Humble beginnings!

I need a bigger hammer!

Next ;move it to a box!

A wooden box.

more

mas

Everything works! WoW!!

Looks great!

Thanks! Rewards of alot of fun work! I should have some screenshots soon just waiting for my lenses. Gotta guy workin on that for me. He's alright says he'll have them here some time next week. HE has some orient connection.

why did you paint the front black, what does this do?

It will control the light after the LCD so random light doesn't enter in the projection lens. The black will absorb that extra light.

Either black felt or flat black paint is used.

Ya thats why its painted . I figured every little bit helps and it was easy and cheap.

what is the make and model of this monitor that you used for the projector?

BenQ557s It has to be the 557s not the 557
http://store.yahoo.com/benqshopper/15relcdmo.html
This is where I got it but they have been on backorder for some time.

:angry: Well I had a nice shot of finding Nemo on a sheet on the wall but needed to move my panel back to focus.Well to make a long story short I jacked around and shorted out my panel.SOOO! I'll be a while before I can get a new monitor .If anyone has a control panel and maybe a power board let me know.
BENQ 557s It was really looking nice too!!!

Damn stick,sorry to hear that.I wish you luck finding a replacement.

Sorry stick

Which board or boards did you fry? Were you moving it while it was on/ pluged in? Please explane so others don't make the same mistakes.

Sorry for your loss.

Just thought of something. Maybe we need to print a transparency, place it on a piece of glass and use that for the LCD to get things set properly for focus. Save handling the LCD any more then is needed.

What do you think Brainchild, might be something to add to the manual

Not a bad idea.

I new better but this is what I did . I had to move my board back so I touched some metal to make sure I did'nt have static.I moved everything back.So far so good did'nt notice any problem.When I got it going I had a pretty good picture but it was black and white and I could'nt get color from the adjustments.So I turned off the light and fan reached in to move my connections and the monitor went blank with lines.I got in to big of a hurry and did not unplug or even turn off the panel. ADVICE! Take your time and DO NOT get in a hurry! I think I'll buy a grounding wriststrap and try not to do anything stupid. Use your brain man!

That's sad. Check out the panel thoroughly and see if you can find the problem. These things are sensitive, good luck.

I got it working! these shots are the first and they are'nt that hot but I thought I'd post them anyway and maybe show improvement later. The screen is just a sheet hanging . I have some wires I need to move. I guess I need some tweaking here and there ok a lot of tweaking . I'll play with it tomorrow its late here.

I need a different bulb .I have a used one I got from a friend .

Hey Brain , Give me some constructive criticism

Why is it so dark? also I noticed the corners, are the corners darker or is it just the photo? If the corners are darker, then the lamp is not lined up, as in to far back of to close to the Fer. lens.

What do you think?

Looks like you have a curved dark top right corner. I had this problem too. My cover over the ballast was to long. Was projecting a shadow on corner of lcd.
I had better results with light 1.5" from back of box to center of light. Maybe this will help. Good Luck! I will post pictures of my project this weekend.

It seems that you don't get the whole light through the triplet lense ...

Hi Stick, Glad you got your panel working. You need to go over your system and make sure everything is properly aligned. Improper alignment of the bulb and optics can lead to a dim projection. Below is a picture showing how much of the light is wasted by not making it through the projection lens. That little spot of light reduces projection brightness by a couple hundred lumens!

Thanks for all the suggestions. Soon as I get a chance I'll post some pics of my progress and changes.

Hi stick,
could you tell me the size of the lcd panel? Ive got a benq557s on the way and I want to start cutting the box.need to get started on this!
Good to hear that you got your lcd working again!
Thanks,
Peter

Hi Pigibbs,
I,ll measure my box and panel and let you know the dimentions when it cools down. Are you planning on useing the metal frame?

Hello Brainchild,
I cant seem to get a good picture with my cheap digital camera to show off my improvements.I added adifferent bulb and the longer it runs the better my picture gets .I guess its getting broke in.My picture is about 128 inches diagonal and really looks good . I am about 11-12feet away with my projector and I'm using the blackout cloth.I'll borrow a decent camera soon and post some good pics.One thing is for sure this project works really really really really beautiful ! I now have a high quality projector for right around $550.Thats cheap! 128 Big screen who-da thunk it .My wife still thinks I'm a nerd but she's impressed

The panel is about 12 1/4 x9 3/8. The metal frame it is mounted in is about 12 3/4 x 9 3/4. I ended up with my panel about 13 1/2 inches away from the front of the box which is quite a bit more than the plans but Brainchild did say some panels would be differrent.Definately try to make a focus mechanism .That would of saved me a lot of work.

stick,
Thanks
I ruff cut my wood tonight and will be finish cutting them tomorrow
hope to be getting that monitor this week im still working out a focus mechanisem
in my head dont know if i want to do a focus box or not because of the weight may be hard to slide in and out.would like to machine something out of aluminum but that is probably to involved.

Hope to see your pictures!!
Peter

Stick, that goes for me too, I have 557s on the way, was thinking about using the frame as is and just removing the back for light to go through.

Good job Stick! I'm glad you're happy with your projector.

Can't wait to see your new screenshots, I'm getting a 557s too

I'll post some as soon as I can. My camera just cant cut it so a freind of mine is going to take some for me.I watched spiderman last night and it is really looking good. I moved my bulb and centered it alittle better and it made a big difference.

Stick,

Can you set your horizontal and vertical size with the Benq 557s? To get rid of the missing sides and the cut corners. If not how much would you say your missing at the sides?

Hey Nore,
Sorry but I dont know .I havent messed with that much yet. I tweaked around with the lamp position and switched to a different lamp and finally came up with agood picture that i'm very happy with.I've been mostly just useing it for the last 2 weeks and havent taken time to play around with any little adjustments.I really dont think it needs any.