Build Your Own SLA/SLS

Since I've retired my LCD projector (Viewsonic Pro8100) for home theater use due to color problems, the natural thing to do was search the net to see if anyone was using LCD projectors to build SLA printers. From what I gather, most LCD panels block too much UV or block too many near-UV frequencies to be suitable. Ah well, I'll find some other use for the projector.

But thinking about UV transmission and LCDs led me to think about e-ink displays. These are high resolution, low power, and at least the one used in the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite appears to pass through light from a backlight behind the display. It would not surprise me if these panels don't block UV. They have low refresh rates, but I'd expect their 200ms delay is probably not too much longer than the amount of time one would shut the light source while moving the platform to a new z-height.

I'm wondering if anyone's thought of disassembling a Kindle Paperwhite Voyage or other e-reader to remove the backlight, place a suitable light source behind it (array of UV LEDs?), and jailbreak/hack the device to display a series of images. The screen on the Kindle Paperwhite Voyage is apparently 300ppi (possibly 1072 x 1448 resolution, according to people who've studied screenshots exported from the device).

Maybe e-ink displays are unsuitable for the task, and this is an avenue that's already been explored or discarded.

I know adafruit sells e-ink displays that can be controlled with an arduino... May be cheaper than trying to hack a Kindle.

Interesting idea!

As far as i know, all e-ink displays are reflective displays. They are not transmissive to light from behind. The panels are opaque. They are all front lit. The ones with the "backlights" are not really backlights, more like edge/front lights.

LCOS displays are cheaper than DLP, but are based on reflection like DLP.

http://www.aaxatech.com/products/led_pi ... ector.html 960x540 $119 LCOS

http://www.aaxatech.com/products/p2jr_p ... ector.html DLP, more expensive, but digging around the native resolution only 640x480...

LCD projectors work well with resins made to cure with blue light.
For example: http://bucktownpolymers.com/zve200-v470.html
They make hundreds of formulas that cure with blue light.