CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

ecrabb · Last edited by ecrabb on Fri Dec 11, 2009 11:53 pm; edited 1 time in total

Dead office digital projector. Infocus LP130. 2002-vintage compact/portable, DLP, XGA.

It's on its third bulb, and probably doesn't have 750 hours total on the projector. The first bulb died at around 250 hours, the second around 500. It's rarely used, and has only been transported a handful of times. It has absolutely horrendous color, but it works OK for PowerPoints. It's kind of a POS actually, but I picked the model back then because it was supposedly best-in-class according to several reviews I read.

OK, so right in the middle of a presentation yesterday, the image went dark. I wasn't there, but I assume it either overheated for some reason or the $250 bulb died again. What is that, $1/hour?

Anyway, I have it on my desk now, and it looks like the front-most heat ejection fan isn't spinning. It can't even manually jump-start it with power-on. The other two fans spin up, and I can hear the color wheel spin up, but after 15 seconds the color wheel spins back down, and the other two fans continue to run.

Does anybody know the theory-of-operation on these things? Does it test for the fan before it will even fire the bulb? The fan does have a sensor wire, so I assume they use it - but, do they use it to even prevent start-up, or just trigger a shut down.

Is there any way to tell if the bulb is dead without spending another $200 on one... For a projector that isn't worth that much even WITH a working bulb?

I think we're going to buy a ~$1200 projector (we never use it out of the office) so we can get it off the conference room table, but it would be nice to get this one going again if it was just a $10 fan. If for no other reason, so we can sell it for $150, and use the money to go get beer and wings after work some Thursday night. Wink

Oh yeah, and any favorite picks in the $1250 ballpark for a projector we can ceiling mount... Maybe SXGA for both good PowerPoint performance, as well as good March Madness performance? Wink

Thanks,
SC

wowchad · Joined: 29 Oct 2009 Posts: 53 Location: Milwaukee'ish, WI

I have a box of bulbs I can go through if you give me the part number.
If I happen to have one I'll sell it to you for super cheap. I'd rather score brownie points with my new fellow forum members rather than start listing all them at .99 on fleabay. Chad

ecrabb · Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 6:25 pm Post subject:

If it's the bulb, that'd be sweet, Chad.

Here's what I can find:

Type: UHP
Wattage: 120W
Lamp Life: 2,000 Hrs
Model Number: SP-LAMP-LP1
Equivalent Part Numbers:
XD10M-930
456-233
33L3456
TLPLP4

Fits Projector Model:
InFocus LP130

Here's what the whole assembly looks like:

SC

ecrabb · Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 6:30 pm Post subject:

Looks like SP-LAMP-LP1 is the Infocus part no for the whole lamp assembly.

The bulb itself is stamped:

UHP 120/132W 1.0
101339240

SC

emdawgz1 · Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 7949

Not to thread jack... but what was the picture like on that? I'm looking for a digital to mount in my "activity room" something bright for Super bowl Parties and Daytona Parties and Wii games with some families in my Cong...

Thanks!!! Thumbs Up

macgyver655 · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 8508

You may want to check for a thermal switch on the feed lines to the lamp. You may also want to look for swollen, vented or leaking caps.

How about the power led? green, red, blinking?

Also lamp door switch.

macgyver655 · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 8508

I'm trying to find info on that other fan to see if it should be on or not. Some fans don't come on until a certain temp but doesn't mean that's how that one works. I'll check some more.

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

SC your topic head line should start say YADD, drop the N. Wink

NAshou

ecrabb · Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 12:02 am Post subject:

Mac, thanks for checking on that... I didn't even think of the fan being temp controlled... I just assumed the thing would be hot as a pistol in no time, but maybe it helps the bulb come up to temp faster if the fan waits until temp X is reached. Good point.

On your other suggestions... The LED never changes from solid green (I'm guessing no diagnostic functionality). The bulb access door switch seems functional, but I haven't checked it. I would assume it's fine since the picture died in mid presentation.

It does have a hard power switch... So, when you shut it off, there's no more air circ... I suppose there's a giant heat spike. But, still, this thing probably gets used about once or twice a month, for a few hours here and there, or a couple of times a year for a day or two.

I suppose the simplest and most likely explanation is the bulb. It's just crazy that not a single one has lasted more than 250-300 hours.

Oh, and thanks, Nashou - I fixed the title. Wink

SC

wowchad · Joined: 29 Oct 2009 Posts: 53 Location: Milwaukee'ish, WI

Got kinda busy today, we're down to 4 day work weeks and today my Plant mng had off so I was running around quite a bit and didn't get to look for ya. I'll check early next week and let you know.
Does the bulb get cloudy when they blow or give some sign of being burnt out, broken filament visible?