Panasonic PT-D5500U DLP Projector

[GreyWyvern]

I have a couple of these units that I have been given to do "a full cleaning on color wheels, lenses and anything that could hurt the brightness." They are used in a church and the complaint is that they are dim. I know they are at least 10 years old, as the last ship date for this model was October 2006 and they were bought new. My gut is that they are just nearing end of life and likely can't be helped. However, I would be the big boss's hero if I could breathe some more life into these. I already had the covers off a couple years ago and carefully blew them out with air and re-seated connectors due to a complaint of non-working inputs and/or fuzzy image.

I'm told that the lamps were just replaced, but that there was no discernible difference, although they did go cheap on the lamps and get the "$60 Chinese lamp" as opposed to the $400 OEM lamp. They did get two new OEM lamps for me to put in. I'm sure that will make a bit of difference, but don't expect it will be the miracle they are looking for even if I can clean these up a bit.

So, is there any cleaning that can be done? If so, any tips on how to go about it? Or is it just time for them to put these large beasts out to pasture? Thanks!

 

[GreyWyvern]

Just found out there are two lamps in each projector. One lamp in each unit is bad. One of the two good lamps looks very new, but there is a piece of what looks like ceramic loose inside. As far as I can tell, it is half of a ring that is around the base of the element. Is it safe to use this lamp?

 

[ruinexplorer]

Not sure exactly what you are describing as part of the lamp. Many times on projection lamps, the ceramic connection will "float" so that it can mate with the pins correctly. Does that seem to be the case with the other lamps?

Other than cleaning, some of the optic train could be dirty or failing. In particular, the integrator rod can sometimes age poorly. How many hours do these projectors have on them?

 

[GreyWyvern]

There is a small ring of something, it may be a glue, around the lamp at the very base of the lamp, down below the reflector, so it is hard to see just what it is. It had split in half, so a semi circle of it is loose inside the reflector. I looks like it could be ceramic. I was going to take a picture, but I was in a bit of a time crunch and forgot.

I found a service manual and that helped with know where the color wheel was and other things that might need cleaning. Everything was surprisingly clean. The rods even looked very good. One of the units did have a bad mirror. There was a "burned" spot where the glass bubbled and caused it to crack all the way across, into two pieces. That was an easy fix though. Just took the pieces over to the glass department and had a new mirror in hand in about 15 minutes! Yesterday, I got my praise! I was told how great both units looked and how bright they were. When asked how easy it is to see that the units use two lamps, I very carefully explained that it is quite obvious.

As far as replacing the lamps, should both be replaced at the same time, even if one fails prematurely?

 

[ruinexplorer]

Generally I would replace both. I would mark the good lamp with the used hours in case you have another failure in the future where it could swap in for the remaining life.

The way you describe the one lamp, it probably is no good. Sounds like a bad seal.

 

[Moose Hatrack]

We had two NEC NP3250W projectors in one multipurpose room. The south projector is used (at least) twice as much as the north projector. After 3 years of service we got complaints about south projector brightness. We relamped a couple times but it didn't help. Finally an AV tech who was in for something else told me that the south projector optics "yellowed" and it's cheaper to buy a new one.
We use the cheap lamps- and in some projectors they overheat. When that happens we spend money for the factory recommended lamp to avoid the overheat complaints.

 

[GreyWyvern]

Personally, I would replace both lamps and that is what I suggested. I didn't think about keeping the good one as a used spare. Good idea.

It is working for now.

 

[ruinexplorer]

The projector that yellowed was likely a LCD projector. The panels on those burn through over time.

With cheap lamps, the overheating will make this happen faster.

 

[GreyWyvern]

@ruinexplorer, I was going to post this picture yesterday, but ran out of time. Down below the reflector where the element part is broken off, that white material is what was loose inside of one of the other lamps. There is much more of it in this lamp. The other one had just a small ring and half was broken away. Is that an issue?

 

[ruinexplorer]

My guess is that it would be an issue as the seal is likely broken. Just like other lights, there are gasses to illuminate and if the seal is broken, then the gasses will escape. Though it is difficult to say for sure without being able to inspect it.

My question to you, are they running the lamps until they fail? If so, that can be bad for the projector. First off, these look like UHP lamps, which most often contain mercury. If one of them explodes, you will now have mercury contamination that needs to be addressed. Also, as the lamps age, they will run hotter and heat degrades your projector. This may be even worse as you mentioned the cheap, non-OEM lamps. Heat can damage the electronic components, especially those near the lamp. It can also degrade the optics as I previously mentioned. Poorly aligned projectors will often destroy the internal optics. I ran into that issue when I first started at my current job. The previous "projectionist" learned a little bit and felt that he could improve on the projectors by regularly adjusting the internal optics. Instead, what happened was that they were no longer properly aligned and I had to replace the integrator on two thirds of the projectors that were in service.

 

[GreyWyvern]

Good information @ruinexplorer, thanks. I think they do run them until they fail. They must just make the lamp life warning go away and then wonder why it is so dim after a lamp fails. Then the other lamp fails and one gets replaced and they continue using it until they decide something needs to be done about how dim it is and that's when I see the units. It is a church and a rather small one at that. Having worked in churches, I understand the struggle of getting things done right, especially when money more than $25 is involved. In this case though, with a member of the church footing the costs, I don't really get it, especially since the member is the owner of a company and has no issue throwing money around... I even mentioned that one of the lamps was broken and it is a mercury lamp and the response was "Huh." with a shrug. ::cringe:: I guess next time they are dim again, I'll replace some lamps and clean them up and get my pat on the back for "fixing" them. Oh well....

 

[ruinexplorer]

I totally understand. It isn't only with budget conscious churches, but production companies who should know better.

Make sure that they spread the pats around so it feels like a massage.