EEVblog 1546 - INSANE $30k 4K Panoramic DLP Projector TEARDOWN

[EEVblog]

Teardown of a professional military grade industrial 4K DLP projector. The build quality and over-engineering is just nuts. This Projection Design F35 WQXGA Projector costs $30k
And a look at how Digital Light Processing micromirror devices work under the microscope.

Links:
https://www.projectorcentral.com/pdf/projector_spec_5408.pdf
https://www.projectorcentral.com/pdf/projector_manual_5408.pdf
https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/dlp9000.pdf
https://www.ti.com/lit/ml/dlpb010e/dlpb010e.pdf
https://www.eenewseurope.com/en/from-projectors-to-heads-up-displays-how-dlp-works/
http://www2.optics.rochester.edu/workgroups/cml/opt307/spr05/john/

[golden_labels]

Now think of that! Four million individually controlled mirrors. Under plausible assumptions⁽¹⁾ you are holding more mirrors than this planet had at any given time before the industrial revolution. Each of these squares is an individual, who owned a mirror.

⁽¹⁾ Less than 1 in 25 people owning a glass-based mirror.

[.RC.]

Now think of that! Four million individually controlled mirrors. U

I was not sure how it was actually working so searched and found a video explaining it.   It is mind boggling.  Think of how many times those tiny mirrors have moved in the 11 000 hours of on time. 

I take it we see the colours because of our vision persistence.  It projects say yellow for a brief period, then blue for a brief period, but our eyes convert that to green.

[Unixon]

I guess this massive die cast aluminium casing serves two purposes:
1) fireproof enclosure for optical path components, reflective and heat dissipating;
2) provides a frame for mechanical stabilization;

Just imagine a radiation flux  from these lamps going sideways in case of a failure... without such casing the projector would catch on fire immediately.

[Rdx]

As a mechanical engineer I feel like it is not extremely over-engineered for industrial bit of kit.
Considering one of their banner specs in the ad is literally "24/7 support" you can assume that their customers most likely will also directly book the service flatrate contract, so in case anything fails you just have one of their engineer come in for express repairs. So having the mechanical design being easily servicable will in the end pay out for them with low downtimes and low expense on the repair engineer costs.

[thm_w]

The lamp is interesting, initially I thought it would just be running one lamp at 100% brightness and the other as a backup. But it looks like you can have various modes, both lamps on, or constantly switching between one lamp and the other.

- Fail safe, hot swap Dual Lamp architecture or longlife LED illumination
- Lamp 2 x 300W UHP™
- Lamp life 2000 hrs (5000 hrs in eco relay mode)

https://panasonic.net/cns/projector/products/dz870/features2.html (not the same projector but probably works similarly, Panasonic doesn't claim a life extension but Projection Design does).

They mentioned LED but see no spec for that.

[Fungus]

I'd love to know how they manufacture those mirrors, what the yield is, etc.

[Fungus]

How thick are the PCBs in this thing? They look crazy-thick in the video.

[Unixon]

When a micromirror pixel does not reflect the light back to image area where do all these photons go?
They can't possibly be absorbed inside the micromirror package, that would generate too much heat.
Are they reflected at an alternative angle to a negative image area and then absorbed by a black coated heatsink?

[Kleinstein]

It looks like the light absorber is part of the heavy aluminum case.

[Fungus]

Are they reflected at an alternative angle to a negative image area and then absorbed by a black coated heatsink?

Yes.

[kd4ttc]

At 15:18  the screws that compress the springs are probably not decoupling. They probably are to adjust the optics so the lens will have a perfectly colinear light path through the lens. The screws allow adjustment of the plate perfectly perpendicular to the light path. The lens is then perfectly perpendicular due to the mount. This is important so the focus of the lens is correct from side to side and top to bottom.

[kd4ttc]

At 15:18  the screws that compress the springs are probably not decoupling. They probably are to adjust the optics so the lens will have a perfectly colinear light path through the lens. The screws allow adjustment of the plate perfectly perpendicular to the light path. The lens is then perfectly perpendicular due to the mount. This is important so the focus of the lens is correct from side to side and top to bottom.

[EEVblog]

The lens: