Edit Article

In essence, a projector consists of an extremely bright light, a lens, and a disassembled desktop LCD display. But if you've got the drive (and the cash) to create your own from scratch, here's how to go about doing just that.

Ad

Steps

  1. 1
    Procure a Fresnel. This is a thin optical lens consisting of concentric rings of segmental lenses and having a short focal length, used primarily in spotlights, overhead projectors, and the headlights of motor vehicles.
    Ad
  2. 2
    Find a projection lens. The projection lens is simply a magnifying lens in that it takes the projected image and magnifies it onto the projection screen.
  3. 3
    Control the flow of light through the projector. If you were to measure the distance from the lens to the point of light your magnifier focused, you would have the focal length of your lens, measured in millimeters.
  4. 4
    Place the collimating Fresnel in front of our point light source we get a nice parallel (collimated) distribution of the light. This evens the light across the entire surface of the fresnel which ideally is the same size or slightly larger than our LCD panel.
    • LCD panels work best when the light moving through them is perfectly straight, or collimated. We can achieve this by placing our Fresnel collector in front of the LCD panel allowing the collimating lens to work alone behind the panel.
  5. 5
    Place the lamp arc at the focal point of the spherical reflector to reflect the light back through the arc. The focal point of a sphere is its center. If the lamp arc is moved toward the focal surface the light will become collimated and would require additional optics to use in our projector.
    • The heart of the 15” projector is the TFT LCD panel. The LCD panel is translucent, which is how we can shine a light through it and project the image created on the panel.
    Ad

We could really use your help!

Can you tell us about
real estate?
Can you help us
rate articles?
Yes
No
real estate
how to increase the value of your home
how to increase the value of your home
Can you tell us about
music production?
Yes
No
music production
how to remove vocals from songs
how to remove vocals from songs
Can you tell us about
car seat upholstery?
Yes
No
car seat upholstery
how to upholster a car seat
how to upholster a car seat
Can you tell us about
relationships?
Yes
No
relationships
how to stay in love
how to stay in love
Thanks for helping! Please tell us everything you know about
...
Tell us everything you know here. Remember, more detail is better.
Tips
Provide Details.
Please be as detailed as possible in your explanation. Don't worry about formatting! We'll take care of it. For example:
Don't say: Eat more fats.
Do say: Add fats with some nutritional value to the foods you already eat. Try olive oil, butter, avocado, and mayonnaise.
Submit

Tips

  • The focal length of your projection lens is important to the construction of the projector, and should be matched to your collector Fresnel Lens.
  • Focal length is defined as the distance from the lens to a point where parallel rays are focused to a point (diverge), traditionally measured in millimeters (mm).
  • The Fresnel lens is a nearly perfect lens for bending raw light; it is cheap and it is large, a comparable spherical glass lens would cost a fortune.

Sources and Citations

Article Info

Categories: Presentations

Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 9,753 times.

Did this article help you?
Yes No

Become
an Author!

Write an Article