Homemade Full Color DVD Laser Projector

Computers & Mobile Craft & Design Technology
Homemade Full Color DVD Laser Projector

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I love video projectors, and have used one instead of a traditional TV for almost 6 years now. The only serious drawback, in my experience, is the expense of the bulbs, and I expect that it will not be very long before full-color laser diode projector technology overcomes it. Red, green, and blue laser diodes are already accessible; the trick seems to be in scanning the beams in an economical and reliable way.

German hacker Helmar Dittrich, who built a monochrome version of this rig in 2001 and recently modified it for full color, solves the beam-scanning problem mechanically, with a pair of spinning mirrors. Many of the parts of Herr Dittrich’s machine were salvage, and he’s entered it in a scrap-hacking contest sponsored by German computer magazine c’t. [via adafruit]

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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