Okay. This is a warning. Don't attempt this unless you feel that your fairly competent with electrical stuff and have a good record of taken stuff apart and putting it back together in one piece. Although nothing in this guide is technical par se, there are a lot of fiddly interconnects that need to be removed and replaced accurately.

Normal safety precautions should be taken and the PJ mains cable should be removed and the bulb allowed to cool.

You'll need 1 can of clean compressed air (with tube). 1 philips screw driver. And patience (about a hour).

I wish you luck.

Set up a well lit area clear of stuff to allow you to work. I also tend to set aside small cups to keep all the screws that you remove.

Here the is the beast with it's cloths on.
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/9512/cased7wj.jpg

Remove the bulb, remove all the screws from the bottom (4 normal black screws and 1 long silver one) and the two top screws from the rear of the unit.
Carefully remove the top shell. This is tricky and can take a while. Just be careful.

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/5129/caseopen1sv.jpg

You need to remove the circuit board now. This is not for timid. Carefully remove all the edge connectors and the three ribbon cables that come up from the bottom of the board. These are held in by a pressure grip connector. Just slide the black tabs back the ribbon cables will come free.
There is also a connector (power?) on the bottom of the board that you need to be aware of. Remove the screws holding the board on. Also remove the remaining screws on the back of the unit where the connectors are as the video connector panel and board are one piece. Lift the board/video connector panel and remove the power connector on the bottom of the board.
http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/4451/circuitboard8ms.jpg

You'll find some plastic poppers on the top black cover. Carefully remove those and lift the top cover off exposing the lcd panels and colour filters.

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/5553/boardoff4hn.jpg


Now remove the 2 screws that hold the projector lens assembly in place. You also need to remove the 2 screws that hold a lens shroud cover near the front of the lens.
You should now be able to remove the complete lens/lcd panel assembly.
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/9491/lensout5bb.jpg

Give everything a good squirt with your can of compressed air.
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/2588/lens6ow.jpg

And reassemble as quickly as possible to prevent dust contamination.

Wow. That is a thorough description of dust blob cleaning deep inside your projector. I may try this with my TX100 some time if I get dust blobs.

Has this method proved very successful?

How often do you clean your air filter(s)?

Hello, I've taken apart my Hitachi using your guide. Nice Job!
After building it together I still have dust problems.
Can I clean the LCD panels using a dustcloth? Will this damage the parts?
Should I use alchol or some other cleaning product?

Is this guide useful for the TX200 or are there some other important differences to keep in mind?

EDIT - I used this guide and the service manual (although the service manual isn't really that much help). I was able to clean all the dust from my TX200 so that the image is now dust blob free. Its a little nerve racking fully disassembling the projector to clean it, but I am glad it worked.

I am now going to try to design a somewhat better air filter system :)

My advice is to try and use compressed air to clean all the surfaces in the optical path several times before resorting to any cloths, swabs or Q-tip type things. I used nothing but my Re-Air compressed air cans and had 100% success cleaning the dust from inside my TX200. You don't want to physically touch anything if you can avoid it. You don't want to accidentally scratch anything or leave new dust on anything either. The lens, the blub surface, the lens right nest to the bulb, the front and the space behind the the lcd panels, the polarizers, and all the area around there. Clean it several times with compressed air and re-assemble the pj as quickly as possible within reason. I did mine and the components sat carefully on my desk in a work room for 1/2 hour before I was able to re-assemble and my pj worked great with no dust blobs afterwards.

I'm also about to perform a dust blob cleaning on a TX200... before I do, is there any cleaners that I should consider?

For instance, has anyone used a Photo camera lens cleaner?

like photosol(dot)com

s1_clean_ccd.pdf

(im too new to post HTML tags)

Darkstaff

Re-Air can be found on the net. The company who makes it is called Read Right or something similar. I highly recommend it. Its a cannister you fill with nothing but air. Do a search and you will find it sold at places like the examples below:

http://www.shoplet.com/REARR6000_Office_Supplies_Read_Right_ReAir_Refillable_Duster ,_50_Burst_Refill.html

http://www.shoplet.com/office/db/g15978.html

BTW .. for you Hitachi TX 100 owners, you can get a dust cover for your projector from here:

http://www.compucover.com/new_index.cfm?do=DCMDustCoverResult&Width=13.4&height=4.3&depth=11&Optvalue2=%20Four%20Sided%20Box&OptName1=Material&OptName2=Style&CategoryId2=Projector&productId=175285&category=Projector&mfgName=Hitachi%20PJ-TX100%20-%20LCD%20projector

(I am ordering a custom dust cover for my TX200 myself)

good luck,

:)

P.S. I have no experience with retailer listed above. I bought mine a couple years ago from a Canadian camera store called Henrys who sold Re-Air on eBay.

I've created a guide to open & clean your PJ-TX200.

home.parse.nl/~michiel/hitachi%20pj-tx200%20howto%20open

It might be of use to someone :)

I'm having problems however. The image has a blueish glow around high-contrast; see home.parse.nl/~michiel/misc/beamer-zweem, or in more detail: home.parse.nl/~michiel/misc/beamer-zweem-detail

Does anyone have an idea to why, and how to fix this?

Hello,
Followed the guides but the dust blob remains.
It only shows up on a black background as a green blob.
Does this mean its defiently the green panel the blob is on?

Thanks,
Nick

I am having trouble opening the case, someone please help!

cheers.

Opened it up, cleaned it and still same problem, dont think it was the dust blob just the right side of the screen is blue.

Happened late with my previous light bulb and I bought a new one and still same problem?

opened it up & cleaned it, but the purple splotch remains (covers about 1/6 of the screen)
i think the blue panel is burnt & a little clearer than normal
a full blue (or magenta) screen just shows a little more brightness in the area of question, but the other colours look OK
anyone replaced a filter in these?
is it worth it, or just suck it up & get a newer PJ?

mark