Hi all,

Amazing work here... I've admired from a far for quite a long time. I had a 15" LCD/Overhead projector set-up I used for a while, but alas, my LCD panel died and I've been projector-less. I recently got a Toshiba TLP-S10 for free. It works(kind of), but has no bulb. I say kind of, because it works fine, but gives a bulb error after a few minutes, mainly because there isn't one.

I made a mount for the bulb from the overhead projector, and put it in the Toshiba. It worked, but it puts out so much heat that I can not imagine conceivably being able to cool it. After running for about a minute, I touched the top and it burned my hand pretty severely. I was trying to find alternatives to replace the bulb. Obviously, a correct $250 replacement isn't an option.

I was wondering about common halogen lighting. Like this: http://www.1000bulbs.com/PAR16-Halogen-Light-Bulbs/500/

It's relatively small, has a focused beam, has a built in reflector, and wouldn't give off nearly as much heat. 900 lumens is a pretty significant amount of light, too. Also, painstaking would in theory be as easy as attaching a socket and screwing it in. Is there a reason why this wouldn't work? Has it been done before? Any other advice? Thanks in advance. -Ted

Your best bet would be this thread:

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=59091

You might be able to get a cheaper retrofit bulb there.

Well, I guess I can expand my question a bit. Ignoring the applications in a commercial projector, has anyone successfully used a standard house light bulb in a projector? I'm going to define "standard" as anything that doesn't need ballast; i.e. it could be screwed into any socket and work. I saw the person who did the PSone screen projector using the 4 compact fluorescents; has anyone tried a high intensity flood light? Or something halogen? Obviously I know pretty little about bulbs, so I will sit back and seek enlightenment. -Ted

Gidday, A bit of down under ingenuity. (Tasmania Aust ) I just put a 50 watt halogen 12v lamp in a Optima projector. I used a 12 volt transformer you buy from lighting shop,$17 total . I have a old projector screen mounted behind computor screen with projector set up behind me on a stand.Apoox 2meters behind.At this distance it throws a pic 1 meter diagonal with reasonable results. I need to get the projector back further so as to be able to focus properly but I only have small room. When I have had it hooked to vid cam in other room it worked fine but with a small blur in the centre wher the bulb wires show. But Im happy with the overall cost . $30 projector From ebay $17 for transformer, $10 hal globe,You can probably get a brighter globe 12v and shove that in should work.Regards .

hmm, this sounds very familiar, like me!!!!

I also made a projector out of a 15" lcd and overhead projector, but I broke the lcd because I boldly tried using the lcd controller from another lcd monitor (which was an lcd tv, so it had component, composite, svideo, vga, tv tuner, all that good stuff) and this resulted in burning out the lcd circuitry and the controller as well.

so yes, I have tried this, and it does not work people!!!!!

I am building another projector, a 1080P build. anyway, good luck trying to get another bulb for that projector, plz do tell if your new bulb works or not, I have a friend who is sick of paying 300 bucks whenever his bulb goes out in his toshiba projector.