After spending a lot of design time trying to figure out how best to construct my projector, I came up with this version. It takes several excellent ideas from the forums and combines them into a low profile, sleek looking unit.

Here are some features-
1. Focus adjustment
2. External Keystone adjustment
3. Remote ballast
4. High rez 15" LCD panel

Major Components-
1. BenQ 15" LCD monitor FP567s
2. Optics by Lumenlab
3. Lamp- EYE Clean Arc, MT400D/HOR, T17 bulb, 29000 initial lumens, 6500K
90CRI, 12000 hour life.
Comment: I sacrificed higher lumens as compared to a EYE M400SX/HOR/BT28,
and gained CRI and a lamp spectrum that is rich and uniform in color.
4. EYE M59 Ballast (kit type open core & coil)
5. Toyo 120V, 11W fans
6. Stainless steel salad bowl reflector, from my wife's kitchen
7. 1/2" birch plywood, (2) 2'x4' panels

The rendering below shows the design in 3-D, developed from Solid Edge design software.

Regards,

Johnny

Here is another view.

Johnny

OK, one more view!

The work begins!

Side panels cut first.

I cut both of them at this same time by overlaying two 1/2"x 13" x 30" panels.

Components taking shape.

Below is the focusing assembly and front panel.
The front panel was made from 3/4" plywood.

This photo shows the LCD/ Fresnel lens guide blocks screwed in place on each side panel.

The projector is starting to take shape.
The LCD panel and the rear glass plate fit into the guide blocks!
I don't know.......this might actually work.

More photos to come as I make progress.
So far I've got over 40 hours into this project.

Johnny

Great looking pj!

Looking good. I wish I had used 3/4" plywood on mine.

Any particular reason for positioning the ballast underneath ?

Your meticulous handiwork certainly shows.

What kind of dog do you have?

Do you ever look at the projectors in the pictures or just the incidental packaging?

Thank you for your kind comments.

Brain; .... my dog is a mut, mixed breed.

One of the benefits of having a 3-D design program like Solid Edge is that you can design your projector (in this case) very acurately to true dimensions. Analyze the design and change your mind many times, as I did. My original design was folded, but I scrapped the idea and decided to go the standard straight route.

What looks like a ballast underneath the unit (in the rendering) is really the BenQ power supply chassis, which holds the switching power supply and video input card. Projector power and video-in signals will connect there.

I painted the unit and started final assembly. The photo below shows the projector with the top removed. The keystone panel in not installed. Still working on it. I cut and glued the front bezel of the BenQ monitor to make the screen control/adjustment panel, keeping the original pushbutton control board in tact. More detail on this later.

Johnny

My ballast is mounted in this old Sears battery charger box I had laying around. My daughter made the colorful front panel design and printed it on 8 1/2 x 11" Avery label stock for a finished look, trimmed to fit. I repainted the old box gloss black prior to assembling the EYE ballast and components inside. Here's how it turned out.

Johnny

All of the spacing between the lamp, the lenses, LCD panel and front lens triplet follow the project guidelines. The photo below shows some of that detail. The white panels around the rear compartment are white aluminum panels with powder coating applied. The material was left over from a soffit replacement project I did on the house last summer. It came in handy!

Also shown is the detail of the wiring from the LCD through the slots in the botton and side panels. These go to the video signal card tucked in underneath the projector and pushbutton panel surface mounted on the outside panel.

Just a note on my initial temperature tests; with all lenses and glass panels in place, the lamp on for about half an hour, a single fan working, using a thermocouple I measured the temperature of the air inside the LCD/rear glass channel (near the bottom) and found it to be 83 degrees F. The ambient aie temp was 74 degrees F. Not bad! One fan it is!!! I thought I'd need two.

Johnny

A closer look at the control wiring and cables.

Here's what the right side and bottom of the projector look like.

You can see the modified front bezel which was the front of the monitor. For those of you that stripped a BenQ, this will look familiar. It is surface mounted to the panel with two screws.

Below is the switching power supply and video card chassis, modified from the original by cutting material that wasn't needed and repainted to match. A fan switch was added as well. The power for the fan comes from the socket on the power supply pc board which the power cord plugs into. I soldered the wires directly to the pc board for the power tap-off. The fan draws 100 milliamps.

I have no plans at this time to add fan timer controls. Maybe later. I am hower designing my own electronic temperature controller to shut off the lamp in an overtemp situation. I plan to power the circuit from the switching power supply and interrupt lamp power through a relay.

Johnny

Very nice design

gotta love all these different types of projectors......

You don't happen to write the scripts for CSI-Miami, by any chance, do you, Brain ? We have two Schnausers, and even I missed the bag of kibble !

Johnny 5:

That has to be one of the neatest finished models I've seen so far. As it happens, this is the way I visualised my projector-to-be, so you have really inspired me. Can't wait to see the "proof of the pudding" photos when you finally fire it up.

Thank you Fanatic, Thank you Dr Bev.

I wanted to make it look really good, since the effort took a lot of my time, about 80 hours plus. I burned two vacation days to move the project along. I am enjoying the pursuit. My initial projections on my very rough garage wall were just OK, as one would expect. Can't wait to get the projector in place,in my basement, and tweek the lens alignment. I purchased my black out and framing lumber this weekend and will begin to build the screen this week.

I'll post more photos as I move along.

Johnny

Projector looks awesome

Inspirational!

fair play you've done a really good job there

Johnny5,

I like your design. Your use of the aux box for the power supply is a great idea. Was the design based on keeping it small for portability and style? Waiting for some pictures. Great job!!!!!!!!!

Edon

one of the nicest looking projectors Ive seen here! makes me want to start a second one!

Got to say that is definately one of the neatest designs and finishes I have seen - it looks store bought!
Any chance you could provide detailed plans and measurements so we can at least try to produce one anywhere near as good.

Cheers

Slippa

Thank you all for the kind remarks.

I've just completed the final version of the keystone assembly. I went through several iterations. I'll post the images soon.

I will make my plans available to those that want them at a later date.

Johnny

yea, if you post your plans id love to see what worked/didn't work to check that my design isn't totaly flawed.

Looks great! Would you mind posting a couple of pics in the project gallery? Your projector would be a great example to the newbies and skeptics that not all Lumenlab PJs have to be big bulky boxes.

Looks awesome!! Keep up the great work. I would like to see your lense config in terms of keystoning. Also could you give some measurements, looks like you made the prelim drawings in autocad.

Thanks Jeremy.
I did the design using Solid Edge. I'll clean up the drawings and have them available later. Couple of things I'm still tweeking and testing. I have several types of EYE lamps I'm testing. I like the EYE 400W horizontal Clean ARC lamp so far, but the reflector I have isn't compatible with the T shaped bulb of the Clean ARC lamp. I'm going to try a couple diferent reflector designs.

Here is a photo of the keystone assembly. The field frensel is clipped to a piece of picture frame glass held in place with some U shaped picture frame material I had laying around. The glass and the lens are the same size. I used some glass cabinet door hinges to mount the keystone, just off center so that it normally wants to tilt, bottom forward. The white cam is a closet rod holder with a screw that is mounted about 1 inch off center. The screw goes through a hole in the side of the box to a plastic knob I got from a local hardware store. Gravity alone keeps the keystone against the cam. I glued some felt to the cam face so that I get some resistance when dialing in the keystone. The felt also keeps the cam from moving out of position. Those strips of wood on either side of the field frensel....they keep the screws of the hinges from digging into the lens. The one on the right also acts as a friction plate for the cam.

Johnny

Here's another view.

This is what the 400W Clean Arc Lamp and the current reflector look like.

Wow is all I can say.. I wouldn't mind getting the plans for you box so I can attempt one like it... Very nice I can't wait to see some pictures for that and I can't wait to get my lenses, I might just bite the bullet so to speak and get a LCD monitor instead of using a 5" lcd from ps one...





Soo tempted....

SethAce, thanks.

I've been watching movies (and tweeking) for a couple of evenings now. The picture quality is very good. Computer system problems and video card setup is a pain. Can't seem to get the DMA setting. Stuck in PIO mode. Will try again tonight.

I'd like to post photos of my screen images, but they're not to a point where I would want to share them with you guys just yet.

Johnny

Great job and great idea! DMA and PIO... DVD drive problem? If so I might be able to help. What are some of the measurements of the outside? Did you make it out of all 3/4" MDF? Not using the Norpro? What are you using for the reflector?

It's looking great and I'm sure you are enjoying it!!

Jeremy

Great job. How's your picture?

Hey guys,

I used 1/2" birch plywood from Home Depot to cut down weight, its straight... nice surface for finishing. As a base for finishing, I used "Bondo"....yes bondo... thinly applied, all over on the outside surfaces.
Why? Because bondo fills in the pores nicely, is easily sanded and flaws can be hidden.
I guess I could have used wood putty, but bondo is my preference. It's smoother to apply, applies thinly and evenly. After priming and wet sanding I applied Krylon satin flat black spray paint to match the color and finish of the projector stand. I've applied three coats of finish.

I'm not using the Norpro (just yet), I have some reflector material and I'm bending it and trying a couple of different arrangements. I like the colors that the EYE Clean Arc "T" lamp gives me. The projected images have really nice color.

The picture is very good, my son says its kick ass... But! I continue to struggle with DMA issues and software. Once I overcome the problems I will post the images.

Jeremy,
I've tried all of the normal setup and trouble shooting routines XP (SP2) suggests. My CD drive is working fine. For some dumb reason, it appears that I don't have DMA drivers installed on my system and when I try to install a DMA driver......bam! blue screen.....and memory dump! Any ideas?

Johnny

It sounds like you have come to one of the many problems with SP2. I had so many troubles on my laptop I had to format because doing the uninstall made it only worse. Though after I uninstalled thinking that I'm just a gluttin for punishment, I upgraded to SP2 again and haven't had any problems yet. I hate microsoft. Who brings out a 266MB patch?

Did you have these problems before SP2?

Just go with Linux 'n' you won't have any of that blue screen stuff again

Thats what I plan to do with my XBox . I have to have at least a windows boot for my wireless on campus (damn windows-nazi's ).

Anywho, back to the subject of projectors... If you could give some measurements (so I can change them by an eighth of an inch and call them mine j/k ). What extension is a solid edge file? I hear the program is based off of autocad just more localized.

Hope the problem with your drive goes away.
-Jeremy

I'll be buying my enclosure materials in the next few days, so I'm glad to hear this worked out okay. I've liked the idea of using 1/2" Birch Plywood ever since I heard about it...but I was always kinda concerned that it might be too thin.

Half inch birch ply worked well for me. Take extra time at the lumber supply place to select the best ply for your projector.

I've reloaded SP2, got the latest accelerators from microsoft, cleaned and re-cleaned the registry, made every setting I could to enhance quality and speed. (some trade offs). and the picture looks really good. I still have problems with XP and my ALL-IN-ONE Wonder but I'll work through those. I'll post some pics soon.

ALIG is really funny! Watched the "Cone heads" movie from VCR, still not bad!

Johnny

Do you have any screen shots yet? I'm dying to see the results of such a great design.

Hey Jeremy, this weekend. Just picked up "Nemo"!!!!

Johnny

Good to go man, get some pics!

Well, I took some pictures and they don't do justice to the actual projected image. I'm going to play around with the camera in manual mode to see if I can get the pics to come out right.

Suffice to say that I am extremely happy with the outcome. I did a shoot out between my projector and a projector from work, which was an older Sharp unit model number XV-120ZU.

My projector blew it away!

Johnny

lets see some screen shots!!! I cant wait to see how your pj performs. want to see if it works as good as it looks!

any luck Johnny5 ?

I'm really interested in your design and Thomas's design I'm really looking forward to seeing your results..
excellent job btw.
Mike