Dell 1409X DLP Projector Resurrection (It's a long one)

This particular Dell 1409X came to me via a viewer who had gotten so close to repairing it themselves. It originally had a failed DMD and Color wheel. The wire on the color wheel was starting to crack at the glue they cover it with. The DMD has pixel burn/stuck mirrors.
They had successfully replaced the DMD and Color wheel, but had to adjust the light tunnel. During that process, the awkward screw position allowed a brief yet damaging short circuit through the mainboard. At that point it was decided to send it to me.
Initially I thought we would get away with replacing the mains fuse and finishing the light tunnel adjustment. Unfortunately you will see that the short circuit caused a bit more damage than expected. The VGA-A input that loops through(has an output for daisy chaining) was not being processed properly and the colors and gamma(?) were all wrong. VGA-B on the other hand had OK color but the geometry was way off. That meant one or more of the video chips had been damaged.
First I had to determine why the video had the weird gamma/color stuff. I decided that replacing the mainboard was the best coarse of action over replacing the chips. Mostly because I found a mainboard for $25. That was way better than fighting with BGA chips. The new mainboard took care of the video weirdness but the geometry was still wrong. The Dell logo was very off center and the menu was not visible.
After a lot of fumfering around with theories on why the geometry was off, I decided to check the DMD they were sold. It turns out the DMD was made for the Dell 1209s which is SVGA(800 x 600) where as the original was supposed to be 1024 x 768. I happened to have a used but good 1024 x 768 chip I could put in and low and behold it cleared all the image nonsense up. Go figure? The right part fixed it. In their defense, most parts between the 1409x(xvga) and the 1209s(svga) are compatible. The DMD is not.

This is not normally the kind of projector that is worth putting this much effort into, but the owner had gotten so freaking close to getting it themselves. When someone puts that much effort into something, I have a hard time standing by when they give up. We all have strengths and weaknesses but offering your strengths to back up those who have some weaknesses always feels good.

If you need parts for many projectors, check seller Voltarea on eBay. I sourced the mainboard through them. They did not sponsor or offer me anything. Quite the opposite. I paid for this. I just have bought stuff from them a few times in the past and they have always been a good seller. I think the color wheel came from them too but I can't recall.

If you like the long format, let me know. I was thinking of breaking it into parts but my wife said the long form was better. She is usually right.

https://www.voltarea.com/ or search them on eBay.

Here is a link to the lamp if you need one. https://www.purelandsupply.com/dell-p...

Link to video on repairing color wheel wire(not posted yet, I'll update this once I do).