Automotive Headlight Projector Mod V1.2

Step 6 Lights, Projector, ACTION!

Close the lid and fire up the power supply. I can get an eight to teen foot screen using this bulb. Add a medium to large stereo system in the front or back of the room for the perfect theater experience. Invite your friends and family to the Movies. Pop popcorn, have some drinks and turn on one of your favorites.

I chose this image to show how light and dark areas will show up with the projector mod. This image displays very well on screen, however is VERY hard to take with a digital camera.

If you like my projector mod please Digg it!

Please note: This project has been added to please check out my Halogen WORK LIGHT Projector Mod

Comments

[arnookie]

You can now buy led projector bulbs from ebay.
£36.49 + postage from here is the cheapest I found.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HD-LED-Projector-EXTRA-REPLACEMENT-SPARE-BULB-LAMP-/150591650632?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item230ff63b48

Copy and past that link and you can see for yourself.
I was going to do the same thing, ie buy a used projector with no bulb and make my own, But I decided to buy one of the cheap Abis projectors off ebay.
I was very supprised how good these cheap projectors are.
But be very carefull. I purchased the Abis HDpro for £200 and it has two hdmi inputs, component, composite input, vga and tv tuner input. It handles 720p fine and 1080p with compression 4.3 to 16.9 aspec ratio in all formats. Some other makes don't have all these features. It saved me a lot of hassle trying to make one work the way you have.

But if you are trying leds I would look at the cheap led projector bulbs off ebay.
Lamp Life: UP TO 50,000 hours Total Watts: 96watts (32 High powered LEDs fused onto a cell Plate) and upto 2,500 lumens.

[slimguy379]

HELP!!! S.O.S. well I got a Proxima ultralight ls1 off ebay for $50 but I am currently not able to watch anything because there is a led that appears if the appropriate is NOT in there (or not in at all) and then shuts off is there a bypass of this problem? the place needed to insert bulb is below

[Xypher Orion]

On my projector, I forget which model at the moment, Sanyo brand I believe, I was able to remove the ballast entirely and bridged a 3-wire cable that was plugged into the ballast (Just soldered all 3 together). I got lucky, as I'm none too great with a multimeter, but it effectively disabled the bulb detector.

On a more personal note I had made the mistake of trying to use an external power source in conjunction with the ballast without properly bridging them..luckily the projector had a 4A fuse in it. Of course I didn't find this out until AFTER I had tossed it in the trash and pulled it out again a few days later. I'm using a Sylvania 9007XV with both filaments and it hardly provides enough light to see the picture. I looked up the spec sheet:

http://www.sylvania.com/ConsumerProducts/AutomotiveLighting/HighPerformance/Xtravision/ProductLine/

Its trying to pull 12-13 amps, so when I get home today I'll be removing the low-beam lead. Hopefully this will improve the brightness for me! :)

Thanks for this project, and thanks to lumenlabs as well!

[Xypher Orion]

Apparently the PSU I'm using supposedly supports 20A on the +12v...perhaps the 9007XV just doesn't cut it? I can hardly see the menus at ~8 feet with all the lights in the room turned off, at night. Adjusting the bulb position succeeds in removing light spots on the screen, but other than that this seems to be a complete bust...

[Xypher Orion]

Going to try reversing the flow on the bulb and reattaching the the low beam.

[Xypher Orion]

Nope, still no dice. Its a little brighter, but not really watchable. Going to borrow a lux meter from work and see just how dim this sucker is.
Next attempt will involve over-volting! yay! 19.8v laptop PSU aught to do the trick...

[Xypher Orion]

Apparently I tossed the laptop PSU, so wasn't able to do any testing. I'm about out of ideas for this one while using a 12V PSU. I might have to get my hands on a fistful of high lumen LEDs and see if I can't build a breadboard with a decent amount of light from that. I've seen people with minimal successes with this build, so why not?! :)

[jssteinke]

I figured out how to trick the ls series. If you take the top cover off the  projector, and look at the top left side of the board near the small fan. There is a small 3 pin plug about 2 inches right and up to the edge. If you bridge the far right pin and the middle pin of that connector it tricks it.

[VIPER2475]

Xeniczone has about the best idea. You'll have to use a large resistor that can take some current! If you don't know how to approach this I would get some one with Electrical Engineering experience to help. Be careful! your dealing with high voltages, have a fire extinguisher handy. Also make sure your projector would work with a good bulb. Also if the projector was $50 how much is a real bulb? My projector cost like $300 and came operational, Bulbs can be obtained for ~$200. Perhaps their cheaper for your projector?

[slimguy379]

DUDE calm down its 120v if you have read ANY of my instructables you would realize I DO have engineering skills, but I don't know I think I'm going with the other idea (halogen) and those run on stock 120v -130v.

[VIPER2475]

Halogen does produce more heat. However if you have active cooling you'll be fine. My projector still runs a little cooler than with the stock bulb.

[slimguy379]

also my bulbs are $400 - 500 and like I said I paid $50 so I rather chuck it the spend that money (remember I'm only 16 and currently unemployed )

[xeniczone]

Still a good idea to keep a fire extinguisher handy. Like Viper2475 said. Because i have had a few resisters blow up on me and it's not pretty. Age has nothing to do with knowledge. Many people who are extremely smart in engineering are only teens. I'm only 17. Another problem with Halogens, other then they create more heat, they also tend to release a yellow light rather then a white light. There are other sources of light that would work better then Car Halogen Bulbs. I would try set of LEDs or Florescent. BTW, A car bulb probably needs more then a 100watt power supply aka old PC power supply. Though it seems to work for you but that is just my recommendation.

[slimguy379]

I will try to make a led panel (I have to run to Radio Shack soon) below are pictures of my MANY LEDs that I was stripping off the pcb to re- use also I can't get a straight answer as far as the resistor size because this site (http://www.dannyg.com/javascript/res2/resistor.htm) will calculate everything but the max volt is 32v instead of 120v (try it out you'll understand) but soon maybe I'll make a instructable on this idea!?!

[rumjar]

you could try something like this (cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll) they put out 3000 Lumens and run at 50 Watts. they still need some heat sinks but i reckon they would be a great idea. they also have smaller rating modules that may suit better. just ebay search it.

[xeniczone]

looks interesting but they will need to be clumped together more. Even overlapping in order to work. Now that I think about it the resistor would probably be a bad idea. After reading up on it the projector actually checks to see if the lamp strikes or not. If the lamp strikes it continues to run. If the lamp doesn't strike then the projector shuts down to protect itself. What you need to do is take your projector apart and find the return line from the High Voltage power supply. The return line will generally be small compared to the power cables. Once you find the return line ground it. and it will trick the projector into thinking that the bulb always strikes. See the problem with using a resistor or say a voltmeter like someone else said. Is that when you turn the projector on the lamp strikes. This striking isn't 120volts. It's probably something much higher then that. A guess is 20,000 volts.

[slimguy379]

if the volts used is near 20,00v why can I connect my halogen 150w and have it run? (btw the 1st picture is an OLD pcb, I'm NOT using!) also what would the "return line" look like?

[xeniczone]

It's only the striking volt. It's what is use to start the light to begin with. After the light is started it will continue to run at a lower voltage. It's like a match. Once you strike it you don't have to keep striking it to keep it alive. Couldn't be sure. Follow the Lamp's wires back to the high voltage power supply and tell me what wires come off it.

[xeniczone]

Have you tried putting a resistor in the place that the lamp used to connect to? This would put a load on the circuit and maybe trick the projector into thinking that it has a lamp in it.

[nicknewbie]

i am planning to do this with a Samsung dlp tv my ? is what wire(s) need shorted or modified to make the DMD run the tv properly i have the five wire ballast wire any help is appreciated

[rumjar]

does anyone know a way to mod the Infocus LP750?

[lordhash]

JUST CURIOUS MY PROJECTORS POWER SUPPLY IS STILL GOOD DO I STILL HAVE TO HAVE A DIFFERENT WAY TO POWER THE BULB?

[Derin]

Well,you could probably use the oem psu but if your bulb is stronger than the od one yes,you need one.

[xeniczone]

That may not work, depending on your projector as every one is different. The problem is Car Bulbs run on 12volt, while a projector bulb runs on around 52volts or something. So it wouldn't probably work.

[Derin]

one word:voltmeter

[valveman]

Great mod. I always thought you had to use a halide bulb and ballast $$ to get a good pic. Seems that's is not true. Thanks you :O)

[jdtegart]

Thank you thank you thank you I have been looking for a way to do this for some time I am building a DIy projector out of a 7' lcd dvd player and a comuter case to house it now I can scew in the old power base plus power the fans without the need of a 12 volt adapter! I am so happy!

[slimguy379]

check out my 7"er tutorial... hope it will help you on your handyman type quest