MagicMirror on the Ceiling

rummyr · Dec 20, 2018, 11:32 AM

Apologies for crossposting from hardware, I didn’t spot this forum.

Just showing off!
I recently got a small fanless DLP projector, and wanted to try to find something to do with it. So, couple it with a raspberryPi Zero W and Magic Mirror I now have a status display for my bedroom ceiling! The modules are enabled/disabled on a schedule stored in Google Calendar.

The projector is almost silent, though you can just about hear the motor spinning the colour wheel (important because I live in the country and it’s very quiet here).

Apologies for the image quality, my phone is old and doesn’t focus well at all in the dark!
What the projector looks like

What I see (with the soon to be removed clock)

Just showing off!

joela85 · Dec 20, 2018, 2:19 PM

Nice touch. What mini DLP Projector are you using?
I’ve been looking for one to play around with but couldn’t decide on one. I saw one I liked then it turned out you couldn’t use it while it was charging and the battery only lasted less than an hour.

rummyr · Dec 20, 2018, 2:31 PM

I’m using an evaluation Module - DLPDLCR2000EVM , about £100 UKP.

Things to note:

I think it was a limited run, Farnell have been sold out for some time, and digikey’s stock is dropping.
Resolution is LOW 640x360
Its designed for a BeagleBone Black, I used a Pi Zero W adapter board from MickMake on tindie, needs soldering though.
It’s powered off a 5v wall-wart, no battery (though I think MickMake may be working on that)
no enclosure
no firmware customization, it boots to a bright splash screen and then you have to fiddle around sending I2C commands.
Soldered in you have NO GPIO left over for anything at all
Soldered in the usb ports are inaccesible
the zero w is somewhat underpowered, currently I’ve got MM running in docker on another Pi while I develop… I think you should be able to run both on the same device
There’s a very faint blue patch visible when all is black, seems to be a design fault, I returned one, but the second is the same.

All in all not perfect, but I’m used to that.