Ok, I desided to jump into a 7" for the members here who want to just have a simple 7" projector, it took me about 1/2 Hour at the Plastic Wholesale place, bought 1/4" Black Plexi (Cut to my Specs. I worked out in Acadd) I will post the pics and show the progress as I go. ok for the Projector Box Parts..

The Cement Plexi Weld Used with Aplicator to Bind Plexi together, this stuff really works, Once used you can not pull it apart unless you cut the plexi.

Here is the Basic Box the main portion is 12"x12"x6.5" tall, with a 3" extention on the front for the Projection lens.

And now here is the completed Shell with a 12" Plexi hinge on the left welded to the box (Acrylic Weld) also proped the projection lens in front of it just to show what it will look like. (The Projection Lens is from Lumenlab - The Small Vari. Focal)

Keep in mind this is just the 1st step... I will be Laying out the cooling and LCD Housing also and will be using a Dremel to do the neccesary cutting.

Hope you Enjoy this build Brought to you By LumenLab..

Nice

Nice box .. smaller than I would expect .. what are the details on the projection lens and the fresnels used?

Sweet!

Worked on the light portion of the projector.. Here is the light installed.

Switches and power cord.

I manufactured a Heat Shied w/ temp glass, to be used to help reduce the heat inside the rest of the projector.

Here is the Heat Shield in its place, on the far side there will be a 80mm fan blowing across the bulb and tempered glass to keep the heat to a min. air will pass over and across the bulb and out the section you see cut at a 45deg. angle and when it is exiting out that end i will have a 120mm fan placed right at the 45deg. angle and pull the hot air out the rear.

Nice work.....What type of lamp are you using?. It looks like a halogen projector lamp. If so, what is the watt rating. I have a two of them but they are rated at 86 volts 360 watts. I'm not sure how to power them.

hey...i was wondering if you could email me your acadd drawings, or at least post a screenshot here.

i'm really intersted in how this turns out; gonna do an 8" Hami build myself.

my email is tawamiami[at]verizon.net if you're willing.

thanks!

thats a great work bro.. can't wait to see some more results... keep it up...

7" LCD panel.... Its a 7" Panasonic low resolution, I will replace it when i get a better one, Prob. the 8" or 7" Lilli.

another view of LCD

turned on and running....

I had to add a 2" extention on the front of the projector that was not planned, because my fresnel does not match the Projection lens. this is the final projector thus far.. Also i have some ghosting because i broke my f/s mirror trying to gut it with an old glass cutter.... (should have baught a new one and also used oil when cutting...


120 plug in runs bulb, and one 12v. 1.0a with three fans and LCD panel..

projector closed..... the over all dim. is 12"x12"x6.5" tall, with a 6"x5" lonf extention on the front for projection.... I have a slot fan on the fron blowing inside onto LCD panel, 80mm fan on left side blowing air into light area, and one 120mm fan on the rear pulling all the air out.......

Rear View..

OK By now i guess some of you is wondering what the final projection image looks like..... Remember I built this projector on less than three days.

1st day ~ 2.5 hrs
2nd day ~ 6.0 hrs
3rd day ~ 8.5 hrs

Things to improve the image are

1. Use a Higher Res. LCD Panel
2. Use Better quality Fresnels.
3. Possible use the reg. LL Triplet (I held mine up to it and saw a brighter and slightly sharper image.


well without further ado here are some screen shots....

Nice work Joe, you make it look too easy.

What is a " small vari-focal"? Are they still available?

F.E.

Finding Nemo, the images are 64" wide in these pics.

Yea brain has them and can get more. Also the advantage of using it is portability, and focus made easy.

Awesome!

Great results Joe...

Can you tells us the specs on the lamp and what distance from screen, to get the 64" image...


keep up the great work..

The Bulb is a 360watt 82v OHP bulb. (Instant on and off with switch) But it is short life they range from 75 to 350 hrs. Cost vary from 5.00 dollars to 20.00 Dollars, Cheap enought to replace.

The projector is 12' away with a 64" (wide) Image.

nice result man...this will encourage the members start building there own 7" projector....its time to start..........come on

Do you need a ballast to power the bulb? When did you get the bulb? What was the total cost of the projector? How does the color compare to your standard ll projector?

Scott

The ENH halogen lamp can be had very cheaply, is 120v and puts out 15,000 lumens. By using a standard household dimmer to cut the voltage back 5-10 volts, the life can go over 600 hours. No ballast, simple wiring, instant on. There are disadvantages like color temp being low, but for quick, cheap projects they can be used. I just picked up 4 of these for $10 off ebay new.

Can the color temp being low be compensated by adjusting the lcd settings? This seems like it might be a good option for those of us who want an instand on projector.

Scott

the bulb i belive is 3300 color temp. it actually looks good with the panel i have, but with most diy there are a lot of variables such as the panel, bulb, lenses. and so on, and don't forget the quality of the build plays a part also.

What was the total cost of the projector? Did you goto a chain for the plexiglass?

Brain how much is the small varifocus?

Scott

well cost varies depending on your resources, just like the 15" LL proj.

my lcd was free, total for me was about 75.00

The projector is not made out of plexi, its acrylic, much stronger.

Three Questions:

1. Can a 82v bulb take a 120v put into it or do you have a 120v bulb?

2. I didnt think dimmers actually reduced voltage. I thought they turned the lamp on and off very quickly. Am I correct, or are you?

3. What is the item in the yellow box in the picture?

1. no its a 82v with i think its a resister attached to it, its a small square black, connector.

2. a dimmer recuces the voltage.

3. the item in the yellow square you have in question is a temp sensor which came in the OHP i ripped everything out of (if it over heats it will cut the power to the bulb.

HI Joe

Do both mirrors have to be the same size as the LCD and also is the focal lenght just the total from (source to mirror to fresnel) and (fresnel to mirror to lens)?

Also does the light source have to be at 90 Degrees to the first mirror or did you angle yours to get the most out of the lamp?


Cheers...

yes in this case the mirrors are roughly the same size.

and the light is 45deg from mirror in most cases but in mine my rear fresnel has a longer fl than 220 so i angled it to try to get the light as close to the fl as possible.

If you look at the pictures above closely, then you can see the ghosting caused by not having a front surface mirror, is was showing up more at alsost 3/4" wide ghosting on the screen.

here are the pictures after replacing the mirror with a front surface mirror which got rid of the ghosting, made the image sharper and also a little brighter....

finding nemo same pic well almost...

and satalite TV..

also the lines you see like on the left side are from the window blind just draped over a wall partition, so it it not perfectly flat...

Also take into consideration this is a very low res. lcd screen.

Joe can you post the layout of this projector in the forum? Or can you email it to me?

THanks,

Scott

Nice job, please post more pictures.

What ya want to see?

I'm open to pics for ya.

Used a Large FoamBoard from Michaels for a screen (60"x40" for $13.00), i have had for about 4 months already, forgot i had it, here is a screen shot with it.

Puss-n-Boots

Most dimmers do not reduce the voltage, they are thyristors so they cut bits off the sine wave to reduce the amount of time that the bulb has current flowing through it.

Is there a reason the image's outer sides (L/R) are a bit... fuzzy?

Not criticizing, just curious.

Rook

yes right side is off screen and you see it on the wall behind, also the fs mirror is not quite long enought and does not capture the edges like it should, i broke it when cutting it and had to make it work, and also this is just a proto for an example of a simple projector people can build for cheap. then advance from there.

Where are people sourcing the front surface mirrors?

Thanks in advance,
-N.