Well I have been reading the forum for about 2-3 months now. And I am starting this plog so i can stay focused on this project.

Collected parts thus far:
Samsung LCD from an old Akia Monitor I haven't measured it I think it is between 12-13 inches (free they are throwing away a lot of them at work).
Awaiting S15 Lens Kit, Zif connector and FFC.

Parts still to get: All prices in TTD (i.e. Trinidad and Tobago Dollars which are currently $1 USD=$6 TTD)
400W MH Bulb - $ 65.75 (about 8 inches long and oval shaped)
ballast - $220
Mogul base - $25
MDF -? I don't know how much I will need. Help anyone.
Laminate Glass -$40 (I can't get lexan, a glass dealer told me that this is what is used for car windshields it should work)
Fans @ Between $35-$50 each i may need 3.
Threaded steel @ $30.25 per rod.
High Heat paint-$38.95
Misc Screws and bolts.
2 Switches -$6
Taking power connector from old power supply(free )
Misc electrical items.
Blackout Cloth $ 35.00 per yard

I ordered My S15 Lens kit from lumen lab in the first week of January 2009. Then stripped my LCD down only to realize that I have FFC issues so I had to pause the order and speak to them about getting the cable. I must say they (I think her name was Kelly) was really nice about it and just added it to my order and shipped it out for me.
One peev though the shipping that they use does not allow you to track your item. This really sucks as I am anxious and I would like to know where the parts are . The lady in the post office said that it usually it takes about 1 month for packages to come from the US. I don't have a camera except for my phone so I will have to try and get pics to post.

While waiting I started checking out making a sound system.
I have a logitech system but I want to be able to say "I made everything" (it has certain bragging rights )
I will be making a chip amp from a LM3886 chip, line array speakers and a subwoofer, trying to find a tactile conducer down here is not easy. Eventually a HTPC maybe with Mythbuntu. For now i will use my modded xbox with xbmc connected to my home network to stream movies.
The more I check it out the more i want to do, when I tell my wife something new she's like "You want to build something else!" LOL
cant wait for my lenses
I have my own spare room for my "stuff" so WAF is not really an issue but I still want it looking good or else it makes no sense showing it off.
I am taking a lot of the design from wind calmer(Thank you for all your hard and detailed work you have really given back) except the metalwork I am willing to try but I don't have the resources .
Downloaded PJ ver 4 sketchup file

The bulb that I am getting is similar to the one in the pic. The arc is 1" long the bulb itself is 8" from end to end

My lenses have arrived. I am so overjoyed that I cannot express it in words. I am going to collect I hope that everything is intact.

Collected my lenses but I the zif connector that came with the ffc looks strange. I can't figure out how it is supposed to work. I thought it would have 2 sides (one to plug in the ffc from the pc board and another to plug in the new ffc).
If anyone has any info please share?
It looks like I may have to sandwich the 2 ffc cables together and stick them in the zif.

Here are some pics

Unpacking the box

The ffc and connector

Note on using the FFC extension kits, How to extend.

Thanks Quasi that confirmed it for me.

I got some more stuff today.

1 Plusrite metal halide lamp "item: MH400/U/MOG" @ $123.00 (picked it up at Modern Electrical for anyone in trinidad)
1 Plastic ceiling receptacle lampholder @ $7.00 (will give 3/4" adjustment to the bulb)
1 Plastic Utility Knife @ $11.95
1 roll electrical tape @ 6.00
1 adapter to convert from normal base to mogul.@ $8.00
3 feet electrical wire

I checked out the specs on my bulb and it has a cri of 65 and works at 4500k which from all that I have read makes the images tend hilight the yellow instead of the blue. I read that it lights darker scenes better. Any thoughts

I still have to get an m59 ballast(getting it tomorrow). I called an electrical store and found one for TTD$275.00 plus $41.00 tax.

Forgot the friendly welcome - so, welcome to the forum!

Usually, we want as high a CRI as possible - but you might be happy with your lamp choice. You might be able to adjust the color on your LCD to compensate.
According to a quote from sensibull, in the Best Bulbs Chart thread:


I thought that was pretty expensive for a ballast - until I converted to US dollars (about $44 US).

I stripped my first monitor before then today tried to disconnect the ffc and destroyed the connector. It showed for a while and then the monitor went white.

So I tested my second monitor before I began to strip it (it worked fine), then when I was finnished I re-connected the backlight and tested and this one was also white. I dont know where I went wrong.

please help!!

On a good note i started the burn in of the lamp its going on 2 hours now the arc looks white but the light shone on my white wall is off white. At least one thing is going good. Its hard to loose 2 lcd's in one day.

a pic of the first light

Welcome fellow TRINI!

which area you from? I'm from Couva. I't nice to see a fellow Trinidadian with the DIY spirit, hope every thing works out.

BTW: where you getting that ballast for so cheap. I paid $450 plus 15% VAT for mine

What are you using to control the LCD the original controller board or one of the programmable boards like the Pixelworks of MTS? I bought a MTS that did that same thing and I ended up sending it back to the supplier for a replacement. Then i got a reply on a forum stating that I could try putting a fan on the controller board to see if it would help. I could be worth the try

I'm from San Fernando. Did you finnish your pj yet
I got the ballast at R&Z electrical (Mon Repos, San Fernando), its a coil and core, kinda heavy though. Its a little bigger than a computer power supply. It came up to $316.00 plus vat. It has a very slight hum not really noticable but in total silence you can hear it. I think I will make a separate enclosure for it and run a line to the PJ.

Yeah it's done, but you know, your never really finished be cause your always trying to make it better

This is actually my second build my first one was a 17" WXGA DELL Monitor with a S15 Lens kit and 400watt Lamp and ballast that I bought locally, it worked great but then I upgraded to a 15.4 SHARP WUXGA with a MTS Controller and a Besseler (HUGE) I striped the AG off the 17" but I was reluctant to do it on the WUXGA but i dad strip the rear reflective layer.

I took pictures of my build but never got a round to making a plog. but the screen size is about 13' by 7.5'. I use my PS3 to play DVD and bluray its great.

I had to get some thing showing on my wall today. I am a very determined dude. After spoiling 2 lcd's and not being able to make the box I decided to make the projector to scale using cardboard. So I stripped an old portable dvd player and hooked it up. Here are the results.
The bulb ballast and capacitor.

I stick the fresnels to the cardboard using sticky tape

The triplet mounted in the cardboard

My box outside a box setup

and now the image

I had rediculous light leaks as you would expect so the image was washed out. Maybe I was excited but it looked slightly better than the picture(Not by much though).
I know it sucks but I gained some knowledge and now I understand lcd placement.
(I had to turn the camera upside down to take this pic)

I looks ok considering that the Portable player has a low resolution and that you made it out of cardboard

I'll try and take some pics of my setup later

Here are some pics that I took. I took them with a phone so they dont look as good as in person.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Very impressive!
Is that still the cardboard mock-up? I spent a couple months using my cardboard mock-up - 'course I was only using a 150W lamp.

How big is the projected image?

That is some good projections quite large. good work!!. Its a shame you didn't make a plog so that people can see what you did to get the results that you did.

I may be getting another monitor soon hopefully before this weekend and i will be able to build the enclosure this weekend.

Well the pics with the fan in them are from anoojra using a completed setup however the images that I took are about four feet diag using a 7" screen projected from less than 6 feet away.

Dont forget to post some pics.

Thanks to your suggestion I think I will do a plog after all

BTW: Quasi Mojo: i didnt officially measure it but the screen is about 14' wide so the image is probably about 13'x 8'

I test stripped the non functional lcd today. It was easier than I thought it would be. I soaked bounty paper towel in water and rested it on the screen. I left it for 2 hrs and then removed the AG. The actual removal took less than 2 minutes and left no residue behind.

Screen with antiglare stripped

Screen held up against the light

I was supprised to see how much more transparent it is now


When you look through the antiglare everything looks blurry

I was supposed to build the box over the past weekend however my aunt died and that got pushed back. This weekend is Carnival weekend I will try to do it then (In our country we have Monday and Tuesday as holidays for carnival) so I have 4 days to works on the PJ. The only thing is that I have to make sure that I have EVERYTHING I need beforehand because from friday ALL businesses are closed so there will be no running out for parts if I forget something.

I will be picking up the mdf today and making the box. I did a sketchup model of the box I will try to post it later today and I have and interesting idea to get the lcd and the 2 lenses to move. I will try to include it in a model and post that as well.
It stems out of an idea a guy had to make the lenses adjustable by using velcro on two strips of wood that go on either side of one fresnel additionally I intend to put a carriage (that is also fastened with velcro) with the the lcd and frensels so the entire thing can be portable.

I built the box today and placed the 7" lcd screen to test. I was able to get an 18" image from 3 feet away I could not move the box further away due to the makeshift setup I was using. I will post pics tomorrow. Success yey!!!!

Ok as promised here are the pics:
The box-
front

back

top

triplet

projector and ballast box

inside ballast box

light assembly before I split it

open box

using velcro to hold up the frensels and lcd

first image from about 3 feet



projector on


inside box light on

First projection at home 63" off of a 7" lcd screen

before ag removal

after ag removal

Just a couple more images the first one is a test of a dark image. The room was not totally dark and I still have a lot of light leaks coming out the box.I still have to paint the box. The pictures are very clear however my camera does not do it justice however the amount of light and the colours seem very accurate.

WOW your image looks very bright even with all light leaks. maybe the LCD does not block as much light as the Laptop LCD's

BTW: where did you get that Velcro idea, that was pretty clever.

I think your projected image would improve quite a bit if you blocked the light from getting around your LCD into the front of the enclosure. Any light that reaches the triplet, that does not come from the front fresnel, is going to wash out your image.
If you're unable to do that, you might want to consider painting the front section of the enclosure with a matte black paint. That will absorb some of the light.

I go the idea from Juggleitup in his plog I was amazed by how simple it was because I was dreading making an enclosure for the LCD. The ag strip also helped with the amount of light coming through.

I was thinking that but I didn't bother to fix it because this was a test screen I am supposed to be getting a new one soon.

I got another screen when I attempted to extend the ffc it stopped working. I need to find a screen without ffc issues. I have an old toshiba laptop that i can probably use but still trying to figure out how to get it in there. Any suggestions? anyone ever used a laptop lcd sucessfully?

Can I Use A Laptop LCD In My Projector?

Well I finally got a new monitor its an IBM 9205-ab2(Used monitor, backlight had blown) no ffc issues. It is working quite fine the(the corners are darker than i would like it to be). Right now I am projecting from 5-6 feet away from the wall and I am getting a 70" diagional image.
Things still to be done:
Plug light leaks(i have rediculous leaks on all over the box)
Paint the box inside and out
Strip the antiglare
redo focus box(it was late when I built it and in retrospect I think I did a sloppy job)
Build screen
Post screenshots.

Download Desktop Lighter 1.4 from CNET. It can really help brighten your light output. I always run this freeware when showing a cartoon movie like Toy Story, or Bolt, etc.

Desktop Lighter 1.4 - Download from CNET

Will try that..

However I moved my rear fresnel back and the image got brighter. I also stripped the antiglare this helped but not by much. I am getting a camera today to take some pics I wish I could have gotten some before and after shots with the antiglare removal.

As promised the test image


I sealed the seams of the box with black silicone to stop light leaks seems to be working.

VERY NICE! How big were you throwing?

At least 70+" this is from between 5 to 10 feet away from the wall. The other part of the wall that I am using has a door and then some more wall space therefore I need to build a screen so that I can Use up the entire wall. If I am thinking correctly I should be getting about 140"