This maybe a little off the normal beaten path for this group but it has
some knowledgeable people and this certainly falls into the category of
DIY. I have already asked on AV Forums BTW.

You're probably going to think I am mad for even suggesting this but I
am toying with the idea of building an external light source for my
projector to reduce the cost of lamps.

I have a Philips cBright XG2 which has just finished it's first lamp
(cuts out after about 10 minutes). I went to buy a new one and nearly
passed out when I saw that it would set me back £450 at least . I pulled
the old lamp out and was surprised to see that not only did it look fine
but it consisted of nothing but the housing and lamp - I had expected
some fancy control circuitry for some reason.

Well that got me thinking.

Thought #1: Would it be possible to but a cheaper lamp for another
projector make and put it in the current lamp housing? Trouble is I
don't know the exact spec of the current lamp (it's 200W) or where to
look for it.

Thought #2: At the end of the day you just need to shine (a lot of)
light through the projector. The bulbs are expensive because they are
small and very bright to make the projector mobile. I don't need that
mobility so a huge cheap bulb wouldn't be a problem on that front.
Assuming that I can make a light box and position mirrors such that the
light is shone through as per the normal bulb my only problem would be
tricking the projector into coming on without a bulb in place and that
is where I am hoping to get some help.

I don't think the light box will be that hard to make. I realize that
the real bulb produces very white light etc etc. I was thinking of using
either low voltage halogen or perhaps short fluorescent tubes as both
produce fairly white light and I think a tweak of the color settings on
the projector should take care of the rest.

Anyway I think I have rambled on for enough for now. I am really
interested in getting this working so any ideas will be greatly
appreciated. My electronics skills aren't fantastic but I am willing to
learn what I need to make this work.

Thanks.

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