DIY Projector on the Cheap

Step 4 Finished!

Sorry about the poor quality of the picture, but I had to take this with my mobile phone. There is some light spill-off from the projector itself, I later ended up covering the sides with a black plastic bag temporarily (it needs some vertical give to adjust the focus).

EDIT:
I have just finished creating a bellows that serves as a wonderful variable height enclosure and keeps the light spill-off to a minimum. See step 3.

Overall, the project was pretty simple, and it works great! I'm going to be making a rear projection screen for it, which I'll post a separate instructable for as soon as I finish.

Comments

[nightgamer360]

I used a fresnel lense, cardboard box and mirror for the tv projector at the time, i found a nice 32 inch tv abandoned on the sidewalk so it made it unessesary to use lol. it also helped to direct and focus the light from the mirror to the projection screen using cardboard rather than having the light projected off the mirror spread out.

[nightgamer360]

As i havent seen it done, I'm wondering if making a double projector and merging the image (focusing the two images on top of eachother
on the projection screen using two projectors projecting the same image simultaneously, using a splitter for the videocord projecting the same image) will improve picture brightness/quality. just a thought. probably going to try that myself when i get money.
Also i've tried with a cheapo tv and gotten murky semi watchable images, it helps the picture brightness to have the room completely light tight , even if its dark out (starlight/moonlight/streetlights will cause problems because the picture is faint) cover windows
with a blanket, cover all led's in the room.

[delaneypratt]

Won't the picture be reversed?

[st00pit]

hey, built one of these following your's (total hassle with the monitor i chose lol thin plastic ribbon cables that are all just ALMOST long enough to be out of the way) anyways, was wondering if just cutting a square in like a thick black beach towel and draping over/taping it on the rising lens would work all the same as the bellow? not too great with those instructions

[sandworm]

No kidding about the monitor, it took me forever to figure out all those cables :) The beach towel seems like a good idea, but it IS a lot of light, it might come out of the sides... Also if the towel collapses inward, it might block some of the image, but there's no way to know until you try!

[uberdum05]

Use cardboard formed around it in a 4-sided pyramid shape :)

[thorn11166]

about how big does the screen get?

[squiggy2]

According to photonics, the image can be as large as you want it.
The further you move the projector away from the wall, the larger the image will be. So if you have a really long room, you canmake the image huge!
The only limitation is the power of the light in the projector compared to the ambient light.
Therefore, the darker the room, the further back you can move the projector and the larger the image you can have.
With a pitch black room, the image can be pretty darn big.

[albro]

its a nice work! the bellow idea was nice and unique.
Albro -india keep going

[bass8casey]

cool, what age are u??

[sandworm]

Me? I'm 29.

[sandworm]

Correction: 30 :)

[spooky1300]

you said you are in Taiwan? which City?

[sandworm]

I spent the last 8 years in running a design firm in Taichung, but now I am a game designer in Jakarta! I'm super stoked about my new job :)

[bijikenyot]

Jakarta? well ,what i can say welcome to jakarta ,crowd city, although i live in west jakarta too ..... :D
are u happy and comfortable live in jakarta for a temporary?

[lightofra]

Didn't you have to get a converter to use your Wii with it?

[sandworm]

Yeah I did, but it was worth it because I got one that supports HDTV with component cables, so it was really high quality. Aw, I miss that thing. Had to give it up with I left Taiwan.

[bobulator]

Try watching LOTR, awesome.

[sandworm]

Absolutely :)