A nice find at an abandoned theatre :)

800 bucks will get you a theatrically huge TV. :smiley:

Yeah, but not much throw compared to a $7 SK68 !

I had plenty of degraded Christie HD20KJ Xenon bulb (3000 watt) complete with the reflector cage. The price was USD600/piece. The most interesting part were the sliced sphere (parabolic I believe) quartz reflector. If you’re interested I can try to get some from my former company. It creates a tight spot before entering the: UV pass mirror - integrator rock (the round beam transformed to square) - DLP engine.
Setting the correct focus/tightest spot requires dangerous and tedious calibration on a specialized jig.
Will post some pictures later tonight

- Clemence

Agree, if there is one current BLF member who is willing to make a flashlight out of that lamp it would be you :slight_smile: , a bit heavy one that is, a quick search gave a ballast of 30kg.

edit: ^ yes nice, pics of heavy duty lighting stuff!


Is that two reflectors??
I think I remember seeing a few years ago pictures of some projector lamp and reflector setups in an osram datasheet.
The back reflector is ellipsoidal to concentrate the light from the lamp into a spot somewhere in front of the lamp (like the UV mirror you mentioned) and the front reflector is spherical, to recycle the light that the back reflector doesn’t capture, just like a wavien collar.

Now I’m trying to find these spherical reflectors for sale to use them as super large wavien collars!

Correct, a huge wavien collar + reflector in one piece! There were 20+ pcs of them. Each bulb last for only 400 hours (already 50% as bright as the new one). Christie rate it for 750 hours. There’s no way we would use up to 750 hours, it’s too dim already.
If you want it I can try to get some. You only need to pay the shipping and handling cost.

- Clemence

Wow, this is really weird, looking up pics of the Christie HD20KJ made me remember these pictures of projector lamp replacements many years ago…
And the front reflector is spherical…literally exactly like a wavien collar.


How did I not realize this earlier! These are just wavien collars but with a different name :open_mouth:

Is it a single piece of glass?
All the pictures I can find make it seem like two separate ones, I don’t know how it would be possible to manufacture it as a whole piece.
If the spherical part can be separated from the ellipsoidal part, I will definitely pay for the shipping costs :slight_smile:
Thanks for the offer!

And Wavien said it’s patented by their name huh? :stuck_out_tongue:

Sorry, it’s two piece. It’s been 4 years and I hate the job. Below is the bulb removed from the cage module

4000 watt input power, 3000 watt high pressure Xenon bulb, 20.000 center lumens, 16.000 average lumens.


After the first one exploded, everybody left me installing the bulb alone. The picture taken by a friend from my office window.

When exploded, most of the shrapnel turned to powdery glitters due to extremely high pressure.

- Clemence

Impressive equipment. 16.000 lumen is not far from what leds can do nowadays but I guess that the short arc emitting volume is much smaller than a high power led.

Meh the explosion couldn’t have been much of an event, your wearing shorts and sandals? Or is this all you had to change into after the explosion? :smiley:

A very nice find indeed! And yes, it’s very dangerous to handle these without proper protective clothing! Not all HID bulbs are under pressure when not in operation, but Xenon short-arcs are.

The power supplies are so heavy because Xenon short-arc bulbs are operated at very low voltages. The thus very high currents (hundreds of amps) leads to large component sizes and thus wheight.

I don’t think that it’s possible to use this in a portable, self-contained light. It also wouldn’t be cost effektive to design a light using this. Skybeamers with these kinds of wattages can be had for around 2K-5k$ from China.

I think you would be best advised to sell it. For 800$ you could easily find a Maxabeam! :wink:

The term “waiven collar” should be purged from the collective vocabulary, or at least not used out of context. All a “waiven collar” is is a SPHERICAL REFLECTOR, or SPHERICAL MIRROR, which has been studied since at least the time of Ptolemy, 2nd century AD, if not before. Their patent applied to putting one over an LED, which has a specific effect. A spherical reflector is easy to make with conventional machinery using a ball endmill, and of course can also be purchased from an optics manufacturer.

—-Later in the day Edit:
Uh, where to begin… my above post, firstly, is a non sequitur. Also, the use of the term waiven collar in this thread was in consideration of the effect rather than the geometry, which apparently went over my head. Thirdly, I too agree that the effect of the device is not novel, from since a few years ago when MEM talked about the effect of the device and how its not novel, yet by mentioning their patent as being related to the effect I give credence to it…. And fourthly, a waiven collar, and also it seems the spherical portion of the projector reflector in this thread, is not just some home made optic, or even an electroformed spherical reflector, but a very precise spherical reflector made from glass. Catharsis! Ahh, the forums are good for me, haha.

Putting it over the LED has the same effect as putting it over an arc lamp.
IMO they shouldn’t have been granted that patent because it’s not novel.
These projectors existed long before wavien applied for patent.

Recently I have been asking around to see what price optics companies would charge for a custom sized spherical reflector and it’s been really expensive, $1000+, so if I can get one from a projector that would be awesome.

That looks awesome!

The 2500W XBO bulb does 100k lumens :open_mouth:

Yeah it’s definitely not possible to make a flashlight out of this, even my 4 lipo batteries would only last 6 minutes running this thing, if it was even possible to power with batteries.
If I were to use it it would be for a static searchlight/ sky beam, but I’m not going to spend $10k for a 2500w xenon ballast :frowning:

Ok, that bulb is cool and all, and I’m curious to see what you end up doing with it, but could you back up to the part where you found it at an abandoned theater? Abandoned as in nobody was there since it was after closing or overgrown with vines in the woods abandoned? :smiley:

Haha abandoned as in it hasn’t been open for years, the interior is half destroyed, thick layer of dust on everything, any valuables already stolen.
I guess nobody found the bulbs which were at the top of a cabinet, or knew their value.
Was really cool exploring in it with a flashlight in the middle of the night :slight_smile:

Nice find Endermen!!! Keep it, there is no doubt in my mind that you will find a way to use it…… :wink:

I ran movie theatres in Miami for 7 years, 5 as a general manager who was trained in installing Xenon bulbs.

That’s about a $500-$600 bulb in ’95-’02 dollars.

Be aware that it’s leaded crystal and it’s pressurized, so if it pops and you’re not wearing a welder’s mask, flak jacket and gloves, the surgeons are going to have a hard time picking the shards out of your face because leaded crystal doesn’t show up on X-Rays, or at least that’s what the experts told ‘us’.

Best thing to do is to contact a local theatre, offer to let them test it with a union projectionist and offer it to them at* a good price.

Profit.

Chris

Haha thanks, this one may be a bit out of my league…

Good to know, thanks.
They seem to sell for under $500 on ebay, but new they are $600-800.
Selling it seems like the safest thing to do :stuck_out_tongue: