Hey Folks!

So glad to find this site!!! Hey I normally just write novels but I have an idea that I want to do, but I need your help. What I am doing is building a micro projector using the LCD screen from an old cell phone.

What I need to know is what on earth do i hook it up to, where can I get it and how do I get the whole thing to read images and video from a memory card, and how do I keep the whole thing very light.

This is a tough one, but I know I came to the right place to ask!

Thanks

Don

Author of OF ICE AND STEEL

 

Have you got a part number on the display? There is a modern tendency to have parts made for an application that don't have "real" part numbers. No data sheets turn up for them, so they can be hard to use outside the original appliance.

If you can establish the resolution, it might be possible to find a data sheet on another LCD display with about the same reso, and hope the connections & functions are pretty close.

You're gonna need a microcontroller to read your memory card data and run it out to the LCD display.

 

No Sir,I don't have a part number. Could you suggest a part and whatever else I might nweed. I looked at some LCD on SPARKFUN, but once again I have an idea of what to do,,but the idea is about all I know. Your help would be invaluable.

Thanks

Don

How light do you think Ican make this little jewel?

 

Well, I poked around a bit online, and found this site - http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=569. I think it probably has all the information you might need to run an LCD display.

 

Hi Torpedochief,

How large of an image were you hoping to project from this thing?

You would need a REALLY bright, cool (temperature-wise) and highly focused light source to project more than around triple the screen's size - that is, if you were planning on using the LCD screen as a light valve - and if you were going to use the LCD screen that's on the linked-to sparkfun site, you'd also have to somehow remove the existing LED backlight without destroying the LCD screen.

There are some pretty high-intensity and directional LEDs around nowadays, but they're power hungry, and generate heat, too - not nearly as much as incandescent bulbs though.

It would be a real challenge to get even a halfway decent image projected from it. The further you tried to project an image, the more your contrast would go in the toilet.

 

Hey Sgt.

Thanks, Here is what I am going to use to help the image. Two back to back frensel lens to focus and then blast the image out to a screen not more than 12 inches away. I just do not know what part to hook up to the lcd screen to make an image appear and then I need to know how to make the image change to another image or movie. I did plan on using a super LED with a parabolic reflector for a light source.

Keep the ideas coming folks cause trust me if this works and the application I am using it for turns out, it is going to be a very big development using a small projected image.

Don

Author of OF ICE AND STEEL

 

Just for information - the big projectors use a set of beam splitters and filters for the three colors. There are three LCD panels for the RGB images, and a busy set of prisms to combine the images. You pay a lot for the lamp and optics.

 

Hey Beenthere,

Thank you. I got this idea from a site that showed how to use an overhead projector to make a HD TV using an old laptop LCD. What I need to do is make the thing as small and as light as possible. I just need to know how to hook up a cell phone LCD to whatever controlls it and how to use a memory card to show pictures on it. The image I am projecting will be no more than 3 to 4 inches away from a rear projection screen. Once the image hits the screen it needs to be no bigger that 1 foot. But trust me brother than small 1 foot screen is going to signal a real revolution in advertising. If I can get this thing to work, you'll be reading about it in the paper, and seeing it on YOUTUBE, and maybe even TV, trust me.

Thanks again for all the help and keep it coming, I am very close to solving this. Just need to know: LCD goes to what? Memory card goes where? Power goes to what? How much Power is needed? How do I make the images change automatically. I have the projection side of it worked out.

Don
Author of OF ICE AND STEEL

 

Hope you can write code 'cause it's going to take a microprocessor to read the card and send the stuff to the LCD. At least some microprocessors have the LCD interface built in.

 

Yes, like Beenthere mentioned, you need a microprocessor - or a microcontroller.

The microcontroller will of course have to be programmed.

It'll have to be able to control the LCD display, present menus of some sort for the user interface, be able to accept commands from an input device, and be able to access your plug-in memory device, whatever that winds up being.

It would, of course, be very convenient for it to be able to read USB memory "sticks". But then, you'd have to write all of the code to be able to read the directory structure, fetch the filenames, present them in a menu for selection, and then be able to retrieve and interpret various graphic images, and re-scale them to fit the capabilities of the display. Not as simple as it sounds.