DMD Mirrors in a DLP-Projector Moving in Slow Motion (Stroboscopic Effect)

This video shows how you can view in slow motion the very tiny digital micro mirrors that can be found in for example DLP-projectors (beamers). The method used here is based on a combination of microscopy and stroboscopy and does not require a high-speed camera.

By using this method, we cannot only look at the pixels in real time but at the same time slow down the switching process (which is in the microsecond time range) by several orders of magnitude.

[siubidua]

I am a technician of the projectors, and I repair them for a living. I know how DMD chip works in theory, but I wanted to see that in a real life. I searched for a video, and found yours. By the view count, not that many people are interested in how their projector creates an image. Nevertheless great video, with good explanation. So I want to say thanks for spending your time to create it, and satisfying my curiosity.


THANK YOU!

[sferg]

Blows my mind how anything like this can actually work. The timing and computing power alone is astounding.

[WilsonOlivierGazer]

The only video with the actual DMD in the highest quality, thumbs up

[mildsauce]

8:14 A BRILLIANT example of the stroboscopic effect -- 10 seconds of viewing and you understand it perfectly.

[elliotburing]

This is actually a BEAUTIFUL explanation and demonstration.

The YouTube algorithm got it right by pointing me here.

Fantastic video!!

[nicholaswilliams]

Texas Instruments should really link to this video in their docs. Hugely helpful!

[rorypenstock]

That's so cool how they split up the exposure time into "bitplanes." Of course it makes sense to do it that way, but it never would have occurred to me.

[JoolsParker]

Your ability to explain things in easily understood ways should never be underestimated.

[Cyborg]

Fantastic video with excellent explanations. Just spent my entire afternoon tearing apart my DLP TV to swap out the chip and was interested to see if anyone had viewed it working under a microscope. Thanks a ton for putting this together!

[Thomas_Deering_King]

I know that a high quality video like this takes a ton of time to produce. So much detailed excellent information! Thank you for going through all the trouble to make this. I really enjoyed it!

[NicolasSaudemont]

This video truly deserves way more upvotes. Good job ! Thanks a lot for the effort of making all this visible and understandable !

[Tristoo]

holy shit. DLP is cool, and once I understood it was just mirrors I pretty much assumed all the rest correctly. but the stroboscopic effect and how you presented both the matrix and the wheel side by side there in the end - straight up blew my mind. I'm very glad I can understand all this and that I live in a time and world where not only is it possible but also there's people like you making these insane quality videos.

[shashidharmurthy]

Yes, the only video in YouTube with entire details of dlp chip and the projector, far more complex than LCD projector, thanks sir

[juliankandlhofer]

The stroboscopic effect is really cool! There are actually old so called Sampling Oscilloscopes which use a simmilar effect.
That way they could achieve multiple GHz apparent sampling rates when computers hadnt even reached MHz speeds.

[BiffTannenBTTF]

Truly unbelievable. I would love to see how they manufacture these chips.

[screambmachine]

came to this channel for polishing lenses, as i'm a precision optician (who does many other things besides polishing in the production of our mirrors).
and then the same guy uploaded an explanation of a colour wheel projector, which i chose to buy some years ago because of the low input delay for gaming (you mentioned the real time calculations).
best thing about this is, that i didn't even know that it'll explain this mechanism, the title just seemed interesting hahaha.
i wanted to know how it works for ages, but didn't know what to search for.

at first the video appeared to be quite hard to understand, but it unfolded nice and logically.
very well done, i love your setup and the depth of explanation.

[BinaryBlueBull]

I do not understand why this channel doesn't have more subscribers. The ingenuity and complexity of both his projects and the experimental setups when he wants to explain something are amazing. I'm binge-watching these videos, damn this is interesting

[ariochiv]

It's weird to think that such a sophisticated device uses something as primitive as a piece of plastic dyed certain colors.

[marshallrockwell]

Such a high quality presentation, thank you!!

[borkborkfoxxo]

I had some exposure to optics in a college physics class (1000 level, so simple thin lenses, spherical mirrors, etc) and I got curious so I checked on youtube to see how complicated it could get, and here I am.

You explain everything in a wonderfully simple way that I constantly strive for in life science. Awesome channel.