Post by Ron Walker on Jul 13, 2022 14:25:30 GMT -7
Posted by: planetman Jul 6 2015, 01:51 AM
Hello guys, I have a starlab led projector and I want to know the led light specification (voltage, light temperature, etc) in order to buy one or two extra as parts. Does anyone know?
Posted by: Ron Walker Jul 6 2015, 10:48 AM
QUOTE(planetman @ Jul 6 2015, 01:51 AM) *
Hello guys, I have a starlab led projector and I want to know the led light specification (voltage, light temperature, etc) in order to buy one or two extra as parts. Does anyone know?
I for one have no idea. Isn't there a page spec in the owners manual?
Posted by: planetman Jul 7 2015, 01:23 AM
No specs at all. And they refuse to give any information. Has anyone bought the led starlab projector?
Posted by: Ron Walker Jul 7 2015, 01:33 PM
Starlab has been very "tight lipped" about all of their light sources and it is much too expensive of a device to get one to play with. I know they just recently stopped supplying their incandescent bulb and offered an "upgrade" path at a substantial price for all owners of the original machine. If you didn't do the upgrade, then tough.
Personally I would have found a way around and not gone the substantially expensive upgrade route if I had one of these original projectors as a conversion to a "Stinger" type bulb which should be fairly easy. While one can understand why they won't give out the information as they want every owner to buy from them at inflated prices. It is the way they do business and perhaps need to to stay in business.
Some on this site were interested on their fiber arc light source but it was again impossible to get any information. At that time we tried to find pictures which would have helped to guess at the operation and as I remember someone found the patent on line and a diagram of how the system worked. I would imagine it is similar to how your LED system works in that a larger light source is focused into a "light pipe" of fiber optic material and only a small end of a mm or less actually protrudes into the star cylinder. Again there were no details about what lenses were used to focus the arc bulb into the fiber optic and no one experimented further. As I remember one can not even purchase the light source unless they were a registered buyer of the system.
Anyway you shouldn't have any problems as the LED light source should last a very very long time and you will probably never need to replace it. I have no idea of what Starlab would want for a replacement bulb and/or power supply (as it might just come as a sealed unit) but I would imagine it would be substantial. If you can open up your system you might be able to find some OEM numbers to help identify the actual bulb and other parts. You could certainly measure the operating voltage (around 4 to 5 volts I would imagine) and measure the current flow to fine the wattage of the bulb. The trouble with this is that opening things up would certainly void the warranty which is no small thing in a projector this expensive.
If you are worried about it dying while giving shows, you might consider making an emergency back up light source with a Stinger bulb and some batteries to get you through. You would need to go into the machine and add a switch or two but it could be done.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
Posted by: planetman Jul 7 2015, 11:30 PM
I have already bought the led starlab projector but it has too many problems from day 1 of the purchase. That's why I need to find the specifications in order to be able to fix it every time something is not working.
Posted by: Ron Walker Jul 8 2015, 11:34 AM
I am assuming that you bought the projector used and it has no warranty. I am also assuming that Starlab will fix it but at a substantial cost. I tend to doubt that they will give you any information about parts or schematics of the electronics as the sale and repair of the projector is what keeps them in business. Since the unit is not a toaster and they do not sell hundreds in a day, they must charge a substantial sum per unit just to stay in business. a quick look at their Digital Starlab gives a rough idea. The list it for sale at about $75K. Let's take $50K off the top for profit and staying in business. Now can they build the unit for the remaining $25K?
Navitar all dome projection lens from their website $5-8K.
4K lumen high def video projector $3-5K.
Computer to run the system $2-3K.
Computer programs and odds and ends $1-2K.
If we take the highest price from each category we get something like $18K which leaves us with $7K for salaries and overhead.
Does that make the system overpriced? Not necessarily when you consider the number of units sold. If you want to stay in business you sell a lot of units or few units at higher prices. So if I could make the same system for one quarter the cost why would I buy from them? This is probably why they won't give out and construction details.
The same is true for the standard LED model. It is listed for sale at $5.6K. You can do the math. And no, they will never give you info so you can build or repair one yourself. I have never looked for it but I know others on this forum have to no avail. About the only thing you can do is take the unit apart and generate your own schematic and do your own voltage and current measurements. I have run into similar problems with projectors that I have worked with and found it not worth the time and trouble. I have just junked a lot of the electronics and built new with new light sources.
Looking at their parts replacement list I note a couple of things so I will think out loud for a moment. I have no idea at all if I'm correct in any of this thinking so read any and all of this with a "grain of salt" as they say. Replacement bulb for various light and shadow projectors $48. The picture supplied is not good enough to actually see anything but I would guess a similar bulb could be purchased for about $8. I see a replacement motor for an original projector at $150 and for the LED projector at $175. Why the difference? My guess is that the original ran at just one speed and thus was a cheaper AC motor while the newer projectors used a DC motor with variable speed. The pricing pattern suggests that the motor could be found for $25 or so.
Again remember that all of my ramblings are just talking out loud what I'm thinking and are probably all wet. In other words all I say are just educated guesses and should be treated as such. To help you any further you would need to supply much more detailed information and very probably close up pictures of the unit.
First questions would be, is the unit used and out of warranty?
What have been your problems exactly?
Posted by: planetman Jul 9 2015, 04:02 AM
The unit is new and IN the warranty. But they are stalling because they also have problems with the new design I assume. I have a lot of problems from day one.
Problem 1: The motor doesn't work, I change the motor, same problem. I use an external power source and it works.
Problem 2: The friction isn't enough and although the motor works, the cylinder doesn't turn.
Problem 3: The led didn't work and I opened it, an expert repaired it, some solding was needed.
Posted by: Ron Walker Jul 9 2015, 10:51 AM
I would request a new replacement or your money back. They will probably say you voided the warranty when you opened it and did some soldering.
Posted by: planetman Jul 9 2015, 11:42 AM
They are going to replace it but I am waiting because they're testing some new upgrades... They know these problems from day 1. They told me to open it the first time in order to do some tests...
Posted by: Ron Walker Jul 9 2015, 05:46 PM
I would love to see some pictures of the inner workings of the unit if you have one open.
Posted by: planetman Sep 16 2016, 07:52 AM
Does anyone know the combination of led and 180 degree lens that produces a good result?
Posted by: Ron Walker Sep 16 2016, 10:05 AM
Can you post some pictures of how it is set up now.
The lens that was part of the A3P, A4, and 512 Spitz projectors works very well with small filament lamps like the Stinger. The problem with an LED is that you would need to find one that could be put up inside the lens and that was viewable from 180 degrees around. I will make a couple of experiments with what I have and see. I kind of doubt that anything over a watt would fit far enough inside to work.
It is possible that a fisheye camera lens might work but that is an expensive proposition. Again experiments are in order.
Posted by: planetman Sep 16 2016, 10:13 AM
I tried this led www.luxeonstar.com/cool-white-5650K-sinkpad-ii-25mm-round-led-235lm and this lens gr.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Carclo/10620/?qs=%2fha2pyFadug2h6fonsxbynOGTZqsz6qSEoP3ed1%2fD20%3d but the stars are too soft. I tried make the beam smaller but I cannot achieve a good result with good stars and 180 degrees.
Posted by: Ron Walker Sep 17 2016, 09:59 AM
The big problem is I've never seen an LED that has much lighting impact past about 120 degrees. I'm not at all sure how Starlab did it in the first place. I'm guessing that they had the bulb made especially for them. I would need to see detailed close up pictures of the light source to be of any help, otherwise it is just a pure guess on my part. Another thing that might work is to use a very bright LED and aim it back at a dome reflector to act as a virtual light source. That was it would be equally bright in all directions.
Posted by: planetman Sep 17 2016, 11:12 PM
Starlab uses this system.
Posted by: Ron Walker Sep 19 2016, 10:32 AM
Interesting, it is beginning to make some sense. It looks to me like they just took a standard LED and removed the lens. Compare the pictures above with this standard 3 watt LED.
The light lens is just placed and glued over the small LED chip.
An edge on view shows this more clearly. While this lens could be easily removed, I'm not at all sure the LED chip would be high enough. In the Starlab lamp the power leads to the chip go directly down into the lamp base. In the bulbs I have the leads are run through the lens support ring. In the original bulb it looks like the entire support as well as the lens has been removed allowing the LED chip to be high enough to penetrate into the bottom of the 180 degree lens.
Look and compare the original LED and the new one you got from luxeonstar. The original bulb has no small lens over the actual LED chip which is that small square yellow thing directly in the center. It is very small probably 1.5mm square or less. From what I can see on the luxeonstar website, that chip is covered by a small dome of plastic which increases the size of the light source to perhaps 2.5mm. While it may not seem like much difference it will project much larger blobs for stars. Post a picture of your new LED, we need to see if that small lens on the top of the chip can be removed to expose the smaller chip underneath. The smaller the light source, the sharper the projected stars.
Posted by: Ron Walker Nov 24 2019, 05:21 PM
I guess no one made this experiment. I am moving on to working on an LED replacement for a slide projector. Or have I done that already.
Hello guys, I have a starlab led projector and I want to know the led light specification (voltage, light temperature, etc) in order to buy one or two extra as parts. Does anyone know?
Posted by: Ron Walker Jul 6 2015, 10:48 AM
QUOTE(planetman @ Jul 6 2015, 01:51 AM) *
Hello guys, I have a starlab led projector and I want to know the led light specification (voltage, light temperature, etc) in order to buy one or two extra as parts. Does anyone know?
I for one have no idea. Isn't there a page spec in the owners manual?
Posted by: planetman Jul 7 2015, 01:23 AM
No specs at all. And they refuse to give any information. Has anyone bought the led starlab projector?
Posted by: Ron Walker Jul 7 2015, 01:33 PM
Starlab has been very "tight lipped" about all of their light sources and it is much too expensive of a device to get one to play with. I know they just recently stopped supplying their incandescent bulb and offered an "upgrade" path at a substantial price for all owners of the original machine. If you didn't do the upgrade, then tough.
Personally I would have found a way around and not gone the substantially expensive upgrade route if I had one of these original projectors as a conversion to a "Stinger" type bulb which should be fairly easy. While one can understand why they won't give out the information as they want every owner to buy from them at inflated prices. It is the way they do business and perhaps need to to stay in business.
Some on this site were interested on their fiber arc light source but it was again impossible to get any information. At that time we tried to find pictures which would have helped to guess at the operation and as I remember someone found the patent on line and a diagram of how the system worked. I would imagine it is similar to how your LED system works in that a larger light source is focused into a "light pipe" of fiber optic material and only a small end of a mm or less actually protrudes into the star cylinder. Again there were no details about what lenses were used to focus the arc bulb into the fiber optic and no one experimented further. As I remember one can not even purchase the light source unless they were a registered buyer of the system.
Anyway you shouldn't have any problems as the LED light source should last a very very long time and you will probably never need to replace it. I have no idea of what Starlab would want for a replacement bulb and/or power supply (as it might just come as a sealed unit) but I would imagine it would be substantial. If you can open up your system you might be able to find some OEM numbers to help identify the actual bulb and other parts. You could certainly measure the operating voltage (around 4 to 5 volts I would imagine) and measure the current flow to fine the wattage of the bulb. The trouble with this is that opening things up would certainly void the warranty which is no small thing in a projector this expensive.
If you are worried about it dying while giving shows, you might consider making an emergency back up light source with a Stinger bulb and some batteries to get you through. You would need to go into the machine and add a switch or two but it could be done.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
Posted by: planetman Jul 7 2015, 11:30 PM
I have already bought the led starlab projector but it has too many problems from day 1 of the purchase. That's why I need to find the specifications in order to be able to fix it every time something is not working.
Posted by: Ron Walker Jul 8 2015, 11:34 AM
I am assuming that you bought the projector used and it has no warranty. I am also assuming that Starlab will fix it but at a substantial cost. I tend to doubt that they will give you any information about parts or schematics of the electronics as the sale and repair of the projector is what keeps them in business. Since the unit is not a toaster and they do not sell hundreds in a day, they must charge a substantial sum per unit just to stay in business. a quick look at their Digital Starlab gives a rough idea. The list it for sale at about $75K. Let's take $50K off the top for profit and staying in business. Now can they build the unit for the remaining $25K?
Navitar all dome projection lens from their website $5-8K.
4K lumen high def video projector $3-5K.
Computer to run the system $2-3K.
Computer programs and odds and ends $1-2K.
If we take the highest price from each category we get something like $18K which leaves us with $7K for salaries and overhead.
Does that make the system overpriced? Not necessarily when you consider the number of units sold. If you want to stay in business you sell a lot of units or few units at higher prices. So if I could make the same system for one quarter the cost why would I buy from them? This is probably why they won't give out and construction details.
The same is true for the standard LED model. It is listed for sale at $5.6K. You can do the math. And no, they will never give you info so you can build or repair one yourself. I have never looked for it but I know others on this forum have to no avail. About the only thing you can do is take the unit apart and generate your own schematic and do your own voltage and current measurements. I have run into similar problems with projectors that I have worked with and found it not worth the time and trouble. I have just junked a lot of the electronics and built new with new light sources.
Looking at their parts replacement list I note a couple of things so I will think out loud for a moment. I have no idea at all if I'm correct in any of this thinking so read any and all of this with a "grain of salt" as they say. Replacement bulb for various light and shadow projectors $48. The picture supplied is not good enough to actually see anything but I would guess a similar bulb could be purchased for about $8. I see a replacement motor for an original projector at $150 and for the LED projector at $175. Why the difference? My guess is that the original ran at just one speed and thus was a cheaper AC motor while the newer projectors used a DC motor with variable speed. The pricing pattern suggests that the motor could be found for $25 or so.
Again remember that all of my ramblings are just talking out loud what I'm thinking and are probably all wet. In other words all I say are just educated guesses and should be treated as such. To help you any further you would need to supply much more detailed information and very probably close up pictures of the unit.
First questions would be, is the unit used and out of warranty?
What have been your problems exactly?
Posted by: planetman Jul 9 2015, 04:02 AM
The unit is new and IN the warranty. But they are stalling because they also have problems with the new design I assume. I have a lot of problems from day one.
Problem 1: The motor doesn't work, I change the motor, same problem. I use an external power source and it works.
Problem 2: The friction isn't enough and although the motor works, the cylinder doesn't turn.
Problem 3: The led didn't work and I opened it, an expert repaired it, some solding was needed.
Posted by: Ron Walker Jul 9 2015, 10:51 AM
I would request a new replacement or your money back. They will probably say you voided the warranty when you opened it and did some soldering.
Posted by: planetman Jul 9 2015, 11:42 AM
They are going to replace it but I am waiting because they're testing some new upgrades... They know these problems from day 1. They told me to open it the first time in order to do some tests...
Posted by: Ron Walker Jul 9 2015, 05:46 PM
I would love to see some pictures of the inner workings of the unit if you have one open.
Posted by: planetman Sep 16 2016, 07:52 AM
Does anyone know the combination of led and 180 degree lens that produces a good result?
Posted by: Ron Walker Sep 16 2016, 10:05 AM
Can you post some pictures of how it is set up now.
The lens that was part of the A3P, A4, and 512 Spitz projectors works very well with small filament lamps like the Stinger. The problem with an LED is that you would need to find one that could be put up inside the lens and that was viewable from 180 degrees around. I will make a couple of experiments with what I have and see. I kind of doubt that anything over a watt would fit far enough inside to work.
It is possible that a fisheye camera lens might work but that is an expensive proposition. Again experiments are in order.
Posted by: planetman Sep 16 2016, 10:13 AM
I tried this led www.luxeonstar.com/cool-white-5650K-sinkpad-ii-25mm-round-led-235lm and this lens gr.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Carclo/10620/?qs=%2fha2pyFadug2h6fonsxbynOGTZqsz6qSEoP3ed1%2fD20%3d but the stars are too soft. I tried make the beam smaller but I cannot achieve a good result with good stars and 180 degrees.
Posted by: Ron Walker Sep 17 2016, 09:59 AM
The big problem is I've never seen an LED that has much lighting impact past about 120 degrees. I'm not at all sure how Starlab did it in the first place. I'm guessing that they had the bulb made especially for them. I would need to see detailed close up pictures of the light source to be of any help, otherwise it is just a pure guess on my part. Another thing that might work is to use a very bright LED and aim it back at a dome reflector to act as a virtual light source. That was it would be equally bright in all directions.
Posted by: planetman Sep 17 2016, 11:12 PM
Starlab uses this system.
Posted by: Ron Walker Sep 19 2016, 10:32 AM
Interesting, it is beginning to make some sense. It looks to me like they just took a standard LED and removed the lens. Compare the pictures above with this standard 3 watt LED.
The light lens is just placed and glued over the small LED chip.
An edge on view shows this more clearly. While this lens could be easily removed, I'm not at all sure the LED chip would be high enough. In the Starlab lamp the power leads to the chip go directly down into the lamp base. In the bulbs I have the leads are run through the lens support ring. In the original bulb it looks like the entire support as well as the lens has been removed allowing the LED chip to be high enough to penetrate into the bottom of the 180 degree lens.
Look and compare the original LED and the new one you got from luxeonstar. The original bulb has no small lens over the actual LED chip which is that small square yellow thing directly in the center. It is very small probably 1.5mm square or less. From what I can see on the luxeonstar website, that chip is covered by a small dome of plastic which increases the size of the light source to perhaps 2.5mm. While it may not seem like much difference it will project much larger blobs for stars. Post a picture of your new LED, we need to see if that small lens on the top of the chip can be removed to expose the smaller chip underneath. The smaller the light source, the sharper the projected stars.
Posted by: Ron Walker Nov 24 2019, 05:21 PM
I guess no one made this experiment. I am moving on to working on an LED replacement for a slide projector. Or have I done that already.