Sanyo XE-30 projector

[lazkopat]

Hi guys,

 

Can anyone give me advice? should we purhcase lamps for these projectors or is it better off buying a new projectors.

 

currently the lamp for this projector in about £175 inc vat! and we need 3 lamps!

 

Am i better off recommending a new projector for the school? or stick with the old one. These were bought couple of years back, i think 2009 or before.

 

Help please

 

 

[Haptic]

Have PM'd - hope it helps.

 

 

Chris

[steveg]

That is only a 1500 lumen unit, even with a new bulb its likely to be fairly dim still. I think becta guidlines were for 1500 lumen projectors in classrooms, but we always find these to dim and go for around 2200 - 2700 you can always run them in eco mode if they are too bright, and gain another 1000 hours bulb life.

 

I'd go for a new LCD based projector with a 3 year bulb warranty.

 

Steve

[lazkopat]

not really, there is a projector in the ICT room and its a bit distanced from the whiteboard and the quality/brightness is great!. Its not dim in anyway.

 

thanks anyway

[elsiegee40]

We decided not to replace bulbs any more and are replacing our projectors with Casio LED projectors when the bulb fails or they become too dim.

 

The Casios have a 5 year warranty, don't need filters cleaning (yippee!) and don't have expensive bulbs to fail... At around £750 for a unit they're expensive, but over 5 years (hopefully more) of life, it works out cheaper.

[lazkopat]

Is the casio projector suitable for educational purpose? i.e. school?

and what's the model no?

 

thanks

[elsiegee40]

The last one we bought, last November, was a Casio XJ-M130EDU

 

They come with a five year guarantee for educational use... so yes, they are suitable for schools The price I gave you was including VAT (we're private so have to pay VAT) btw... you should be able to get one for under £650 ex VAT

[Achandler]

A lot of projectors now come with atleast 3 year warranty on both projector and bulb, all education Hitachis do as far as I am aware.

 

Try to get projectors that are going to be around for a few years though, as in you can still buy the model in a few years. Nothing better then having a lot of the same projector in the school, then in makes sense to keep some spare "stock" parts. Having every room with different makes and models makes your job impossible.

[ToyHeartsFan]

I replaced 4 Sanyo XE31s with Casio XJ-M150-UJ-EDU earlier this year; the sanyos were end of life: the picture quality was very poor, they were not bright enough and the bulbs were the best part of £200.

 

If they really were only purchased in 2009 (ours were from 2006) and the teachers are happy with the image quality (even on a bright sunny day) then it might be woth buying 1 set of lamps which would give then a couple of more years life but then I would replace them. The casio projectors are expensive but should pay for themselves over time.

 

One thing to remember is that Sanyo have the lens on the opposite side to almost every other manufacturer so its not a simple swap. You may well have to move your pole even if the throw distance is correct; With some DIY I managed to fit a universal bracket onto our existing pole and offset it enough so the pole did not have to be moved saving us at least £200 per room on installation costs. If you decide to move the pole yourself or modify the existing mount as we have done you need to be sure you know what you are doing because a projector falling from height has the potential to cause serious injury/death.

[Marc-Engineer]

I would recomend the Epson x11 less than around half price of Casio and 5 year cover on it and 5 year lamp (Typical lamp cost £120) Higher res than the casio and NO green tint.

 

Marc

Engineer

[biggjb]

As an installed and support of AV installations I would happly recommend the Casio projectors over most other. The A range is definately better than the M series. Also the Zoom function is fantastic making it very easy to swap for projectors with the lens on the same side.

The cost does put people off but I like other suggest this is far outwayed as no lamp replacement no filter etc.

Most school I support dont bulk at the price as they are fed up replacing lamp after lamp

[Marc-Engineer]

Also as an installer and repairer (City & Guilds qualified electronics engineer) specialising in Projector repair for over 12 years even though we sell Casio i can not recomend them over some of the other makes as cost for cost with new cheaper lamps (just over £100) and new 3 to 5 year cover on lamps there are no savings to be had, and the lower quality of the image (side by side comparesen) and reliability still leads me to recomend others over Casio, dont get me wrong casio are doing a great job its all progress in the right direction and i am sure LED laser will get there soon but its not quite there yet, ALL projectors still have to be serviced if they have filters or not makes no differance to the need for deep clean but it does save the IT person having to clean the filters.

So at the moment i must on the grounds of what i have seen in the repair shop and on site still (unfortunatly) recomend other units over Casio

As i have mentioned in other posts the new (not yet on sale) laser projectors will be streets ahead of what is currently available in quality and logevity and cost.

 

Marc

Projector Engineer

Edited January 5, 2012 by Marc-Engineer

[lazkopat]

thanks for the information guys, very helpful;)

 

However I don't think the school will be willing to purchase new projectors as they are allocating budgets for other stuffs:( plus new projector means adjustment to the pole or even moving it around! will check if the brackets are universal though because I'm not sure.. Might go with a new bulb then for another couple of year life. I'll put it this way, the image quality is good when you unfold the blinds in the classroom thus making the room dark;). when you let sun or light go through the quality of the image in some classes is very dim, so they need to stay in darkness

 

guys, also our poles are quite distanced from the whitebaords, I would say the length between the whiteboard and projector is about 3.5 or 3 metres in every class, will measure though. Is this normal? because the previous guy told me, "try finding a way to bring the projectors closer to the whiteboards, this will improve the quality", his saying.

 

Do you lot agree with this saying?

 

I can't bring them forward because they are on the pole!

Edited January 5, 2012 by lazkopat

[Marc-Engineer]

3mtr is the Older standard for projectors to a 79" screen most are now 2mtr or closer, closer does not mean better quality there will still be the same number of pixels visible on the screen but they will be smaller so may apear sharper, the main benefit of closer is reduced shadowing from the teacher. Moving a projector closer is often required but not often a problem as cables come from the board so only made shorter and most brackets are easly moved forward (check your asbestos book first).

 

Marc

Projector Engineer

[ToyHeartsFan]

As Marc said it will help with shadowing, it should also help a bit with ambient light conditions if the projector isn’t very bright.

 

I think Becta might have been pushing shorter throw projectors as it supposedly reduces the risk of users looking into the projector beam which can damage eye sight. But unless you are buying the ultra short throw type (wall mount) I’m not convinced they are any safer than a projector at 3 meters.

 

@Marc – I found that quite often the data cables come from the side it just depends on the layout of the room a number of our classes don’t have the space due to original fixed furniture at the front of the classroom for a PC so they are on a side wall (Victorian building) but in most cases a short male to female extension for the vga cable is all that would be needed.

 

Our step ladders are about 5 foot high and you just wouldn’t be able to reach the ceiling with them to change the pole position in our school so if I needed to have a pole moved it has to be outsourced.

 

I’m a bit wary of suggesting that people move poles themselves in case anything goes wrong. I’ve seen some bad installations some that I would consider dangerous i.e. a projector bolted to a suspended ceiling tile which you should never do.

[lazkopat]

Our ceilings are low and easy to reach, that's not a problem.

 

We purchased bulbs instead (4 in total), I wouldn't move the pole anyway as it's not my job to do so and not allowed anyway, its bolted tightly on the ceiling and requires labour work to re-mount it somewhere else and installation cost per room will be very expensive. That's a hassle and we don;t need re-mounting, but I'll be putting a picture up of the bracket for you guys to identify whether its universal or not.

[Marc-Engineer]

No you should never attempt to move them yourselves unless its part of your job to do so. I have seen several moved by untrained people, i even saw a full cage and pole mounted on a ceiling tile not even with a batton on the back just a small bit of wood sandwiching the tile !!! And with screws in to just a plaster ceiling !! If it wont support my weight as well as the projector its not safe enough, yes they are not supposed to, but in time one of the little darilngs will swing from it.

 

Marc

projector Engineer

[Chris_in_notts]

A Casio M130 would have done the job, for example it will throw a 77" screen from 2.6-3-9 metres from the board and you can get them for around £580+VAT no need to move the pole and a good size will fit in most cages.

[ToyHeartsFan]

A Casio M130 would have done the job, for example it will throw a 77" screen from 2.6-3-9 metres from the board and you can get them for around £580+VAT no need to move the pole and a good size will fit in most cages.

 

Yes the throw distance would probably have been fine but the lens is in the wrong position either the pole would have to be moved a small distance to the left (when looking at the board) or the bracket modified so the projector was offset.

 

When looking at a Sanyo projector from the front while ceiling mounted (ie the projector is upside down) the lens is on the extreme right but on almost every other brand of projector the lens is on the extreme left. It's only 6-7 inches but the image wont line up with the interactive board if you just swap projectors. I removed the projector plate and bolted a universal mount onto the extreme right (looking from the front) of the original bracket but not everyone will want to or be able to do this in which case the pole would still need to be moved.

 

****Please always err on the side of caution and get someone in when moving / modifying poles unless you know what you are doing and can do it safely.****

[lazkopat]

Guys, read my post carefully, i didnt say i was going to move the mount :confused:

its not my job role to move the projector mounts, I only clean them and replace lamps..

[ToyHeartsFan]

Guys, read my post carefully, i didnt say i was going to move the mount :confused:

its not my job role to move the projector mounts, I only clean them and replace lamps..

 

@lazkopat yes you clearly said that you have replaced the lamps and because your projectors are not very old and the users are happy with the image quality they should last the school another 2 years before you need to replace them.

 

My last comment was aimed @Chris_in_notts who didn’t realise you had Sanyo projectors and can’t replace them with Casio without some DIY / Moving the pole its not just the throw distance that’s the problem when you replace a Sanyo it’s the lens position as well.

 

These threads can hang around for years hence my warning at the end of my last post (it wasn’t aimed at you @lazkopat) in case someone sees my post and thinks ToyHeartsFan modified his mount that means we can as well and they bodge it and the inevitable happens…

 

I’ve only ever moved one pole but I was happy to do that one as it fixed to an “I” beam and you could probably have hung a small car from it. I also know that the modifications I have made to my existing poles are as safe as the original installations. But it most cases I would get someone like @Marc in but it just wasn’t necessary for us to do it this time when I replaced our Sanyo’s with Casio’s.

[Chris_in_notts]

I did realise he was replacing sanyo's I have replaced 1 myself with a Casio with no problems...

[ToyHeartsFan]

I did realise he was replacing sanyo's I have replaced 1 myself with a Casio with no problems...

 

Maybe you have better brackets in Notts then unless you reduced the image size so it doesnt fill the entire board?

 

The Sanyos I replaced were attached to a mounting plate specific to that model so I attached a universal bracket to the pole but I had to offset it enough to take account of the different lens position or the image would of been off the edge of the boards. The brackets I've seen have very little lateral adjustment.

[lazkopat]

Guys,

 

I've installed one of the lamps for a classroon projector, there is significant difference but then again not bright enough, the image. It doesn't look alive and very colourful, if you know what I mean? any suggestions?

 

Is it to do with the lens/focus (interal cleaning or something)? help please:confused:

[ToyHeartsFan]

Two things spring to mind:

 

1. The old bulb was left in too long and not replaced when the replace lamp warning came on and this has damaged the electronics - probably not economical to repair.

 

2. Dust on the optics, I clean them myself on out of warranty units but I covered electronics at college many years ago which included TV repair so I know I can do the work safely (even if I was working on the equipment while it was live which isnt necessary just to give them a basic clean). There are a few threads on cleaning projectors on here and I think one had a guide, it depends on your background and experience its not that difficult but it would be easy to make a mistake and damage the projector further if its not your area of expertise.

Edited January 13, 2012 by ToyHeartsFan
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