8mm Forum: Xenpow 150 HID Lamp

This is topic Xenpow 150 HID Lamp in forum 16mm Forum at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on June 07, 2016, 02:25 AM:

The Xenpow 150 HID lamp makes a splendid conversion. It's long lasting, and the colour temperature improves the showing of faded colour films.

However, it must be stressed that the lamp must remain on for the duration of your show. For this, a dowser of some sort must be fabricated. Similarly, a fan must be used which stays on for the duration of the lit lamp.

The lamp also need a ballast to provide the high voltage for starting and will revert to 95 volts for running.

https://www.decks.co.uk/products/lighting-bulbs/xenpow/lamp-hid-150?gclid=CISqtZeulc0CFZadGwod664CuQ#.V1ZzdjHmrIU

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on June 07, 2016, 03:44 AM:

A very popular conversion by Mr Parsons these days including a separate Ballast. Apparently these kits can be obtained for around £150 from China. Many thousands of hours lamp life and brighter than a Xenon!

As Maurice says, these lamps need to be on for a few minutes to reach correct colour temperature and maximum brightness just as any UHP or other video projection lamp also does.

Your projector therefore needs a dowser fitting to allow the lamp to remain running when the film path is stationary.

Great if the amateur mechanics among us can integrate this automatically into the projectors original switch!

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on June 07, 2016, 04:42 AM:

My Bell & Howell 644 conversion has replaced the perforated safety (stills) shutter with a solid sheet to act as the dowser.

The wiring has been altered to allow the dowser to be in position as the original would be for stills operation.

The original (separate) fan has been removed to give room for the ballast, and a small permanently on fan provides sufficient cooling for the lamp.

This is not a cheap conversion, but the final work is outstanding screen brilliance, cool running, and a long life lamp.

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on June 07, 2016, 04:51 AM:

Indeed Maurice, good on you! [Wink]

Posted by David Fouracre (Member # 3883) on June 07, 2016, 09:11 AM:

As I stated on another thread, I have modified an Eiki ST machine with the HID150 lamp and a Venture ballast. Likewise I have modded the pull-down `still frame`lever with an added aluminium plate to protect the gate.(not the shutter blade) In practice, the `douser is ok for short film stalls, but for much above the 3 minute lamp warm-up time, repeated stalling can cause cam tank bearing or clutch damage. I now intend to mod an NT1 with similar gear. The ballast,fusing together with an hour-meter is located in the hinged back of the machine.The hour meter from Ebay(£3.50)
Ballasts are available on Amazon and most electrical suppliers.The ballast price - from £25 and type is Venture VYC150255 (current) or original V150SSC255 (discontinued) but can still be found. Lamp manuacturer states that a `Hot re-strike`possible, but my tests showed that a minimum delay of three mins improved re-strike speed. Some reviews show 1000 hour life, others show 750 hour. Either way, the colour temperature and brilliance on screen together with superb lamp life, make this mod well worthwhile.
Following the Eiki NT, will be my trusty B&H TQ1 which was already modded to use the ELC lamp, so updating to HID is straightforward for me.
The modification time on the Eiki ST machine was 5 hours, the NT will I think prove similar. With a faster pull-down the NT will give even better light.

Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on June 07, 2016, 09:49 AM:

That looks great. It's a shame it is not possible to just change the bulb holder to get the advantages of this lamp. To difficult to do for me, I'm afraid.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on June 07, 2016, 11:38 AM:

The advantage of using a Bell & Howell 644, and its brothers, all of whom use the A1/217 1000 watt mains voltage lamp, is the fact that it uses a pull-out condenser lens assembly.

This can easily be converted to a lamp holder for the Xenpow by purely removing the glass lenses themselves, and fixing a simple spring to hold the new lamp in their place.

As the Xenpow lamp has flying leads these are led to a suitably placed connecting block nearby.

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