a small 10.6inch projector!!!

My lcd is on the way (should be here on the 26th) so I decided to start a plog for this projector

What I am planning to use:
10.6 inch 1280x768 lcd from Johnzo's group buy
standard LL lenses
wood that my family has lying around
250 watt MH

I plan to to make a half box with unsplit. I would post a picture that I made but I don't know how to post one or how to put it on the net
I will try to explain it in words anyway. Im going to make the box of wood up to just past the lcd. then the rest will be rails covered in velvet so that it can be shrunk so that I can take it around to my friends houses for some xbox action I am planning to start working on the box by monday (have most of the week off because of exams) and then I will start to post pictures of my projection area and my steps in making it!!

advice would be nice but mostly just wish me luck1

Good Luck.

I too am working on a 10.6" PJ. I got in on the first group buy. I like the idea of the collapsing PJ. I'll be keeping an eye on your PLOG.

here is my crappy picture of my plan. I will make it look better in real life ( hopefuly ) mostly it is half of a normal box then the front end is cloth to just block the light. fedex now says that my lcd wont be here till the 30th now but now I got my first paycheck so I can at least order my lenses and by a lamp soon

Edit: forgot to thank arizonavideo for his help with picture posting!!

Well I thought I should add a few pics of were I am placing my pj.
Click to view attachment
this is my screen witch is a pull down shade mounted sideways.
Click to view attachment
this is a pic of my last pj witch is a psone (one of the few lcd's I didn't kill) with 2 300w halogens.

Well small update. I just ordered my std LL lens set and a 400w set up from LL

Hey! Welcome to LL!
Dont be afraid of it. There are plenty of people here who will offer support. I like your idea for the compact case. Would you care to elaborate a little on the twin halogen setup you have in your PS2 case?

SamuraiJack

I can't take a picture of the twin setup as I tore it apart for my little brother to use but it mostly was just 2 300watt halogens placed right beside each other in a reflector for a single halogen. I only used it for a while. I did get weird things in the image but I think that was because the lamps were too close to the first Fresnel ( actually just a cheap page magnifier) I can say that it was about double the brightness of just one halogen but also double the heat . you could cook hot dogs infront of that thing!!

I was ripping apart cars at your age! now its motorcycles and custom trikes and projectors. when you had the psone with two halogens you probably had two focal points for your collimator fresnel which should have given you a weird image. good luck on your next build, should be cool with the collapsing front.

well I received my panel and it looked fine until I tried to hook it up. It seems I might have blown a fuse of some sort on the board or something else. This might be my 4th panel i killed

Any news on your panel? Is it fried or did you figure out what was wrong? Hope it works out for you....lots of us are watching your progress I'm sure. Best of luck!

Yeah...what news on panel?
A shame my guess that you only had to work-around as far as that fuse was not the-case. Apparently 'more was involved'.
It doesn't sound like you have much choice with that controller (trade-back or anything), but hang onto it...maybe useful later? One of us in the 10.6-threads may try to salvage-it...
In meantime, I suppose you are going to try next-order, and get one of those Genesis-boards (I know of no other way to 'test' the panel, unfortunately)?
You _could_ save about 10. by getting Johnzo to communicate RTD-board 'failings' to Carpow, and see if he can get the supplier to re-flash eeprom properly (maybe even enabling component>vga-input...which I'm told should be supported -- but isn't currently, due to poor-programing).
Anyway...'keep chin up'...
I think your panel survived whatever befell the controller.

Ya it really sucks that my board died. I am sending both the board and and lcd back to johnzo so that he can test the board and lcd. hopefully my lcd is fine and then I'll just buy the seeming superior genesis controller.
My lamp and lenses haven't arrived from LL yet so I'm not in too much of a rush. Hopefully I can get things worked out

Best of luck with the LCD!

well got some work done on my box. I'm probably going with a drawer slide that has a clamp sorta thing that will hold it in place when adjusted (hard to explain things in words ) the whole front will be covered so there will be no light leaks.
Click to view attachment
pretty bad pick but it gives an idea ( and shows I've done some work )

Good work,Ziggy.I see what you mean.
I think it should work great.
Cheers P

It might be possible to diagnose/'fix' the board (dunno if Johnzo is up-to-it, however...maybe he could 'job out')? May not be worth the bother, however...only worth about 50. (...so like Brain has discovered with Evo's -- 'its cheaper to replace than fix/reflash/etc.'). Damn shame...huh?
I have a Genesis, and although I can make it 'fully functional' for a PJ here...that's only because I have 'unusual input sources'... I would not characterize the Genesis-board as 'superior'. All we really know (because of the lack of any 'real' testing/review for any of these boards 'comparitively') is that, currently, the Genesis is "less screwed-up in flash" than the RTD...a tad more like 'actually functional'.
It could-be that the RTD2523B is really the better-chipset, and lacks only a proper-flash and SoG-activation (for Component-input) to be much-better than the Genesis, and equal as far as 'inputs' (and 10. cheaper!).
I recently found what may-be a fully-functional RTD2523 at Izzotek...and told Johnzo about it...maybe he'll take steps to dump-flash, and fix all of his imports? If so, maybe [someday] we'll get the Genesis 'fixed', also, then we'd be able to side-by-side compare-them -- to determine, truly, which is 'best for us'? [And, who knows, that 70. RTD2533 may be great, also, if one doesn't need dvi?]

Well for me either panel would be good. all I really need is support for native on vga and dvi. I might hook cable up to it to but I could go through my computer for that. the genesis controller is sounding better to me as it has a better controller ( I switch between computer and xbox360 all the time) But i'll be happy with watever I get!!

Well small update.
My stuff from LL came so now I can some more work done on my box! all the LL stuff seems so much bigger when you see it in real life!! I hope they still will fit my plans and my box!!

well I got the lamp up and running that thing is bright!! I plan to get some major work done as it is a long weekend right know. (school off yay!!!)

Great news.Looking foreward to seeing your progress.
Cheers P

well not much has happened this weekend. I tried setting up my box with a broken psone lcd and it seems that my lamp is to close to my lcd. So now i have to remake my box.

Measure 22 times, cut once That's one thing I learned while building these..

ya thats a little hard with these new panels as you don't really have any recommended lengths to cut
I just need to find some more good wood to build it now.

Can you measure the distance????
What are they,lamp to fres,fres to lcd/fres??
P

Can't really measure them as I tore it all apart but I had 21cm from lamp to Fresnel's and then about 4cm from fresnel to lcd as the psone board was in the way. I was getting a white blur in the middle of the projection and it wasn't very bright.

21cm sounds pretty much spot on,the 4cm sounds a little long,but hey,if you wernt happy,then what the hey,go for it!
Done it before a few times myself.
Cheers P

I want, eventually, to make a 'small as possible' mini-Haas...with steam-bent/curved sides, and dovetailed end-pieces...maybe with Misson-style butterfly-inlay's for glue-ups (but a un-seen and slide-in metal-top, for heat-dissapation and easy-access when not truss-mounted).
BUT, I'll be playing with a fully-adjustable/open-ended test-bed setup until I have my 'minimums' fully-spec'd...too many "known-unknowns" with all the mods/optics I have in-mind... I think 'case first' is the wrong order-of-things...sometimes (at least it would-be for me).

ya its not the smartest way of doing this (case first) but it is the one part I can actually build before everything comes!

Thats what I did while I waited for my parts. So far it seems fine, just make sure all of your measurements are correct. Have fun with the build.

Well I thought it over and realized how much of an idiot I was. I was judging the projection with cheap dollar store fresnels. So I cut down my good fresnels (slightly messing up one ) and tried again. I got a super sharp and bright image with the box fully open and over 200watts worth of halogen lighting on! the image was just through a screwed up psone lcd (half the image is cut off) This projector should turn out extremely bright!!

Wassup with your reported 'screen broke after removal' post?
Are you sure all connections are proper, no PS problem is extant, have you 'troubleshot' it thoroughly?
What would have caused the panel damage...strained-FCC's or connector?...cracked-panel?

Looks like your having some trouble! Sounds like you have some trouble with the lcd but you should have at least one laying around somewhere. keep trying and never forget people here can give you ideas

well I have pretty well given up building projectors. every lcd I have bought I have somehow killed. I add it up and realized that I had spent over a grand on this thing.

so I have decided to go slightly commercial. I am trying to get an old lightware vp800 projector that I can modify to put the lamp from LL that I got. It should end up okay and still have some Diy spirit.

I really wanted to build a LL projector, and have tried many times but I think I'm cursed or something. I know I'm good at building and fixing things as that is what I do all the time. But I can't get this done

I think that I will post about my commercial modifications as that is still projectors and I really don't want to quit this great community of great people.
edit: and yes hapHazard I did test my lcd as best I could. I think that it did almost the same thing it did last time.

A fuse, on controller, was fried last-time, right?
There are several who had temporary 'I broke it' moments, then discovered a bad/improper connection, a flakey PS, OSD-mistake, etc. What is your specific equipment, now, and what was it possibly subjected-to which could have 'killed it'?
Is it cracked, or sporting a torn FCC? [Give some details...I don't see why you are so certain it is 'bust']
As far as I-know, your controller didn't work...directly after receipt (an RTD?...no real loss with those). Then you sent your controller/panel/cable back to Johnzo for a replacement and (presumably) testing, and you got-back 'what'? The same/re-tested panel and this-time, a 5221...? Correct so-far?
In detail, what happened after that?
Your LVDS-cable had it's white-dot addressing the inputs on the 5221? Are you sure you received a tested/proper cable (someone else had that sort of 'issue')? What PS did you start with...what rating on it?
Did you have any function, and what event immediately-preceded any loss of function (assuming it worked to begin-with)?
As far as I know, the only way to kill a panel is to crack-it, or tear the FCC's...as for controllers, several have had quirks/issues.

I had bought another RTD board from Johnzo and it worked the first time I tried it. I then took it out of its casing to put in the projector. I then tested it and it didn't work. I took it out of the projector and tested it again. all that happened was the red light for on flashed for a millisecond and the backlight flashed for a millisecond. I then put it all back together again to see if it was something else and it did the same thing. The stuff that it is doing is exactly like one of my 15inches did when it died. I think that I might have killed the Lcd and the board as when I plug it in and the split second there is light I can see a strip of black pixels when the rest are white.
I have already purchased a lightware vp800 that I am going to mod with my 400w MH.

I really wanted to finish this projector but the money that it already has cost me (over a grand Canadian) could have went to the car I want. I still want a proejctor really bad so that is why I went with the vp800.

Ouch...
So you assume that a FCC was damaged during removal from frame?
[Have you flexed-them during testing--that worked for someone-elsewhere)?]
Isn't it possible that the PS is the culprit, and maybe trying-another (a loan, maybe, from a laptop/lcd-owner) would give different result?
What do you think is 'bad'...the panel or that sukky-RTD?
[As for backlight, mine broke, also (despite careful-handling -- they are very prone to 'flexure-damage'). But you can test by holding panel to light-source...]

I think that both the Lcd and the RTD are dead. as the board was doing almost exactly what my last one was doing. and my lcd had the line. I did try a different power supply and had the same result.

Well, I can maybe-see where a lot of those RTD-boards may have been 'touchy'.
And, I know that if one is the-least careless with razor, or extreme-flexure, or dangles-the-panel from FCC's, then one can screw-the-panel's-pooch alright.
But I gotta believe you were careful removing panel and with FCC's (and you hadn't started stripping-layers yet, right?).
Isn't there a chance your panel is alright? [Are any other 10.6-ers in/near Alberta?] The panel is worth 3-times that controller...after-all?
[You haven't pissed-off any Gypsy's up there, have you? <g>]

No I haven't pissed any Gypsy's off I was extremely careful when taking it apart but with all the luck I've had with lcd's I could have easily screwed it up. I am just going to take my losses and move on.

But...there's no cracks...maybe either your panel or controller is good/'resellable'?

I could sell it again but I don't really think anyone would want to buy it. and i really hate shipping things