Rear Projection TV Teardown/Fresnel Lens/Large Optics/Solar Deathray hacking

[Prescott Ogden]

My adventures with Shuttersync Labs have led me to be interested in very large Fresnel lenses, which can conveniently be found in rear projection which are even more conveniently cheap and abundant due to sudden obsolescence.

I'm going to try to get my hands on one or too such televisions to salvage the Fresnel lenses, and I'd like to invite members of the community to join in the wholesome, destructive, educational fun of a large electronics teardown.

These Fresnel lenses, due to their size, also make great solar concentrators. Think frying ants with a magnifying glass only way better. I've seen them used to cook food, melt padlocks, and 3d print using sand by melting it into glass.

These TVs usually have very interesting and varied light engines as well, whether CRT, LCD, or DLP. If you have any interest in optoelectronics, or just like destroying things to see how they work, you should check these out. If you've seen one you have not necessarily seen them all.

Things we need to make this happen:

- Reasons: described above

- Location: Heatsync Labs, duh

- Time: when is good for interested hackers? I'm impatient, so I lean toward today/tonight. Midday is best for solar deathrays for obvious reasons.

- TVs: basically any TV that is more than 30" diagonal and more than 12" deep. they are huge, heavy, and ugly so you can find plenty in the free-$15 range, if you haul it away. I've already hit up a few folks on craigslist, but check dumps, alleys, thrift shops, you will need at least two strong people and a truck.

Strong people and trucks: I can cover maybe a third of a TV myself, so I need some strong people and at least one truck, though I may rent one for the day if that's what it takes. Note we also need to take the gutted TVs to the appropriate recycling facilities afterwards.

Who's in?

Prescott

[Larry Campbell]

Ive already been keeping an eye open for any large fresnel lenses I could find.... I will let you know if/when I score any

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[JR]

Keep an eye on the various freecycle email lists.  These come along occasionally.  You could post saying you were looking for some non-working ones and would probably be buried in them.

On Tuesday, September 30, 2014 9:31:58 AM UTC-7, Prescott Ogden wrote:

[Corey Renner]

I haven't seen the "melt a padlock" trick before.  Sounds awesome.

c

Blog (updated finally):

http://coreyrenner.tumblr.com/

 

YouTube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/vandal968

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[Mike Bushroe]

I doubt it will be as large as MY Archimedes Solar Death Ray Machine! BUAHHHA! BUHHA!   ;)

Mike

On Tuesday, September 30, 2014 9:31:58 AM UTC-7, Prescott Ogden wrote:

[Jasper Nance]

Size isn't everything. Collimation is!

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Jasper Nance - KE7PHI
Creative and Scientific Imagery
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[Mike Bushroe]

Yes, mine was designed to collimate the light 100 feet in front of the mirror! However, I was not yet good enough at making such a nearly flat, parabolic surface then. And I still had not learned yet that the silvering process I bought works much better on polished steel then on irregularly surfaced acrylic that was supposed to make it possible to silver any surface you could paint the acrylic onto. If I made another one, I would work even harder to get the perfect surface shape, and also move to a different portion of the parabola. The I might get the light at 30m to focus down to a spot much smaller than 1.5 m across!

Mike

[Eric Hubert]

I have seen rear projection TVs at Goodwills all over the place.  Few of them were working from the little I gathered about them.  I'm also curious about this since speaking with you the other night.  I have a truck and will donate the fuel and time to pick up anything in the mesa area or somewhat nearby.

[Robert Bell]

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/wvl/zip/4693352135.html

On Tue, Sep 30, 2014 at 2:51 PM, Eric Hubert <eric....@gmail.com> wrote:

I have seen rear projection TVs at Goodwills all over the place.  Few of them were working from the little I gathered about them.  I'm also curious about this since speaking with you the other night.  I have a truck and will donate the fuel and time to pick up anything in the mesa area or somewhat nearby.

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[Larry Campbell]

posted an hour ago.... 42 miles from the lab.... I guess I know what Eric and Prescott are going to be doing tonight....

On Tuesday, September 30, 2014 4:10:16 PM UTC-7, Robert Bell wrote:

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/wvl/zip/4693352135.html

On Tue, Sep 30, 2014 at 2:51 PM, Eric Hubert <ote:

I have seen rear projection TVs at Goodwills all over the place.  Few of them were working from the little I gathered about them.  I'm also curious about this since speaking with you the other night.  I have a truck and will donate the fuel and time to pick up anything in the mesa area or somewhat nearby.

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[Robert Bell]

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/nph/zip/4693060975.html

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/wvl/zip/4690647091.html

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/cph/zip/4688401605.html

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/zip/4688256622.html

"Those two lenses right there, suck"

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[Corey Renner]

Wow, that last lens is amazing.

c

Blog (updated finally):

http://coreyrenner.tumblr.com/

 

YouTube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/vandal968

[Prescott Ogden]

Thanks for your interest, everyone!

Is anyone available to help round up TVs Friday morning or afternoon, or to help teardown Friday night? We still need muscles and wheels. (less strong and less automotive people will still be welcome and helpful of course.)

Then on Saturday, I won't be there but others can still start testing the lenses and ranking them from "Suck" to "Luke Skywalker lightsaber insta-woohoo."

Also if anyone has any TVs, feel free to contact me directly.

[Epaul]

I and my Xterra and my 5'x8' covered trailer are available Friday. Afternoon is better, but morning is doable. I know from experience that an 84" rear projection tv will fit in the trailer along with a sofa. My vehicle does not have a/c so if someone else would like to pull the trailer that is an option. I live near HSL.

[Epaul]

Unfortunately it looks like I will not be available tomorrow after all. Good luck with the quest!

[Aaron Krone]

If you would have asked me a year and a half ago I would have had two TVs ready to go for this :(

But Friday you say?

[Joe Modjeski]

It's been a few months, but the last time I was at the goodwill at power and Ray, they had a few rear projection TVs (40-50" range). I could have sworn the price tag was $1.

If anyone is rolling out of that area with a trailer might be worth a stop.


Sent from my iPhone

> On Oct 2, 2014, at 9:20 PM, Aaron Krone <akr...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> If you would have asked me a year and a half ago I would have had two TVs ready to go for this :(
>
> But Friday you say?
>

[John Berkheimer]

 I have just the Lens that is ready for burning. It will melt One of then new Non copper Penny.   I can Drop it off anytime today If you want.   

John

On Tuesday, September 30, 2014 9:31:58 AM UTC-7, Prescott Ogden wrote:

[Larry Campbell]

Ill bring the pennies
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[Larry Campbell]

[John]

I'd be glad to help with teardown and possibly haulage.  I could really use a few of the glass projector 'for use in x-ray' lenses that come in the bottom of the projection TV's.

~John

[Eric Hubert]

Two TVs have already been abducted for the death ray and Prescott is in the process of mad scientist'ing them.

[John]

Nice! 

I got to thinking about the two big fresnel lenses I have already harvested and I'd like to donate them to the death ray cause.

~John A

[Prescott Ogden]

Thanks, John! I'll let you know if I get my hands on any more projection objectives.

--

[John Berkheimer]

I drop of  My lens that is mounted in a wood frame for any one to play with. There is a melted penny tape to the frame. At the same time I left two more lens not in a frame. Those two lens are up fro grabs if any one want them. One of the two lens is broken , Not sure for burn things is it a big deal.

I pick up the one in the frame next time I at HSL.

have fun 

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[Prescott Ogden]

Wow! I tried out the framed one and it's awesome!

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[Larry Campbell]

I would definitely love one of the ones up for grabs, I wanted to teach my nephew about fresnel lenses... ( trying to be the "cool uncle" and be the educationally indulgent influence in his life)

[Mike Bushroe]

Has anyone tried adding a lens somewhat before the fresnel lens focal point to produce a tighter focus to make more precise fused sand 'sculptures'? I was also wondering how bad the coma would be if four of them were arrayed together, each angled to bring the light from all four into a single spot. That should speed up the melt/fuse rate to make sandstone objects faster. If we get one going on a 3D platform I was wondering how hollow bricks might work in terms of time to make, total weight, and strength mortared into a wall.

Mike 

[Larry Campbell]

I was thinking that myself, would be awesome to make a solar fused "brick printer"...Id love to replace about 200 foot of crappy fence.....  

On Monday, October 6, 2014 1:13:38 PM UTC-7, Mike Bushroe wrote:

Has anyone tried adding a lens somewhat before the fresnel lens focal point to produce a tighter focus to make more precise fused sand 'sculptures'? I was also wondering how bad the coma would be if four of them were arrayed together, each angled to bring the light from all four into a single spot. That should speed up the melt/fuse rate to make sandstone objects faster. If we get one going on a 3D platform I was wondering how hollow bricks might work in terms of time to make, total weight, and strength mortared into a wall.

Mike 

[Prescott Ogden]

Mike, It's not straightforward to array the lenses together. in a thin lens (as theses definitely are), light passing through the center of the lens is unrefracted. This means that any point of focus has to be colinear with a sun's ray passing through the center of the lens. therefore the centers of all the lenses have to be on the same line, which gathers no more light. add folding mirrors, however...

[Jasper Nance]

You just have a.. preheat, a melting, and ... post melt heating lens :D you know, time domain multiplex them,

[valky...@gmail.com]

http://www.sciplus.com/p/us-precision-rgb-projection-tv_50252?trk_msg=achk4ge68qe4h95pqlvrmeb3j0&trk_contact=lssahhubu4vpsci0qf67p56uo4

Projection TV Lens
It's a beauty, this monster RGB (red, green, blue) lens made for a big projection TV, like the ones that ruled sports bars before the flat-screen invasion. The DELTA® HD - 8, REV B lens measures 9" long x 6-3/8" dia, with adjustable 140mm F.L., magnification of 9.5X to 52X, fully color-corrected coated lenses, f/1.1 at infinity. Has (4) 1/4" mounting holes. Made for 3M® by U.S. Precision Lens, Inc. Mighty good price, too

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From: Prescott Ogden
Sent: ‎10/‎1/‎2014 3:24 PM
To: heatsy...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [HSL] Re: Rear Projection TV Teardown/Fresnel Lens/LargeOptics/Solar Deathray hacking

[Nate Plamondon]

Is this still being hacked on? It looks like the giant TV has been idle for at least a week now. I've red-tagged it since it doesn't look like anything's happening and it's pretty in the way. If it's still a project, feel free to replace my tag with a green one.

--
Nate Plamondon

[Prescott Ogden]

Thanks, Nate.

This is my bad, I haven't been able to come down and dispose of them. They do need to be scrapped, but the lenses on top are good stuff and should go up to the loft. I will take care of this as so as I can.

[Tiny Clinkenbeard]

are you looking for more tvs? I have a 38in tube tv that ways a ton, I can drop it off at heat sync

[Larry Campbell]

We were looking for the projection TVs that had the large fresnel lenses.