So, I'm debating whether I should spend the money for a new GE CZA bulb, which would be maybe $20, or upgrade to a 100 watt white LED star, which would put out more lumens with less power and less heat for $35. Hmmm...

I'm quite pleased with it, for a less than $20 projector solution. Now I just need to case it up better. You can see in the video, I have a spare mini-fan pointing at the thing to help reduce heat buildup near the LCD.

Video:
http://www.vimeo.com/12113411

Here is a shot of the screen I used before ripping it apart. Shown with the NES for size comparison.

Here are some shots of the final output:

Also, I got a special surprise from my sister today. She works at the university of St. Thomas chemical stockrooms, and while cleaning out a little used storage room she came across a nice little 25" projector screen that stands on the table top. It's really neat to use with the projector, because bringing the projector closer results in a very bright picture.

I haven't tried my projector with anything besides the NES, so I'll let you know how the VCR goes! Wrath of Kahn, here I come!

Well, as for doing a projection with a gameboy, that's going to be very tricky. I would use either a Gameboy Pocket or a Gameboy SP AGS-101. See, the deal is that except for the AGS-101, all gameboys have ribbon cables going behind the screen, which requires that they be desoldered and moved. Something I have never done successfully or seen done by anyone else.

And I don't have any spare gameboys right now. Not that I'm willing to cut up, that is. My GB pocket is precious to me, what with the working homemade backlight which was a total PAIN to get in there. Projected DMG would look like garbage since it's got tons of ghosting problems and would make the image far too dark.

Also, I'm changing screens for one that will be easier to hack up and has slightly better specs:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi … ink:top:en

This one, unlike that Audiovox, isn't refurbed. Resolution is supposedly 480x234, which is... not exactly standard resolution. Picture quality will not be very high, but this is supposed to be a super cheap projector project. It'll be good enough for the NES, which is what it's for.

EDIT: found a lovely bunch of pictures of the insides of this screen, courtesy of the guys over at BenHeck forums:
http://www.forums.benheck.com/viewtopic … mp;start=0

Looks quite dandy, should work perfectly for my use.

While I've been waiting ages of eternal days for my NTRQ NVSRAM bank chips to arrive my mind has wandered back to a previous project of mine, which is a DIY video projector built inside of an old slide projector. Slide projectors are easy to get and very cheap, and their replacement bulbs are also very cheap. I found a Kodak 500 Ektagraph for $4 at the thrift shop and brought it home.

I previously experimented with a stripped down Gameboy pocket LCD, but in relocating the ribbon cable I managed to partially damage the LCD, rendering the experiment useless, even though just knowing that it worked was fun.

So now I have a different screen in mind, a 2.5 inch Audiovox display:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Audiovox … ccessories

This thing can take a standard NTSC composite input and runs off 12v DC. Removing the backlight should be simple, and then I might also remove the anti-glare layer on the front, assuming it has one.

Today I ran some pretty extensive heat buildup tests to find out whether it would get too hot inside. My very un-scientific method was to tape plastic food wrap to the closed slide aperture, which is where heat buildup would be a problem for an LCD panel. I left it installed in the running projector for over an hour and the plastic didn't melt, so I'm going to assume that it'll be safe for the LCD.

I'm going to post more progress and pictures here as I do this project, and please feel free to leave comments. If this works then my total cost for this video projector will be a whopping $19, not including the dead Gameboy pocket I killed in my first attempt.