I am finally making my dream of having a HD projector a reality . I would like to thank all of the people who have taken the time to answer my questions.

The goal is to build unsplit straight shooter with no fans and no drama

parts:

white oak

10.6 panel with controller

18" BESELER triplet

CDM 150/SA/942

5KV G12 Base Metal Halide Lamp Socket

sola 150 Watt Metal Halide Ballast

Pro Reflector

4.5" DIA CONDENSER LENS, 6.5" FL

fresnel: Groove pitch: 0.2mm (127 grooves per inch)
Focal length: 220mm

fresnel: Groove pitch: 0.2mm (127 grooves per inch)
Focal length: 550mm

Stripped the mirror layers from the back of the panel and I am very happy to say I did not destroy it.

Modified the lcd frame, to use in the projector

spent a couple of hours last night cutting fresnels (everytime I would snap a peice off I would hold my breath lol), and some wood parts of the projector.

Thats it for now I will work on it some more tomarrow night.

Mystic

How do you plan to cool the projector with no fans?

It will Melt!

I am building unsplit also and curious about the 550 fresnal as I am using standard from LL , will that give more illumition ,I thought it would work better after the lcd with a 550 or 650,My next one I was going to try split and use the larger fresnal after but will check out this one to see how the difference will be unsplit. INTERESTING,,, Keep going on build good luck hope everything goes smooth for ya ...

I think a good design should see no fans possible with the 150W lamp. To err on the side of caution, you can use a 12V, 12cm fan running off a 6 volt power supply. Depending on your fan specs to begin with, it will be essentially inaudible. I've been using one on my test PJ for a few weeks now and you can only hear it if you get really, really close to it. The benefit is you can safely shut it off with the lamp and not have to worry about fancy circuits to keep it running after the PJ has shut off.

I am going to relay on convection and when everything is tweeked to have the back of the projector sealed off. at least this is the plan

its my understanding that the 550 fresnel is a better match for the 18 beseler triplet

This is what I am going for

Mystic

Good luck with that design. However, I would plan room for a fan just in case. It would be great if you can get by without it, but it would be terrible if you need it and there's no spot for it. As ozstang said, you can also run the fan at 6V to make it almost silent. Mine will have a switch on it to go between 6V and 12V in case it's needed. Good luck.

it is needed ! no way without fans

In a unsplit setup you can use a 600mm front fresnel and make it extra large and move the LCD 50mm foward of the feild fresnel. This will give extra distance for the air to cool the heat from the lamp.

I dunno...my setup was very-similar (and I believe the 550 is a good-match for this-panel and Beseler)...and with that-bulb AND some type of filtered-opening [high in-case] for exhausting-heat, I imagine that a fan might-not be needed (especially with unsplit-frez and pre-con between lamp and panel, and if PJ-rear is 'roomy'). [However, a quiet-fan is a little 'insurance', no?]
However...at some point I'd suggest comparing your completed-setup with a rear-frez sized at 300-330mm -- with this-lamp and pre-con, you should be able to move/adjust the light-engine for better-brightness/coverage with a longer-FL rear-frez...
Nice choices, Mystic...!

It's probably possible to protect the LCD from to much heat. But the rest of the case will get freaking hot.
I wouldn't want a projector that i couldn't touch because you would burn your fingers or a projector that i would always have to worry about burning down the house.

And it is also unnecessary, with the right fans you can bring em to unhearable.

Thanks for all of your guys imput, this is what its all about talking about ideas. and getting advise.

I think I will be ok, if not I will get a fan but the goal is to be fanless. also once I have it all tweeked I plan to have the entire back of the case sealed off from precondensor on back.

Your using a 150 Watt Ceramic lamp that runs up to 600C.

Without cooling you will melt all the plastics, crack all the glass and destroy the LCD, not to mention the possible fire risks.

Even if you isolate the light engine from the rest of the projector the light passing through the fresnels and LCD will heat them up rapidly.

The only solutions to a silent projector using these light sources is afalse wall that your projector sits behind or an extractor box placed in another room or loft/attic sucking air through the projector via long ducting.

Even LED based projectors still have Active Cooling.

Death Ray: There is cooling it's called convection. That post is a little over the top.

They all said I could never use a 1,200 watt lamp either.

The lamp requires no cooling so a hot mirror and some well placed holes would be fine.

I coulden't even tell if a 150 watt lamp was ON!

Yep,I have run my vert test bed for about 2 hrs non stop so far(with no active cooling),with no ill effects.Reasearch is still ongoing,but I think it is very do-able.God luck.
Cheers P

Hey guys, maybe this has been mentioned elsewhere but i cannot find it. Found this guide for making an ionic pc cooling fan. Seems pretty interesting if you dont want the noise of a blade fan.

Ionic cooling fan

I believe it's doable.

ionic cooling fan

only little problem of ionic cooling is the smell

lol yeah, thenin that case just shove an air freshner inside. I may consider making one, but it means having another largish powersupply for it, the ionic generator. just thought it was pretty cool.

Just purchased a HELIOS H4000 DVD player.

Will be working on the projector Sunday.

Mystic

Good luck, I really want to see your results with a 150w and 10.6" panel, thats what I plan on using for my projector!

I received the HELIOS H4000 and hooked it up to Genesis 5221 controller and I am getting 1 inch upper and lower black bars. the picture looks good but it's my understanding that pretty much the whole screen should be filled with the movie.

I set the Helios to 16x9 and both 720p and 1080p and am going to the controller through the componet hookups.

Dose anyone know what I have to change to get full screen video? on the controller or the DVD player?

'The 16:9 standard says that LCD TVs should have 1280 x 720 or 1366 x 768 resolution. But if you've been in the computer game for any length of time, you know that, first of all, the numbers 720 and 1366 don't really sound right, and second, manufacturers just don't give a damn about standards. As a result, the monitors we tested rarely have the right format. Often you find 1280 x 768, which actually corresponds roughly to a 16:10 aspect ratio. Larger panels offer a 1920 x 1200 picture, which also works out to a 16:10 format.'

-Tom's Hardware article

The black bars on top and bottom is a good sign.

The black bars will also depend on the movie format. When I played Star Wars on my DVD player (not a Helios), it has quite a bit of black, but that's because it's in 2.35:1 aspect ratio (very wide). So check that out too. A 16:9 DVD would probably leave small bars at the top and bottom because of the extra verticle resolution this monitor has. Just a thought.

David

Great I will try other DVD's and see what happens.

The light engine should be done over the weekend, and am now working on the slats for the ventleation part of the fanless projector. which has gotten a lot bigger since I decided to fit a 15.4 wuxga panel in it when and honest to goodness hdcp controller is found

Mystic

Thank you David

That was the problem I used lord of the rings and harry potter just dumb luck they were both 2.35.1 lol. went and got JesusChrist superstar and BINGO full screen.

One step closer to the dream

Mystic

Hello,

with the help of my friends Luke & Devin, we have made some progress

Devin and I talked about the light engine and he came up with this.

The paper is left on the lense and reflector for now

light engine

I was going to post more but I have exceeded my global limit

Mystic

LIGHT ENGINE

Box is almost finished

box

box

vents

It is starting to come together, thanks to my good friends Luke and Devin

Mystic

light engine

light engine

Nice design, you won't be disapointed with the 10.6 setup. I started with one 3" fan over my similar light engine and ran it at quiet rpm's, I still ended up over heating the panel. I now have 2 more 3" fans over my panel bay, keep in mind they are running very low rpms compared to full voltage rpms. That solved my trouble. I hope you can keep the fanless design cool enough. Good luck I've started playing World of Warcraft on mine and it's

Thank you for your comments.

I think I be ok with the fanless design because the box is so big, I plan on putting 15.4 WUXGA panel in there next year, so this is not a small build.

I beleive the vents will allow for good airflow for convection to remove the heat. and passed the 400w holigen light test .

the build process is slow my friend Luke who has a very nice wood working shop is the builder of the box ( I am just the unskilled labor) we only work on it a 4 or 5 hours a week because of our schedules.

P.S.
I to look forward to playing WOW on a 119 diagnal screen

Mystic

In this fanless design you might want to think about using tempered glass as it will withstand more heat then Lexan. You may also want to use some shielding in the light box and put a spacer under each screw to put an air gap between the sheet metal and wood to keep the heat from the wood. you are going to want to put temp sensors at various points to keep an eye on temps. looks good so far, I like the light engine and how adjustable it looks. are those welds on the forward and reverse adjustments?

The more I follow this thread, the more I think about a design I may want to try. It would be ceiling mounted, light engine on top, mirror/lens on bottom, with all air intake close to the lens and all exhaust out the top so it would have a good convection/chimney effect for cooling the lcd/lenses.

Hrm.

Tescorp,

there are welds on the light engine but all adjustable parts are held together by screws

Mystic

that sounds like it might work, if heat has a way to get out ,it will. I know some pple are waiting for my box to burst into flames , but I really believe this will work. In a couple of weeks we all will know, I will hook up the light with a 10.6 panel I ruined and check the temps to see how it works.

Mystic

Smart, very smart.

some updated pictures

I hooked up the lamp and fired it up. It started out with a blue tent. Luke the persone who has built this wonderfull box, looked at it and said it's blue? and I could see in his eyes he was thinking thats not very bright, lol I told him it will get brighter over time and the blue tent will disappear and it sure did.

after an hour I touched the metal around the bulb and I could leave my fingers on it for about 10 seconds before it gets uncomfortable and the metal used for holding the lamp was cool to the touch. Then I put my hand just right above the bulb and it took about 10 to 15 seconds before I wanted to remove it. and this is in a shop that was in the 90 degree range. this projector will be in a nice cool basement.

Here is a pic of the lamp lit, I know, big deal. but for me it is . box is finished will hopefully be watching movies in a couple of weeks

The ballist is another mater entirely it dose get very hot, we have decided to put it outside the box in the back (and no I did not touch it ).

Mystic

I'll be watching closely as it appears that we are using the exact same components (although mine is a folded vertical). I am curious to know what distances you are placing the fresnels, and what distance your reflector and precon are from the lamp.