Have been lurking around for a while and finally figured its time to start making my own Projector. This plog is to keep a track of what ive done for myself and for anybody else interested in reading


Had an old 15" lcd backlight die on me so thats what got me started looking on the forums. However I am making the dimensions correct so i can drop in a 15.6 in asus monitor panel i have picked up dirt cheap (80 bucks). Going to be Using the 15" for my testbed then once its all working i will get the pro kit and drop in the newer parts etc to maHe it a 15.6 720P.
Below is my rough box. I have made it 330x900 and once i finalise the position of everything i will make the shape similar to a haas design to make it pretter then a big box.


Below is my lightbox. Basically its just a very hack at the moment, I have taken an old computer Power supply case gutted it and mounted the reflector and the 150w bulb in it. At the moment I placed the reflector in a hacked out surround for an 80mm case fan. This is just for short testing bursts as I'm figuring that the plastic wont withstand the heat, what do people reckon? I will probably eventually cut out a round hole at the bottown to hold and stabilse the reflector with the Grill holding it down on top. Note there will be a fan "somewhere to help ventilate the heat out of the case. Did a test burn of a few mins and the case was almost too hot to touch, is this kinda normal for a lightbox or should i be looking into constructing from a different material?




Below is a picture of the frame that will be holding my lcd and fresnel sleds together in one piece, this will allow me to pull all of them out at once and make adjustments without drilling into the box case.


Below is snaps of the frames i will be using to hold the fresnels and the LCD panel in place. the rear one i cut more grooves then i needed so i can just move things around by changing the positioning. and the front will be the small single groove which will allow me to do keystoning.



Will be posting more info as i go with this project. Whether anybody finds anything usefull from the many mistakes I'll make in the future who knows

Looking good, so far.
The lightbox will get hot, but it will protect the wood around it. You should replace the plastic fan surround with another metal fan guard. You can find examples of how that can be done using this Google search: site:lumenlab.com reflector mount
There's no need to have an additional fan exhausting heat from the lightbox as long as you follow the normal cooling method.

Ok well finally found some time to get working on this again. the main problem is i can only do work late at night and i cant make a lot of noise.

What i have now done is redone the lightbox and removed the temporary plastic fan casing and encased the reflector in 2 120mm fan grills.

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And below is a shot of the LCD panel mounted in the sled. I have mounted this on 3.6mm masonite hoping it will support the lcd & fresnels ok.
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I have just tested and discovered that the 3.6mm masonite is just too flimsy to really support the fresnels & lcd. so what i have done i have just whipped up some 6mm MDF board to the correct size, and to make it fit into the grooves of my sled i have taken the router to it and made a rebate so it slots into the 3.8mm slot. Cant use the router any more as its getting to late so tomorrow I will hopefully attack it with the router again and take out the centre piece allowing for a rebate for the fresnels & LCD panel to sit in nice and flush. Post pics when thats done.
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Below is the Ballast I have to drive the 150w powerball. WHat a heavy mofo that is, i would like to keep it in the case as im hanging from the roof in the end but im afraid it will make it very hard to balance with that weight at the back. Guess I'll cross the bridge when i get to it.
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Thought id throw in a pic of my projector screen ive been using for a year or so with my old CRT projector, works a treat. just a meranti frame (to keep it light) with Palight sheeting on the top. totaly size is 2metres high by 3metres wide.
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Now i really need to also start thinking about the wiring etc and how im going to do it. figureing I'll get a 240 line in, which is then split to the Panel and the ballast, and then i have to find a cheap way to tie in a 12vdc power source into that to power the 120mm fan i plan on using... at least im thinking 120 or should i go 2 80? Will think on that one.

Well after lack of time i thought bugger it I'm going to get some light through this sucker and see what i can get. I have now finished the fresnel and LCD frames from the 6mm MDF and it worked a helluva lot better.
So basically slapped it all roughly together and lit it up and see what happened. below is my ROUGH setup. no alignment or anything has really be done so im suprised as well as the screen came out. Note the photos dont look "GOOD" as these are from my "NOT SO GOOD" camera (Sorry didnt know the previous words were offensive ).











Ran it for 15mins or so just testing and monitoring the temperature and it didnt get to hot and thats without ANY kind of ventilation or fans. THey are tomorrows project if i get time. then i can start tweaking distances etc and work on a sliding focusing mechanism./

EDIT: I have just gone and added in a single 80mm fan running 12v dc and it seems to do quite enough cooling after running the projector for an hour, lcd screen barely warm. However as seen there is quite a bit of light leakage so im gonna have to make some kind of baffle.

Good work I like the lightbox. Is your image really on the reddish side or is it the camera. That bulb is really tiny, I haven't seen one like it before.

The camera is whats giving it a redish tinge, i really need to play with manual settings to take photos i think. the bulb is an osram 150w powerball G12base bulb. I thought it was big but comparing to some peoples 400w bulbs i spose it is tiny

Ok i have just gone and put a precondenser Lens onto the front my my lightbox as below. Also i have now painted the lightbox with some "Pot belly paint" this is heat resistant up to 600 Degrees celcius and at only 10 bucks for a can from bunnings i cant go wrong will use that to paint the interior Ply wood once i get a chance, im figuring ill do that after i get everyting adjusted and cut out the curves.


Its dinner time now so once i finish that I'll go out and do some testing and take some pics to see how much brighter it is.

I have decided im going to go for a "half haas" design, going to have flat on the bottom but cut just a top curve, as im going to be keeping the projector sitting on my bar, by keeping bottom half as a box it will save having to build a stand for it. Hmm if i get plain slack i might just leave it as a box. see how i go.

After putting the precondenser lens on the image is a LOT brighter, cant believe how much of a difference it makes. below are some snaps As mentioned the images on camera are coming out redder then on the screen . dunno why.

Looking very good Adept22.

I like your lamp setup, is that a computer PSU box? Very good idea, not seen that one yet. That condenser lens makes a hell of a difference too. Got me thinking on that one.

Just read that it is a PSU box!!!!

I missed that first time around.

Looks great!

Your screenies are impressive - are you using XBMC?

Yep XBMC on an xbox. Awaiting a new cpu for my HTPC before i can start using it for the HD stuff. Finally gonna get some time to start tinkering with this again, plus i also picked up a lumen meter on ebay for $1 so gonna do some playing with placement of optics to see what gives the brightest image.

wow , i cant belive you have no heat issues with that one small fan.

i cant wait to throw my 150w cdm into my current build ( when i have time )

i guess they really do run cool

nice build

Well i have just had a chance to pull out the luxmeter and give it a whirl, at the centre of the screen I'm getting 48 lux and at the far corners I'm getting 32 lux. No idea whether that's good or not (for a 2m x 3m screen) but the image is bright enough for me and Honestly though when watching a movie i dont even notice the difference in brightness from centre to edge. Next job is to try and crack open the case on my VW161 Monitor so i can chuck the 15.4" 720p panel in. I know i only have std 15" Fresnel's but to overcome this problem in XBMC i can re-size the viewing on the screen so its a bit smaller so i get the even lighting.

Haven't gotten bigger Fresnel's yet as I'm still not sure if I'm going to go for a pro setup or not. Hopefully take some more pics tonight of where I'm up to , and weather permitting if i can get the box outside I'm going to start shaping up the box into a Half HAAS design.