My Homebrew LCD projector (MANY PICS)

Well it's been sometime since I've posted in the Alt. Modding section, so I figured it was due time to make something computer related function differently than originally intended.

The result is my homebrew LCD projector. No, I can't claim originality here, there are plenty of links on Google regarding making your own LCD projector. There are also a few different ways to go about doing it. I chose the overhead projector with the LCD panel laid on it.

I can however claim that I tweaked the design ideas to make it work better though.

The idea though is to end up with a XGA capable projector. XGA = 1024x768 and a good XGA projector is gonna cost ATLEAST $1,000, more towards $3,000.

To start I picked up a Dell E153FP 15" LCD...bought on the classifieds here. Cost = $145 shipped. I highly recommend this LCD, the disassembly was VERY easy...everything is clipped or screwed in, no glue, and not too much plastic.



Eventually I'll do a full writeup with pics and a how-to, but in the meantime, and due to my lack of time right now, I'll just post a few pics.

It's just setup temporarily at the moment, still needs some tweaking. But I did test it last night with Office Space.

NOTE: Before trying this keep in mind 2 things:

1.) The LCD panel itself is EXTREMELY fragile, you can break the internal traces casuing dead pixels/lines without too much effort or seeing any damage.

2.) The LCD panel requires cooling -- the overhead projector gets quite warm so you need airflow over/under the lcd panel. I have a spot to mount an 80mm fan with will be enough, last night for my test I just pointed a house fan at it, worked flawlessly.

I bumped my laptops resolution down to 800x600 to fit the image on the wall. Luckily I have an overhead projector screen that was being thrown out. At 800x600 the image on the wall was equivalent to a 100" TV, at 1024x768 and moved back a bit the image can grow QUITE LARGE.

Oh and I recommend the 3M 9700 projector for it's high light output. Bought that off Ebay for about $100 shipped.

So all in all, this was a $200 XGA LCD Projector.

How much are the bulbs for the projectors?

HOLY SH|T!

That never even occurred to me. I know EXACTLY what my next project will be.

HDTV, here I come!......................

How is the brightness. Do you need a pitch-black room to use it propperly?

edit: also, a few more questions:

1) How long of a room do you need to display the entire screen?
2) How does going to 1024 increas picture size. The source (LCD) is still the same size. You will just be projecting a much higher-res image

wow that's awesome. I've never heard of this before now so it's new to me! How long did all that work take you?

Polonator said:

How much are the bulbs for the projectors?

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Bulbs for the 3M 9700 are about $15 each, there are two, and a switch to use either 1 or both bulbs depending on the brightness you want.

Stoanhart said:

1) How long of a room do you need to display the entire screen?
2) How does going to 1024 increas picture size. The source (LCD) is still the same size. You will just be projecting a much higher-res image

Click to expand...

1.) It will fill up an 8 foot high wall with about 15ft, maybe a foot or two less. Probably don't need more than that though.

2.) The LCD was set to not expand the image, so going to 800x600 keeping a 1:1 pixel ratio made the image display smaller on the LCD, not taking up the whole panel. That made the movie size smaller on the wall. Going to 1024x768 would've taken up the whole thing, at the place I had it setup I didn't have wallspace to run it that large.

If you don't have white walls you can either try to find a screen (I came across one in my travels which led me to build this) or make one with some white fabric and some sort of frame or backing.

safronz said:

wow that's awesome. I've never heard of this before now so it's new to me! How long did all that work take you?

Click to expand...

I'd say it took about 2 hours as I had to modify the projector's stage area a bit. The disassembly was not all the long to do, maybe 30 mins or so...but its the most stressful part. I'll try to do a detailed writeup saying how this Dell screen comes apart...I recommend it since it's easy to tear down.

I'm also not entirely done...I need to mount the control/power board for the LCD permanently, and the LCD itself is just stting in the old internal bezel. Also the 80mm fan is not mounted.

Cool, would definately like to see much more detail, as this is something I really want to do now. Close ups of every mount or mod you had to do would be great, especially once the whole project is complete.

nice job, will try doing this one of these days.

lol good movie too.

genious...and to think something so simple has necer been done before...
if i had the bling their is no question about it. i would do this!

Sweet NICE JOB MAN, thats just awsome. Really nice, i saw this same mod at toms hardware, this is just pure genius!

Yeah, Tom's Hardware did this a while back, I don't believe they were the first though...I read his guide though and ran with it. I modded my overhead projector though so it wouldn't cut off the corners like it does in his article.

Tomorrow I should work on a writeup.

Note: I've taken apart a handful of LCD monitors and they all seem to come apart easily. Nothing like the birthing sequence that's involved in taking apart a CRT...

Also, you'll save yourself some hassle by looking for an LCD monitor smaller than 15" (12" would be ideal) or simply getting a larger than normal overhead projector.

Hmmm....now what I'm really interested in is a BIG version of this.

I may want to take apart my 15" LCD screen and put some LuxeonStar I/Os behind it...as I've heard of success with this route. Then the only other problem is optics and focus...if I can get it to work right, then having this option might work a little better (and could be a bit less ghetto)

The other option I'm considering is just watching the damn dumpsters @ my school. The techs throw away multi-thousand dollar projectors every week because of simple problems like a bulb or something, so I may have to pick up on that

7

Is it a good idea to put the PCB for the LCD on styrofoam? Don't they build up a lot of static charge?

Omega Destroyer said:

Is it a good idea to put the PCB for the LCD on styrofoam? Don't they build up a lot of static charge?

Click to expand...

Any insulator can build up a surface static charge, but it's a result of charging the oxygen around it.

Would that charge not transfer to the PCB? Anyone who is grounded and touched a metal part of the PCB would discharge it, and fry the board in the process.

Hmmm, does foam generate the static or is it just so light that it is affected by static around it? I never really thought of this before, I suppose wrapping it in tape would suffice. I've used foam before, even once found a big chunk supporting a hard drive in a computer I was fixing for someone.

Good to hear most LCD's are easy to take apart, this Dell is the only one I've done, I had heard some were tougher, I'm sure regardless though it just requires that you be patient and examine HOW it's put together before tearing it apart. Remember everything is assembled via a process, so reversing the process is the best way to take something apart.

I've been finding the screen is the hardest thing to do. In fact I spent so much time on it yesterday I didn't write up anything yet.

Anyway, I got an 8ft projector screen a few months back, was given to me and was the reason this project go off the ground.

I was going to hang it off the wall on some outriggers, but found out my new apartment has metal studs apparently. So I ended up getting the strongest/beefiest drywall anchors I could find and that was enough to hold the 20+lb screen. I pull the screen down to find out it's peeling, and nasty.

So I went out and got some wood at home depot and a white sheet from walmart and made my own screen. It's got some wrinkles though, and my wood frame isn't the best but it had to be collapsable.

I could make an expandable metal frame but htat would require more money be dumped into the project.

I can also glue down the old screen on the projector screen and then stretch/glue this white sheet to reskin it. In that case I may have to anchor my outriggers better as I'm afraid the weight will eventaully weaken the drywall... *sigh* nothing's easy.

On a side note, I watched "Commando" last night on the screen, it's like a 120" HDTV, and I didn't really notice the wrinkes that much, so I may just iron the sheet and leave it at that. It's not as pretty as a nice roll-up projector screen but that's ok.

That being said can you buy white sheet-blinds that are 8ft wide and atleast 7ft tall when pulled out? I wonder how much that'd cost... Eventually I'd like to be able to include ideas/plans for the screen in any writeup I do so I'm exploring other options.

Oh and Captain Slug is definitely right, a 14" or better yet 12" LCD would be a better fit on the stage.

I don't have pics just yet but I did cut the stage on mine, even still there is about 1/4" on the sides that doesn't project. Don't notice it unless you're at the desktop.

In my case 14" would solve that.

As for a larger projector I don't think you'll find much larger of a staging area.

Too bad that with LCDs 15" and under, you can't get true 1080i/p HDTV. You'd have to use a good 19" and a really large overhead, or some sort of lense system to capture it all.

800x600 is barely higher-definition than a TV, though the fact that the source is an LCD makes it infinatley clearer.