homemade page magnifier projectors

Anyone ever build one of these? Basically, you build a box out of cardboard or wood around your TV or monitor, and use a page magnifier as a lense. It's supposed to project an image in a dark room. I'm going to build one tomorrow afternoon just out of cardboard and duct tape to see how it works. They sell the plans on ebay for about $10.00 but searching google you can find them. Basically you cut 4 rectangles, 2 to match the width and 2 to match the height of the monitor. You then make a box from them with 2 open ends, and stick it on the monitor. Then you make another one, but make it slightly bigger, and attach the lense to one end. Place this over the one attached to the monitor and slide back and forth to adjust. Seems like a fun thing to do for $10 during my break.

links with info

http://bigscreentv.20m.com/custom2.html

http://www.originalplots.com/100inch.html

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stuart.kennedy60/projector_tv.html

This seems retarded... The projected image will be so dark from spreading the light over a large area. You'll have to be in complete darkness just to see it. And unless youre using multiple lenses, the image is going to be upside-down or reversed left-right. All you'll need to do after this project is build yourself a windowless room with chairs on the ceiling.

Sorry, but its not going to work. Probably why none of those sites show actual pictures of the projection.

So far it did not work. I know about the fliped image, but thats no problem if you are using a computer, just flip the image on the screen. I'll try again tonight when I can get my room pitch black.

I'm not expecting much, but it's fun at least.

Yeah, let us know how it turns out. It does seem like a fun, and cheap, little project. Could you take a pic of the projection if possible? I'd like to see what it looks like.

Well, i made a total of 3 ghetto ones today. It seems with the right size TV this could be possible. Tried it with my monitor and got a faint image on my wall. This monitor is my 2nd one and is very dark. My tv is 20inches, so a little to big for this, but i tried it. Its a lot brighter and it projects a viewable image on my wall. By the time I made my 3rd one, that actually fits, all my cardboard was used and it was pieced together from my first 2, so it wasn't the best one. I will try again when I find more cardboard, it seems like with a slightly small tv, this would work. Well, it was pretty cool playing with it anyways. I'm surprised it actually almost worked.

wow very cool if you get a good working model up be sure to post a good walkthrough for the rest of us!

whoa, i turned around one of my posters and used it as a screen, it looks pretty decent actually. Tomorrow I'll get 4 posterboards, tape them together and use them as a screen. I mean, the quality is decent, you can see the little red, blue, green marks from the tv when you look close. The picture is dark and blurry, but after watching a few videos on it, with some modding to the box and screen I will be able to watch movies on it. The quality is blurry and a little dark, but with a huge screen and dark room, when viewed from a distance it will be enjoyable. I'm guessing it would look better with a monitor, but mine is not as bright as my tv. My only problem now, my driver only rotates the screen, it doen't mirror it. Image is upright, but mirrored. This is fun to play with, I'm wondering if I can replace the tv with an lcd and spotlight setup. Idk what res lcd would be needed for a good picture though, and I wouldn't spend over $100. I'll post back after I try this on a 4 posterboard sized screen tomorrow. If I can get a decent quality image, the brightness wont matter as when I get back to my dorm, it's very easy to make the room pitch black.

so far

pros:
magnifier was $7-8 at staples, other materials will be under $10
fun, and might actually get use someday by me

cons:
need dark room, image is flipped and mirrored, blurry quality, box is large

what i need:
software to play movies with ability to adjust contrast and levels
software/drivers that allow me to mirror image.
cheap building material for a final product

I'm a little annoyed, I actually used to have an old film projector I got from a yard sale. The light was VERY bright, I could project a bright light on my street from my 5th story window. I threw it out though, now I wish I had it, I would definatly try and build an lcd projector out of it now.

I bought 4 posterboards today and duct taped them together. I then reinforced the top and bottom with duct tape and cardboard so I would have a flat screen if suspended. Then I just suspended it from my ceiling with duct tape and projected on it. It looks pretty damn cool, like a movie screen in my room. Dispite the leaking light from my box, and one side being blurry from my lense hole, its watchable. I'm testing it now with the shawshank redemption, and I believe with a light tight box, and stable way to focus lense, it would be something worth building to watch a few movies in my dorm. Now I just wait until I can find some cheap/free material to build one from. It would really work better with a bright monitor than a TV. The video from my video out isn't that great, but on my monitor it's perfect.

To bad I dont have a digital camera. Here's how I describe it, turn off all the lights in a room with a tv. Turn on the tv and hold something white in front of it a few feet away. The light you see on it is how bright the image will be, and the image is a little bit blurrier than the image blow up from the TV.

Now I just need to find a way to flip the image left to right...

I did a lot of reading on this, and A LOT of people do this. I'm going to build a new one after I find all the parts cheap. Here is what I found, 13-14" tvs work the best, and crisp flat screens are the best. Here's what I read

Reversed image:

1. The reverse image is fixed by making the tv scan backwards. Yes it's dangerous to open a tv, and it can be fatal, but I will read more on that before I attempt.
2. You can use 2 lenses or a top surface mirror.
3. if you use a computer, http://raxis.homestead.com/ software that flips and inverts movies.

Brightness:
There are pots on older TVs that can adjust the brightness, but that is dangerous, and i read if you turn it to much you can hear the gun arcing and somehow the tube can implode. Full brightness in a dark room is good enough from what I see. Someone on a car modding website said he modified a circuit in a TV to produce brighter higher contrast images, but thats beyond me. The best way seems to be a dark room, and a silver screen with black borders is said to help. For me posterboard with duct tape borders

Lense:
The staples lense seems the more popular. http://www.3dlens.com/ has cheap fresnel lenses. The best lense is said to be a 'POSITIVE MENISCUS LENS' which you can get very cheap at http://www.surplusshed.com/

good board I found:
http://groups.msn.com/diyprojectiontv/_messageboard.msnw

I will eventually make a decent one sometime in my life. I found someone close to me with a cheap 13in TV for sale, and if that goes through, I'll start playing somemore.

I might have to try this...

As far as a camera, take a photo and scan it or use a webcam.

Cyrix_2k said:

I might have to try this...

As far as a camera, take a photo and scan it or use a webcam.

Click to expand...

I will, but it will be a while. My friend might give me her 13in TV if she gets a new one. The one I wanted in NJ turns out to be over an hour drive to somewhere im not familiar with which isn't worth it. I'm excited, building a screen seems fun as well. Now it's just hunting for parts. If I come across a camera, I'll try and take a picture of my posterboard screen image, and my wall being filling with a projection. If worse come to worse, when I get back to my dorm in a week, someone there has to have a camera.

Update incase anyone cares:

I found a 13in TV and switched the vertical deflection wires on the yolk to fix the mirrored image. The tv also has the pot to adjust the brightness . I am almost done making the box as well out of opaque black posterboard. I cannot test if my switching the yolk wires works yet, as this TV is one of the universal ones, and the plug is currently european, and i'm in the states.

So, I'll pickup the wall adapter tomorrow, borrow my friends digi camera, and if all goes well, post pics of the projection.

i used a 6inch lcd from my buddies car...along with a fresnel lens and some black bristolboard for inside the cardboard frame. works alright, watched tombraider then thought it would be better if i could find a lens from an old telescope or binoculars to make it clearer.

fatz said:

i used a 6inch lcd from my buddies car...along with a fresnel lens and some black bristolboard for inside the cardboard frame. works alright, watched tombraider then thought it would be better if i could find a lens from an old telescope or binoculars to make it clearer.

Click to expand...

http://www.surplusshed.com/, if my tv works, I'm going to get one from there. VERY cheap for lens. Check out http://groups.msn.com/diyprojectiontv for results from various lens.