Review on 📽️ AnyBeam Pico Mini Portable Pocket Projector - Focus-Free Laser Scanning Technology - Lightweight Design - Compatible with iPhone, iPad, Android, Laptop, Tablet, PC, Gaming Console - Perfect for Parties and Home Use (Metallic Gray) by Peter Joseph

No other projector I have found can do what this projector can do. For my use case (project) this is the perfect projector. For me, the key features were "true black” thanks to the MEMS laser and the fanless design. My use case is unique and below I will explain how I use this projector. Note. This projector will NOT work with Raspberry Pi 4b (more than 8 hours). The RPi4b's HDMI timing seems to have a small glitch from time to time, causing AnyBeam to get stuck with a frozen image of what was being displayed at the time of the glitch. This happens for 8 hours of uninterrupted viewing. I've exchanged emails with AnyBeam support and they are aware of the issue, but the problem seems to be on the RPi4b side. It would be nice if the AnyBeam firmware could solve this problem - maybe there will be an update of the AnyBeam firmware at some point. Hopefully a future RPi4b update will fix the broken HDMI output. Project background: I have a vintage Radio Shack atomic clock in my bedroom that projects the time on the ceiling. It was awesome and still works great. However, in addition to the current time, I wanted to display other information on the ceiling, such as outside temperature, inside temperature, wind speed, thermostat settings. Additional information I want to view is available through Home Assistant. Home Assistant is a very powerful open source home automation software. The problem is how to display this information on the bedroom ceiling. A natural solution is some sort of projector connected to a Raspberry Pi or a Micro x86 PC. The good news is that I don't need the brightness (high lumens) as the bedroom is dark at night and I don't need high brightness to view legible text. In fact, it should be very dark so as not to disturb your sleep at night. The problem is finding a projector that doesn't use technology that "blocks" the light to produce black. Projector technologies like LCD and DLP project very bright light through a filter that "blocks" the colors you don't want to be displayed. The challenge is blocking all light from very bright lights to get a less than perfect black. So black really does appear as dark grey. This is often referred to as "image framing" because the entire display is illuminated and the edges of the projected display are visible, even though the image should be black. A small problem when looking for a working projector is finding something without a fan. Since the projector will be on my bedside table, which is next to my head, a projector with a fan that makes noise when I fall asleep is out of the question. Not to mention that tiny fans are prone to failure, and since they're running over 8 hours a day, fanless mode is a must. AnyBeam projector to the rescue! Project output: AnyBeam projector connected to Dell Optiplex 3020M via HDMI via DisplayPort adapter. I started with a Raspberry Pi 4b but had to replace it due to the above issue. Luckily, the mini PC consumes 1% CPU usage, so the fan never kicks on. The PC runs Linux and a custom Python code. The Python code connects to Home Assistant and displays text on a screen that's projected onto the ceiling. Since this new ceiling display replaces Radio Shack's old atomic clock ceiling display, I also run ntp to ensure accurate predicted times. Using the code, I lower the lightness of the color to 15% to make it very dark, which is perfect for sleeping. The great thing is that I can change the brightness of the color throughout the day and project perfectly legible text on the ceiling during the day - think about bedtime. :) I noticed that in a completely black room, the AnyBeam projector showed a thin white line in the lower right corner of the projected image. It seems to be below the 720th line of the screen resolution. The easy fix was to put some black tape on the underside of the lens so that it blocks the unwanted thin white line, but doesn't block (most of) the bottom of the display. Mounting: AnyBeam is mounted on a gooseneck to guide the projector on the bedroom ceiling. The AnyBeam projector features a 1/4-20 mount, making it easy to attach to various stands. Code: The Python code for this project is on github at kkellner/rpi-ha-ceiling-display.