An ideas for old diascope (ESPHome?)

Hi everybody,

I helped cleaning the in-laws basement and got to keep this diascope / slide projector (?). Photos and details below.

Can any of you think of anything I could do with this? I don’t have any slides and I doubt I can find any, or even have digital sources made into slides without paying absurd amounts of money these days.

But if there is anything remotely cool I could turn this into, I’d love to. What do you think?

I mean, except for toggling it on/off.

Thanks in advance for your creative ideas :slight_smile:

Details

Device Liesegang A33 Autofocus
220 V ~ AC 50/60 Hz 230 VA
Bulb 24 V 150W
"AC current only"

While it says autofocus, I was also able to manually focus the device.

There is an on/off switch button in the back. Then there are three somethings on the side; one seems to be an on/off indicator, it’s a green square with an LED (or some light source) behind it that ignites when the device is on (because the incredible bright light coming from the lens isn’t enough of an indicator), then there are two single somethings (red and green, not lit) next to each other. Idk if they act as buttons, but nothing happens when you touch them. However, they seem pressable, unlike the indicator one. You might even be able to tell from the last photo that they are likely momentary button switches.

When I first turned the device on to test whether or not it worked at all, there was a mechamism pullung some sort of holding frame from the side (outside) of the projector to inside of the machine, then back out, back in, etc. - I assume it was trying to grab slides, but there weren’t any. I haven’t been able to re-trigger this mechanism when I turned the device on just now before posting this. Pushing either of those buttons (or whatever they are!)

Those came with a round or rectangular rack, indeed, where slides were inserted beforehand for projection.
You would then have a wired remote (or one of your buttons, I guess) to advance to the next slide, and typically some kind of timer to do that automatically.

Beside using it as a (wired) flashlight, I have no idea what use you could have for this nowadays, though :wink: