I would also venture to say that it would be possible to make your own holder,,, if you look at inside socket picture you can see that it has a spring clamp to assure good contact with lamp metal,,, as normal pressure 'U' shaped would not stand heat and maintain good contact,,, this is the same problem with USA mogul's they are only a bent tab, and our aussie E40 socket is better built,,, it has a spring under tab to assure max contact with bulb centre point,, under all conditions etc...

More than enough elken, many thanks for the pics too.
Not sure about making my own holder (diy) sounds a bit extreme to my taste .

those brackets are a bit more involved than meets the eye... they specifically space the Fc2 bases to create "slop" where the lamp can "float" (as AV describes above). The screws are actually shoulder bolts, so when tightened, the Fc2 bases have some "wiggle room"... not suggesting it's worth $11, but it's not just a piece of metal with screws in it... there is a bit of precision involved... although, not much (ie. i'll also DIY it before I spend $11 on one )

AV, the 70W and 150W HQI lamps use a difference socket type (R7s or RX7s or something like that)... they are a pin type with spring loading between the mounts, they are not the same as the 250W and 400W mounts (Fc2).

cheers,
gs
[/quote]


The socket I listed is a RX7 not an Fc2 , dam no lamps or sockets. I didn't see any on ebay. I fixed the post.

They are a nice socket and do have shoulder bolts. The mount for me did pull tight against the shoulder bolts. But they set the ends with some extra spacing so the lamp can grow. The shoulder saves the ceramic from cracking. Don’t over tighten them.

ok... here was my DIY Fc2 connectors... before I purchased some "real ones" in the trading post area...

these worked suprisingly well... I just needed to be careful off all that metal so close to each other...

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

gs

I read in the posts that the condesor will not work with the 220 colector but how did you come to that conclusion sorry is i missed it.

You might have missed it and misread that the 220 will not work with a 4.5"x6.5fl" precondenser but it WILL work with a 4 5/8"x12"fl OR 5"x12"fl precondenser. Condensers are not just one type in diameter size or focal length (fl) but come in a variety. Its just preference how better a spread of light that each match of precondenser with fresnel is more pleasing to the owner. To me, the 317mm or the 330mm fresnel with the 4.5"x6.5"fl precondenser gives a better even spread to the entire 15" panel I'm using as compared to a 220mm fresnel matched with a 4 5/8"x12"fl or a 5"x12"fl precondenser (center of projection is much brighter than the corners, but I prefer corners-sides-center to be more even).

Seams like you have done alot of research here and i just want to make sure that i have the concept behind the physics right, so ill ask the expert. So i added my quick unscaled version to my PLOG would you please comment on it's correctness if you get a chance.. Thanks

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12235

I wanna try to put a condenser on my PJ where did u get the one that works?

These are Cheap condensers made of crown glass and made in France. Go to surplusshed.com and type in 'pcx' in their search, then look for the 4.5"x6.5"fl condenser. Remember this will work well with LLab's 317mm or the 330mm. Another thing Trofeo, buy several of these lens because they will crack if you don't cool them down affectively. Having several as spares will be helpful.

This is .............a bit scary GS.

this from the guy who first decided to pour a gallon of paint stripper on his anti-glare?

ummm it was 2.56 gallons actually,, hehe

Hey, at least I used a plastic brush!

Thanks for the support there sensai and btw hows your gallon of acetone stretching out and have you raped anymore laptops lately?

thats ok,,, I used 4 gallons of acetone, 6.5 gallons of port consumed and many lost nights sleeps during that time heheheheh

oh an to add to that cocktail serval smokes too,,, talk about volatile,,

PS sorry to hear of apparant ballast failure,,

I have been collecting heaps heaps and heaps of info on ballast systems too,, some pdf';s are in the order of 40meg,, scattered reading is starting to show that caution is needed with overdriving,,, mostly for lamp life,, one osram techo I spoke wih said that overdriving a lamp by 10% will often lead to lamp life of less than a thousand hours,, from what i understand current increase is sort of ok,, as differences between HPL and nav gear shows,, voltage is the killer either undr or over by hmmmm 5%,, the life curve drops dramatically..

there a thing called crest PF,, (power factor) when zero crossing occurs,, still ned to research more myself,, but I have been using a variac to slightly overdrive a HQI,, and checking lamp after each run too, for its state,,

Consumed 6.5 gallons or port?? Dang lucky you weren't experimenting with electricity...hehehe

ohhhhh no,, but the beloved BENQ rolled over and died two months or so ago,,, ffc failure thru to much bending,,, heheheh then bought a new panel which i killed within two hours of ownership,,

ohh that was was the case while doing all those speco and different lamp tests last month,,,, heheh as DAZ said needed the port smokes and high energy just to have nerve to play with it all,,,, he is right too,,

Hi SIMUL8R.

I noticed in your plog that you're using a ViewEra v152 monitor for this PJ. I purchased the same monitor and was wondering how you fixed the FFC problem? What kind of extension did you use and how did you disconnect the ffc from the board? Do you use a special tool or did you just pull on it until it came out? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Hey tulsic, not to scare you but my ffc ribbon tore. What I used was a larger pin ribbon and cut the rest off and matched it to the pins on the board, I held the ribbon to the board using a small plastic flat edge alligator clip and hot glued the rig so it wouldn't move. Of course I had to make sure I aligned the ribbon correctly before hot gluing it. But prior to aligning the ribbon I had to file the two protruding points on either side of the pins (on the board) so that the extension ribbon will sit flat pin to pin. It took a little effort but I got it to work (aligning the pins was the difficult part). I may have pictures of this somewhere, let me look and I'll post them up for you once I find them.

what ? ... don't ya like it ?

... looks can be deceiving though... that little clip held the wire in place better that the Fc2 connector holds the bulb ! ... If I knew of a material to cover the metal in that wouldn't have melted I would have used it... oh well... that's over with now anyway... i'm on to much "safer" stuff

good point... i only used a 1/2 gallon of stripper on my LCD... hey wait a minute... that's why my polarizer got ruined... didn't use the full gallon (or is it 2.56gal?)

What's this... SIM's plog on the 2nd page? This is not good!

There must be some update isn't there?

Well honestly, I just came back from a week and half of R&R in Southern Cal., prior to that my e-ballast might have just taken a dive so I'm currently dead in the water unless I check on it's warranty or switch back to my S51 core. I've also won 2 Osram HQI's (old style) from ebay, one of which I've just fired up to Mikyd as a favor for him offering one of his Plus bulbs (peace, miky). And, ah....I'm also contemplating another enclosure. I'm not quite happy with this one....a big SIGH on this thought.

Also, my son's 7" Panasonic portable DVD lost it's backlight while out in Cal. So he gave it to me. I'll leave it up to you guys to figure out what I'm thinking about how to utilize this. A google of this DVD player states it has 500 horizontal lines for resolution. What that means I have no clue so feel free to enlighten me on this, anyone.

Otherwise, I'm reading on all your topics picking up some good ideas and contemplating some newer ones of my own. I hope to get back with some fresh news soon.....I hope

Nice. Vacation. ...for me it's this upcoming week. Hooray ! Gonna take the kid to Story Land up near the White Mountains... he's sure to *really* enjoy that !

Basically horizontal lines of resolution has everything to do with the quality of the image. For instance 720p (1280x720) has 720 lines of resolution. 500 lines of resolution is basically what is offered with the digital miniDV format for camcorders... it's a good quality for a consumer tape format... basically your looking at something just beyond the resolution of 640x480 for quality. Pretty good.... and free !

cheers,
gs

Hey thanks GS, it's to bad I can't hook up anything else to the portable. Guess it'll just be for movie viewing. This will give me a chance to use the Dukane 327 and perhaps use a aspheric precondenser somehow. I'd expect the lumens to jump higher than my 15" LCD big boy.

Vacationwise, it was great. Got to see Shamu, it's always amazing seeing a 30 foot killer whale leap off the surface of the water at 10 feet. Sucker was HUGE! Best wishes to you and your son at Story Land.

Most of the small DVD players have a backlight cutout switch to turn off the back light when the cover is closed. Each time mine quits I pop the little tiny button with a pen and bang! It’s fixed.

Is the Dukane 327 a 575 watt HMI?

Thanks AV, I'll look into it and see if this portable is still salvagable.

The Dukane 327 is the triplet that came off my overhead projector.

Sim let me say you have done a awesome job with your PJ and the work you have put in with the precondenser lens as some has stated earlier in your plog this is definite Hall a Fame work.

RR

Thanks RaginRudolph, greatly appreciate the recognition. I just felt the current design is not exactly what I would like to submit in the catagory for Hall of Fame just yet. As much as it works quite well it is quite huge and takes up a bit of space. The vertical design is what I was really wanting but how to do this while keeping the bulb vertical and not horizontal to the panel means bending the path twice. Another design is again a fold but horizontally with the bulb still vertical. I'm still running it thru the mill for now.

Again, thanks on the kudo's for my work on precondensers. I deeply share this with others who in the past submitted their work and feedback throughout the experimenting stage. I will not mention who they are for fear of leaving one or two out by lack of memory. They know who they are and I appluad them all.

Keep it real fellas and more power to you in your experimenting endeavors and pushing the envelopes!!!

sim

For those interested in my ViewEra strip 15", here some pics if it will help.

more

SIMUL8R,

Tomorrow, I will be picking up two Osram HQI-TS 400W bulbs, that are exactly like yours (the older level).

Could you show a picture of your set-up mount for your newly purchased Osram HQI-TS 400W bulb? If you don't have the set-up put together yet, could you show/list the different parts, particularly the caps, and the FC2 connectors? Where did you purchase the caps and FC2 connectors?

Cheers!

Fulcrum

Sure Fulcrum, with the help of a few people namely mikyd and arizonavideo.

The FC2 connectors were bought (still waiting) from Hellolights.com, Customer Service Staff, 877.995.2677. Not the same place from where mikyd got his but he helped made my decision in just getting the mounts since the bracket was to short for our old HQI bulbs. Check the first page of his thread on Precondenser experimenting, he listed some places you can check for the mounts.

Thanks to arizonavideo on the capacitor replacement. Seems I misplaced or loss my original cap and A/V found me a replacement on ebay 55uf Running Capacitor for my 14 pound S51 Cooper core ballast. I beleive my original was 48uf and with this new 55uf the Ushio S400dd is burning quite nicely. The label on the cap states it's a Advance 55mdf 240vac cap only to be used on an Advance core. But the Cooper ballast is sure getting hot to the touch after 6 hours of use with the S400dd that I had to put a fan to it. Perhaps it's a little to much for the bulb but might be ok for the HQI but I won't know for sure until I try it. I can't imagine adding another cap to it while using the Ushio. Let's put it this way, it also cracked the new glass condenser I just put on. It's definately bright and I'm liking it but...... Maybe A/V will jump in on this and enLIGHTEN us.

So for now I don't have a setup for the HQI made yet but I'll be keeping this thread posted.

too bad it cracked the new condenser, so you should be running at higher than 400 watts now, correct?
<annoying geek behavior>
while you're waiting, maybe you could do a transmission test? huh huh? couldja couldja?
</annoying geek behavior>

You can still go up on that light. i am at 479w, You should be around 460w right?

Sux too, cuz I have a 55uF that came off mine I could have sold or did some trading for.

Yeah that sucked! , Well anyway miedo., are you using your HQI with your 479w overdriven S51 core ballast or are you using the Ushio S400dd? If with the Ushio is you ballast kinda hot?

Ok, miky. Lucky for you, I was in the mood. I was having ffc ribbon issues so I decided to remove the panel and fix the dam thing . But before I did I took some readings and then afterwards. Here you go. I didn't do the math, perhaps you can help with this. This is with the S51 core, S400dd, 317 fresnel rear and (a cracked) 4.5"x6.5fl" precondenser.

Before removing panel:
53" x 72"

83 128 82
102 172 119
71 138 102

Average 111

After removing panel:
53" x 72"

1211 2030 1314
1553 2710 1913
1243 2780 1599

Average 1817

thanks, I'll stop pestering you now maybe....
looks like around 6.1, maybe 6.3% somewhere... thanks a lot , I'm going to add it to the transmission list
man even with a cracked condenser you've got about 245 lumens! (2.46 sq. meters) .... this is with the overdriven ballast?

Well, my previous original cap for this Cooper 14 pound ballast was a 47 or 48uf (not sure) now I have a 55 (thanks to A/V) so I guess you can say it has been tweeked. The ballast does get a bit hot without a fan after 5 hours of use and of course the Ushio has gotten a bit hotter as well, hense the cracked condenser compared to before. The exhaust from the lightbox fan seems much warmer as compared to before when using your PlusRite bulb and the e-ballast.

I did some calculating after looking at yours and what I got came out to be 273.06 ANSI. How did you get 245?

2.46 sq/mtrs x 111 = 273.06

ummmm..... thats a good question....was in a hurry because dinner was burning so I putzed the last calc...oops

This thread should be named the six-pack thread all you need is a six-pack of bud or condenser lens to partake.

The SD400 has a 27mm arc and should be around 500 watts to 550 watts with the extra cap. The SD4000 is already driven harder than most lamps at 400watts/27mm= 14.8 watts per mm of lamp arc. The highest power normal lamp that I know of is mindoracing's 1000 watt grow light at 1000w/55mm=18.2 watts per mm of lamp tube arc.

A normal MH has about a 40mm arc tube so 400w/40mm=10 watts per mm.

The SD400 at 500 watts is at 500w/27mm=18.5 watts per mm of lamp arc.

The lamp I melted was at 940 watts with about a 40mm arc tube so 940/40mm=23.5 watts per mm.

23.5 watts per mm is not varry far from 18.5 watts per mm for the SD400. I would not expect it to last real long if it is at 500 watts. If it is at 550 watts then it will be at 20.4 watts per mm. The color should look better with the lamp making more red.

The HQI I had had about a 38mm arc tube so at 550 watts it would be 550watts/38mm=14.4 watt per mm of arc tube. This is less than a standard SD400 that is why I picked 550 watt for all the longer arc MH lamps. In fact if I could find really cheep 6500K standard MH with a 40mm arc tube we could run it at 750 watt! This is still less than what your are driving your SD400 at. It might only last 1000 to 2000 hours with cooling but if the lamps was $25.00 that might be OK. Just buy a six-pack

Sim you need a good high temp condenser. Do you have room for a 6" one? Meyer2 has a nice 4.5" one he might really want a 6" one. I bet his will not crack.

Mindoracing how are you finding your power levels? I would think for the cap you added you power levels would be higher.

Sim do you have a multi-meter? Did the cooper say on the label the stock cap value? Most ballast do.

I would think the power with the HQI should still be around 550 watts if the ballast came with a 48uf cap. The SD400 may be about the same, maybe you should by a six-pack of those too.

Working on it.......(hic)...oh, you mean the precondenser...(hic). I am actually looking for a pyrex 4.5"x6.5fl" as we speak and I found vincentlighting.com has their's for around 50 to 60 clams. Fulcrum actually first found these guys. But I'm open ears for anyone who knows of a better place.

Yes, I do have a multimeter, guess I'll do some testing just to see what this S51 is putting out with the 55uf cap. And, no, there was no mention on the ballast as to what cap it is suppose to be used with. Unless, I'm blind to what the specs are stating.

Six pack huh, well this BUD'S for you....gulp, gulp, gulp....aahhhhh

Have to show this.

I took the last photo last night since upgrading my capacitor to a 55uf from a 48uf, thanks to A/V. This is with my Ushio S400dd, S51 Cooper core ballast and my 70"x70" High Power Dalite. Must say that upping my cap is making the Ushio rock especially with the color temp (I would think) but it has also cracked 2 more crown glass condensers because of the increased heat, I took this last pic before the second lens gave in!

Of course the triplet and screen has a great deal of credit in this as well.

1. The first pic is with Ushio lamp layed horizontally, a Dukane 327mm triplet with the 220mm & 317mm fresnel and NO PRENCONDENSER. Standard projection screen.

2. The second pic is with the Ushio positioned vertically, the Dukane 327 triplet, 2ea 317mm's fresnels WITH 4.5"x6.5"fl crown glass PRECONDENSER. Standard projection screen.

3. The last pic is with the Ushio position veritically with the larger capacitor (55uf) my 18" Besseler/Buhl and 550mm and 317mm fresnels WITH 4.5"x6.5"fl crown glass PRECONDENSER. Dalite HighPower screen.

Now to schedule some time to work in the Osram HQI and maybe a pyrex condenser.

Anyways, enjoy.

1.

2...

3...

SIMUL8R,

So remind me, I believe you may have mentioned this before. What are the adverse effects of having a cracked lens? Is there a line or a shadow projected into the final picture? Once the lens cracks to relieve the internal thermal stresses, it doesn't crack again does it?

So once cracked, if the image is adversely effected, can you simply reassemble the lens, hold the lens together (with a metal ring thingabob) and rotate it (like you did the bulb) to minimize the negative effect?

OK, so I'll pose this question... more for just brainstorming than to actually get an answer... Is it possible to pre-crack a lens in a controlled manner, so that any resulting negative effect could be rotated out of the way? The pre-crack would keep the lens from cracking further when heated. If so, it would be a nice way to save $ due to replacing cracked lenses, or purchasing a pyrex lens.

BTW, that last picture you showed looks amazing. So much more detail is pulled out. The overdriving is definitely is the way to go! Nice Job!

Fulcrum

Sim have you tried the 55uf capacitor with no condenser ,if that pic is better than your first to pics I'll adding that combo to my PJ also that last picture is breath taking like Fulcrum said the detail is amazing .

RR

The last pic is so different with two changes it hard to tell if it was the screen or the lamp overdrive that made such a differance.

Funny, I see no lines but I might be seeing some lost lumens with the fractures created on the lens. I did some quick lux measurements and saw some drop. As far as further cracking, I'd have to say there might be. It seems that if more stress areas were created would cause additional cracks. It's structure has been affected, just expose it to more heat and it'll find a way to crack somewhere else. Think of it as a windshield on a car that was cracked at a corner, give it time under a hot sun and it will spread more.

The lens can't be reassembled, the cracks will still cause severe interferences no matter how you turn it.

Not sure about precracking the lens but an interesting idea.

Thanks, I was kinda impressed myself especially since I'm only using a 15" panel. I would have thought I'd get this much detail if I had used a 17" instead.

Would it be rude to ask to see the original?