Casio XJ-A140 XJ-A130 and XJ-A230 projectors modded to run without diodes

[krazer]

The culmination of the works from http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...hing-connected and http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...Missing-Diodes and http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...nly-Projectors I want to work toward getting rid of my stock of projectors. It is time to start letting some of my projector collection go

I am hoping to target the people working on 3d printing and holography, by offering a way to use the DLP chip outside of the rest of the projector. I sent out a few of these systems to holographers over the summer, and so far everything appears to be holding together so I have decided to start selling them. It goes against my normal open source values, but I have decided that I am not going to release the source to my microprocessor until I have managed to get rid of the bulk of my projectors, because I ended up investing a decent amount of time (~100 hours) into the project for the purpose of selling the projectors. For the hardcore tinkerers, I will sell you a programmed chip, but I really do not have the time to help people through the modification process, which is more complicated than one would think.

Bare bones DLP:
What you get -
A casio XJ-130 or XJ-A140 motherboard, with the 1024x768 DLP device, and power supply which has has been removed from the projector and modified for standalone operation. You also get the rest of the projector (sans laser block of course), complete with luxeon led, color wheel, lens assembly, original cables, etc. Plug in the power supply, and in a few seconds the DLP device will display whatever is being sent to it (works with VGA, HDMI or composite with a loss in resolution), it couldn't be simpler. If you want I can leave the DLP device mounted in the projector optics, just let me know.
price:
xj-a130 $150 + shipping
xj-a140 $160 + shipping (it really makes no difference a130 vs a140 for this application)
Take off $25 if you do not want the rest of the projector (ie, you only get the modified motherboard, dlp chip, power supply, and remote).


Custom order pieces:
*raw programmed MSP430 chip which is the only thing needed for the modification (other than some wire/soldering skills), I am asking $50 but am open to negotiation if you are working on a cool project.

*XJ-A230 projectors (1280x800), however I have not tried converting any of them for standalone operation. If someone wants one let me know and I will see what I can do.

*Projectors which have been put back together to work as red only. I have not tried to get this working (there seems to be relatively little interest in red only projectors), but I believe it would be somewhat strait forward to reprogram my microprocessor to enable the fans/red diode driver for red only operation. Alternatively, I could rewire them to run the red led continuously (as opposed to only during the red frame) for a little added brightness, with an additional cost for a replacement led driver.
*Other color projectors, I can put in a green or blue LED in place of the red one and reroute the optics to let the projector work in another color. Anyone up for a RGB trio of single projectors

In any case,
shipping is about $10 in the US, or $50 for abroad. It will be cheaper for abroad if I do not send the rest of the projector.

[Junktronix]

I might have to get one of these to play with. I'm curious - how are these are interesting to holographers?

[krazer]

The holographers are using them for making holograms digitally, like the stuff from zebraprints http://www.zebraimaging.com/products/digital-prints/

The progress in the DIY world has been slow but steady, for some examples of what can be done see http://holoforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=233

I was also mulling over the idea of a holographic lumina system, it seems like sending a loosely culminated laser onto the dlp device and then playing different 'diffraction gratings' should be able to net some really interesting patters. Could even sync red/blue/green to the dlp device to have different diffraction patterns for the different beams. The pixel pitch is about 10um so it won't make that great of a 'real' hologram, but you should be able to get tons of diffraction off the edges of the pixels, and people have managed to make decent transmission holograms with a 40um pixel pitch (600dpi laser printer) so things seem pretty possible.

[dsli_jon]

Spec and I were messing with this very-idea bit, albeit, 'passively', and... wow, Yes, indeed very-cool possibilities..

..but, lemme 'help' you a bit, here...

I was also mulling over the idea of a holographic lumia system, it seems like sending a loosely collimated laser onto...

..hahaha, Sorry, it's just one of those 'ocd pet-peeves' - it's LUMIA ...'lumina' was a cheesy midsize-car by Chevrolet.. ..and 'culmination' is what happens on your wedding-night... ..nothing to-do with *collimation* of laser-beams..

..Oh, and the difference between LOOSE and LOSE.. you LOSE power on optics; you LOOSE a colt into the wilderness.. the two-terms are really-not 'interchangeable'...
I know 'Steve-o' is with me on this one.. Fwiw, you used the term 'loosely' correctly..

But yes, yer idea has definite-merit and I'd love to see yer experiments with-such.. I haven't the time..
I'll shut-up, now, carry-on..
j

[krazer]

Aye good point, I suppose that is what I get for letting google autocorrect my spelling

Do you know if any hobbyists have tried doing something like this with a LCD or DLP and doing some fourier optics work?

[dsli_jon]

Do you know if any hobbyists have tried doing something like this with..

Dunno, but I remember hearing something that Ms. Heroic was doing with them, something relating to doing something with 3D-input based-on shadows or something... something something darkside something... I'm sure she can speak-better to what she was doing than I can... Spec knew what it was.. sounded pretty knarly..

Anyhoo, nice werk..
j

[VDX]

... I've bought 2 of the XJ-A130 and modified one to 'red only' and made some StructuredLight-3D-scanning wit it: http://diy-community.de/showthread.p...590#post350590

The other is modified to 'without lamp' for UV-printing or as spare white-LED-beamer for smaller, more accurate scans ...

Would be interested in some more, preferable with higer resolutions - what's with shipping to Germany?

Viktor

[steve-o]

..Oh, and the difference between LOOSE and LOSE.. you LOSE power on optics; you LOOSE a colt into the wilderness.. the two-terms are really-not 'interchangeable'...
I know 'Steve-o' is with me on this one..

llol .. spellimg si a pett peave of myne ..

[mixedgas]

How are you processing the signal ? Just black and white?
Is there greyscale?
Steve

[krazer]

The hdmi signal is still being processed by the TI DLP processor, so in each 60hz refresh it cycles through the 3 colors twice, red is active for ~3.5ms, green about ~2ms, and the blue for about ~3ms (judging by the diode current). During each color frame the DLP deflects the beam into the beam dump for a percentage of the time as determined by the brightness (8 bits per color, 24bits total).

The result of this is that if you do not synchronize the light source with the DLP device you get a '24 bit' greyscale image (only about 11 effective bits though).