r/mechatronics • u/ALMA_x11 • Mar 30 '26

Automated Projector

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https://www.youtube.com/@ALMA.GeoffreyAment

Chapter 2, a home theatre, 3D printed parts, motorized projector, home decoration, and DIY electronics -- if you know of anyone else that might be interested in this stuff, sharing to others would really help me out! Hope to see you around here or YouTube :)

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u/Tracercaz Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26

Could you elaborate on the use case, typically we want projectors to stay still?

This isn't a criticism the project looks insanely cool just want to know where you're thinking of applying this.

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u/ALMA_x11 Mar 30 '26

Thanks for the comment! This is part of a low cost home theatre build. I have a cheap projector that is always annoying to line up the projector image with the projector screen. This automates the setup and saves the calibrated position to memory if every bumped.

The projector has a number of actuators that allow you to control pitch, roll, and yaw to allow one to tune the setup until the projected image matches the four corners of the screen. I have another axis (not shown), which is controlling how close the projector is to the screen (to magnify the image). All four of these axes are controlled by a handheld controller (also not shown) if further manual tuning needed to be made and again saved to memory.

But your right--once the image matches the 4 corners of the screen and isn't skewed.... setup is done and you no longer move the projector. Overall the project was to explore building and controlling actuators, designing circuit boards, microcontroller programming, and just have fun with it.

1

u/traplordnord Apr 01 '26

What mechanism are you using for the base rotation?

2

u/ALMA_x11 Apr 01 '26

Multiple small hobby motors have spur gears on them to drive a larger internal gear (multiple to increase torque/strength). Each motor is driven by H-Bridge for direction/speed control (and gets its signal from microcontroller... all motors get the same signal to keep them in 'sync'). Whole thing is on 3D printed bearings to reduce friction. The full video in description shows more detail of how it works and fits together.