I can get retina-burning brightness Strong consoles and lamphouses, and fairly nice light from Christies, but the CFS' are almost impossible to get anything with. One of the screens is running a 3000w bulb @ 100A throwing to a 35' wide screen and the best I can get is 4 footlamberts, with some of the 2000W screens (all smaller size screens) I have been able to get 8-10 FL at best, and thats on the ones with the real short throws usually.

I am sure that there is some lamp/projector alignment issue involved, but How does one align the light chain in a vertical lamphouse with the diagonal mirror? Obviously the Strong/Christie "string and weight" method isn't gonna work here... Or is it just impossible to get 16FL out of these things?

I know CFS is generally crap but I am stuck with a LOT of these consoles and no chance for changing them out or upgrading...

Any help would be wonderful!

Aaron

I hate to bad mouth products but I've never been happy with vertical system performance. The geometry of bouncing a condensing cone of light off a flat surface just doesn't work well.

Assuming reflective surfaces of the collector and mirror are all in good shape, there are a lot of mechanical issues that are best checked with a laser alignment tool from the projector side. That will help verify the optical path's centerline and the adjustment of that 45-degree mirror. That will at least tell you if the center of the reflector is in the right place.

After that, you're left to assume that the collector's optical centerline is in the proper position, and that's anybody's guess.

Way-back-when I did this stuff for real, I had a fixture that fit into the collector to give you a return beam of the laser. If that return path was the same as the originating path, things were in good shape. If it wasn't, you could shim the collector and its mount as required to get it there. At least then, in theory, all the centerlines were correct and the system was optimized as well as it could be.

Without at least a laser, it's trial and error and anything but fun. I usually ended up moving everything around while running white light to get things as good as I could.

If I can throw any more light on the subject let me know. (Sorry...)

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I'm assuming you have things like the lamp focus, reflector centering and projector alignment properly adjusted. If you haven't, check those first.

Second, there are a couple of different reflectors for that LH. There is a different one for 2.5K, 3K and 4.2K. The power supply is essentially the same, except for the obvious things and the rest of the console itself is exactly the same. Find out what reflector you have. That'll affect your light output.

When all they have to do is say I'm sorry sir none of our lamphouses will give you good light unless we want to spend money and produce quality machinery. But I guess that would be the smart thing to do.

I am sorry for ranting about CFS but the quality they produce is just way too low for my time spent repairing these junkers.

Thanks for the replies, I figured a laser was gonna be necessary to do the alignments with...

Yes, the reflectors on these things are 100% pure SHIT. My DM and I have done our share of polishing and buffing and cleaning the pitted, dull and fogged main (salad bowl) reflectors and I have replaced the 45deg mirror on the 3k console TWICE, after the first two stripped themselves of their reflective coatings, CFS claims to have corrected the problems with the reflective coating stripping with the new mirror assembly that doesnt need a cooling fan... but there still isnt enough light...

As for bulbs, we are running mainly ORC/PerkinElmer and Osram, and will be replacing all the ORCs as they die with Osrams, the Osrams have been VERY good with these lamps as far as light output and striking goes.

As far as diodes go all of the diodes are good, I am getting full current and no abnormal flickering...

Maybe I can do the review of the CFS console and the NSP-3 platters...

Thank you all again!

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Also the mechanism will settle with the vibration of the console and will need to be adjusted a second time. And why don't the holes in the cabinet line up with the adjustment screws?

I have found that the rectifier on the LSX 4500 consoles do not step the current in steps when adjusting on the course/fine tappings. With the lamp burning as approximately 130amps the next step should increase the current by 4 amps or so but it takes it out to 160+ amps. I have wondered if this is an artifact of having 50Hz supply in Australia versus the 60Hz in USA. I should point out that this does not happen on the LSX 2500 consoles.

I am using Ushio UXL-SC25 and UXL-SC40 xenon lamps, I had to have adaptors made to make them fit. Never had much luck with the ORC lamps as they became unstable too fast.

Another item to watch for is seized blower motors. Why anybody uses sleeve bearings now days is beyond me.

Regards,

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1. With no lens in, open the main lamp door, loosen the 4 bolts that keep the bowl reflector locked in place, then *defeat the interlock, strike the lamp* and slide the reflector around until you get a good set of 'rings' around the black dot in the center of the screen. If you can't get a good set of rings then you can shim the reflector mounting plate with old aperture plates or THIN washers until you get a satisfactory image.

2. Remove the anamorphic from the scope lens. Using the prime lens and a scope aperture plate, focus the bulb untuil you get a hot spot with 4 even dark corners (If you cant get 4 even corners, you need to repeat the reflector-moving part mentioned above until you do.) Once you have all 4 corners even, then focus for the most even light all across the picture. Replace the anamorphic and double-check the light evenness with flat.

T.C. Says the bowl reflectors' coatings degrade both with time and high heat. He says that some but not all of these reflectors can be recoated. Why then do Strong reflectors not degrade? Christie reflectors do go yellow after a time, but even then they are still viable... To quote Joe: This Blows.

Step #1 sounds both dangerous and stupid to me, maybe its just the way I am, even though Tim seems to have done the same...

I am awaiting the price on the laser alignment rig that CFS uses in the manufacture of the consoles...

Aaron

And now for the "duh" part...don't look at the light!