Simplex Acme semi-portable 35mm projector help?

[Jesse Skeen]

I saw someone else was posting in this section about using a 35mm projector at home so thought I'd do the same, as I just picked this up 2 weeks ago. I drove 7 hours each way to get it for a good price, seller had a video of it working before I went. He didn't seem to know much more about it but it at least worked which was the most important thing.

I only want to be using this at home, but obviously I want to know a little more about it. The immediate problem right now is the bulb will not light up. When testing it today, a small spark came out of the base when first powered on. Likely a wire got loose on the way home as it's sort of cobbled together, but I don't know enough to mess with it on my own any further. I've attached pictures for reference. Wondering if I should fix this or would it be better to install a more modern light source?

So far I've learned that this is called a Simplex Acme and dates to the 1930s. It was used by the US Navy in a previous life. It's had quite a bit done to it over the years, including cutting out the front to accommodate a scope lens and an LED sound reader was installed with RCA jacks on the front of the projector. I haven't tested the audio from that but the seller says it needs a phono preamp, and if it's stereo with good quality I'll be happy with it. I would like to add Dolby Digital eventually if that's possible; I also have a DTS player unit in storage but no timecode reader so would be nice to set that up also though in my experience running first-run films in the 90s the discs don't always stick with the film prints. I've also got a Christie Autowind platter in storage which I'd like to set up when I have the room for it, but just running 2000-foot reels manually will be fine for the time being. (Not sure if it can run 6000-foot reels with any attachments?)

While I have about 9 years of theater projection experience (1992-2001 plus a few one-offs since then) my technical knowledge is still a bit lacking. Would like to know the best way to handle the bulb issue right now (either fix or replace the light source?) and also general advice for taking care of it, currently the motor seems to run very well. I've wanted a projector at home for a long time and have had a full-size one in storage for over 10 years but no place to set that up, this thing should be much easier. It's small enough to carry but is a bit heavy, there's a handle on the top of it but it's far too heavy to lift with just that.

[Randy Stankey]

The first question I'd ask is whether you want to do a "sensitive restoration" or upgrade to modern standards?

If you want to restore the projector, you'd have to source original parts and put it back together the way it was when it was new. If you are upgrading, you can use whatever parts you find that will fit your purpose, regardless whether they are original.

In a case like this, I'd say it's more of a spectrum than a pat answer. On a scale of 1 to 10...1 being "keep it original" and 10 being "all new"... where would you be?

It's probably going to be hard to find all-original parts unless you can find a donor machine to cannibalize. You might find new or gently used lamp sockets and things like that but what about the future? What happens if you spend all that time making everything perfectly original but, later, you can't find replacement lamps? You would have spent a lot of time, money and effort for nothing.

In my opinion, this project should be a 6 or a 7. Keep the mechanics as original as possible but upgrade the lamp and the electrical stuff as much as practically possible so that you can keep it as "future proof" as is reasonably possible.

[Josh Jones]

Growing up , a friend lent me a Devry projector to keep me busy while our downtown theater was closed for remodeling. I took it upon myself to repaint it, change the belts, and largely rewire it. I got it back to the point of running again, but by that time I had already moved on to full size machines. The boys in Minneapolis gave me a super simplex for my 16th birthday, and the rest was history.

That old Devry had a similar pedigree to your ace, large mazda projection lamp, etc. That would be the first thing to go, in my opinion. Convert it to a halogen reflector type lamp, or a 100W COB LED with suitable optics.

[Jesse Skeen]

I mainly just want to be able to view films on this in spaces significantly smaller than theaters, I’m all for replacing and upgrading anything that will help that, I don’t care about keeping everything as it was in the 1930s. If it’s best to replace the light source, I’ll do that. I also want to add Dolby Digital eventually, I live in an apartment right now but hope to someday have a viewing room set up with both this and a video projector on the same screen and sound system.

Where would I obtain an LED light source and find out how to install it myself or pay someone to do that? I know nothing about wiring and know there’s quite a bit of that in this machine, obviously something’s wrong with the wiring to the current lamp but I wouldn’t know how to do anything that would involve taking that apart. One of my real weaknesses is knowing how to put things back together after taking them apart. I’ve been fixing video equipment more often as repair sources have been disappearing, and putting stuff back together has been the biggest challenge.

[Tj Hopland]

It does look a little rough in some areas. The picture with Westinghouse in the corner I assume is the bulb socket? Looks like there is some damage possibly melting going on there?

All the wiring shown looks a little suspect. My guess not having a manual is that originally the 120v went into the bottom terminals there and then there were internal transformer(s) for the exciter lamp and possibly the main lamp (unless it was 120v). Exciter lamp would have been something in the 5-10v range. I'm not sure why there are terminals for exciter switch, perhaps related to an optional change over setup? Then the exciter current looks like maybe it was a high / low tap on the the right and the wire nubs were likely the wires leading down to the exciter lamp socket before it was converted to LED.

There is a thread here that I think had some more recent replies related to some different LED lamp conversion attempts with mixed results. There are certainly lots of options now but I think all of them need some sort of help for this application like some sort of reflector and or condenser lens. Can't quite tell what you have to work with there. I believe these usually had both a reflector and maybe not a condenser but more of a diffuser ? I think they had to be careful that you didn't get the image or hot spots from the individual filaments. IF you still have those elements they could help in blending the light from a multi segment led source.

On the sound front I can't quite tell if that uses one of the standard in later years sound lens, if it does that lends itself to possibly an easier conversion to the 'reverse scan led' systems which are going to give you much better results if you are playing stereo stuff from the late 70's till the end. And that is assuming the condition and design allows the film to track properly and be adjusted to the tight tollarnces required for stereo playback. I can see what looks like what I think is a Teco solar cell. I think they had a sort of modular design to adapt to different machines, I kinda doubt this was one of them but maybe it was close enough to the 4 star (and later) simplex that it was easy to fit. I don't think they ever made a stereo version and the pic isn't good enough for me to see if maybe someone adapted something like a Kelmar stereo cell to the mono arm.

A phono preamp is gonna sound terrible with both mono and stereo tracks. Phono preamps have a funky EQ curve built into them to compensate for limitations of records so when they record records they also apply special eq. When you play it back they basically cancel each other out which in theory results in the playback being as it was heard in the studio. Mono films had a similar but different thing going on so the 2 things are not going to cancel out and result in the flat playback you want. Stereo was again different with the noise reduction but the same concept of it being applied when recorded and when played back so it all cancels out including the noise for in theory what they heard in the studio off the masters. If you are not going to use a proper cinema preamp the closest thing would be microphone. Levels tend to be about right with a solar cell and white light and if you toss something like 100 ohm resistor across it things sound alright and stay happy.

I can't tell in the photo much about the led conversion but since it looks like a solar cell arm I'm thinking its either totally home brew or something like a JaxLite which was a plug in replacement for the most common bulbs that also came with a pre preamp because going to the LED dropped the signal too low compared to the white light systems all the cinema preamps were designed for. With these you don't have to screw around with resistors, you can go right into a mic preamp. Downside to these is that extra preamp tends to be more susceptible and prone to hums and other interference and you don't get the improved separation from the reverse scan. Oh and you may be using older optics that are not in good condition and maybe never had the frequency response that we started to want in the dolby era. If your thing is unrestored pre 70's films none of this matters much. If you wanna do Dolby could be a lot of problems and limitations to overcome.

I'm not sure if I ever worked on one of these or not but pretty much all the portable machines were made lower quality than the real thing. Many of the areas the film contacted were lower quality and didn't wear as well. An example I think it was Devry the gate shoe was stamped sheet metal. On a Simplex Regular or a Motigraph that were popular machines in the early days these were probably hardened precision ground parts and even those would wear and had to be replaced but it took years from often running multiple shoes per day. I had seen machines that I know had very very low hours on them where those runners were worn to the point of causing some serious film damage. All the bearings were less expensive and so on. Basically in todays terms these were the Temu Ali Extress machines, ya they cost less and kinda did the job so they had their place.

20-30 years ago when current at the time prints could be had cheap and were common film damage wasn't that big of a deal because often times it was easily replaced but today its a whole different game so having a especially oddball machine may not be a very good idea if you want to build a decent collection of decent quality prints and keep them that way. If space is really a problem (which doesn't seem like it is if a platter is in play?) then there are still some of the smaller xenon setups floating around. Those small rigs were usually put together for dailies screnings as well as the occasional screening room. Usually had a 500w xenon, small footprint, 120v power, and often had internal preamps and such. The Charlie Ajar's (later called Universal Projector) were pretty popular at one time. Keep an eye out for something like that, I have seen pairs of those go pretty cheap like well below scrap value. May take some time but they are out there. There were also 'portable' rigs built with things like Super Simplexes again for dailies that would quickly break down into shipping cases and often were more or less self contained.

[Jesse Skeen]

I don’t have room to set a platter up right now (I have one disassembled in my storage unit) but hope to someday.

I did notice the lack of a reflector which was strange, the video I saw of it working still looked good just a few feet from the screen. I can’t imagine using any screen much bigger than 100 inches or so, at least unless consumer video projectors ever get bright enough to show a good picture larger than that (since my dream setup would include both film and video.)

I’d heard about other small 35mm projectors but they’ve been nearly impossible to find, which is why I jumped on this one when it was available.

[Tj Hopland]

Is there any sort of lens between the bulb and the film? Any signs that something could be missing from behind the bulb? This is the sort of arrangement and scale I would have expected, taken from a Strong Trouperette follow spot manual, they used a similar bulb at least the early ones like in this manual did. There is that not especially large reflector back behind the bulb. This one didn't have adjustment knobs but I recall some projection ones did have some adjustments. There is then that Fresnel looking lens fairly close the front of the bulb. Both the lens and reflector were similar size maybe in the 4-5" range.

[Jesse Skeen]

I’ll get a picture of that, it’s at my friend’s house since I don’t have much room here to work on it.

[Helmut Maripuu]

maybe you can find something here. I know there is a drawing for a preamplifier for a LED lamp. https://www.film-tech.com/warehouse/...php?category=2