DIY projector resussitation?

[murph]

cross-post from eyecandy, sorry...


Here's the deal; I've got an old Panasonic PT-L759U projector.
2500 lumens, 1024x768 native res, the thing rocks. It took a little fall a while back, and stopped rocking quite as hard. I got insurance money and have since replaced it with two others, but I can't shake this feeling that I should be able to make use of this thing somehow. It spits out images just fine, I know because I can see the menu ok. (other than the alignment being off, which is my fault from screwing around inside) It's in the input that it's having troubles, everything on all inputs ends up all screwy. Off-color, 80's- style pixelated, etc. Kinda twisting the motherboard this way or that causes it to get better and worse. I'm pretty sure I just need a new motherboard, but panasonic wants $1595 for it. Sorry. I'm trying to figure out my options, and I'm wondering if you all have any ideas. What I'm considering so far:

1) troll ebay for a broken one with a good motherboard. Not likely.

2) sell it as a good projector that just needs a $1600 motherboard, get a couple hundred bucks for it at least.

3) Somehow DIY rig it up. It's got a bulb, 3 lcds, and good optics. Just no way to control the LCDs. If I replace one of the lcds, and yank the prisms that bring the three lcd images together, I can probably make a ghetto projector. Just dunno where I'd find a 1" full-color lcd panel, and whether it would be worth the effort.

4) find someone to painstakingly hunt down and repair whatever is wrong with the motherboard. I think it's a broken trace somewhere, might be a good EE project, but I dunno if it's worth bothering.

Any recommendations? Anyone have a line on a cheaper motherboard? Anyone
have alternative ideas for controlling the three seperate lcds somehow?

Thanks in advance,

Matt

[zap25]

My first thought was a break in the soldering of one of the inputs somewhere. But since the signal is crappy on all inputs that's not very likely.

My second guess is that somewhere on the pcb there's a small crack. That would explain why twisting it makes it better/worse.

I think you should go for option 4 first. If it is indeed a crack in the board that influences the input signal it shouldn't be too hard to measure which lines are cracked.
A simple small piece of copper wire should bridge that.

[LEVLHED]

..hhmmmmm...*how* fucked up is the image?

[murph]

even you wouldn't like it's current state, though at one point it was doing this super blocky (think 24x24 pixels) picture thing which was kinda cool, but not particularly cool now. Mostly just yellow. I should snap a little video and upload it somewhere to show what I'm talking about.

And man, you're up early!

[LEVLHED]

ah..ok

and yeah..my kids now get up a half hour earlier then before..not sure why...I should really start going to bed earlier to compensate instead of staying up so late rendering

[wellREDman]

i had a beamer that had a break in the circuit board, i took it to an old electronics head and he found the crack and used a bit of copper wire to bridge it, it only cost me a hundred quid
.

[murph]

man that'd be sweet... now I just gotta find an electronics guru in my area...

so, I think that's step one.

BUT, I'm still interested in hearing creative DIY projector techniques. Have any of you constructed a projector ala the instructions on audiovisualizers? Anyone know how to control three seperate lcd panels? Do they speak a standard protocol, or all proprietary?