I have been thinking of ideas to add to my second build. One of the ideas, is to have everything in a separate dedicated box on the ground and run everything to the mounted projector using only one plug. I believe another member on the forums has mentioned this as a design feature, however I could not find any examples of it being achieved. This would save tons of space on the inside of the projector, and it could be shrunk to only envelope the light path and the LCD. This way I could run a single cord with everything needed for the LCD and light in one plug. I mean everything too: Power to the LCD, the LVDS connection for the controller to panel, and even the wires for the bulb. I know the LVDS connection can theoretically be a max of 20 to 30 ft. I'm planning on a much more manageable 10 to 15ft. cord.

Now I plan on using the 575w HMI bulb in my projector and I know that the leads to the bulb are relatively high voltage compared to the low-voltage lines of the signal wires. The concern I have is whether or not the high voltage lines would cause interference with the signal lines.

I've searched the internet and found a possibility for such a problem:

These connections seem like a great option that could accommodate both the high voltage and the signal. My questions to yall is if you think these would be overkill? If so, do you think running all the wires through say... a salvaged printer parallel port would work?

You cant extend the bulb lead coming from the igniter beyond a few feet (like 2 think) because of the several Kilovolt pulse it takes to start the bulb. All of this is doable if you were to run the cable powering the igniter in the mega cable and keep the igniter next to the bulb. The only thing is this puts you at 2 high current high voltage lines for the igniter, and one for ground. I would say the cable you linked to is about right if you were to do it this way, only it looks to only have 2 beefy connections when 3 are needed.

My 2 cents

EDIT: looks like those connections are available with more than 2 big pins. I would use that over a printer cable. If you did use a printer cable, you would need a separate connector for bulb power (a 4 pin molex comes to mind).

Buzz,

I've done something like that, only I put a 12v computer PSU and the ballast in a seperate box and ran cables to the inside of the projector. My wiring is a bit complicated because I wanted more features than 2 toggle switches to turn things on and off.

I used a 5.25" Computer fan controller, which I can sense temp readings on the LCD itself to regulate how fast the fans run. I am using the IR remote capability of the Pixelworks controller to turn things on and off. That creates some difficulty with the ballast and power in one box and the brains in another. Here's my solution.

I used a 12 gauge 3 conductor cable (which was one conductor more than I needed) to run from the breakout box to the lamp. Since this was potentially high voltage I did not want it mixed in the same connector as my low voltage leads. Then I have a second 3 conductor cable running constant 12v+, Ground, and 12v+ Switched leads. To make sure they didn't get confused I used an XLR connector for the low voltage stuff, and a 3-prong computer PSU connector (scavenged from the gutted power supply).

I'll post some pics of my finished product. Oh, and BTW, my 400watt MH cable is about 3 feet long and I have no problems with it lighting.

Well after a couple of redesigns and considerations, I have abandon the idea of separating things. I found the space to put everything in one box, so hopefully this will simplify things at least in that aspect. You can see where the current design stands in my signature under my second build PLOG.

But I really like the way you solved this problem. I even looked into XLR connections myself cause I thought they would have worked well. Glad to see I would have been right .

I'm still very interested to hear some more details as to how you are incorporating the IR capabilities of the pixelworks board. I am using the pixelworks board for the 7.2" lcd in my build, so I would love to add the ability to operate it with just the remote. Is there any way you could put together a diagram of your wiring, or anything specific that shows how you are using the remote. I would really appreciate it. I took a look at your PLOG, and it looks great. Maybe some pictures of the wiring connections and the wiring at the bottom of the box would really help.