Projector with Raspberry Pi Zero inside

If you're looking for a fun, and reasonably simple, hardware project. Then this guide to putting a Pi Zero inside a cheap, portable projector is a great guide to follow.

As a result, you'll end up with a neat all-in-one smart projector that can play movies and retro games. It'll bounce the video from the Raspberry Pi directly onto a nearby wall.

The quality of cheap projectors is much better than you'd think. Don Hui from Novaspirit tech recommends a LeFun. It "never ceases to amaze me every time," says Don. You can pick one up for £63.34 from the LeFun website, although you'll probably be able to get one much cheaper second-hand.

"I've got a few projectors and I know what's the difference between a high-quality one and affordable ones and actually it's really good," he explains.

"It runs about 1200 lumens and it runs on LED so it'll probably outlive my regular projector," says Don.

Building a Smart Projector

He then proceeded to strip down the LeFun and insert the Raspberry Pi Zero. Don puts in an old USB Hub that he strips down and wires it directly to the board (via cables recycled from an old hard drive ribbon cable.)

During the build process, Don found a constant power source inside the case. This provides power to the Raspberry Pi even when the projector is turned off. Finally, he adds a WiFi dongle so he can connect wirelessly to the Pi Zero.

The end result is a neat all-in-one solution. The projector has a lot more smarts than the regular version, and you can play games and watch movies on a giant screen.