My 15" diy projector

Second bunch

2005-10-09T15:40:00.000+03:00

I've been busy planning the project today. I ordered the Lumenlab guide and got full forum access. I payed by credit card and I was browsing the forums and reding the .pdf guide in five minutes. The instructions are very well written and there is loads of information, schematics and images, it's totally worth the 20 bucks, I recommend investing in this if youre serious about building your own projector. You also get acces to a private projector wiki (an information data base) and ofcourse the private lumenlab forums.

Izzotek.com has renewed their site, the stocks are now updated in real time and they have a proper shopping cart and order procedure. I ordered thes rest of my gear today and payed by Paypal after receiving confirmation of my order. I got the 400w HQI light kit, condeser, reflector, optical mirror, big fresnel, varifocal 310x360, piece of heat resistant glass (borosilicate) and a few electric bits.

Stocking Gear

2005-10-07T13:47:00.000+03:00

I bought two 120mm Glacialtech SilentBlade fans, this babies are huge and they move a hefty 37CFM of air around while running at a quiet 19dB! They ought to keep my box cool enough. I also ordered a 2x3m screen fabric and 15" uv filter from proyectorbarato.com (spanish for cheap projector), email replies were quick, I recommend shopping with them. I plan to get the rest of my equipment from Izzotek.com, just as long as the lens I want comes into stock (310x360 varitriplet).

FFC Extension

2005-09-19T01:31:00.000+03:00

This is a tough one. Altough I have some experience from electronics and soldering from installing psx mods, making a portable boombox and some simple high school projects I had a hard time with this. The Lumenlab kit comes with a flat cable and small connector, the extension cable is a lot thicker than the original so some improvisation is required! Since the extender is thicker it stays quite well or the board even without the securing clamp, but squeezing both cables into the connector was a tough cookie. I had read about most people messing up their lcd by breaking someting in this phase so I was extra cautious. I lost my nerve many times, cursed the tiny & flimsy connectors that are clumsy to handle and difficult to see cos theyre so small. After connecting and starting up the screen a few times only to get a blank screen or weird errorlines I was sure I'd broken the lcd. But then i managed to squeeze the ends of both cables into the connector and when starting the screen it gave a perfect image, hooray! I clamped the cables together with two strips of metal bound together with screws, I also used a hot glue gun to fasten the extension onto the circuit board.
Clamp & Socket
General Image
Lcd electronics, backlight removed
Extension glued to circuit board

LCD stripped & FCC extended!

2005-09-19T01:13:00.000+03:00

This was the accomplishment, which made me want to start the new blog. After taking the lcd-screen apart, I managed to extend the FCC cable with an extension bought from Lumenlab and get the lcd running fine. This was a crucial point, now I can really start planning and ordering parts since the scetchiest problem in building a DIY projector has been tackled! I was stoked watching the lcd play Ghost Dog and using a table lamp to illuminate it.

Shining a light under the lcd
Closer..

It begins (once more)!

2005-09-19T00:49:00.000+03:00

After managing to lose my login details for my original weblog, http://www.yadp.blogspot.com/ I have started a new blog inspired by progress on my projector! Im starting the design from scratch, so disregard the specs listed in the old blog. Between these blogs I have moved away from home, to my own appartment, yay! I intend to incoporate the projector to the loft in my appartment, which would make the projection distance about 4 meters. With a 400mm lens i could get an image which is ~270 X 205 cm (4:3) with a diagonal of 340 cm (134"), this would be simply huge!