The bodged projector we named the "iTard".
I'm a cheapskate; I have no problem admitting it. I use servers and computer stuff salvaged from skips. That also makes me a bin raider and hoarder. I can't walk past a skip without delving in and sometimes I'll hawk my finds online and sometimes I’ll manufacture and bodge something. This is a tale of one such time.

I had a laptop that was a complete write off. I'd inherited it from someone else. The motherboard had a crack down the middle and there was no screen, having been torn clean off. The first stage was to get this working. Using my autism to great effect and invoking my rain man style soldering skills, the machine was soon working having been screwed to a piece of plastic and the keyboard DUCT-taped to the thing. As it came with a Vista OEM licence (befitting the time) that was transferred to another machine and the hard drive went with it. Enter fellow b3tan epicsnail and his knowledge of Linux distro's and in a flash, the thing was running from a memory stick, with an external monitor. The LCD monitor I had was itself another bodged contraption, and we wondered if this was stripped down and placed onto an old style overhead projector, would it project the image. Within minutes, I was on the phone to the primary schools in my area. I figured that with the advent of interactive white boards, at least one would have one going spare. Turns out the second school I rang were only too willing to help. That afternoon, the projector, and trolley were in my dining room and the LCD was placed over the top having been ripped away from the casing and back-screen. The contraption booted up and projected perfectly. It took a few minor alterations what with being backwards, out of focus and upside down, but we got there in the end. We strung up a bed sheet in my living room and experimented watching films, streaming videos from the server and joining in with pron films!

The project got a little out of hand after that I’ll confess. Custom boot screens, decals and permanent marker designs. We even went for an Apple style proprietary power supply design that involved a power cable made of a three pin plug at each end!
Not wanting to be accused of failing to keeping up with the latest technology, the next stage is the development of 3D. The broad plan is to build another one, find a source video with that has the left eye on the left and the right on the right. Then, using some sort of extended desktop arrangement, display the two images simultaneously and project through some sort of polarising filter and wearing glasses.

I know we took pictures, i'm trying to find a couple to post up.
(sunray18, Sun 13 Mar 2011, 14:09, 6 replies)

*click*
You get another if those pics appear...
( Extinct Jesus Dossier "...I think it counteracts Hitler's magic...", Sun 13 Mar 2011, 15:36, closed)

Joining in with pron films?
I need mind bleach now...
(all my scars face forward possesses 2.5% of a hyperalloy combat chassis, Sun 13 Mar 2011, 17:11, closed)

mind bleach mind bleach
get yer mind bleach on a couple o quid fer a pint great for the eyes aswell
get yer mind bleach
( fluffybunnykiller Is feasting on the clitoris of life, Sun 13 Mar 2011, 20:19, closed)

I haven't got a clue what you are on about....
....but you seem rather proud of your achievements.

I can get pron on my PC without all that messing about
(Colonel Blink is now officially a pretentious prick, Sun 13 Mar 2011, 21:52, closed)

A mains lead with plugs at BOTH ends?
So when it comes unplugged from FrankenPC, the end you pick up will have live pins sticking out?

Bright.
( Snappyuk gets BIGGER with free sample., Mon 14 Mar 2011, 9:25, closed)

that was the idea
the whole thing was a bodge job!
(sunray18, Tue 15 Mar 2011, 23:57, closed)