steve cooley presents » lcd projector

it lives… and breathes

steve cooley — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 19:55:48 +0000

I’ve been working on my projector like crazy because of my upcoming Chabot show date. Here’s a photo of the first test firing with optics, but no LCD yet:

then here it is from last night with the major wiring completed with switches for fans and the bulb. This lets the projector run fans after the bulb is off… glad to get that taken care of… plus I got a cool looking lighted switch to boot.

I wish it were actually this bright.. that’s probably too long of an exposure to capture the brightness accurately.

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400 watt lightbulb

steve cooley — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 18:06:28 +0000

insert joke about getting an idea here…

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Ok, It’s on!

steve cooley — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 20:49:51 +0000

I’ve finally gotten out of my indecision cube and ordered a magnetic ballast, metal halide 400 watt bulb, a mogul base, fresnel lenses, and wiring. By hook or crook, I will have my projector. I’m fully anticipating that between the dozen overhead projectors I own, I should have the remaining optics I need…

Technorati Tags: diy, LCD, projector

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Campbell free outdoor movie

steve cooley — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 02:20:40 +0000

check it out, This is the free outdoor theatre set up in campbell, on the side of the coffee house building. Every week they play a new movie during the summer. This is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, next week is "Yellow Submarine", to which, I think we’re going to go. There must have been 200 people there!

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DIY Overhead Projector – take 3

steve cooley — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 19:52:47 +0000

Well, I’ve been real busy on the projector project. jono and I did one for him… learned a lot about 0.5mm pitch flat flex cable that time. I bought a couple of monitors. One didn’t work for this project, one did. Here’s the design I came up with for the CMV CT-529a 15″ LCD, stripped out for use over an overhead projector:

more angles here … This monitor was so great to work with, I’d recommend it if you’re going to do something similar. I got mine from Memory Labs in San Jose, and was able to pick it right up instead of waiting for shipment. Tell them Steve sent you if you buy one from them.

I was able to bandsaw out the on screen display (OSD) controls and slap them on the corner of the unit. I think the design is working pretty good. I may need to counterbalance the “glass end” as the “electronics end” is heavier and on certain projectors, I may not be able to orient the glass this way for the image to appear correctly. Also, heat doesn’t appear to be a problem on the projectors I’ve tested on, but I may need to figure out forced air ventilation… many things to think about.

Also, I’ve been prepping the extra 17 projectors I have for resale. They were filthy when i got them, so they require a good scrubbing to get the tape, stick on labels, packing slip pouches, saw dust, dirt, and general funk off of them. Some have damage from shipping, so, I’m trying to franken-fix the best ones from the parts I have. I’m learning a lot about front surface mirrors, balasts, optics, heat dissipation, lens throws, and doing a lot of fun problem-solving-fabriation.

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