I have finally started my project. Here is an idea of what the projector will look like.

I am using a 7" Insignia portable dvd player
6 26watt 6500k CFL's
220 triplet
220 fresnel
a small desk fan

here is the light setup

and all together

here is my keystone adjustment

my lenses arrived today in less than a week from tescorp.

Here is the start of my box. It is made of nomex so it is light weight and very heat resistant. I put foam panel inserts in where all the cutouts will be since the nomex has a hallow honeycomb core. Ah the benefits of my job.

Will that be bright enough? Also, I thought you needed a point light source!

Only if your using a rear collimating fresnel. In this case there is none with the florescent light array as the collimated light source. I too, wonder will this be bright enough.

i think it will be. i have seen people using psone screens with 4 of these bulbs and they are getting good results. so i figured 6 of them with a 7" screen should be good. but i really wont know until i fire it up.

Nice drawings and very clean setup. I think I'm seeing hinges in your keystone picture. If so are you planning an auto keystone?

b.t.w. - have you seen this tread? I don't know if anyone has tested the idea out yet, but it kinda' explains why florescent lighting isn't that effective.

Yes i am using an auto keystone. That tread is a little "in depth" for me. Im still giving the cfl's a shot. I want the projector to be able to turn on and off without any warm up and cool down time. The bulbs are cheap so if one blows i can easily get another. Do you know if anyone else has tried this style of build with a triplet-fresnel-cfl.

Here is the keystone blocks. I had to remake them to move the screw heads out of the way. I have also cut the Fresnel down. Good thing they just changed the table saw blades at work. I was worrying not to chip or crack the Fresnel.

You could put the cfl like this 3 on each side or 3 in the bottom and 3 on top whichever way gives better coverage. I think those bulbs are brighter from the side rather than the top.

Click to view attachment

There is a lot of white space in my cut and paste but the bulbs would be very close together.
This way lets you put flat mirrors behind the lamps to catch the light and send it back towards the lcd through the lamps ring structure or any spacing gaps. The other option is to use a large reflector instead of a mirror. You can't do this as easily if the base of the lamps faces the rear of the pj.

That's not a bad idea. I will have to keep that design in consideration if the original doesnt work out. I would have to make a new box though. Oh well there is always more "scrap" nomex at work.

Hmm....nope. So now you've really captured my attention.

Dang it. I wish I had just a little extra time and money. Builds like these really make me want to get started. Oh well, I'll just have to hold my horses and go back to my ninja lurking status.

Well i couldn't sleep so i stripped the insignia. It was a lot easier than i thought it would be. All the components are held together with double sided tape. Now i need to extend some wires and remove the anti glare(everyone says it makes a difference).

Yes. It still works. Hopefully it still works after the anti glare removal.

Hey Taco,

Putting the lamps the way gumshoe showed with a rear reflector does seem to make everything brighter.
I'm using a dollar store aluminum pan & two of the CFL flood lights & it's darn bright.

I'm in limbo right now until I get my controller, but i'll post A picture of the CFLs lit up if you want.

Sure i would like to see that.

Does removing the anti glare make that big of a difference?

in this setup it would make a huge difference.

the anti glare stops much light from passing through the lcd
and using this setup with these bulbs will prob. not produce a whole lot of light
so you would want as much to pass through the lcd a possible

i cant wait to see how bright this ends up being



good luck

Not to be a PITA but I have a 7" dvd player I am using and tried and tried many differnt bulbs finally just stuck a 50 watt mr16 12 volt bulb in it and honestly its GOOD of course this is with the lights out I found this was a better way than using the 250 watt OHP bulb that only had 175 HRS now I have a bulb that can be picked up anywhere and last thousands of hours and it doesnt generate so much heat. Just my 2 cents

The lights and lenses are in. I also am using a different fan.

After a lot of soldering tiny wires the cables are extended.

I can't tell, is the whole box lined with reflective material?

Not yet. I plan on painting the inside black with grill paint and putting some reflective material in spots. I'm just testing out the box as is right now. I will also veneer the outside of the box.

I have now removed the AG with the water soak method. It only took about 2 hours and it came up with no trouble. It didnt even leave any residue.

Here's an idea of how much the antiglare blocks.

nice job with the ag removal
that thing sure does block a lot of light .. wow have a beer

one more thing .
im getting impatient can you just close that box up and fire up those lamps so we can see how bright it is lol

Well i fired it up. It was bright enough to watch a movie with all the lights off. but i think i will try turning the bulbs on their sides. Im glad it actually works. Sorry for the bad pic. the remote was dead so i couldnt pause it. and my daughter's head is making a shadow. I was getting a good 72" picture on the white wall with very little screen door effect. I might even add a couple more bulbs. The insignia is not a bad lcd.

Hey Taco,

I just bought a "broken" 7" AMW dvd player off E-bay for $15 shipped.
It wouldn't show the video on the screen.
But, it did show a startup screen when it was turned on so I bought it.

I think all that was wrong with it was a fidgety input switch because now it works with both DVD & the video input.

I'm going to take it apart to see if it's usable & if so i'll be right behind you with my CFL experiment.

I'm planing on putting it in an old 47" RPTV.
Yeah, I know it's resolution is 320x240.
But, it can't be any worse than the 15yr old 25" Tube TV in there now.

I hope it turns out good. I dont blame you. I have a 19" tube tv right now. I cant wait to watch movies on a big screen.

Well here is a lot of improvement. I flipped the light mount upside down so the bulbs are hanging, and judging from this i will put the bulbs as suggested. So far I'm happy with the results. This is turning out to be a good build. The last one is my daughters favorite cartoon Max and Ruby. The screen is about 8ft diagonal and the pj is about 9ft away. The images do look brighter in person.

It's strip able.

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=22153

Each of your 26 watt CFLs emits ~1500 lumens, right? You could feasibly replace them with the 65 watt fluorescents that Nitrogen Widget is using in his RPTV build. That pumps out three times as much; more lumens/watt although higher initial cost.

You might also want to look at this:

http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/nlpip/ligh...FL-products.asp

The big bulbs (150 watt and 200 watt) are mighty large: they're around 14-16" long, which would demand a tricky diagonal orientation and uneven lighting. The 105 watt bulbs are a much more reasonable 11" or so and much cheaper: http://www.naturallighting.com/web/shop.ph...ion=show_detail

Of course, if you're going for a compact size, this won't do it.

Ive seen those bulbs but they too pricey for me.

Have you tried with the bulbs facing each one?

I mean

__ __

__ __


each line a bulb

May be work with 4.

Thats how im doing it in my new build but with 6 bulbs.

i am trying to use car bulbs as light source. philips diamondvision 100w/90w 12volts with the help of 350W ATX powersupply. has anyone tried it?

heres a guy that used HID headlights.
http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?s...=19613&st=0

How about using an array of small fresnels carefully assembled into an array (one per bulb?) you can get them inexpensively around the 'net. Like, you could build a sheet of 6 for less than $15, methinks.

I have the same Insignia DVD player and I'm just about cloning your project. Could you detail how you removed the anti-glare (soak?)?

THANKS!

I cut down 2 paper towels and placed them on the lcd and sprayed bottled water on the towels just enough so they were wet not soaked. and let it set for about 2 hours. Then i peeled back the anti glare. Just make sure you peel off the first layer. Check out my new build. I used the same setup but i turned the lights on their sides and built a new box. The lights on their sides do put out more light.