Make your own Home Theater Projector

Projection TV Instructions

These plans are very simple! Results may vary by types of materials you use. Works on TVs or monitors.



Materials

These are the things you will need to make your 100" projection TV!

Magnifying glass- Please note if it has a bifocal lens it will not work!!

Sturdy cardboard (or fiberboard).

Duct tape

Black paint or paper

3 pencils

Small mirror (about 3"x3")(optional, you don't really need this).

Four small washers that fit snug around the pencils.



Step1> Measure your screen (vertical and horizontal).



Step2> Cut the side pieces (A and B) for your projector. (Using your measurements from step 1.) Again use 35" for length. This allows the room to adjust the focus. Be sure to cut as straight as possible!



Step 3> Cut the top and bottom pieces (C and D.) (Using your measurements from step 1). Again use 35" for length.



Step 4> Cut out your slider (E). This piece will be the one that slides in and out of your projector! This allows for the focussing. Use your screen measurement from step 2 & 3. Then, find the center, mark it with your pencil!



Step 5> Remove the glass lens form your magnifying glass. Set it exactly on the cent or your slider. Trace around it, and cut our the circle very carefully. Lens must fit snugly in the hole!



Step 6> Now you have all your pieces cut. Now you either paint all pieces black, or cover with black construction paper. If painting, use more than one coat!



Step 7> Now start to assemble your projector. Place pieces A,B,C, & D together and tape them together using your duct tape. Tape both sides so you don't get any light showing through.



Step 8> Now connect the two side together using duct tape. Do this carefully, and now you should have a rectangular box!



Step >9 Insert your glass lens into the hole you cut inb the slider. THIS MUST FIT TIGHTLY. It must be flush with slider. This is a little tricky, but is not impossible!



Step >10 Take to unsharpened pencils and poke them through your slider (E) about one inch from the sides, not the top and bottom. Then put a washer on each end if the pencils. Use some tape if necessary to ensure pencils do not slide in and out! Only push a LITTLE of the pencil through, just enough to secure them. The pencils allow you to push pull the slider in and out to adjust your focus. If pencils interfere with your picture, pull them out after you have focussed your projector and put tape over the holes!



Step 11> Place your slider about halfway in the box. Your slider must fit squarely inside the box!



Step 12> Turn your TV or monitor upside down and carefully attach your projector. Use tape or any other way you desire! Should fit tightly and no light should shine through the box.



Step 13> Turn your TV or monitor on and adjust your slider to focus your picture. This may take a while. The further away from the wall, the larger your picture will be! The darker the room, the clearer your picture will be.



Step 14> If your image is reversed, place a mirror at a 45 degree angle in front of the lens. You may have to turn the screen in its back. Same principle used in school overhead projectors.



Step 15> After the projector is setup and focussed, cut the remaining front pieces away. This allows for better viewing.



Step 16> Have a fun with your new TV or Monitor!!!!

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Tips:

1.Make sure your lens's SMOOTH side is facing towards the SCREEN, the BUMPY side should be facing the TV!

2.If the edges or whole picture looks a little soft, and you are using the fresnel lens, you can fix this fairly easily. Put a piece of paper on top of your fesnel lens (on the bumpy side) and trace the biggest whole circle. Once you have done that cut out the circle so you should have a peice of paper with a big hole in the middle. Now trace that onto a black peice of cardboard the same size as your fresnel lens and cut out the circle on that. Now just line up the hole in cardboard with the biggest circle on the fresnel lens, and tape it on. Put it back into your projector and try it out. This will darken the picture a little bit but make it a lot sharper. This works because the $5 staples fresnel lenses are imperfect, so the outside edges of the lens kind of throw the light in weird places defracting the picture. So by utting out the stray light it will sharpen it. I read on another site after i did this, to make a square hole and to experiment with different sizes. I haven't tried it yet, but i'll post here how it works.

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1. Process the light spectrum: Use a fresnel lens

2. Enhance the brightness level: Turn the brightness level all the way up on your TV (works better with old tvs), make the room as dark as possible, make sure the box is completely black and sealed.

3. Focus the image: See 'slider card' in the plans

4. Make it crisper: Turn Sharpness on tv to sharpest setting, use a very dark room, and USE A PROFESSIONAL SCREEN.

5. More colorful: Turn color level up high normal level

6. Make it brighter: Once again, the fresnel lens, black box, dark room.

For pic tutorial:

Code:

http://www.gookalian.com/projector/gallery.html

and if you can build good one, maybe you can get result as this(same concept)

Code:

http://ultimatecinema.com/