How to sustain lamp life?

Hi

I am fairly new to PJ's but I have my AE200 coming tomorrow and am quite excited! I have just built my own diy screen and cant wait to set it up...

Knowing me, I know I will worry about the lamp life and will be switching it on and off all the time... That is obviosuly bad! so is there any suggestions people can give me to make the lamps last longer? things to do, not to do etc...??

Thanks guys

[theritz]

The main thing with lamp-life is to avoid hot/warm restarts - if you turn off the projector, let it cool down completely before starting it up again.

As far as PJs in general, a non-smoking environment (smoke seriously gums up the internals....), don't have an over-warm environment (gives the projector a hard time keeping cool...) and clean the filter regularly.... if it gets clogged up, it also prevents enough air from getting into the projector = heat damage to the optics.

Enjoy your new toy.....


Sean G.

[buns]

A question I would honestly like to know the answer to, would it be better to run minimise turn offs, or minimuse hours. For both I can see advantages...... turning the machine off everytime you are stopping using it will mean that the bulb will do less hours so to my understanding will maintain its brightness BUT is more likely to die suddenly through a power on/off surge or something similar. Conversely, only turn the machine off when you know for sure it wont be used again that evening, resultingly there will be less power offs and less chance of a mystery death, but it will do many more hours so will more liekly suffer decreases in bulb performance...... it would be interesting to quantify which is a better approach or whether one is betters at all.

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[Kramer]

To power off or leave running......that is the question

IMO common sense is the order of the day. Avoid insanely long running periods (I mean 5/6 hours +). Give ample cooling down time before restarts. Maintain well - filters etc...

That's it!

No point in getting paranoid about this versus that. We all have PJs to use & enjoy. Lamps/bulbs will need replacing at some stage. Others argue about whether "standby" is better than "unplugged". Again, shouldn't be a concern.

90% of engine wear occurs at startup (so I believe) - doesn't mean we leave our cars running all day

lmao, thanks guys... just can't wait to play mario kart DD life size... if they were real

[Tempest]

I guess like normal light bulbs Projector bulbs would naturally fail at startup.

In a normal bulb material is lost from the element over time making it thinner and weaker as the hours go by.

You have a cold bulb with a thin element, you then (in a split second) ram 240 volts into it, and plink the element breaks.

If you could gently increase the voltage then you may get more out of it, though how much I don't know.
Like (I guess) at home a dimmer switch should be more gentle to a bulb than a normal light switch.

I wonder just how badly the manufacturors want the bulbs to last a long time.....

[LV426]

As a rule of thumb only (without empirical evidence to support it) I'd say that it is better to leave it on for up to 30 minutes than turn it off for less than 30 minutes before turning it on again.

If your 'idle' time is going to be > 30 minutes - turn it off.

[Kramer]

The HS10 & Z9k (probably others too) have an enery saving/economy mode which switches off the lamp after approx. 20 minutes if no signal is received. The PJ keeps running but the lamp goes out.

Handy

[Stinja]

Originally posted by theritz
As far as PJs in general, ... don't have an over-warm environment (gives the projector a hard time keeping cool...)

So what counts as overwarm? 20ish degrees C? or should we all be sitting around in coats and wolley hats? It's a pity as this is going to rule out the "Changing Rooms" beach-themed lounge, complete with sand floor and sunlamps...

and clean the filter regularly.... if it gets clogged up, it also prevents enough air from getting into the projector = heat damage to the optics.

Again, anymore quantification on this? once per month? six months? or just when it looks dirty?

I cant recall seeing stuff like this in the FAQ, so is it an optimising thing, so stuff newbies should really know and do?

[Jonathan100]

The panasonic manual says to pop the filter out and vacumn it once per 100 hours usage (2 months?). The reccomendation here is to put the vacumn nozzle beside the airvent when you remove the filter to prevent any dust being knocked into the projector.

Panasonic also recommend changing the filter once per year. This should be available from your panasonic repair centre and the US site says they cost $4 or something.

[Crocodile JD]

I agree with Nigel that 30 mins max. is about right. We often run the PJ early evening for the kids while they are waiting for their tea. When tea is ready the kids stop watching for usually 20 minutes or so and then resume watching. I never turn the PJ off during this period. I stop the player (ie. blue screen, not pause) and the player picks up from where it left off on pressing play.

I always put the dust cover on after use, as soon as the PJ has cooled off a bit. Mine isn't permanently mounted so when the PJ is completely cool, I actually pack it away after use, it's completely dust free then. OTT maybe but it only takes 3 or 4 minutes to set up when I want to use it and packing away every time serves another valuable function, it makes the wife happier, relatively speaking

Cheers

Croc

[Sandman]

I dont know if the AE200 has this feature but on the AE100 you can set the lamp to high power or low power. Choosing low power can double the lamp life and is still sufficiently bright enough for watching dvd's.
Thought I would mention it as nobody else has.