Faulty SMART Tech Unifi 35 Projector - Recommended Repairers?

[MYK-IT]

I have a faulty SMART Tech Unifi 35 Projector that is 1 month out of warranty so Steljes won't help (despite us having over 40 SMART Boards within the school!).

 

Can anyone personally recommend any repairers?

 

Many thanks,

[jeffpine]

I also have a Unifi 35 Projector (likewise out of warranty) that has recently developed a really noisy cooling fan! Steljes put me in touch with Equinox (their appoved repairers) but having had experience of them in the past, I'm not keen. Does anyone know of any others in the Sout East? Or even a source of spare parts?

 

Thanks!

[WiPPaH]

I am also in the same boat, and Equinox dont appear to do on-site maintenance.

 

Hopefully someone out there has some good experience with a repairer.

[MYK-IT]

Thought I would just forewarn others who use the SMART Unifi range of projectors.

If they go faulty outside of the standard 3 year warranty you may as well bin them!!

 

I sent our faulty Unifi35 to the approved repairer mentioned above and I’ve just received their quotation….

 

£2,500 to repair!!!

 

(I wasn’t sure whether to post this in the Jokes section, or if it was April 1st...)

 

Looks like we'll be going back to using ceiling mounted projectors with the Casio XJA-140s (with 5 Year Warranty).

[WiPPaH]

Thought I would just forewarn others who use the SMART Unifi range of projectors.

If they go faulty outside of the standard 3 year warranty you may as well bin them!!

 

I sent our faulty Unifi35 to the approved repairer mentioned above and I’ve just received their quotation….

 

£2,500 to repair!!!

 

(I wasn’t sure whether to post this in the Jokes section, or if it was April 1st...)

 

Looks like we'll be going back to using ceiling mounted projectors with the Casio XJA-140s (with 5 Year Warranty).

 

Thats crazy!

 

We ended up using a local AV company in the end to look at ours, who charged us £150 for a replacement fan and callout.

[DarrenC]

I say this all the time on this site....

 

Go back to the reseller you bought the product from in the first place!!!!!

 

It really annoys me that people spend thousands of pounds with a reseller and then, when they have issues do not go back to them to ask for assistance. Even if they do not offer the service themselves surely they could look at helping you out. If your reseller can not offer you any form of advise or assistance maybe you're buying from the wrong people.

[Marc-Engineer]

The Unifi 35 is unfotunatly a DLP projector so it may not be the fan, i see a lot of these and many are not repairable due to cost.

 

If you want some FREE tech support you can send me your phone number as i dont think i am allowed to put mine in here, i will NOT try to sell you any products or services.

 

I am a projector engineer

Marc

[saintoctopus]

The Unifi 35 is unfotunatly a DLP projector so it may not be the fan, i see a lot of these and many are not repairable due to cost.

 

If you want some FREE tech support you can send me your phone number as i dont think i am allowed to put mine in here, i will NOT try to sell you any products or services.

 

I am a projector engineer

Marc

 

I am interested in contacting you as you might be able to help me with our UniFi 35 projector which has stopped working. It would appear that there is no power getting to it, and it isn't the cord or the socket.

 

Finding someone to take a look at it is tricky - what do you recommend?

 

Please PM me...

[timboss]

Hi Marc,

I am an electronics engineer from Grimsby (Healing) but living in Telford and I have a Unifi35 that shuts down after 10 mins.

I am about to flash upgrade but is there anything obvious or common for these?

Why does a DLP projector rule out the fan?

Regards

Tim Smith

[melart]

Our Unifi35 has also started playing up. After about 10 minutes it stops projecting to the Smartboard and then randomly will start up again!! As it's in the Hall this is less than ideal when we're trying to hold an Assembly or PE lesson using the board!!!!

 

I've cleaned the vents, upgraded the firmware and set the Timeout Option to Never. We have a laptop on CC4 connected to the board which I've set to Presenter Mode so that the laptop monitor is always on but still the problem persists!!

 

Our warranty also expired 6 months ago - we've been advised to contact Equinox but I don't want to go to this expense if it's not worth it.

 

Any ideas???

[timboss]

Hi Mel,

We repair most electronic equipment where I work but usually in the form of drives for motors and cnc and monitors but one of our biggest customers has sent us this unifi35 that goes off after 30 mins. I tried flashing it but not joy yet.

 

I have found a repairer but a bit cautious as their service cost is £85 (looks too cheap) so passed to our sub contract lady to check it out.

If we get a good response with favourable cost will let you know the company.

Regards

Tim

[Spuddyboy]

Whenever i've had problems with my Unifi-35 it's always been the lamp. The life on them is absolutely diabolical.

I have encountered the problem with the projector turning on for short periods of time and then randomly turning itself off.

 

If you have another in your school, swap the lamps and see if the symptoms follow the lamp around.

 

I've had enough of mine, like I've said the lamp life is shocking, the colours are terrible. The integrated projectors were much better when 3M provided them, without Smart messing about with their firmware.

[timboss]

Thanks for the info, yes could easily be the cause as these are mercury lamps with startup variations.

I bet they could make these lamps last for a very long time if they wanted, sounds like light bulb syndrome?

Regards

Tim

[Marc-Engineer]

If you read my post you will see why it is not quite as easy as it first seams to make them last longer this is an older projector and older lamp tech, please read my other post as to how they operate.

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/av-multimedia-related/68282-replacing-projector-bulbs.html

 

Marc

Projetopr Engineer

[melart]

Thanks for your responses.

 

I've read the Smartboard article on how to replace the lamp - is it as easy at is seems? I'm about to order the lamp and will need to do the replacement myself. I've replaced ordinary Epson lamps before but never a Unifi - any tips?

 

Mel

[gwendes]

Really easy as I'm sure you've found

 

I'm bumping this as I have a Unifi here and it shuts down after a few minutes. Cleaned thoroughly with canned air and replaced the bulb. Exactly the same problem.

Anyone have any suggestions or can recommend an engineer within range of Portsmouth?

[Marc-Engineer]

Treat it is just the same it has a large heat sink but otherwise the same as any lamp to replace.

 

Marc

Projector Engineer

[SlimBUK]

I've had a bad experience with Equinox. They required payment by credit card and would not give us an invoice to process, Charged an awful lot to replace what sounded like a cooling fan (£130 before even quoting for a repair!) and took weeks over it!

 

That was last year. In the last week or so another of our UF35 projectors is exhibiting the same problem. Did anyone find an alternative company that repaired on-site in the end?

[Marc-Engineer]

I would think the chances of a repair on site are nil, it would be a workshop job, and to be honest with you, DLP projectors do not have a good success rate in repair, Problem is the unifi range have as far as i know , no other replacement other than a unifi.

 

Try a lamp first, if you have a noise like a fan are your colours correct and contrast, if the answer is no them it could be a VERY expensive repair as DLP are very very difficult to set up for colours and contrast.

 

Most repair centers will not touch Unifi units.

 

Marc

Projector Engineer

[melart]

Aaarggg!! Our Unifi35 in the hall is playing up again, having changed the bulb a few weeks ago. When we switch it on the bulb comes on for about 10 seconds and then goes out!

 

If this projector has now really reached the end of it's life can anyone recommend another wall mounted projector that we can use in the hall connected to the Smartboard. Preferably NOT Unifi!

 

Mel

[Marc-Engineer]

Well you can of course use any wall mounted projector the Epson the Hitachi, i think in this instance the Hitachi EDA101 (with mount) should cost you around £900 (£400 cheaper than Unifi and more reliable) it also has 5 years on site cover.

If you cant install that would be around £100 for an engineer to do it for you

 

Marc

Projecor Engineer

[sparkle_sal]

I have 5 of these projectors that are just out of warranty. I have set up a maintenance agreement with eqionox where they come on site and clean etc the kit twice a year. Pleased with first visit as very thorough. However I have a faulty front lamp fan in one of the projectors and there are no spare part fans according to both steljes and equinox. So if anyone knows of a fan or is scrapping a projector and could let me have the fan out of it I would be grateful. I guess I have nothing to lose by trying to replace the fan myself!!!

[Paul10k]

I can't believe how BAD these UF35's are. We have 30 of them , over the 3 year warranty over 20 have been swapped. Such a terrible design with at least 4 major inherent faults.

We've started replacing them with a boom and Benq short throw projector - all in £600,. brighter and better in every way. I'll never buy another Smartboard after this and the way Stelges have acted. If they had any concept of customer service they'd replace them outside of warranty as unfit for purpose.

[Marc-Engineer]

Just to clarify, DLP does not rule out the fan its just the disk that creates the colours spins at a fairly high rate this is one of the common faults of the DLP projector and the main reason why they are so unreliable and difficult to repair, the noise from this is often confused with a noisey fan, after a while they can become very noisey and in a lot of instances start to viberate at this point you may start to lose contrast and colour definition.

 

This is why many companys will not lower themselves to produce DLP projectors, also light output from DLP because of the way they produce colour can be between 20 to 30% down per lamp watt.

 

Marc

Projector Engineer

[AVTechy]

This has made for some interesting reading. Our new site has a lot of these units in place and I'm disheartened to hear they have such a high failure rate. I do however see you can get a retro fit for the unifi55 onto older boards which may be an option if I start to encounter the same issues. What are people's experience with the 55 models? I hear they're a lot better.

 

Interesting read about DLP projection too. I understand they rely a lot more on mechanics for picture & colour but it didn't sway our decision to go with our lovely Sanyo PDG-DHT100L. It's a very nice bit of kit, colour is fantastic and it's very reliable once set up correctly, particularly with the 2-lamp system and 'automatic' filters. So far it has paid for itself (which I should add was a rather extortionate amount), with use by film societies, conferences, productions etc everyone has been nothing but happy, although not quite as bright as one could hope. An excellent complement to our theatre... (sorry, I'm just bragging now)