I've been lurking for a while now so it's time to step into the light.

My design has been crafted on the basic - straight - design. I'm using a 15" DELL LCD E153FP (which by the way has a considerable FFC issue). The ballast is by Venture and the lLamp is a Sylvania M175U.

I wish to acknowledge the other members who have generously posted their experiences and design details. I have stolen many of them without shame, guilt or remorse. There is no way that I would have attempted this without this body of knowledge so readily accessible here on the forums.

Thank you Agent707! I've taken your sled construct and made it my own. It was so simple and elegant a solution that even I, a measurement and angled impaired wood worker, could build the necessary frames to contain the glass, fresnals and LCD. And the idea of building from the inside out - which I credit 707 for - is allowing me to concentrate on building the sub-assemblies.

Yellowtreasure thank you for the fail-safe switch wiring diagram. I plan to incorporate that into my PJ. It too is a wonderful example of thoughtful design leading to simple execution. It was Yellowtreasure's pictures that blew me away and inspired me to proceed with this project.

SonicWonder2000, I've taken your idea of adjustability for the reflector and bowl and claimed it for my own. Since I'm totally ignorant about metal working I couldn't reproduce your design in metal. I made mine of wood and I have both up and down and side-to-side range of motion for my reflector. I plan to add the same type of adjustable slides for my bulb. Somewhere in the combined four dimensions of movement I should be able to find the point of maximum light projection.

Dweezilkid, Sawtooth and Da-lite have also been strong design influencers. Simul8r's black cowl assembly looks interesting and I may use it.

I'm planning on using a fanmaster to run 4 fans in the box. I'm not quite sure about the fan placement at this point. I do like the temperature monitoring that the fanmaster supports.

I would like to contribute an idea that I haven't seen yet (admittedly, I haven't read every plog). I have been thinking that it would be very, very cool if I could have an autofocus on the PJ. Then I realized that I had two old scanners that had an arm that moved a light over the length of paper to be scanned. So I now have two scanner mechanisms that could be used to implement autofocus. Of course being ignorant of electronic devices I have no idea what the required voltage is to drive these things. So they're not going into my PJ. Perhaps some of the more advanced electronic types among us can try this out.

So now that I've described my intentions, I need your collective help. Would someone be willing to share how they wired their Venture ballast? Mine has two common white wires and although I have an idea about them, I'd rather not take an educated guess as to their function. I have this fear of blacking out the neighborhood again. Can anyone help me out?

The following is a side view of my reflector on the adjustable mount.

Progress has been slow and steady. Today I mounted the lenses in their individual frames which I had previously painted flat black. I also mounted a lexan pane into its frame – twice! The first time I mounted it I pulled off the protective covering to reveal a scratch that ran the width of the pane (or should I say pain?). Off to Home Depot to replace that puppy and try again. The second time was the charm.

I also built a controls box to contain the ballast, fan master, power input, and the various circuit switches. I’m using switches to control the fan, lamp, and lcd individually. The switches are red illuminated rockers. I have to confess that I added them strictly for the “oooooooooooo…… “ effect.

I fitted all of the switches, fan master, and the power input plug into the control box before I quit for the night. Tomorrow, in the unlikely event that time allows, I’ll start on the actual installation of the ballast and the rest of the initial wiring.

A word of thanks to the fine people at LumenLab: I ordered a ffc cable on Friday afternoon and got it Saturday morning. Now that, my friends, is superior customer service.

Hiya fight: So, any progress?

I have a bit of progress to report. I'd decided that I would put the ballast and a few other electrical things in a box below the projector itself. I've been concentrating on getting that built. I also got my lexan heat shield, and the 2 fresnel lenses mounted and ready to assemble as a sled. My LCD monitor has been stripped but I haven't progressed yet with the FFC cable extension.

I started a new job earlier this week and I've been a little too tired at the end of the day to get anywhere near my fragile LCD panel or my power tools. Once I adapt to the new work routine, I’ll get back to the PJ.

Hi! Just curious as to how you are holding the lcd, etc. in place...thanks!

Claim away! The four degrees of freedom have allowed for VERY accurate and even lighting and I'm sure you will find the same to be true. Just to set the record straight, I have NO metalworking skills - I wish I did! This was the first time I had ever attempted something like that and the "welds" were really made with an adhesive called "jb-weld". If you decide to use this stuff, get the 24-hour lon-set variety, becuase it stands up to heat better.

Love to see some pics when you get the chance!

Good luck,

Sonic

EDIT: Typos

Well I've finally had enough "me time" to get back to the PJ. Today I began assembling the case. Ok, I attached the two sides to the bottom; but hey! Progress is progress.

I’ve also worked a bit on mounting the LCD into its frame. The frame is wood and designed to fit onto the four threaded rods that I got to hold the sled together. I had taken the metal rim off of the LCD when I stripped the panel and I siliconed it into place.

With the LCD in the metal rim I started working on the electronics. As I mentioned earlier, I had cable issues with my monitor. The first order of business was to install the cable extension I bought from Lumenlab.

Wow! Is that cable clamp tiny! I had to get a magnifying glass out to look at it so that I could figure out how it operated. Once I understood its operation I attempted to clamp the two cables together.

Did I mention how tiny that clamp is? It took me many attempts to get the two cables to seat properly in the clamp. Many, many attempts.

I connected the other end of the cable extension to the board. I should mention that I cut two thin strips of wood and glued them to the inside of the frame to serve as shelves, if you will, to hold the two edge connected boards. I used a drop of hot glue on each board to affix it to the shelf.

The next step was for me to verify that the LCD was still working. I had read earlier in the forums about someone who had a problem with the LCD and then discovered that it wasn’t properly grounded.(This was a valuable piece of information for me. I would have never noticed it otherwise.) So I made sure that I had made note of all of the points at which the LCD was grounded in the original frame. There were three such points.

I soldered a grounding wire to each point and ran it back to the ground wire on the power plug. I connected the boards together, plugged it in, and turned it on. Son-of-a-gun! The LCD powered up and began displaying its default screen. This thing may come together after all!

My next step will be to work on building a focusing mechanism for the triplet lens. I’m pretty sure that it will be a simple extension type box. I hope that it’s not another month before I can get back to work on this project.

Pictures! Now that I understand the 100k limit, I'm able to post pictures. There are three pictures. The first picture is of the sled containing the lexan panel, and the two fresnel lenses. The lcd is in a similar frame and will be located between the two fresnel lenses. In using this type of threaded rod assembly I believe that I will be able to address any keystoning issues that may arise. There is a great deal of freedom in movement in this assembly. I think that I can easily obtain 30 degree correction if necessary.Click to view attachment

The next picture is of my reflector assembly. It was inspired by SonicWonder's metal assembly. Since I'm not at all adept at metal work I decided to go low tech and make a similar assembly in wood. The reflector allows for side to side as well as up and down motion. This should allow me to position the reflector in the optimum spot.
Click to view attachment

Last but not least - my control box. I decided to run the transformer outside of the projector so I built this control box to house it. You can also see my fan master controller. This fan controller runs 4 fans and also has 4 remote temperature sensors. I plan to monitor the temperatures at the top and bottom of the lcd panel. I only have two of the three power switches installed. I'm using the failsafe circuit that prevents the lamp from being turned on without the fans being on. (I'm very impressed by this simple enhancement I wish I could remember who to give credit to for it.)

So S-L-O-W-L-Y my projector is coming together... I wish I had more free time to devote to it.

Click to view attachment

looking good so far.. take your time and your results will be worth it