250W short arc MH lamp and ballast

[18wheeler]

We have a real short arc lamp now!

It has been discussed in other thread.

Here is the repost of its spec:

wattage: 250W
arc length < 4mm
color temp: 6500K
life span: > 2500hr (replacing, not failure time)
ballast: integrated electronic ballast
lumen: 20000lm

Great things about this lamp are 1> it's compact: the arc length is only 3.7mm, which is much closer to a point light source than HQI lamps (>20mm arc). 2> it's affordable: whole set only cost about $120, even cheaper than a HQI setup!

How do you think about it? I want to get hold on one set. That is why I am considering a group buy to import this lamp. here is the webpage for the group buy. If you want to participate, please do so quickly, so we can get it sooner.

Also, if you have accounts in other forums ( you know who ), please spread the word too. thanks!

 

[Video Freak]

I havent been posting in a while THis sounds good do we have any Test shots in lighted rooms etc to see the difference between this and a 250 HQI. I have a 575w HMI Dukane and still Its dim/washed out in a room with a shade half pulled. Yea I know I want everything

 

[18wheeler]

good to see you again, vf.

YWH only posted one test shot so far. he said he would compare it to HQI, but I have not seen it yet. as far as I know he gets hand full right now. but I guess he will get back to this soon.

 

[jaws2421]

Hey 18Wheeler,
I am rather new when dealing with lighting. I am curious as to how the bulb is connected to the ballast, I mean does it have similar connectors/holders like the HQI setups? And will we have to have a group buy everytime we need a new bulb? The average life of this bulb is 2500 hours compared to the average 10,000 hours on the 250W HQI, the only difference is this bulb has a higher light temperature...I mean isn't 6500k the same as the sun? If so, i think the shortened life of the bulb is a very good compromise . Just some questions before I go ahead and toss some money at ya

 

[18wheeler]

color temp is not the only attractive feature of this bulb. the most wanted is the arc length, which is how big the light center is and how close it is to the point light source. this lamp has a small arc gap, only 3.7mm, while HQI has a very large arc gap, 27mm. thus more light will be able to focus into the LCD and the projection lens. on the other side, less defused light will increase the sharpless of the picture.

2500 hr will last for 2-3 year if you use your projector 4-5 hr everyday.

the reason for group buying is because of the needed 100v-240v modification of the ballast. you can buy the bulb individually from the same manufacturer individually. One problem I can see is that the bulb is not available anywhere else ( I neve seen any bulb like this in 250w.) so you have to buy from YWH if you ever need it again. If enough people get interested and buy the set, I may stock a few. But I will put the interest rate into account when people start to buy them

 

[jaws2421]

Thanks for the info. You're so deliciously evil

 

[jaws2421]

Oh yea, would this aspheric condenser work good with the light? http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/l3136.html

 

[18wheeler]

if it can work with other lamps, it will work this this lamp too, only better, because the small arc will enable it better focusing light ray .

 

[shlomid]

Perfect lamp

This lamp is perfect to DIY builder you can't find better lamp in this price
(believe me I spent a lot of time it the net for that).

Why not to buy this lamp:

1. We give the money and need to trust someone we do not know.
2. It would take time to get it.
3. It might be the only time that we can buy spare lamp.
4. It is a DC ballast and you cannot use it with normal MH.

Why to buy this lamp:

1.It has the right color temp.
2.It has the small arc size.
3.The low price .
4.2500 h is more than enough lamp life for 40$ lamp.
5.You can use PAYPAL and you will get your money back if something happens.
6.It might be the only time that we can buy this light engine.
BTW
I'm going to buy this lamp


Hi 18wheeler
what about my Q, can I use this ballast with 220V ?
Thanks



Thank you YWH for your time and effort
Shlomid

 

[18wheeler]

shlomid,

you can use either modified version (100V-140V) or the version ywh is using right now (220V). I understand you want to get it as soon as possible. Could you give me one more week to see if I can gather enough people to order modified ballast for us all? ywh is pretty busy on other things right now anyway. if we don't have engouth people to order, I will let ywh send you 220V version.

 

[shlomid]

18wheeler

Hi
you ment 100-240 right? (not 100-140)

Thank you for that
I will wait to see if you can gather enough people.

Shlomid

 

[18wheeler]

Re: 18wheeler

shlomid,

you can use either modified version (100V-140V) or the version ywh is using right now (220V).

Oops, you are correct. it should be 100V-240V

Hi
you ment 100-240 right? (not 100-140)

 

[18wheeler]

Our group buy is taking payment now. If you want to participate in, please make payment before Friday. Thanks!

 

[Video Freak]

still on the fence....... a 575w HMI has a 7 mm gap and this UHP one is about half at 3.7. Granted it has less wattage behind it. If I could only see a window open screen shot......I think It will be better based on my Proxima lcd projector with a 120 UHP bulb kicking this 575w HMI bulbs butt. Yea I know I want The window shade OPEN for the projector in the famly room( or at least just half open)........"OH great Pumpkin where are you?????????????"......ahhh I mean OH YWH where are you??????????

 

[18wheeler]

your 120w UHP probably has a ~2mm arc. armed with an ellipsoidal reflector and an small LCD with out polarizer film, it has much better efficiency than 575w.

idealy, this 250w short arc can achieve much better effeciency with my 97mm ellipsoidal reflector and that 6.3" LCD. but the 6.3" LCD has FFC issue.

 

[minoten]

18wheeler,

This Lamp/Ballast interests me, I may be willing to shell out the money to buy one. I appreciate the work you are doing in organizing a group buy, I know how hard it is to try to think of every question and answer for your product, or shipping, or anything.

Here are some questions I thought of when I saw the kit and read about it. Some of my questions were answered, but I think you should post this on your site or something as these are important questions (to me at least)

What kind of company are we dealing with?

Is the bulb production going to stop anytime soon?

What are the companies future plans with this product? (discontinue, sell out all to other company, continue manufacturing...)

Do they mass produce these bulbs or are they "custom" made for special orders?

How do you know the bulb specifications? Is there a specifications sheet or is it simply "what the company told me"?

What is this bulb & ballasts original purpose?

What kind of standards is this lighting setup classified as? HQI, MH, etc etc...

Can I use a different ballast than the one included to power the lamp?

What commercial projectors currently use this bulb?

Is the ballast truely electronic? I clearly see in the picture a Coil and a Core...this tells me it is not an E-ballast?

Is this a special kind of lighting setup? As in I am not able to use any other 250W ballast out there to power this bulb...

I am a little worried about this company, considering the fact that this is an "electronic" ballast....yet it doesnt have an autosensing ability to tell which voltage it is accepting? This is pretty much standard and easy to do when it comes to electronic power devices nowadays. Surely they would want to sell their product to North America?

Why don't we just buy the 220V one and use a $10 110V->220V >250W power adapter?

Is the bulb size/fitting proprietary? Or is it the same as other bulbs, that would definately make it easier to find a reflector for the bulb.

Do you know of any high-grade reflectors that work for this bulb?

Do these things explode or catch fire when they go bad?

What kind of harmful lightwaves or rays do these bulbs put off?

"you can buy the bulb individually from the same manufacturer individually." - Are you sure the company would be willing to ship out individual orders of quantities of 1? Will the price be $40 per bulb at that time?



If I were to order this, it would be to replace my current lighting setup. I am currently running a 400W Blueline E-Ballast and then a 400W Ushio to light my 15.4" WUXGA Panel using long throw optics. I personally do not like using a 400W bulb, it is ridiculously hot, and when I am working with a $1000+ DIY Projector, I woudl like to protect my investments. I also am tired of using the "Ikea Napkin Holder" that probably increases my screen brightness by 5%, and if we are able to use true commercial projector reflectors that would be great.
I currently have complete control over my projector room, I can make it completely dark if I want, so ambient light is not a big problem.
I have a feeling that this is targeted for smaller LCD panels though, and using it on a 15.4" LCD panel will not give me satisfactory results, even in a completely dark room.

Of course the bulb wouldnt be brighter on its own, but the ability to focus on a more condensed arc would definately help, and the reflector would also help a lot. But would it be enough...


Again, nice work trying to throw this thing together, and sorry to bug you with all my questions

Oh I also like your website, looks familiar hahah

 

[shlomid]

I will try to answer some of the Q, 18wheeler can correct me if I wrong.
(Sorry for my English).



Q: Why don't we just buy the 220V one and use a $10 110V->220V >250W power adapter?
A: It smaller lighter and will cost less.

Q: Do these things explode or catch fire when they go bad?
A: Like all MH lamp it might explode so you need to make sure that you have protection like metal box and thick heat resistant glass in front of the lamp

Q: What kind of harmful light waves or rays do these bulbs put off?
A: UV and IR (heat) you will need UV and IR filters, most of the standard MH need the same filters.

Q: How do you know the bulb specifications? Is there a specifications sheet or is it simply "what the company told me"?
A: In the post of YWH of you can see in the pic that it's 6000K- 6500K lamp.
He also post pic that you can see the 3.7 arc gap.
As for the life of the lamp they say 2500h but even if it has only 1500h it is just fine for 40$ 6500K small arc lamp.

Q: you can buy the bulb individually from the same manufacturer individually." - Are you sure the company would be willing to ship out individual orders of quantities of 1? Will the price be $40 per bulb at that time?
A: they let YWH to buy single lamp.
You can't buy from them because they won't sell to other countries.

Q: Can I use a different ballast than the one included to power the lamp?
Is this a special kind of lighting setup? As in I am not able to use any other 250W ballast out there to power this bulb...
A: you are right this is special lighting setup, it will be hard to find ballast for this lamp.

Q:
Is the bulb production going to stop anytime soon?

What are the companies future plans with this product? (discontinue, sell out all to other company, continue manufacturing...)

Do they mass produce these bulbs or are they "custom" made for special orders?

A: When 18wheeler will have the first lamp and see that it is good lamp he will order a lot more lamps.
Second if you and other people like this lamp you can do second group buy after week or so and I pretty sure that the company will not close after that short time.

You must know that YWH isn't make profit from all of this and he busy man so you will not have a lot of chances to buy this lamp.


Shlomid

 

[jaws2421]

Hey 18Wheeler, I put my paypal in to you yesterday/early this morning. What If I wanted to add another or bulb or two, would I just send the money to and you'll pack them in the order?

 

[18wheeler]

just send to my paypal. They will come as one package. I don't think one of two bulbs are going to change the shipping.

Hey 18Wheeler, I put my paypal in to you yesterday/early this morning. What If I wanted to add another or bulb or two, would I just send the money to and you'll pack them in the order?

 

[18wheeler]

shlomid, Thanks for your answers. They covered most of the questions. I only have a few to add:

First the company is targeted to Chinese DIY or semi-DIY community. as far as I know their products are pretty popular. They are not going to disapear tomorrow.

the original purpose is to replace the UHP lamps in commercial projector. Thus the lamp is designed to be used with DC ballasts. coil and core ballasts and HQI ballasts are AC I believe.

because of its purpose is to replace UHP lamps. the manufacturer labeled this lamp as "UHP". But I think it would be misleading if I say so too. real UHPs have 1-2mm arc and smaller capsules.

many people used 250W HQI and got good result. this lamp is very much like a HQI in application, but with much shorter arc (3.7mm vs 27mm). Thus it will achieve better result in any situation that a HQI could be used, including 15" LCD setup. It can be used with spherical reflectors with out problem. or an ellipsoidal reflector if you got one.

the ballast is electronic. you coil and core you saw is the transfomer on a PCB board. No coil and core ballast weights only 500g. Can you replace it with other ballasts? I don't know. If you have a DC ballast, you probably have better chance to make it work. An AC ballast will surely reduce the life span IF it works. Anyone with HQI ballast want to try?

Oh, on the note on UV / IR filters, it would be better to use if you can get one. although many people don't use them and they apperently don't have any problem (yet).

minoten, if I knew my web page would have your visit, I surely would make it more .... different. But I like the simple style of yours.