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"blanking" the lamp of a video projector


n_kuhlman

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Posted
Has anyone had any success in cutting power to the lamp only of a video projector? Need to keep the fans on, and avoid the entire reboot cycle. Otherwise, the lamp continues to cast a glow, which is noticeable especially in a dark room. We have all sorts of improvised fixes based mainly on a mechanically operated shutter, usually made out of cardboard. Does anyone make a projector that can do this, to y'alls best knowledge? And, since I'm hunting unicorns already, anyone have a solution that can be communicated with via DMX512?
Posted

Strictly speaking it is a douser (a dowser is someone who searches for water). However I believe it is commonly spelled as dowser (meaning to extinguish) especially over the pond. Sorry my last career was as a teacher!

 

One our technicians has made a DMX device with a stepper motor to douse our projector, which he calls an ArdDowse (as you can see he also mispells it!) It has a fixed address and only two states, but that's all we needed. He does electronics for a living so won't give one away but I can put you in touch if you are interested to explore the options - if so PM me an email address?

City Theatrical make a commercial one, http://www.citytheatrical.com/Products/projector-dowser?dept=e71ecae2-cd2e-49f8-9565-f6a61de65f48, you can lookup the price yourself. There's also a thing called a flapper http://response-box.com/gear/video-projector-shutters/shutter-1/, so there are devices out there so it is worth doing a search, particularly in your own country.

 

We would love a better projector but the example provided is about £6,000 to purchase or £500 to hire for a week. The lamp is also several hundred pounds to replace. (prices in UK pounds of course).

Posted
"DMX Shutter" is a topic often discussed here, and with a bit of thought and a few parts from CPC or other supplier you can build your own for not too many coins...
Posted
We have a number of dousers/shutters which we knocked up ourselves from a r/c servo and an easily available DMX servo control board - try Milford for a start. Put a nice paddle on the servo made from matt material and swing it into place under lighting desk control.
Posted
The douser is just a black opaque flag that can be worked with most things from a "bit of string" to wires to a DC motor or wires from computer to computer (aka DMX )

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