Lumenlab projector build

posted Dec 9th 2005 11:00am by Eliot Phillips
filed under: home entertainment hacks

projector

A couple days ago we mentioned that Lumenlab had released their top secret plans for building an LCD based projector. Hack-A-Day reader [Brad O'Connor] sent along his experiences using the Lumenlab plans. Like most people, he says that the $20 price of admission is worth it. The system uses a 400Watt metal halide lamp as a light source. A fresnel lens straightens the light before it passes through a consumer LCD panel. A second fresnel lens directs the light to the final focusing lens. You can grab a torrent of the plans here. Brad is currently working on motorizing his 120″ screen.

Read

Comments [35]

Reader Comments

I wanted to do this wicked bad until it occurred to me that I don’t have an LCD to tear apart. Rats. Maybe I can do it in 10 years when LCDs with busted backlights are getting chucked in the dumpster like busted CRTs are now.

I checked into the legality of that torrent, apparently it’s 100% legit, the company just decided to stop selling its product in lieu of giving it away for nothing. Ad revenue, anybody?

Posted at 11:14 am on Dec 9th, 2005 by billytheimpaler

Well, why should you pay to get plans when you just can get the equivalent, legally, just by surfing on foreign websites.
Just a few examples: http://www.allinbox.com/allinbox.htm
Sheers

Posted at 11:17 am on Dec 9th, 2005 by aomapes

hooooooooly shit, brad from wsu! this is justin, if you ever read this. nice project man. hats off.

Posted at 11:24 am on Dec 9th, 2005 by justin dexheimer

The 120V 400w Electronic Ballast seems to be the most expensive part of these plans.

Is there anywhere to pick up any of these parts in surplus or used?

Posted at 11:43 am on Dec 9th, 2005 by Justin

Looks like both /. & hackaday have been turned into advertisers for Lumenlab :( Lumenlab charges $19.99 for access to thier “premium content” which is free elsewhere!
http://www.google.com/search?q=diy+projector

How about some real links
http://repair4laptop.org/lcd_projector_beamer_selfmade.html
http://www.hommie.net/

Posted at 2:35 pm on Dec 9th, 2005 by vbrtrmn

i paid the 20 bucks for it and its well worth it

Posted at 2:46 pm on Dec 9th, 2005 by CYRIX

$550 for a DIY project? That’s a touch pricey, but if it is truly capable of those resolutions that’s nearly half the cost of the commercial equivalent. If it’s not, however, I’d sooner go with a commercial projector that’s:
- less than $100 more
- half the size
- a fourth again the weight
- doesn’t heat the house
- covered by a warranty

Posted at 3:15 pm on Dec 9th, 2005 by Andy

Maybe you should sooner not compare DIY projects with commercial products. You’re totally missing the point.

Posted at 3:21 pm on Dec 9th, 2005 by Alex

Yeah… not to mention the fact that a commercial projector bulb will run you ~$300+ and only last for a couple thousand hours, where the lumenlab bulb will run for 10K+ hours and cost you $40.

Also, you have the option of building a 1080p projector for around $1200, and couldn’t get anywhere close to that on a commercial 1080p.

Posted at 3:46 pm on Dec 9th, 2005 by Philip

i managed to get a free overhead projector to salvage a light source and fresnels; the 380W projector bulb isn’t as bright as a MH but with a good first surface mirror and a triplet lense i’ve gotten some rather good results. Going to change the to a bulb type with a built in reflector adventually.

Posted at 4:23 pm on Dec 9th, 2005 by machs_fuel

Does anyone know the source of the LCD panel he used? I’ve never heard of any 1080p capable 15″ panels, and a google of the serial number he provides turns up nothing.

Posted at 5:25 pm on Dec 9th, 2005 by Edz

I must say, it really is worth the $20 if only for the forums. yeah, it /should/ be free. but note none of the free links posted here really don’t have forums that compare to lumenlabs. also, I think the fee keeps out people who are not serious abot building one of these.

also, the free .pdf is a basic guide, with your membership you get a /much/ more extensive guide.

Posted at 6:02 pm on Dec 9th, 2005 by pretorious

dam this comes out the day after I ordered my over head projector. meh its still good info and maybe I can use the parts from the over head anyways.

Posted at 7:02 pm on Dec 9th, 2005 by cokebottle tuque

ok, I’m very wierded out that noone posted this link yet:

http://www.diyprojectorcompany.com/

Just like lumen labs: parts (at cost to cost), design, forums, but no cost for “premium content” or any information.
They even improve on the lumen design by reducing space with a mirror; fractionally more difficult, but the box is alot less…. conspicuous ;)

Posted at 7:57 pm on Dec 9th, 2005 by Josh

Justin whats up!!! This is Brad from WSU.

The price you are paying is actually for the fourm acess and a much better guide. There is so much information on the web site it will save you well over that in mistakes. Also Lumenlab had all the parts mad for this project, so they are excellent quality. YOu could easily find all the parts from other sources, but I found that these prices are very fair. The quality of my projector is amazing. The pictures on my site hardly do it any justice. another great feature is I runn this thing constantly. I would have probablty already used up 2 commercial bulbes. If you want to make the screen look even better you could drop some cash on a nice screen. I am building one you can take a look on the website. I only have pictures up there now.

Enjoy

Brad

Posted at 8:08 pm on Dec 9th, 2005 by Brad

How about a link to a site where someone is building these things for sale??

Otherwise, the rest of us will probably have to wait for the next commercial projector deal on Woot. See the one where some guy got a 61″ DLP TV for $8??

Posted at 11:25 pm on Dec 9th, 2005 by ed3

The 20bux was well spent. I had been watching the project for a while, but the premium membership really gives you a base of people that are a little more serious about making this thing work for a good price. The plans are pretty good and the experiences of everyone in the forum give some great ideas to build a design from.

Posted at 11:59 pm on Dec 9th, 2005 by Jim

I’ve built 2 projectors based on the Lumenlab design. When I first started as a noob, the plans and the help available on their forums was great. My first pj was done over a single weekend and the results were mindblowing. At the time, commercial projectors were still more expensive than the DIY option, but even now that they are so low in price, the DIY option is still valid because there is no getting around that fact that the bulb replacement cost of any commercial pj is just crazy. My current DIY projector is in constant daily use. Replacement bulbs are around $50 or so and have a rated life of 20,000 hours.

http://www.fullcontactgeek.com/index.php?page=show&id=1131946834

Posted at 1:40 am on Dec 10th, 2005 by Fullcontactgeek

Are there any UK sites that sell the necessary parts?

Posted at 3:26 am on Dec 10th, 2005 by andy

The torrent file is at BEST a basic guide, and is mostly an advertisement for the Lumenlabs Premium membership. I ain’t saying this’ a bad thing..

I plan on getting the premium. I’ve looked at the sites offering “free” info, and most are just repeated in the torrent file..

Posted at 8:17 am on Dec 10th, 2005 by jif_pup

I just finished building my 15″ projector from lumenlab a couple of months ago. I am extremely satisfied with the results. I could have easily just gone and bought a commercial projector, but when I thought about the cost difference, I don’t think I could have afforded the bulb replacement (like $300 per 1k hours). The total cost for my project was ~$400, and I really enjoyed the experiance. The people on the forums are a lot of help. I would highly recommend paying the $20 and help support lumenlab. I plan to start building a WUXGA one soon.

Posted at 9:54 am on Dec 10th, 2005 by Pistolen08

If you choose to sing up for the membership please try and follow the link on my webpage or the one below.

http://www.lumenlab.com/index.php?ref=brad

Since I came up with the idea to get the site on /. and Hackaday I might be able to get a pro lens kit. If I am able to do this I can add that build to my website so you guys can see the difference in the basic kit and pro kit. If you choose not to use my link thats fine I mainly posted this website to better the DIY projector community. So many great ideas are coming out of this project.

Posted at 11:07 am on Dec 10th, 2005 by Brad O'Connor

there are no 15″ LCD panels that will do 1080 lines. I’m guessing his setup isn’t HD at all, probably 1024×768

Posted at 3:08 am on Dec 12th, 2005 by jeh

A hard to find item is a 1280×768 monitor (Staples used to carry a Proview) can do 720p. There is a 15.4″ panel that does 1920×1200 at http://members.cox.net/minoten/ although the group buy is closed. It would do 1080p without a problem.

Either of those will do HD.

Posted at 10:54 am on Dec 12th, 2005 by philip

Releaseing an advert like that onto torrent sites will only backfire, Hopwfully someone will make a copy of all the information on there and seed a REAL lumenlab torrent ;)

Posted at 1:19 pm on Dec 22nd, 2005 by Doggy

again the real value is in the forum not the manual.

Posted at 12:30 am on Dec 24th, 2005 by Brad O'Connor

why not buy a commercial projector and replace the bulb unit for a metal halide/halogen?

dont get me wrong i LOVE science projects.

Posted at 8:59 am on Dec 28th, 2005 by Jel

I concur,

The 20 dollars for the forum access is WELL worth it. Those free places and forums you find on google are full of people who don’t always know what they’re talking about. At lumenlab everyone who’s registered most probably will or has already built the projector – and the knowledge and advice you get from other members is absolutely excellent.

Posted at 4:43 pm on Dec 29th, 2005 by adrian

i posted this on digg.com check it out!

Posted at 4:53 pm on Jan 23rd, 2006 by kman

here’s the url:

http://digg.com/mods/A_New_Underground_Community

diggh the story, I’d like to make front page!

Posted at 4:55 pm on Jan 23rd, 2006 by kman

no problem man, hope you make it

Posted at 4:56 pm on Jan 23rd, 2006 by whacko

I built simplified version of this with an overhead projector and a 15″ LCD monitor, results were awesome and total cost is about $200. Lumenlab is a very nice design, and their forum is well worth the 19.99 they are asking. This is one project everyone should build, you will get hooked on having a 10.5′ x 10′5′ screen.

Posted at 12:39 pm on Jan 24th, 2006 by aname

I paid the 20 bucks for it also, and I only read it once, the general idea, of paying the $20 is NOT for the plans, it’s to access the lumenlabs premium forums, in which I believe, is absolutely 100% priceless..
Your wasting your time downloading the torrent for the plans, and stop whinging about the cost..
the premium access to the forums will give you access to VERY well knowledged diy projector builders who have been doing this for a LONG time.. WELL WELL WELL worth the $20
(oh and no i don’t work for lumenlab, I just an enlightened customer)

Posted at 8:35 am on Feb 3rd, 2006 by Fritz

It amazes me how some of you whine about 20 bucks for a premium forum. The information on lumenlab site is worth thousands. Look at the cost of just one school course in comparison. Those that gripe about stuff like that are the kind that if you give them free money they would fuss about not having somehting to carry it in.

Posted at 11:23 pm on Mar 5th, 2006 by nomad705

hey, lumenlab is totally free now…..

http://www.lumenlab.com

Posted at 9:00 am on Jun 12th, 2006 by Mikyd1954