Hey everyone, I've been looking through these forums and the guide for a while now, and I chose to make a projector for my senior project in an AP English 12 class. I have a physicist for a mentor and my dad an engineer and my neighbor, a carpenter, for help, so I should be able to get this done in the alotted time (By the beginning of June). I already have the LCD, a 15" CMV CT-520 D, and the lenses, ballast, lamp, etc are on the way. I got a 4x8 board of oak plywood from lowes, which my dad and I drove home on the top of his old acura (LOTS of twine was used). I plan on cutting the wood tomorrow w/ my neighbors tools. I'll keep you all updated and I plan on posting some pics of the progress.

Senior Project? Awww this is gonna be so cool! Lots of pics ( you'll need them for your grade ).

Excellent luck and fortune to you!

Going with the basic design or are you going to try some new things?

Physicist...engineers....with that much mojo in your corner, you can't go wrong!! Just please! Please! PLEASE! Be careful when you strip out/mount that monitor....I know of what I speak

GOOD LUCK!!

Yeah good luck on the project, try and complete it a week before the deadline so you have time enough for the necessary modifications/tweaking.

Well for now I plan on doing a fairly basic design, in part because I want to finish early like Haku recommended. After the project is done for school, I may do some extra mods to it.


And the beauty is, when I give my presentation, which is 1/2 the grade, I can use the thing I built for the visuals in the presentation!

I assume you have completed apps for college, etc and have a spot already... When I was applying to highly competative post grad programs (now 5+ years ago) I was filming some of my med/pharm research projects with canon XL1 and GL1's and putting some time into post production work, then passing out promo DVD's when I went on interviews. A little over the top, but I got in where others (who I thought were better qualified) did not. Even now I do all my presentations in full dvd video with no powerpoint help... (I do video "slides" that go to a "looping segment" with subtle motion backgrounds and activation between the slides of either the next chapter button or the pause button depending on how the dvd programming is set up. the effect is that while you are holding the dvd player remote the full video presentation is going on behind you [what appears to be] seamlessly with no worries on timing with your actual speaking.) Mac makes all of this easy to pull off by the way. easier even than back when I was doing it. people are usually blown away with those presentations and in a sea of powerpoint you are going to kick a$$ with such a setup.

Anyway, with your pj and the evolution of building/tweaks that would make a great presentation modality that is sure to create a post-presentation kerfuffle.

Good luck and look forward to your progress.

Dude! You get this thing even half right and you wont be able to keep the geeky chicks off you!

...Oh and the good grade wouldnt hurt either!

Yeah I've already picked UC Berkeley, Undeclared Engineering

Good luck, Spurfan. I made my projector not too long ago and was able to use up two days of senior Physics class watching movies. It was great. Not to mention being drowned in compliments from teachers and students alike.

Worldprojector-- Wow! It's great to see somebody on the boards that's into video and post production like me. I, too, use a Mac and love every minute of it.

of all schools why pick berkeley? i'm only talking from experience (I GO THERE NOW)

Because I liked it best.
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Heres a design for the bulb/front/back layout. Its sort of a combination of the two. Tomorrow, I'm going to make all the cuts on the wood.

Your probably going to want to stay away from doing a 45 degree mount, I know the plans had a bulb at 45 degrees, but that was using one of the larger bulbs out there, since the EYE bulb, the PS lamps, and now the Ushio bulb you have pictured are significantly smaller allowing a perfect horizontal mount, the bulbs are intended to be mounted by a certain orientation and not mounting in that orientation can have effect on its brightness output and its lifespan.

Ok, but how important is it that the main light source in the bulb (the metal halide pouch), which is about 7.4 inches from the bottom of the base be in the exact center? Because if its important, my box will have to be quite large for me to put it in horizontally.

Also I think 45 degrees should be ok, because on the ushio spec sheet it says burn position: universal 360 degrees.

It is possible to horizontal mount (if indeed you are using the USHIO bulb and mogul from LL) in a box that is nearly the size of yours. My box is 13.75" wide (inside dimension). see here

7.4" doesn't sound right for the LL seup, what bulb/mogul are you using ? My setup (LL) is 6.75" from bottom of mogul to center of gas pocket.

I believe that discussions about 45 degree mount indicate that life and lumen output of the bulb are reduced.

It was just a tight fit in the base, it went in more, and now its 7 inches to the pouch. Thats probably just due to slightly different pouch placement, and it maybe even goes in a tad more.

This pouch I assume you keep referring to .... is called the arc tube, its where the light generates from ...

It should be perfectly centered in the enclosure, and with the triplet. the Lenses want a perfect point light sources, obviously this "Pouch" is far from a perfect point, so that is what determines how crucial the alignment is ....

Yeah thats what im referring to. Gadget Smith's picture shows it centered.

Here's some of what I've done so far. Only one bottom and one side are totally screwed in, the front isnt completely screwed in yet. I stripped the LCD (CMV CT-520D), put in the base, made the lense hole, made some channels for the fresnel lenses and the LCD (not yet screwed in), put in the ballast, a good portion of the flashing, and am getting the electrical stuff right now.

The side support for the lcd/2x fresnels. (not screwed in yet)
I'm going to use small wood stoppers (press fit) to position the lenses and LCD where I want to in the channels.
The other panel is for the other side.

Another pic, with the proj lense hole visible.

Another pic.

Closer pic of the hole, other side panel visible.

Dark pic of the e-ballast and mogul base

Heres a $5 reflector i found at target, i dont know if its too much of a parabola to work well, any comments?

Pic of ballast/base w/ flash on.

Ballast and possible refector.

Back piece, not all flashing added/nailed down.

Heres the electronics from the LCD. (No LCD pics right now, I have it stored how I want it, but no tears of any kind. )

Pic of pre-strip LCD.

I did all the electronics hookup today, I didnt find a thermostat I liked, so i used the lumen lab O/I switch, the lumenlab circut breaker to a terminal to the fans and to a SPST switch that powers the ballast and LCD P/S. I was testing all of the voltages with an multimeter and then put in the bulb, and WOW is it bright!!! Every mosquito in the city came flying over. So basically all I have to do now is mount the electronics, cover them, finish up my lense/lcd mounts, put em in, mount the circut boards, cut the top slot and GO! Its beginning to get quite exciting, but I'm still making sure I do every thing the right way.

Phew! Some tense moments today in the projector building. I'm nearly done, all the electronics is wired up, in nylon, metal shielded tubing. I got the temp. glass in, and the two fresnel lenses in correctly. The tense moment was the lcd... first I got the two main FFC's in their slots just fine, however I noticed something on the control panel FFC initially, one of those metal strips was up a bit and kinda twisted a bit (NO idea how that happened), so i tried to fix it, I put it in, connected a video source, and the power... no go. I thought it was that control FFC, so i took it out, and tried my best to fix it, I flattened it out as best I could, and tried it again, closed the door, turned it on, and YESSS the LCD turned on, the whole panel worked! So tomorrow I will secure the panels down and I will finish up with the slot, and front panel placement/focusing. I will post pictures/results tomorrow.

I'm enjoying the progress on your projector... nice job, and whew! on the lcd!

Here are some pics of yesterdays progress, I'm going to start working in about 1/2 hour today, and hopefully I can get most or all of it done.

Heres the LCD circuitry and unsecured electronics

Top shot of the PJ

Back of the PJ, that switch goes in the empty hole you will see in the next pic

Back view of the PJ

Here are the channels I used to hold the lenses/glass.

Another top shot of the PJ

Another of the LCD circuitry/electronics

Another of the back section.

Another top view.

Today I secured everything down, and tested it out, I havent put the reflector in yet, and need to make the air vent in the top. Also, I hooked up a laptop, and watched some of braveheart, just holding the front panel w/ lense in it. It looked quite good even with some outside light coming in, the top up a bit, and without a reflector. I suspect it will be astounding once all conditions are prime and the reflector is in.

Heres a pic of the front

Pic of the back

Pic of the electric mounting/wiring.

Closeup of the terminal strips.

Another pic of the front.

I got the reflector in. I had some trouble getting the camera to take quality images, most were WAY too dark to justify the quality it projected (Ive noticed that about my camera for a long time). I adjusted the exposure a bit to try to get the best image i could, and heres the closest match.

The thing in the middle is a basketball, on the left is a chair.

Ill try to figure out the closest settings on the camera to get it taking some good pictures so I can post some other stuff.

(PS, the light spot in the middle is there because the lid wasnt closed all the way, so light was going to that spot.)

My Alma! EECS/MSE!! Have fun ...