LjunggrenThe Lair

Workshop

Project

LP250 LCD projector: DIY halogen hack

Turning an old LP250 projector into a kid-friendly home cinema with a 12 V halogen lamp.

Originally
2008
Reviewed
2026-11
Revision
5

I haven't written much about this project yet, but it's one of my favorite DIY hacks—turning an LP250 projector into a kid-friendly cinema setup with a simple halogen lamp upgrade.

To save on costs and keep things simple, I decided to swap out the original bulb with a regular OSRAM 50W 12V TITAN halogen lamp. The result? A perfectly functional projector that casts a crisp image on the wall in a fairly dark room. It might not be cutting-edge, but it works brilliantly for our needs.

The projector now throws up an image about 2-2.5 meters diagonally on a white-painted concrete wall. My kid absolutely loves it—especially when Lilo and Stitch are playing, and Lilo is nearly as tall as he is!

The best part? Thanks to a helpful picture I found in a newsgroup (see below for the source), I could modify the projector without fully dismantling it. I just had to remove the front panel (two screws), short-circuit two black wires, and voilà—the projector fired up without a hitch.

After that, it was a simple matter of removing the original bulb and replacing it with the OSRAM lamp, powered by an external halogen transformer. The whole setup works like a charm and is way cheaper than those expensive HID lamps. Plus, now my kid can have his own "kid's cinema" anytime he wants—no worries, no hassle..

Cost for the different parts:
  • 450SEK for the projector
  • 100SEK for the transformer
  • 65SEK for bulb
That's roughly €50, compared to €180 for a single HID bulb!

Connections

  1. Same principle asBackupPC to the rescue

    Both are cheap, simple fixes that outlived the "proper" solution.