TARGET:Are YOU suffering from PROJECTION LAMP blues? Let's take

[Jeffrey Hastings <hastings@hps.k12.mi.us>]

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Dear Colleagues:

Are your projection lamps popping like they were manufactured not by
Sylvania, but by Orville Redenbacher?

Are you FRUSTRATED because the new overheads you've purchased to
alleviate shortages due to malfunctions are more troublesome than their
20 year-old antecedents?

Are you INCREDULOUS that something as simple as an overhead projector
which is, after all a light source, a fan to cool it and a fresnel lens
in a box, can't be built that is cheap and reliable?

Are you BROKE because of the money you waste on short-lived lamps?

Are you sick of taking the BLAME for overhead projectors that don't
work?

Have you ever SUSPECTED that the manufacturers of overhead projectors
and projection lamps WANT to limit the life of their products in order
to insure increased sales?

I HAVE!

My name is Jeffrey Hastings and I'm a Middle School Librarian in
Michigan.  Before I was in this blessed profession I was an audio-visual
technician for a school district in New York.  In '85, when I started
that job, overhead projectors--and I dealt with thousands of them-- were
a no-brainer.  You cleaned them, lubed up the fan motors, and they were
good to go for another decade.  Once in a while you repaced a melted
fresnel lens (The big plastic lens inside)-- baked due to a failed fan,
but most of the defects were things like cracked platens (the glass on
which transparencies rest) or broken components like handles on the lamp
doors...These days overhead projectors are the bane of my existence and
I'm fed up...

It was around 1988 when low-voltage overheads started becoming
prominent.  Low voltage overheads (Like projectors that use my favorite
ENX lamp[hate it]) use --not the current right out of the wall, but a
"clipped" lower voltage version, which is more efficient...on paper,
that is.  In order to use this reduced voltage, other components are
required like a RECTIFIER that cuts the current down to a level suitable
for  low voltage lamps.

Soon after this new breed of overheads was introduced, I noticed
overheads began to fail all over the place.  It seemed at first the
rectifiers (Just a set of diodes)  would fail soon after purchase,
sending out more voltage than the lamps could handle and
pop-goes-the-weasel (at a price tag of 5 to 35 dollars a pop.)  But it
was more than that:  Overheads with replaced rectifiers would STILL cook
lamps with unprecedented frequency.  Soon I noticed ENX lamps were
popping like party favors on new years eve.  I was then a member of our
BOCES, (regional media center) advisory committee and I discovered that
everyone was smoking more lamps than ever-- particularly ENX lamps in 3M
overheads. Using our collective clout we got 3M locally to send
requesting schools a fix-it package which they could wire into the lamp
circuit (at their expense) to reduce the voltage further still and pop
less lamps.  It didn't really help.   I stopped buying 3M overheads.
Soon though, all of the competitors were switching to low voltage lamps
and faulty overheads were harder and harder to avoid.  It was as if lamp
manufacturers started saying to themselves: "These low-voltage lamps are
selling like hot cakes and WE LIKE IT!"

Discussions about projection lamps among educators continued and, now
living in Michigan, I have served on a REMC that has discussed the issue
on occasion.  A recent development was that users were told Buy ENX-5
lamps for your ENX projectors; they last longer.  I did and they don't.

The problem has now become more widespread.  MANY classes of lamps fail
often now and MANY models of overheads are now more unreliable than
ever.  My most recent pain are the popular DYS lamps which I used to
rely upon, but have recently been smoking by the gross. I think the
manufacturers of lamps and overheads owe us an EXPLANATION if not more
than that.  I am hoping YOU CAN HELP.

The first step would be to let me know:

1. Are you having problems with overheads or other projection devices
and or their lamps?

2.  What model overheads/projectors and what ANSI code (3 letter code)
projection lamps are you frying the most?

3.  Any specific manufacturers or vendors?

4. Have you discovered a RELIABLE overhead/lamp combination?

5. Have these issues been addressed where you live/work and have you had
any response from manufacturers/vendors?

I will compile your responses, both to post a HIT and to attempt to take
action on our behalf as a group. If I get a response from you indicating
strongly that the bad overhead phenomenon is real and widespread, I'll
forward the responses to my regional media center and assert that they
hold manufacturers accountable or bar them from future cooperative bid
opportunities.  I would appreciate it if, given a positive response to
this query, you do the same.  Maybe we can put market pressure on
companies to stop ripping the public off with needlessly unreliable
products.

I would appreciate your input.

Jeffrey Hastings-- Library Media Specialist
Highlander Way Middle School
Howell, Michigan
(517) 548-6293

HTTP://hps.k12.mi.us/~hwms

E-mail Hastings@hps.k12.mi.us
Fax: 517.545.1407




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