do-it-yourself-projector

to enlarge pictures, click on the preview-Thumbnails below!

All photos shown here, were obtained with a commercial, standard TFT display. The light source used for projection is a standard transmissive Overhad projector, everyone of you knows from school. Instead of flip-frames, the modificated TFT/LCD displays are used as transmissive display, mounted e.g. on top of the overhead projector. All shown picture-results are reached with standard Overhead-Projectors (transmissive variant, not portable briefcase Projectors with light source in the head of projector).

Those recommended OHP-Projectors are really easy and cheap to get. As well as the standard TFT-Displays An other plus of this solution: You can realize your projector in a short period of time successfully with high picture-quality (depending on chosen variant, building time lasts from about 1 hour up to about 2 days).I recommend cheap OHP-projectors starting at 4.000 lumens for appropriate brightness and contrast in non-completely darkened rooms)

Not least because of the good picture quality and the simple and  very cheap standard-components (overhead-projector and standard TFT-Display), I exclusively describe variants based upon this idea (resuming other variants with smaller projector-housing are mentioned, too and can be studied from given information-sources (refer to included links on external sources), if necessary).

Note: The documentation with additional material such as explaining video-clips and more Photos, can also be purchased alternatively on CD (no additional costs for CD-Version). The printed version doesn't include those additional features.

The two pictures above show variant 2 - with a projector-housing and a the desktop-TFT mounted on top. The Overhead projector and the TFT display including electronics are now integrated in a wooden roll- container. The other variants (Panel-variant and the latest version with mini-TFT) don't need such a housing. But it makes the setup more "living room-suited" and mobile (if not always needed, just make it disappear by moving/hiding it).

The ventilation of the whole setup was provided by a commercial 30 cm ventilation desk fan (not illustrated, but non modified standard-model), which cools the display from the side. Against the wide-spread opinion of a loud cooling-solution - in the opposite: this was a very quiet solution (reason: low number of revolutions/rotations  is needed because of the good cooling -characteristics of the big propeller). Alternative ventilation solutions with much smaller PC exhausts etc. are likewise possible. At present, for example I developed a very compact cooling solution with a very quiet, compact and effective tangential-fan. It seems to be the so far the best cooling-solution without compromise.

For the second of the described variants to built your diy-projector, a deflecting mirror (format 40 x 30 cm) above and opposite the Overhead (here not in the picture) serves to project the picture side-correct (caused by specifications of this single variant. See 2nd line/column, left picture in the thumbnails shown on top of this site). This doesn't concern the other described variants in the document.

By the way: Those of you using a pc-based picture-source with Nvidia graphics accelerator card (like the Gainward FX 5600 Ultra) don't need deflecting mirrors. In this case, the software-drivers itself can can guarantee horizontal realtime software picture mirroring.
For the two other described variants neither a deflecting mirror nor software is needed.

Illustration: Here, you can see a tangential fan, mounted besides the TFT. It is cooling the display only from above, which proved to be absolutely enough. Display stays handwarm. Such a fan provides small measurements combined with low noise and high cooling efficiency. Now, my used ventilation fan from the initial testing phase became redundantly.

Want to learn more about the different DIY Projector building variants? More than 30 different ways how to built your own projector were included. Starting from simple VGA, SVGA self-made Projector variants up to 1080p resolution variants, different Methods for all needs are included on this CD-ROM. Even high quality native HDTV variants up to 1080p Full High Definition Resolution and even 4K can be realized, nowadays.

This CD ROM (out of stock and no re-issue scheduled) was useable with PC's or Mac Computers with installed Internet Browser and Adobe Acrobat Reader (all available for free). Purchaseing this CD-ROM is not possible, any morm since it is sold-out.

Not convinced about DIY Projectors, yet? Then have a look at my recently utilized, but nowadays inactive ebay account,  to see all the former positive customer feedback, I received from my customers in the past for my CD-ROM Guideline/documentation. I have gained customers all over the world (USA, Canada, Island, New-Zealand, Australia, Austria, France, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Turkey, Poland, Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia, Andorra, Luxemburg, Thailand, Russia etc.. Many of them hve already succeeded to build a selfmade projector the way I did before, too.

Former Purchasing price / shipment costs:
Total amount for this CD-ROM inclusive shipment via Airmail within the EEC was 27,- EUR (worldwide 28,- EUR shipment). The CD-ROM included a detailed 68-pages guideline with lots of additional stuff, how to built yourself such a very cheap and high quality Video Projector back in 2005. More than 200 step by step pictures and Video-clips for detailed explanation were also included. New self-made Projector Variants and new actual content were provided online for free from time to time for former interested customers of my guideline.