I’ve posed page 2 on the long term timelapse project. It shows the power supply and the final placement outside. Hopefully I’ll start seeing some cool video coming out of it soon.. or rather, later. 
I’ve started a page on the progress for my Long Term Timelapse project. My goal is to design a camera that can film plants growing over a period of time in the magnitude of months, such as a pumpkin growing.
.Click the image to read more and see photos.
Today a robot started sending me spam via my contact page. I think it is shameful that people out there create robots that send spam to people this way. I have added a Captcha to the page. We’ll see if that stops it. If it starts reading the captcha, I will make it more cryptic.
It may seem weird, but I built a mini-bench for the drill press. YAY!
Today dad and I installed the upper portion of the bookcase. You can now really see the project taking shape. I have the printers installed and working. The cabinet doors are on order and will come next week. We’ll probably install the rest of the trim pieces in the next few days as well as the remaining backing for the center section. I think it is looking really great so far.
Long ago it was agreed that a bookcase and cabinets would look delightful in my upstairs hallway area. Finally it will be reality. My dad and I are building it from scratch. It will have cupboards and drawers in the bottom; on the top it will have book shelves on the right and left sides, and an open area in the middle where I will put the printers. Here’s a picture of what it looks like so far.
I’ve just updated my blog design. I finally got around to upgrading WordPress to Version 3.0.4 and started using a Theme that allows for greater flexibility and has increased features. I have integrated (sort of) my existing webcam page, TigerCam, into my blog. I also added 4 cameras from my house as well. Check it out on the webcams menu. I plan to continue making improvements and work to make this site a more central one-stop-shop for all things Dan related.
Well, that day has finally come. My projector lamp finally died. I figured I would write this blog post in case it helps anyone else looking for more detailed information on this series of Sanyo projector. In the past I was never able to find any good detailed information relating to Lamp Life for my Projector, which was disappointing. Even the manual says NOTHING about lamp life. I called Sanyo directly and they would not give me a number of expected lamp hours for this model!
I have a Sanyo PLV-Z700 projector which I purchased about 2 years ago from Visualapex.com. I am very happy with my purchase. This information probably also goes for the Sanyo PLV-Z2000, PLV-Z3000, and the new PLV-Z4000 models as well. They all take the exact same lamp.
I run my projector lamp on A1 mode almost all the time. Never on Full brightness as the A1 mode looks almost the same and saves on lamp life. When I look at the OSD Lamp time vs. the Lamp time as reported by the serial interface, they differ tremendously. It is my theory that the Serial port reports true lamp “on” time where the OSD reports the effective calculated lamp time based on the lamp mode. i.e. Full, A1, A2, or Half brightness. I never could get Sanyo to explain to me the exact math involved.
When I reached 3000 hours true lamp “on” time as seen by the serial port, the OSD read slightly over 2000 hours. The “Replace Lamp” LED on the top of the projector illuminated precisely when it reach 3000 true hours. I should have bought a new lamp at that time but I waited too long. Today the projector shut off abruptly with serial status code 21, then 81.
“21†= Processing Cooling down after OFF due to lamp failure
“81†= Standby after Cooling down due to lamp failure
If I try to turn it back on, it attempts to start the lamp a few times, fails, and then shuts off again.
So if you are wondering how long the lamp will last on a Sanyo PLV-Z700, mine lasted 3159 hours (true time as reported by serial port) when in A1 mode almost all its life. The OSD time is probably about 2106 hours but I can’t tell right now since I cannot turn the projector on until my new lamp arrives. And yes, I ordered the replacement from Visualapex.com as well.
9/10/2010 – Update: New Lamp came. Working great now. The OSD time before I reset it was 2118 hours.
