By now, you should have the fans installed and wired, the ballast and lamp holders installed and wired, and the LCD panel installed and wired. Now you are ready to button up your enclosure and test it for the first time.

First, install the metal halide lamp into its lamp holders by pressing it in firmly. It does take some pressure on the ceramic ends of the lamp to get it to install correctly, but do not use excessive force or strike the lamp to install it.

Once the lamp is installed, fasten the remaining side cover to the rest of the enclosure so that the enclosure is now completely sealed. Now, carefully rest the projector on its side horizontally (if that is how you installed your LCD panel) and plug in the power cord all power connections for your LCD projector. If you wired everything to a common plug, you should obviously have only one plug.

After anywhere from 5 seconds to a minute later, the light will illuminate and start to get brighter slowly as it warms up. The amount of time it takes for the lamp to first ignite depends on several factors including the model of lamp, room temperature, and age of the lamp in terms of hours of usage.

If you get light, then install the projection lens by sliding it into the large hold in the front of the projector. As you slide it in and out, you should notice an image of your LCD panel coming in and out of focus on your wall. If the lens will not slide easily, you can lightly sand the inside of the hole where you are installing it (with the system turned off).

That's all there is to it - you now have a DPC Pico Projector that you built by yourself! Play with your projector for a while to test different positions in the room and settings on your LCD panel to get the best picture possible, then hop over to the public forums results gallery and post results of your very own LCD projector!

 

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