I currently have an older, outdated Viewsonic PJ503D DLP projector. The bulb life is nearing the end of its life and I have began to look for a replacement bulb. I'm sure most of the people reading this realize that the bulb for an outdated projector is quite expensive. I love my projector, but my major complaint is that the bulbs have a very limited lifespan.

I am writing because I was looking over a few DIY projector project videos and reading a few articles and an idea popped into my head. As dumb as it sounds, i realized I already have 99% of the components that I need and all that I lack is a bulb to power it. One of the articles that I found recommended a 400 watt 6500 kelvin Metal Halide bulb to be the power source.

**Now my question is: Could I purchase a bulb of the 6500 kelvin color spectrum and a bulb socket; and then adapt this new bulb and socket to my existing Viewsonic PJ503d projector safely with its stock components?

I realize that I would have to do some kind of modding to get this new socket and bulb to fit. I would love for this to work because I just love my projector and if this is possible, this bulb is supposed to have a life of 10,000 hours.

~Nick

Most likely...No

Your projector is set up for use with a small arc light source. The bulb you are looking at has nowhere near that small of an arc.

Also it would be nearly impossible to get that bulb to fit anywhere near the focal point where it needs to go.

Also your projector has a 160 watt bulb. So you would need a new ballast also.

Like I said.... NO.

Though a 400w MH bulb would be just about impossible to mount into your projector you may find some ideas in the Infocus X2 lamp mod plog link below.

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=26697

Thank you for the response. I think I understand why you say this bulb just won't work. The bulb that i mentioned is quite large and arc spacing (wrong terminology? sry extremely new to the projector mods) would be too big for the tiny light tunnel that the PJ503D has equipped. Is there an alternative style that you would recommend?

I apologize for the newbie ignorance but I am trying to get informed on this stuff. I have been looking information about what a ballast is and what it would be used for. All i have come up with is that its needed in just about every mod that ive seen so far. Could you explain what and why these components are needed? If i was to stay near the original bulb's specs (wattage, voltage, lumens) would i still need to buy anything extra to make this work?

/bump

Could any suggest a possible replacement light source?

The only commercial bulb replacements i have heard of are:

-Rebuilding the lamp using the old reflector and housing but replacing the actual lamp... is very hard to source the lamp, the only link that comes to mind is here: http://www.diypro.us/lamps.html (all of the ones on the actual page are likely unsuitable, i would contact him)

-A Xenon headlamp setup, will likely be more dim and less natural colors, hard to fit into the pj but not impossible

-LED based... Very few have succeeded, also expensive.



A ballast is the piece of electronics that supplies power to the lamp, its wattage must match the wattage of the bulb that you are using. They are needed for any arc type lamp. (UHP, MH, HID, Xenon etc).

LEDs require a 'driver' circuit to supply them with the correct ammount of current.