I was given an Infocus LitePro 570 a few years ago, that had apparantly wine spilled onto it. I got it home, it would power up but no light would come out. I replaced the bulb, but still no light. I couldn't get it apart and stored it... until now.

I've read some people have converted similar models with newer highers res panels and better bulbs/ballasts (as well, a quieter fan? this thing sounds like a frickin jet engine!)

Anyhoo, anyone know how to disassemble this thing? I see deep screw holes on the bottom, but the screws look triangular. Other than that, there's a large top piece that looks like it could come off somehow, but apart from removing the lens cover and rubber ring, I'm lost.

Any help is appreciated!

I think this is about the closest you'll find: Making A Portable...another Commercial Retrofit.

I'm going on memory, but I think you remove all the screws and then remove the lens cap. It is rubber. I think the top then slides slightly forward and up. It took me a little while to figure it out.

When you get inside, it doesn't look like there is much room at first, but if you remove the tin floor at the front of the projector you will see a circuit board in there. Rip that out. In the back rip out the other circuits. that will give some room for additional equipment. It will still be tight, but you may be able to find some ballast to fit there. Mine is an ongoing project. I haven't touched it in several months since I have been refirbishing my old projector.

Once I take a small break (prob several months) I will probabaly start working on the infocus again. I plan to build my own ballast to run a 250 watt MH lamp, or overdrive a 150 watt MH lamp to 200-250 watts.

Heat shouldn't be a factor in these builds. They were designed to shed the heat from a 400 watt halogen lamp. That puts out a lot more heat than a 400 watt MH lamp.

speaking from experience on my infocus litepro 550 it doesn't seem very intuitive at first when you try to open it. I basically just removed some screws from the bottom and the ones I could access from the back door and then took up the rubber triplet housing and just kinda started pulling up from there. The top and bottom are kind of clipped together.

I think this projector would be awesome with a 250w MH and a good HD panel. Unfortunately the 7.2" wxga panel fell through.

But yes you will mainly want to use this projector for the enclosure and the lenses, the light engine and lcd panel/controller would need to be replaced. Also as you said the cooling fans are crazy loud so you could probably get some good PC fans that are quieter and move more air.

I tried to sell my infocus 550 a while back but I may just hang on to it in the hopes that cheaper light aternatives and smaller 1080p panels come down in price over the next few years .