Hi - I was thinking about building my own projector with two 400W metal halide buls inside.. Is this a workable system or would the heat be too intense with two bulbs inside the one case? I currently use the ELMO A-305 575W setup and I want something as bright or brighter . This is why the cheaper bulbs and longer life span of the 400W setup is so appealing.
very difficult
The light source has to be at the focal point of the lower fresnel lens. Very hard to do that with two bulbs. You would need some fancy optics.
You can get 1000 Watt MH bulbs for not much more than the 400 Watt bulbs, if you really want to burn down your house! You would need to add more cooling in the box and between the upper fresnel and the LCD panel.
The light source has to be at the focal point of the lower fresnel lens. Very hard to do that with two bulbs. You would need some fancy optics.
You can get 1000 Watt MH bulbs for not much more than the 400 Watt bulbs, if you really want to burn down your house! You would need to add more cooling in the box and between the upper fresnel and the LCD panel.
1000W?
Thanks for the info...
I may actually go with the 1000W setup because I am lighting within a club/gallery. ON a related note - does anytone know where I can buiy a complete bulb/socket assembly? I am not much of an electrciain, I'd like to get something pre-assembled or as close to that as I can. Would this kind of thing usually require soldering an outlet cord? That I can do...
Thanks for the info...
I may actually go with the 1000W setup because I am lighting within a club/gallery. ON a related note - does anytone know where I can buiy a complete bulb/socket assembly? I am not much of an electrciain, I'd like to get something pre-assembled or as close to that as I can. Would this kind of thing usually require soldering an outlet cord? That I can do...
prewired
I got a ballast from goodmart.com, and it was prewired with the capacitor and ignitor. But I still have to pick which tap to connect to the line cord (it can accept 120, 208, 240, or 277 volt AC), and connect the two wires to the socket.
No soldering is required. All connections are made with wire nuts. The four tap wires are labelled. Don't forget to put wire nuts on the ends of the unused tap wires: Even if you use 120 Volt AC, the 277 volt wire will be at 277, etc!
If you upgrade an OHP to 1000 Watt MH, make sure you get the center of the lamp arc at exactly the same distance from the lower fresnel as the original lamp filament. And get over to Radio Shack to buy a couple of their 115 volt AC cooling fans to add to the box to get the heat out. You might also need to pull the LCD up off the upper fresnel 1/4" and add some forced air cooling between them. If the LCD starts to fade after some running time, and then recovers after it cools off, it is overheating.
I got a ballast from goodmart.com, and it was prewired with the capacitor and ignitor. But I still have to pick which tap to connect to the line cord (it can accept 120, 208, 240, or 277 volt AC), and connect the two wires to the socket.
No soldering is required. All connections are made with wire nuts. The four tap wires are labelled. Don't forget to put wire nuts on the ends of the unused tap wires: Even if you use 120 Volt AC, the 277 volt wire will be at 277, etc!
If you upgrade an OHP to 1000 Watt MH, make sure you get the center of the lamp arc at exactly the same distance from the lower fresnel as the original lamp filament. And get over to Radio Shack to buy a couple of their 115 volt AC cooling fans to add to the box to get the heat out. You might also need to pull the LCD up off the upper fresnel 1/4" and add some forced air cooling between them. If the LCD starts to fade after some running time, and then recovers after it cools off, it is overheating.
Re: 1000W?
I picked up a unit that was already prebuilt from a local electrical supply house. I went in and was ready to buy the capacitor as well as all of the other parts and they were out of capacitors but this particular unit was $2 more and was all wired up in a heavy metal enclosure. I think I paid a total of $100 for the enclosure and the bulb. The only part I had to wire up was a power cord (as this was designed to be wired into the house mains wiring).
Chris
modbox said:
I picked up a unit that was already prebuilt from a local electrical supply house. I went in and was ready to buy the capacitor as well as all of the other parts and they were out of capacitors but this particular unit was $2 more and was all wired up in a heavy metal enclosure. I think I paid a total of $100 for the enclosure and the bulb. The only part I had to wire up was a power cord (as this was designed to be wired into the house mains wiring).
Chris
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