Hey all,

I have a big cooling problem with my projector.

I am using 2 evermax hdd fans from LL and they are running both on full speed.

The air is running from the holes at the top, between the collector fresnels and the Lexan sheet, through the lamp, under and between the metal sheet, through the wires out the box.

I can feel the warm air coming out and I can feel the air that is sucked in the top holes, but the Lexan is getting really hot and two times it started to bend, after it cooled off it became straight again.

And it's not only the Lexan that is getting extreem heat, the wood in the box is also HOT.

I got a probe hanging near the lamp that goes to the thermomentor and it gete temperatures of 40-50-53 degrees C.

Someone help me out please.

Your cooling holes at the top are rather large thus forcing you to have your collumating fresnel too far away. Unless you are willing to cut a new top with a narrower slot, I will try to make suggestions based on what you have there. I would move the lexan all the way up to the sled, placed as near to where you currently have the fresnel as possible. Then I would move the fresnel to the recommended distance from the LCD (~15mm) and you NEED to have a 1/2" min. cooling slot under the fresnel and lexan. It appears that you will have to cut out a portion of the sled to have a proper air path without having to move everything.

Also you need to have the LCD and lexan sealed(foam weatherstripping?) against the top to assure that the air flows along the proper path and does not just bypass the LCD. This will draw cooling air across both sides of the fresnel and out the bottom. Not exactly the lumenlab design but it WILL work better than what you currently have.

Once you have made these mods, I would suggest removing the filter material for the test run and compare temps with and without it. If it is too hot with the filter media installed, I would suggest looking for a different media. (I like the idea of pantyhose; and it should work great as a filter too.)

Also: are those aluminum channels? ...and are the edge connectors insulated from shorting?

Your lexan is waaay to close to your bulb. Try to get it closer to your back lens.

I don't know if the UV protection of the Lexan has anything to do with the heat, but mine started to bow a little, and I realized I had it in with the UV protection facing the wrong way. I had put a tiny scratch on 1 of the corners to let me know which side was which. After I turned it around, no more bowing...

Since you have the rear fresnel in the wrong place, you may have to recut the lid since you need to put the rear fres 15mm away from the lcd you are gonna have to either move the lamp forward or the whole sled back (and this would cause you to readjust where you have your triplet as well).

Otherwise, if you move your lexan up a few inches you should be okay assuming the rest of your airflow works.

I am surprised you didn't follow your 3d model a little more closely.

Thanks for helping,

I am changing everything around now.

I will let you all know if it solved the problem soon!

I have moved the lamp, lexan, fresnels and lcd more towards the triplet.
And I just tested if it would overheat again, and it did...

I think it might be a bit less, but still too hot to have it on for longer then 10 minutes.

The air may not be getting past the metal panel. Also how much of a gap is under the lexan? And are there ANY light leaks from the top of the box? In other words is it airtight? If you see any light seal it up better.

There are a few leaks but they are too small to care for. 90% of the air comes from the holes at the top, the rest comes from leaks by lens, controle panel and leaks at the top. The gap under the lexan is about 3 cm. The air is getting past the metal too, from all sides.....
I can't imagen that because of a few light leaks they get 20 degrees too warm. And if I block the airholes at the top I really hear that the fans are running slower allot.

Wonder if brain can fix it

Mine's not set up too different from yours. The light leaks don't matter. I only have dorr and window weatherstripping on the underside of my lid, around the edges, and it just sits on top of my PJ. My fans aren't sealed, and my front piece of plywwod ( focus) is not sealed. My fans run faster when the lid is off, and pull harder when it is on. The first thing I would do is remove the big metal panel from behind your bulb and reflector. My PJ is sitting in a plywood enclosure, with carpet on the outside of that. I live in Texas, and yesterday, when it was 80+ degrees all day, my PJ temp. never got above 77 degrees...My ballast is also on the outside of the enclosure, which is probably helping with the heat IMO...

You must have a 1/2" gap under the fresnel also, otherwise there will be no air drawn across the LCD and you will just get a hot dead airspace in there. Maybe it's there and I just can't see it. If your cooling slot was previously between the fresnel and the lexan you will have to cut a new one.

Please look at this diagram.

I had read before building mine, that others who had used 2 Evercool fans said they sounded like they were bogged down, maybe because the 1/2 inch gap wasn't enough for all the air the 2 Evercools were trying to pull. I needed to raise my LCD and Fresnals 3/4 inch off the bottom of my enclosure to be on center with the arc of the bulb. This means that I have a 3/4 inch gap below my 1st fresnal and Lexan, which I believe helps the Evercools pull enough air...

Yeah, that is a minimum.

What it looks like you have now is the air going down between the lcd and fres. and also under the lexan. the air between the lexan and fres is not exchanging and is just heating up.

Ok, what I see to fix this... I would combine the lexan with the rear fres.. you need to make sure you have atleast 1/2" under them.this will allow the air to come down from the top and get directed between the lcd and rear fres. you may need to seal the top of the rear fres. with some weather striping to keep the air from going straight back instead of down. the air will go down under the fres.lexan setup and go up past the bulb and out your fans.
You may also need to realign every thing else once you get the airflow fixed.
also I found that the evercool fans work best when encased in a thin wall that does not interfear with the turbine cage. a thick wall that blocks air flow on the inside bottom adds resistance and slows down the fan.

Hey again,

I moved everything, and hammerd everything down, and now I think I'm in big shit again. The cooling problem is almost solved though.
I moved everything just as far for the lens to have full focus abbility. So if the focus box is half way out the box the screen should be sharp.

As you can see it's blurry at all sides of the screen and I think I've the focus box too long, please check it out!

What should I do !!

Should I cut off 3-4 cm of the focus box?

the site hosting the pics is looking for a password to be able to view. can you repost on this site?