How to make a projector for your iPod/iPhone for about a $1

This is a fun easy project that anyone can make in about 15-20 minutes. The whole project only cost me a dollar and works good enough that I can enjoy an entire movie on it. The way it works is the light from your phone or iPod goes through the magnifying glass and magnifies onto the wall. The whole project is very easy to make and easy to understand.

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Step 1: Supplies

You will need a few household items to make your projector. Any supplies that you don’t have you can buy for very cheap. I completed the entire project for a dollar and the cheapest iPod/iPhone projector I could find online cost $90. For this project you will need:
•A shoe box
•A knife
•Duct tape
•A magnifying glass (this was the only thing I had to buy and it only cost a
•A marker
•LEGOs
•Hot glue gun

Step 2: Prepare the Box

The first thing that you are going to do is cover any holes in your box to prevent any light from leaving your box or entering  by doing this you will increase the quality of your projector. Cover all the holes on the outside of the box with duct tape then cover them on the inside so none of the sticky tape is exposed. Cover up all the sides so no light seeps out.

Step 3:

We are using a magnifying glass as a lens any size will work for this. Start by finding the center of the box and marking it. Next put your magnifying glass on the box and carefully trace around it with your marker. After you have a cleanly drawn circle get out your knife. The best kind of knife for this would be an X-Acto knife but since I didn’t have one I just used a sharp pocket knife with a very sharp tip. Any knife will do but one with a sharp tip is ideal. Slowly cut out the circle you just drew on the box be careful so that the edges are cleanly cut for the best results. After you cut the circle cut some holes in the back for speakers and a charging cord so you don’t run out of batteries while using your projector. I covered up any rough edges on my lens hole with duct tape and that worked great. Now line up the magnifying glass and push it in the hole then glue it on. I put the lens to mine a little above the box and used a Lego to hold it up while I was gluing it so it would be stable. If your magnifying glass has a handle tape it to the inside of the box with your duct tape.

Step 4:

Line up your iPod/iPhone with the magnifying glass and mark it then draw some straight lines with a ruler so you know where to put the iPod/iPhone whenever you use it.

Step 5: Build a Stand for Your iPod/iPhone

You want your iPod/iPhone to be as vertical as possible. So we will make a stand out of LEGOs if you don’t have any LEGOs you can use play dough and stick it to the box and rest your iPod/iPhone against it. To make the stand out of LEGOs take a platform (the one I used is 6x6) and stick a LEGO that is one high and one wide and long enough to go across the platform. Next figure out how much space your phone or iPod needs and place a 2 wide Lego behind it stack the LEGOs high enough to give the iPod/iPhone support. That’s it for the stand.

Step 6: Use it!

To use the projector place your iPod/iPhone in the box and in the stand. If you haven’t already opened the picture/video you want to use the projector for open it now. Line it up with the magnifying glass so that the light shines through.You have to place the iPod/iPhone upside down, if you don't the picture will be projected upside down.  Turn the lights off and so you can see the screen better adjust the iPod/iPhone until you can get a clear picture. You might want to mark that spot so the next time you use it you don’t have to adjust so much.
Tips:
• If the screen appears dim turn the brightness to the highest setting on your iPod/iPhone.
• If it still appears dim try going into a room with no windows and turn the lights off so it is completely dark.
• To get a bigger picture move the projector further away from whatever it is projecting on.
• To improve the quality project your image onto a white wall or projector screen so it will show up better if you don’t have either then you can easily make one by taping white paper to a cardboard box.
• If the screen is projected upside down turn the iPod/iPhone upside down in the box.

Thanks for viewing!

Comments

[zleduke]

Toss is awesome, thanks

[Thebuilderdd]

Mine mirrored itself. HELP?

[VirtualBoxer]

All of them do. Play with some mirrors until it's right.

[runcio]

And where is screenshot from your wall with movie image!?

[Usman55]

Hello guys, I'm new here. Just wanted to ask, I just bought a Magnifying glass from a local retailer called Al-Rawnaq. It says something like LUPA 50mm on the package. Will it work? And also will this whole project idea work with the mobile N95 8GB instead of iPhone or iPod? Thanks in advance!

[MattBothell]

I am not sure about the magnifying glass but its worth a shot. and yes the N95 will work but you will have to make sure it doesnt rotate when you place it upside down in the stand

[Usman55]

Hey Matt, I tried it and the picture quality is really dumb. Just some big dark colour blobs appear. I think the glass is not good enough. I also the the rotate error you're talking about (FLIPPED IMAGE).

[MattBothell]

The if you can focus it right you should be able to see a lot better than blobs. And I still haven't figured out the mirror image problem yet but i am working on it.

[Usman55]

Focus? How?

[joshbot123]

move it around picture quality should get better. im answering questions because im his little brother

[Usman55]

Tried again... Nothing's getting any better. I went in a room with no light source at all but the pic quality is not good at all. I can't even recognize any faces. Also, the picture is very dark.

[hhmm89]

I had the same problem, but i followed the lines that i made using my phone and cut out the back of the shoe box accordingly. The problem is that the shoe box isn't long enough, so you need to cut out the back and move your phone further back.

[joshbot123]

you never know if it is the magnifying glass wont work

[ljokerman88]

This worked awesomely for me! Even with a crappy lens, I was able to get a clear image. You can make the projected image really big if you move the phone closer to the lens, but with the amount of light the phone's screen generates (iphone), the image is too dim to see well. I really love this project, I finally understand how projectors work!

[Thebuilderdd]

How to get good audio: Step 1. Turn on Bluetooth on both your PC and iPhone. Step 2: Use the iPod's PC Bluetooth Speaker feature to connect it wirelessly. Step 3: Hide the PC, and enjoy the show with non muffled audio!

[Thebuilderdd]

I'd think Binder Clips would work, too.

[nilimili]

I tried using 2 different glasses together with slightly different curvatures and the contrast was much better when compared to single lens.

I tried it just by holding lenses before the phone and increasing the brightness of the phone to max! If you use a video player that allows you to increase the phone brightness beyond the 100% (like QQplayer for android) one can achieve even more brightness than 100% while watching the video. It works perfect!

Pretty good images with low light and at extra large magnification.....
Thanks for the idea pal I loved it and will make a box!!

[dragonsniper]

hey is there an app like that for the iphone???

[joshbot123]

Thanks for the comment I have two lens for the projector now but I haven't found a way to get better quality it just gets more blurry.

[VirtualBoxer]

You'll need to go the other way. I think this is for the same reason as that you will see worse if you wear glasses when you don't need them.

[Zach4997]

This is so freaking cool.
I can now watch stuff at night without a TV. IN MY ROOM! :D

[Hippymike96]

Idea! underneath the ipod/ iphone stand cut a small hole for a power cord, because my ipod will run out of power quickly.

[joshbot123]

thanks ill tell my brother, the one who made this, about the idea thats been quite a problem for us

[Hippymike96]

The only issue might be that it will let light in and make the image less clear so put black electrical tape around the outside of the cord.

[blankczech]

Cool! If anything this would be cheap fun for the kids. We used to do this in reverse when I was a kid! We get a big box, but it in front of the tv punch a very small hole in the side of the box. Then we would sit inside the box and the image from the TV would be projected on the other side of the box. If I recall, upside down no less. Don't ask me why we didn't just watch the TV. Everything was experimental back then!

[joshbot123]

thats so funny

[mpist]

um, can you post pictures of what the projected image looks like?

[joshbot123]

just make one and see it for yourself, but scientifically alderin is correct

[Alderin]

Pictures would be pretty hard to do because of the dim results. Remember that this doesn't have a halogen projector bulb driving it, just the little low-wattage battery-friendly backlight. While human eyesight can adjust to a darkened room enough that this projector would be fine (and I'm quite tempted to build one this week!), most cameras would scream for more light and/or activate the flash that would wash out the projection and show you a wall.

Long story short: build it and see. The darker the room the better, but that is true of nearly any projection display.

[cgarcia22]

What about a video? :)

[yardleydobon]

All he'd have to do is project a static image, turn off the flash, and take a long exposure.

[akivaran]

Agreed, would just like to see what to expect.

[araczynski]

if you have to ask, you don't wanna know :)

[Whackmaster]

Technical specs:

Resolution: A whole lot worse than before, you'll long for the days of QVGA.

Sharpness: LOL. Not very likely.

Brightness: 10000 lumens. Oh, wait, sorry... MICROlumens. In a locked broom closet at midnight. I'm not even exaggerating. Grab a light meter and measure it yourself. Beware the inverse square law.

Cute concept, but astoundingly close to practically useless. At least a couple kids will have learned something about optics from this. For that alone, and the "extremely affordable" nature of the experiment, I still give it 3 stars.

[joshbot123]

well maybe for you but i live with the maker of this and it works great and try to be nicer please hes my brother

[RoddyTheGreat]

Simmer down kid, what did you expect when you clicked on the instructable named '$1 smartphone projector'? A high end cinema projector? So when you comment next, make sure you delete it straight away unless you have something positive to say.

5* 'ible

[vincent7520]

Oh yes definitely 5 stars … for its resourcefulness, price and fun to do with the kids !…

[Kinnishian]

How much worse is the resolution going to be than the phone's original screen? Iphones, for example, are probably 2-3x higher pixel density than they need to be. Pixel density will go down, of course, but I'm not sure why the resolution would have to go down.

[scotth61]

Why so negative? I'm not a kid, but I still enjoyed reading this. Kudos to the author for taking the time to create the instructable, instead of complaining about someone elses. :-)

[MattBothell]

Ok pal go make me a projector that will give you a brilliant image with great brightness and brilliant resolution for a dollar. Besides this instructable wasnt made for some trying to start a movie theater it supposed to be a fun project not some amazing high quality projector.