Do It Yourself Lcd Projector

diy lcd projector

do your friends really want to watch the game on that puny tv of yours?  wouldn’t they rather spend the afternoon helping you make a 6 foot xga projection system?  i figured so, and so did sine~language, who sent us this link last night to a tom’s hardware article on building a sweet video system out of an lcd monitor and an overhead projector.

more recently, tom’s posted a follow-up with recommendations on flat panel monitors to use for such a project.  also worth checking out is an alternative lcd projector design we talked about earlier.

these projectors seemed really large to me at first glance, but they take up much less space than a normal 32 inch tube.  that, and you can’t easily roll a tv of reasonable size into a closet and reclaim your room.  i guess you know what i’ll be doing instead of watching the super bowl.

37 thoughts on “Do It Yourself Lcd Projector

  1. If that ain’t the durndest thing!

    Wow that’s cool!
    I can see this project being duplicated alot!

    I can also see that one guy sitting on 18 old overhead projectors cranking up Ebay right about now…

    Well done!

  2. uh, nope, this isn’t a repost. the other article discusses a different design (and i mentioned it in this post btw). not that it isn’t worth checking out as well.

    the follow up on choosing an lcd monitor is also really worth reading if you want to do something similar.

    does anyone know, off-hand, if there are LEDs suitable for this application? it would be really nifty to make a quieter, cooler, more energy efficient projector.

  3. Apparently LEDs as a light source are practical:
    http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/displays/tiny-dlp-projectors-with-led-bulbs-029341.php
    I have an LCD display that’s transparent and was explicitly designed for this purpose. It works, now all I need is to find a cheap overhead projector.

    I have read some calculations about bulb cost that look unfavorable – overhead projector bulbs may last for 50 hours or less, so it may be expensive to run one of these.

  4. I think #12 goes around promoting his site on the forums and such. It’s pretty obvious by the way he speaks of the his website, and I’ve seen him before on forums that speak about DIY projectors. I have one of these Overhead projector systems, but I din’t bother taking apart an LCD monitor, I just bought a transparent LCD screen on ebay. I guess thats not really a hack or DIY, but it is still a cheap Projector.

  5. cde, i removed the spam post that used to be at #12. notthisguy was dead on — those spam comments have been popping up all over the place.

    not really appreciating the unnecessary ‘meatbag’ comments, btw. you’ve got a lot to say, so get busy hacking and help keep the comments useful and positive here.

  6. i wonder if anyone has tried using on of those 500w shop lights
    that are like 8 bucks at home depot there really bright about 8500 lumens to my best calucations and really cheap they even come with a second bulb and a uv filter would need a cooling system as these get very hot

  7. I don’t appreciate the mods here removing my comments. I am not affiliated with lumenlab, and am not here to promote anything. The only reason I have even posted here at all was to tell everyone what I found. If you can’t even allow someone to tell you a better way to do things, then forget this. This is absurd and insane. i am not a spammer. i am a person that has been seeing this site for a long time, and have it set as my homepage, but if you are too stupid to know what spam is and what is not, then forget this place. I will still be here watching this place because i love the stuff on your front page, but get real.

  8. another thing. if you are going to remove my comments, then get rid of that guy’s that recommended diyaudio too. if my comments were not acceptable, then his certainly are not either. Needless to say I am really steamed to come back today and see this happen.

  9. This works well as long as you have a good wall. University of Michigan had a very successful driving simulator with this arrangement for years (link below, Legacy Simulator). It was easy to maintain and a lot cheaper than the other options at the time. The square in the middle of the screen was a glued on patch that had been sprayed with photo matte to kill off the bulb hotspot (as seen from the driver’s seat).

    http://www.umich.edu/~driving/sim.html

  10. Gonna have to vouch for this-is-me as he isn’t the owner or a marketer for Lumenlab.com.

    He’s just giving a friendly heads up on a simple but superior DIY projector design (especially compared to Tom’s method). Their private forums are highly organized and active. Piece of cake finding a solution to problems there.

    Don’t let the $20 membership fee deter you, It pays itself back in spades when issues arise. You also save money by buying the correct products the first time, (Many have purchased the wrong optics, lcds & electronics when first starting out btw).

    just my 3c

  11. first off anyone who has built a lumenlab projector would know it blows a OHP out of the water….also if you advertise for diyaudio thats ok cause it is sponsored by lumenlab anyways…I dont work for Lumenlab just this is too good to miss out on

  12. My 57 inch Big-Screen!

    A place that I used to work was an industrial complex that had a few buildings surrounded by a fence, it also had dumpsters. Dumpster diving was an everyday adventure during break-time. One day I noticed 5 overhead projectors, cool. A few weeks later the best find so far, a cardboard box with a ViewFrameTFT inside, still new looking with cables and the remote. I guess it was tossed because someone couldn’t get it to work. The reason for this was that the remote slid into a pocket and didn’t look like a remote. Reason for not working was that the batteries in the remote leaked, easy fix, and all for free.

    Connect the ViewFrame to the computer, place the ViewFrame on the overhaed and switch on power.

    Insert favorite DVD or some downloaded .avi movie and sit back and enjoy.

    Remember :) Dumpsters are your friends.

  13. My 57 inch Big-Screen!

    A place that I used to work was an industrial complex that had a few buildings surrounded by a fence, it also had dumpsters. Dumpster diving was an everyday adventure during break-time. One day I noticed 5 overhead projectors, cool. A few weeks later the best find so far, a cardboard box with a ViewFrameTFT inside, still new looking with cables and the remote. I guess it was tossed because someone couldn’t get it to work. The reason for this was that the remote slid into a pocket and didn’t look like a remote. Reason for not working was that the batteries in the remote leaked, easy fix, and all for free.

    Connect the ViewFrame to the computer, place the ViewFrame on the overhaed and switch on power.

    Insert favorite DVD or some downloaded .avi movie and sit back and enjoy.

    Remember :) Dumpsters are your friends.

  14. YES I WANTED TO KNOW IF THERES A WAY TO HOOK UP MY LAPTOP SCREEN FOR VIDEO OUT PUT FOR XBOX,PS2,DVD,TV I HAVE 2 SCREENS I TOOK APART FROM THE 4 YEAR OLD LAPTOPS ANY HELP APPRECIATED

  15. I know a girl who’s job it is to go into internet message boards and chat rooms and poses as a teenie boper. She then makes friends and starts conversations for the sole purpose of marketing to them. She’s like “omg, lol, I found this really cool thing…”. When hackers do it to get info for a hacking job it is called social engineering.

    Republicans are using similar tactics to get cantidates elected. Simply vile.

  16. Actually machs_fuel you couldn’t be more wrong, the $20 is more then worth it. I defy you to find a place with more info on DIY projectors then the protected forums at lumenlab (which is what you are mainly paying for). There simply is no better place to learn how to build projectors then lumenlab, any DIY projector builder who knows what they’re talking about will tell you this.

  17. DIYS Enthusiasts ! COLLAPSIBLE PORTABLE AND CHEAP CRT PROJECTOR
    This is a Real Handy CRT projector or TV projector and can be called Dark Room Projector which was devised by me combining different techniques available. It saves alot of energy by avoiding high wattage lights and even making us to switch off the light in room !.

    Any way the outcome of bright LEDs will be a cheap day light projector too just like the one Palm top projector by Thoshiba!

    In my(DIYS) projector a 10″ dia large round Fresnel projection lens(or twin lenses) makes use of the whole light of the TV in to large screen theatre.

    Very handy and portable because the BOX is light weight collapsible bellow with collapsible link.

    You have to use Silver screen (painted or sheet) with high GIAIN for better Picture Capture on the screen.

    It will be fabricated as per requirement such as TV size which is very important. Or i can supply lenses and design Know How free. Seeing the attached illustrative pictures you can fabricate one of your own. If not Mail me at dhpmet@yahoo.co.in for development stage pictures

  18. DIYS LCD PROJECTOR! OR TV PROJECTOR !ASSEMBLE YOUR OWN LCD PROJECTOR IN INDIA HOME MADE LCD PROJECTOR COMPONENTS IN INDIA is made available now in INDIA. LENSES, LCDS,TUNER CARDS, METAL HALIDE LAMPS AND KNOW-HOW !!! CONDENSER LENSES ,MINISCUS LENSES,THREE ELEMENT TRIPLET PROJECTION LENSES AND FRESNEL LENSES Contact dhpmet@yahoo.co.in, dhpmet@gmail.com mobile: 09994288723 links:
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