Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Attaching the LCD Boards and More Prototyping

Drilled recessed holes in the side of my box and attached the LCD board to the front inside wall. Made my own wooden washers with my dremel since it's cheaper than buying some :)

It looks really clean now and I'm glad it's secured so that I don't damage the LCD cables.

Decided to prototype the new design that I had thought of for the LED arrangement with the top bezel being half the height of the current one. Took some thin wood paneling, made two 3 x 46 cm pieces, and taped them together. Took the piece of cardboard cereal box that I had prototyped the previous LED rails on, stuck in 8 LEDs spaced again 2 cm apart, and taped it to the bottom of the panels:

Then flipped it over and butted it up to the edge of the LCD. Used screws to hold the top flap up so that the IR light could be spread out over the screen:


It worked pretty well, though since the LEDs are so directional I got only a small plane to work with, but it has convinced me that this method can work. Going to go to Home Depot tomorrow to buy some materials to make it afterwards.

On another note, my cheapo web cameras arrived. They are Logitech Express ones, cost $5 each but $30 total with shipping. Going to dissect them and hope that the IR filter is easy to remove. Have a couple projects that are similar to using IR but a little different, so stay tuned.
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2009 at 4:16 AM

    Hi there,

    I'm highly appreciate your work, and your choice of LCD instead of projector. But I have one confused thing: how can your camera get the IR from the LED while attaching an LCD between them? I can see the metal frame on the 1st pic you posted.

    Thanks and waiting for answer :)

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  2. PeauProductionsJanuary 15, 2009 at 2:56 PM

    IR light can travel from the front to the backside of the LCD matrix (the part that shows the image). The first pic above simply shows the original LCD boards housing (the vga controller and backlight power board). The second image shows the thin LCD matrix, which is kinda see-through as there is nothing but the diffuser beneath it. Thus there is nothing obstructing the view of the image between the LCD matrix and the camera. Basically, you separate the backlight from the LCD matrix, and stick a webcam between that.

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  3. AnonymousJanuary 16, 2009 at 6:11 PM

    Thanks again.
    I'll try to save money for buying some second hand LCDs to test. They're too expensive in my country, so I can't tear some off for researching. I'll give you my result whenever I finish it. ^_^

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