Hey everyone, someone linked me to this website about 3 months ago and I've finally ordered my parts. I'm working with limited space in the room I want to put it in, so I decided on using a vertical folded projector both to save floor space and to get the projector placed as far back as possible. The added height is also a bonus. The folded design is the basic 15" Vertical with a few changes to allow for the 15.6" widescreen. The 15" vertical design is located located here:

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2129


Basic equipment I'm using:

AcerX163WbWM 15.6" WS LCD (refurb) - http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/se...p?EdpNo=4290824
220mm Fresnel - DIY Projector Kits
330mm Fresnel - DIY Projector Kits
300mm Projection Lens - DIY Projector Kits (will this work well with the 330mm fresnel?)
T15 6400K 400w lamp - DIY Projector Kits
Vue 400w eBallast - eBay

I'm a little worried about how well the projection lens will work, but if there's a problem I'll just buy another with a different focal length and extend my lens housing a tad (I plan on using a threaded PVC tube).

All the parts should be in within this week and I will start construction on that weekend or the one after. I plan to meticulously document everything that I do so that I (or anyone else) might have a reference of what to or what not to do. I'll check in once I get all my parts and once I start construction. Wish me luck!

This spot reserved for finished product pictures.

Welcome to the forum!

I don't know if you've seen this recent post, but you'll want to make sure your fresnels are larger than your active area of your LCD panel. You might want to create a mock-up of your enclosure out of cardboard and use masking tape to tape an outline of your screen on the wall and sit where the seating area will be (much like what John D did for his build). You'll only get about an 8' throw with the 300mm triplet (120" diagonal projected image), whereas the 330mm triplet will get you closer to a 9' throw.

And please show us pictures of your progress as it comes along. We really like seeing the progress through the various stages. Don't keep us in suspense until you're finished. We've got another section for Completed Projects.

Just got my LCD in! Hooked it up and ran a black image around it to do a quick check for dead pixels and found none. Figured I should do that before I start voiding the warranty. I also created a cardboard mock-up like Quasi_Mojo suggested and found that I need to add about a half inch on each side of my initial design to be within a decent tolerance.

Here's the new LCD next to my laptop on a very crowded coffee table:



And here's the cardboard mockup with a couple of drinks for size reference (somehow my ruler disappeared...):




Time to start taking apart the LCD! Pictures of that process will go up once I'm done.

Back with a fully stripped LCD! Here goes the picture tutorial for the Acer X163WB.

LCD panel from the backside with my precision screwdrivers around it:




Take off these two small panels covering the base screws:




Unscrew and remove the base:




Slide a flathead screwdriver slightly in between the front and back panels, then twist to separate:




Remove the tape and unplug the cables, then remove the control box:




Remove all of these screws with a precision screwdriver:






Pull the LCD and backlight encasement out of the frame:






Carefully separate the front and back parts of the metal encasement (using a flathead screwdriver to pry apart the clips) and pull the LCD out:




Be happy that it still works:






Now I've got it packed away safely inside a towel a box and peanuts to make sure my cats don't get it. MDF cutouts and assembly will start on the weekend. See you then.

Sorry about the terrible camera... when I take pictures of the final assembly and projections I'll have my girlfriend's D80 and all should be beautiful.

After some discussion with future roommates about the room the projector will be in, we decided that a straight-shooter with an option for a small bit of keystoning would be more optimal for our situation. So, over the course of a couple hours tonight, we changed the design around accordingly. Construction starts tomorrow!

Projection has been achieved!

I have pictures of pretty much most of the process, but I have to get them off of my friend's camera. I'll have a detailed write-up probably by the end of the weekend.

Now I just have to figure out where my Pro Reflector is... I ordered it about 3 weeks ago from LL and have yet to hear or get anything.

Alrighty, here goes.

So we decided on a straight-through projector that was 11.75" x 15.5" x 30" inside dimensions and made of 1/2" MDF. I'm a meticulous planner as far as building things, so we left the box apart until every other piece was built so that I wouldn't have to cut the MDF again later if anything went wrong (I cut the sizes slightly larger so I could cut them down to fit). The order of construction was frames, backboard and wiring, focus box, light mount, and box assembly. I'll try to go through everything in that order, but the pictures won't necessarily be in chronological order since I'm just using these to describe how everything is made.

Frames:

The idea behind the frames was to use slices of project board glued together. I wanted to use a thin poplar framing board, but we didn't really have the proper tools to make that accurate enough, so I was stuck to trimming the project board down with a utility knife until everything worked.

Testing the LCD and active area fit:


The board scratched up for glue and the nub the LCD sits on (fits in between the FFCs):


LCD sitting in the frame:


Fresnel frame - very simple:




The inside edges of the frames were all made out of slices from the edge of the project board so they would be as straight as could be. The fresnels were Dremeled down to .5" larger than the active area of the LCD on all sides while the fresnel frames were cut to .25" larger the LCD active area on each side. The LCD frame was, obviously, cut to the active area of the LCD.

Final LCD frame with holes cut for threaded rod:


The slits I glued in to hold the LCD in place (so no active area is overlapped):


Final fresnel/Lexan frame:


Side view:

Backboard and wiring:

The hole cutter we bought ended up 5" instead of 4" (doh) so the fan holes are a tad bit bigger than the fans. I would've returned it and got a different one, but my friend said he could use the 5" for other things so we just went with it. I'll caulk up the holes when we're done.

Electronics assembly and my binary watch:


A pretty bad overhead view:


Everything wired in minus the ballast and LCD, testing the temp controller:


Fans screwed in with washers:


Wiring minus temp controller and LCD:


Final wiring:


Back view (with the annoying gap that I had to caulk up):

Focus box:

I'm just using the simple box in a box focusing mechanism here, nothing special.

Constructed (with some annoying MDF splits):


Dremeling the screws down:


Hole in the front of the box:

Light mount:

This is the one I'm particularly proud of. The light is heavily adjustable up/down, left/right, forward/backward, and rotating on Z-axis while using a pretty simple mechanism.

Up/down adjustability:


Hole in bottom for adjusting in every other direction:


MDF slab on top with 5/16" hole in the middle:


Plywood nut plus a little wood glue holding down about 2.5" of threaded rod:


Assembled and in place:

Box assembly:

The box is held together by corner braces...:


...and L-brackets:


Threaded rod runs through the front to give the LCD and fresnels high adjustability, held in place by nuts (not shown here):


There is a small hole cut for the LCD wiring to pass through the LCD frame in the bottom right:


The controller box is held in using (you guessed it) part of an old Erector set:


Nearly done:


Electronics:


Felt to help the focus box stay in place (will be stapled in later):

We have liftoff!


Oh crap, it's backwards?



So yeah, I made a stupid mistake when determining the orientation of the LCD. It was an easy fix to turn it around, but I had to alter the LCD frame a little bit and then turn the controller box around also. With the controller box turned around it makes everything a little more cramped than you've been seeing, but it all still works.

Projecting onto a blue wall with a white piece of paper in front:


Blurry corner focus shot (less light, so camera lens stayed open longer):




Even though the shot is blurry, the corner focus still really isn't that great. I'm figuring it's because I'm reaching the FOV limit for a 300 mm triplet.

Still on a blue wall:


Some light around the triplet:




I invited some friends over last night and we watched American Psycho from DVD and some random terrible/funny B movie called Gas Hand Girls on hulu. One of them also played Left 4 Dead for a little while, which looked amazing. All in all, I'm very happy with the results, and I'm hoping to be even happier when the reflector comes in.

Speaking of that reflector, I ordered it about 3 weeks ago and still have nothing. They've also removed the projector stuff from the shop, it looks like... any idea what's going on?

The LL Admin doesn't make any comments about the projector side of the Store. My guess is that now that most everything is out of stock, nobody is ordering anything. Therefore, LL doesn't have the funds to order parts to keep the stock up. I think they're currently more concerned with their micro production.

I noticed if you go into the Store and do a search for the projector parts, you'll get projector related results.

Hmm, good to know that you can still find parts on the site. Got any ideas for getting a hold of anyone from LL to talk to about it? I sent in a support request on the Contact Us page, but have yet to hear anything.

Maybe e-mail or fax them: http://lumenlab.com/support/customer-suppo...hipping-claims/

Just watched Fellowship of the Ring tonight and enjoyed every bit of it! Sadly, I only had the fullscreen edition and not widescreen.

Fullscreen opening:


Cropped down widescreen aspect ratio opening:


Me standing in front, the picture is a little deceiving since I'm 6'6":

Ech, I just noticed the terrible quality on this camera. I swear it looks better than that!

hi im using almost the same setup except for the mh lamp checkout my plog http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=28676 ,i have had some brightness issues,just wondering if you are currently using the lamp with some type of reflector (while you are waiting for your pros) cus your screenies seem to be pretty bright.

The pictures that I have posted were with no reflector. I noticed that the greens and blues were brilliant with this setup, but I lost a lot of power in the red areas... they seemed washed out. The white areas also pushed a little yellow, which I think is a fault of the LCD itself. I couldn't turn up the red any more on the LCD since my greys began to turn pink.

I got my Pro Reflector in last night and watched Return of the King and browsed the web a little bit. The yellow push had almost completely disappeared and the colors looked great. I strongly suggest getting a spherical reflector.

I looked at the pictures in your PLOG and I'd like to know what you're projecting onto. Also, how much ambient light is there in the room when you're projecting? I've been projecting onto blackout cloth into a pitch black room.

im currently using a very light green painted wall as the projection surface, and the room is almost completely dark(except for the light leakage from the projector).i too have ordered the pro reflector, it should arrive here in a couple of days,will try that and check the performance, if that dosent work im out of ideas.
also can you tell me the settings on your lcd(ie contrast,colour,gamma correction etc...)i have set the gamma correction (from the comp not the lcd controls) to 1.8 and it makes the picture watchable but lot of loss of detail.

Get some blackout cloth, now.

It cost me $18 ($6 per yard) at Jo-Ann's Fabrics to have an instantly improved picture. My wall was a very light flat tan and I noticed a significant increase in both clarity and brightness after thumbtacking it to the wall. If you want a basic idea of how it will look before buying, just hold a piece of printer paper on your wall and see what the difference is.

My color settings are on the "Warm" preset and my contrast is a little above 60, iirc. If I went too high with the contrast, it ended up looking pretty washed out. I don't have any gamma correction as of now since I'm just playing off my laptop. Once I get my HTPC up and running I'll check back in with my gamma settings.

thanks a lot,ive tried all kinds of things to get the brightness up but the one thing i forgot was to check my lcd settings doh!!!
some time back i had changed the settings to "user" and messed around with it to get the right color on the wall(green wall as i mentioned earlier)when i reset it now, the brightness shot up by approx 15-20%, thats all i need atleast until i get my pro reflectors.i am going to take your advice and get a blackout cloth cuz the whites look pretty green on my wall right now.i tried the printer paper on the wall ,i had tried it earlier but because i had changed the settings on the lcd to make the image appear the right colour it didnt make a difference but now after resetting the lcd image looks much better on the paper,so i guess ill get that soon.
i cant thank you enough for your suggestions, you've just made my day!!!

Glad to hear it! I hope you get to enjoy your projector as much as I've been enjoying mine.

so i got my pro reflector and mounted it(just used a couple of bolts and nuts nothing fancy) but the brightness has not increased much.
how did you mount it and how far away from the reflector is your bulb(ie the arc of the lamp, not the outer casing.)
please include screenies after and before the reflector if possible .thanks.

I'm away from home until Sunday, so I can't post any pictures until then, but I'll try to give a basic description.

I hadn't planned much about how I was going to mount the reflector, so the whole thing is basically a hack-up job. To get the reflector mounted on something, I placed it on an old computer power supply fan grate and clipped it down on 4 sides with some random hooks I found in my junk drawer. I was going to solder them together, but the finish didn't allow it to bond and I didn't have any acid solder, so I went with epoxy. Now I've got the reflector on something that I can easily attach to other things.

I didn't have much room in the back of my case to place any kind of MDF assembly or the like, so I opted to hang it from above. The logic being that the reflector has a bit of give in the tilt angle up and down before it affects your projection and that it can be easily adjusted up or down by the wire it's hanging on to make the middle of the reflector tangent to the light. So I mounted a dowel rod above and slightly forward of the light and looped a wire around it and through the fan grate, then tied it off. The reflector rests against the lamp.

To tell you the truth, it doesn't matter too much how you mount it as long as it's stable. What really matters is that if you look through the arc chamber of your lamp into the reflector from any position, you should only see the arc chamber. That's a really easy way to make sure the reflector is in the right position.