How can check projector lamp

Most projectors use incandescent lamps that employ a filament suspended between two contacts in a clear glass bulb. The filament is a resistive element that can be tested with the ohms setting of a multimeter. The reason for using a meter is to make sure the lamp itself, rather than some other component in the projector, is causing the lamp not to light. Remove the lamp suspected of being dead from your projector, making sure that the lamp has had time to cool off first and taking care to handle it with a soft cloth.

Some lamps use a small screw base, a variation of those used in most home lighting. Still others use a bayonet-style base--the kind used in a typical old-style automotive tail light assembly. The bayonet-style base is also cylindrical, but instead of a screw thread, it has a smooth metal sleeve with two small prongs protruding sideways from the base. To remove this type of bulb, push the bulb in lightly to overcome the spring pressure in the socket, twist the bulb counterclockwise until it stops, then pull it out of the socket.

Touch the two leads, usually colour-coded black for ground or negative and red for positive. The projector lamp, also called the bulb in some cases, is like your light-bulbs at home but on steroids. The light is, or rather it should be, very bright, bright enough that you can project an image onto your projector screen in a mostly-dark room without even thinking about the brightness. And there is a little more to say here about traditional lamps vs. LED lamps. Some projectors take the guesswork out of the lamp-life question by offering dashboards where you can review the lamp life directly, or even with on-screen notices when the lamp starts to reach the end of life.

Only a few units have these on-screen indicators that show up, and maybe even flash to get your attention toward the end of life. Many projectors but not all will have a place you can navigate to in the menus that will tell you how long the lamp life has left. A few models of projectors have lamp status lights installed on the physical projector unit itself. This might take the form of a small LED on the exterior of the projector that will be labeled—you guessed it—Lamp Status.

Getting confirmation from the projector itself that the lamp is failing offers a certain amount of peace-of-mind. Turn the projector on and observe the image. If the projector powers on successfully but no image displays, this usually means that the lamp has completely stopped functioning. One simple way to test if the lamp is the problem is to swap it out for a different lamp and see if that fixes it. Projector lamps both cost more and last longer than light bulbs.

Projector lamps have a pretty long life-span. You can typically expect around 2, hours of use out of a given lamp, although some newer models boast life-spans of twice that or more, though not every lamp is going to live up to that promise. Sign in.