I really like DIY stuff, but I also don't like having a lot of stuff. These two objectives are at odds with each other for the most part.
So about a year ago, I built a 15" WUXGA projector. Supra gave me some good advice not to go with the 17" with the standard LL triplet.
However, I am looking into other DIY projects, and I'm trying to divest everything possible. I've got a fairly small room in an apartment with a roommate, and I currently have way too much stuff.
So I'm looking to sell my Lumenlab projector.
If I can't sell it, I'll just stash it at my parent's house for a year or two. I'd really rather not do that, though, as I've got the distinct feeling it will end up as something that just takes up space, and it's actually a really cool piece of tech. I just can't handle the space requirement, among other things.
There are a few ways I'm willing to do it.
My preferred way: one person buys all of the stuff. I'll disassemble the projector, ship out all the parts, and junk the box.
I am willing to part it out as well, but I'd really rather someone get most/all of the stuff.
LCD Panel - $60
Controller+power supply - $155
Ballast (w/ capacitor) - $20
Lamp + Mogul - $28
Reflector - $10
Fresnels + Lexan - $30
Triplet - $40
Fans - $35
Outlets - $3, if you don't want them that's fine, I can use them for other projects.
Circuit Breaker + Thermostat - $16
Wiring Diagram - free, if you need it
Total cost - about $400 + shipping for a complete 1080p setup (minus the case - I doubt you want me to ship it.).
If you order the whole set, I'll include, for free, your choice of either:
- 2 broken 22" LCD monitors (with bases). The panels themselves work fine, it's just the backlight that doesn't work. I've recapacitored the boards, which fixed them for about 2 weeks, but they flicker now. I'm guessing it's either the bulbs, the inverters, or something on the board is getting voltage it's not specced for. Both are the same age and both are dying, though, so take from that what you will. The company (Vison) is apparently not a real company. I got the monitors for cheap on Black Friday and I will avoid doing so in the future. At least bigger brands have some accountability!
or
- working Philips portable DVD player, ~7", model number PET-710. makes a funny noise reading some disks, it's probably just the seek noise. Seems like a pretty cheap unit, but would be fun to DIY into a projector, maybe with CFLs. comes with
Ship cost will be actual ship cost + a few extra dollars to pay for shipping materials, I don't have any.
I'm located in Texas. If you are from Texas and you want to just buy the whole projector, that'd be fine as well. I'm near Austin.
And here's descriptions of the parts:
LCD Panel - 15" WUXGA panel, SHARP, Anti-Glare still on panel, stripped of backlight/etc. No dead pixels that I know of, but there were about 2/3 when I first used the panel. These may have just been stuck as I don't notice them now.
Controller - it's a perfectly fine Pixelworks with 1x of S-Video, Composite, Component, VGA and HDMI. All inputs are confirmed working. NO TV tuning. Controller board + remote included. The newer models have tv-input breakout board support which adds a lot more inputs. This is the older 106-D, not the newer PW338.
Ballast - your standard 400w metal-halide coil+core (non-electronic) ballast. Gets fairly warm, weighs a lot, and hums, but it's cheap as heck!
Lamp - regular LL 400w m-h bulb. really good color balance. Has been run horizontally for ~200 hours if I had to guess. I mentioned in the video, but about 40 hours of view time ago, I dropped tape on it. It melted and bubbled all over the bulb. I removed the tape, alcohol'ed the bulb many times, and let it sit for a few days, and it has been running perfectly for the last 40 hours. No cracking or signs of wear. But as I can't guarantee nothing will happen, I'm selling the lamp for a pretty low price.
Reflector - it's the pro reflector, and it's jb-welded to a fan guard, but the fan guard is not permanently attached to anything. It is fairly well aligned but I just eyeballed it so it may not be perfect. So long as you make its support adjustable this should not be a problem.
Fresnels + Lexan - one fresnel is the 220mm from 3dlens (I'm 90% sure, it might be the 330mm though, I'll check if someone's interested.) I bought the 220 and 330mm from them. The other is the 650mm from Lumenlab. The lexan is just regular UV-treated lexan. The 650mm has a slight scratch on it, which does not show up in the projection, but may show up if you use the field fresnel in front of the panel. Both my panels are behind the LCD. All 3 of these are cut down to 15 inch panel size + about 3/4 inch on all sides. There may be tape residue and scratches on the parts that are not in the optical path. One of the fresnels (I think it's the 650 but I'm not sure) has a circle the size of the triplet that is whiter, but it doesn't seem to affect the image quality. I'm not sure what caused this.
Triplet - it's an 18" Beseler. You should know what this is
It focuses to the edges when set to 16x9 but on 16x10 (strech to fill) the corners are a little fuzzy. This may be overcome if you have more skillz than I do, or include more adjustability.Fans - I know it sounds like I'm asking a lot for the fans, but Noctua fans are really expensive, and I've only been running the fans for about 10 hours. I have the original packing materials and accessories, and if no one is interested in them I'll just solder the molex connectors back on them and use them in my computer. Really, if I were you I wouldn't cheap out on the fans. The Noctua fans were the single biggest improvement to my projector. I will also include power supply+fan vibration dampeners+ activated-charcoal filters+fan guards (to hold filters on) with the fans.
Outlets - just your standard metal box outlets. grounded.
Circuit Breaker - 5A at 250V, I'm not sure if this means 5A all the time or if it can stop more amps at lower voltage.
Thermostat - adjust temperature, will keep fans on when projector is turned off until the temperature lowers.
I'll also include the power switch / power receptacle / power cable I used for free.
Here are the pictures.
http://s69.photobucket.com/albums/i75/rabi...bear/Projector/
(I forgot to write LumenLab until the last picture, hope this doesn't cause my post to be removed. I didn't have time to fire up the projector again to take more pictures tonight.)
Blurriness in pictures is either shaky hands or focus issues with camera, projected image is not blurry at all (I can see individual pixels across the whole screen except corners when 16:10)
And here are the videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HImVm9_JIDk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXXw2RXEAYI
(not sure what's with the horrible quality audio. I think it's a combination of crappy handheld cam mic + multiple transcodes.)
If someone's interested, I'll pull the projector apart and take better pictures of the components. Overall the stuff is in good condition and has not seen much use. Selling the stuff kinda hurts! The prices of these items have really dropped since I built my projector, and I didn't use it all that much. But that's really why I need to sell it - precisely because I don't use it enough. These prices are at/below the lowest prices I could find on the web, but I didn't look extensively. I'm not really looking to make back the money I put in, just to make back a little more than I would just storing the projector at my parent's house in limbo, and to fund my next DIY project.
Oh, I also have a LL standard triplet I'd sell for $18 + ship cost, a cut-down 330mm fresnel (I'm not gonna bother shipping this unless you order something else also), and a stripped 17" standard monitor I'd sell for $20 (VGA only, cable built-in to controller). but I don't have any pictures of them. They're at my parent's house but they only live ~45 minutes away so I can get the items and take pictures before purchase if anyone's interested.
Questions/Comments/Complaints/Purchase Orders?
