Has anyone opened up an Optoma HD70 to clean the inside of the lens ? - Page 2

The orientation is not important when the projector is not in use. In fact, every projector I've seen is packaged with the lens pointing straight up.

I would recommend always shipping a projector with the lens facing down. If you ship it with the lens facing up, any dust in the optical chamber that is dislodged during shipping will fall toward the DMD. If any lands on it, you'll get a visible dust blob in your image. If you ship it with the lens facing down, the dust would land on the lens and not be visible in the projected image.

This is more critical with an older used projector, since there'll be more dust present in the optical chamber than a brand new one (new one will most likely have no dust present).

I had to ship a PJ out for repair, and the repair shop sent it back lens facing up. I had lots of dust blobs that weren't there when I sent it in, and had to open the PJ to clean.

Sorry to hear that. Your choices seem to be extremely limited. If you were up for shipping overseas, there would be a lot more options for you. But I understand your reluctance, you don't know what kind of treatment it will get from the carriers.

An Optoma "tech" who is afraid to open up an Optoma projector...?! Well that is just plain odd...

If I understand your question regarding the lens assembly, I did not say to take the lens apart. I said to open the optical CHAMBER that is directly BEHIND the lens. THAT is where your dust problems will be, on the mirror and imaging device that is INSIDE the chamber. OPening the chamber and cleaning it with canned will NOT cause any alignment issues. And there is nothing to reset in the menu. Just open the projector, open the optical chamber, clean the dust out, put it back together, done.

Okay, I got it now. The answer is no, the there will be no issues with alignment. However, the fact that you have "fungi" INSIDE your lens assembly is most unusual.

If you can't find someone who can take it apart and clean it, you may need to buy a used projector that has other issues on Ebay and use the lens from it.

Yes, as i stated earlier it most likely was the main board not making good contact with the dmd slot board, and i'm happy to hear that is all it was! I would recommend having him make sure all of the main board screws are down securely so it doesn't come loose again, frequent contacting problems can harm one of the boards over time (every time it connects a jolt of electricity is sent, further some grounding pins may lose contact which would fry it instantly).
As for the lens assembly, if the "fungi" you're mentioning does not show up in the image, then i'd leave it alone. The lens assembly is a complex set of lenses that have complimentary aberrations and optical properties... all of which are precisely distanced. Taking it apart and cleaning it (and doing so properly, aka don't strip off the anti-reflective coatings, which would hurt your contrast) then putting it back together exactly as it was, may not go smoothly. But if he has done it before you may be ok, but i still wouldn't recommend it if the fungi does not show on the projected image. If you just have some dust blobs just have the guy clean only the imaging chamber (chamber behind the lens where the assembly focal point is on the dmd). Or, as sheridan said, find a used projector and use its lens assembly if the fungi bothers you.

Get it taken care of now. It may not affect the image now, but if it grows, it will.

You may have gotten lucky on the board connections, but I would not be surprised if the problem came back later as nothing was really done.

Lol, for the last time, there is no cable!
Its a slot connection, like a graphics card as you mention, but with the contacts facing up. You just need to make sure the main board is held down firmly, by making sure all screws are in tightly. Since its a slot connection with the main board fitting into place on top of the slotted dmd board, it is the main board you want to make sure is secured for a good connection.
And assuming he knows what he's doing, he should be fine cleaning out the lens assembly, i just recommend against it if it isn't affecting anything. But if it truly is growing, then you probably should get it taken care of. Just make sure he uses a cleaner for the lens that does not eat away any coatings that may exist on them. Though if he is experienced with projectors he should already be aware of this.

IP is debatable, you'll see many people recommend it... and many people recommend against it. I've seen stories across the web that it does indeed eat through coatings, but takes a while.
So, just because there is any doubt i'd try to avoid using any IP and as a matter of fact avoid using any liquid. Using a microfibre cloth, most of it may come off without any cleaning solution. If you do need a cleaning solution try double distilled water first, then move on to harsher solutions.

The problem is regular water can leave residue and streaks because of the contaminants and minerals. Distilled water generally will not since most, if not all, of the impurities have been distilled/filtered out.
You sure you can't even buy regular distilled water from a local market/shop? If not IP would be the next choice as it is generally pure enough and evaporates fast to leave no residue, but distilled water would be my first choice. Normally i wouldn't be this cautious when recommending a cleaning solution, but since you're going to be cleaning the internals you should be a little more careful, as the inside lenses more than likely were not designed to be as tough as the outside lens everyone has access to.

I just want to tell everyone that contributed to this thread and to the site, thank you. I had the "white stripes" described and was able to fix them on my own knowing where the connection issues stemmed from between the boards.

Thanks again!

Another confirmation that the vertical stripes can be fixed by taking the projector apart and cleaning and re-seating the contacts of the DLP daughter board that makes contact with the main circuit board from below.

I turned my HD70 on this afternoon and found lines developing and spreading across the screen - found this old thread and cleaned and reseated the board (and cleaned a few dust blobs while I was in there) and it looks like new again. THANKS everyone.

I have an HD70 and have had problems with it overheating the color wheel since 1200 hours. Don't bother with Optoma tech support, they are zero help at all. Like you, I didn't want to send my projector through the mail for a round trip distance of 7000 miles to and from California, where the repair center is. I also didn't feel like paying them 160 dollars just to look at the unit, especially since it has a very well known issue (design flaw).

I have experienced both issues you're having. To clean the blobs off your image take the top cover off and there's a very small window i the projection assembly that you can open by unscrewing 2 tiny screws and removing a cover plate. From there you can shine a flashlight back through the lens and you can see little tiny dust particles on the reflection mirror (I'm sure there's a more technical name for it) that you may wipe off with a clean Q tip, or other similar and somewhat sterile device. Be sure you don't see ANYTHING on the mirror when you are finished, and beware of trailing little pieces off cotton if you use a Q tip.

The line problem, I had that once after reassembly. It scared me pretty badly, but was corrected by taking is apart and cycling all the connectors to the main board again. Mine overheats the color wheel so badly that in order for it to run (like right now) I have to have the entire unit apart with an 8" fan strategically placed RIGHT over the color wheel to stop the thing from freaking out and doing an emergency shutdown. A couple weeks ago I accidentally touched a spot on the main board while adjusting the fan and suddenly I saw those lines again! It was by pressing roughly in the center of the main board, more toward the back than the front. Perhaps part of your casing is binding and applying pressure there? Just a thought. First thing I'd do though is remove the top cover and one by one cycle the 8 or 9 connectors on the main board. I say one at a time so they don't get mixed up. I used a sharpie to put a little dot between the harness end and the board's connectors for each of mine so I can visually confirm the right connections before applying power again. Be CAREFUL with the connection for the color wheel-it's a very tiny ribbon cable. Honestly, with your particular symptom and knowing how I was able to correct mine, I think you'd be ok just not touching it, since it's not likely at all to be the problem connection.

I hope this helped a little. There are good disassembly instructions online, but I've got mine apart, constantly, so if you need tips or pics I can help

I had the overheating issue too and solved it over the winter by cleaning EVERYTHING inside - first with a vacuum with a fine nozzle attachment and then in particular the fan for the color wheel. I also cleaned the color wheel fan with compressed air very thoroughly - it's the little one that blows on the color wheel. I also cleaned the main fan, circuit board and power supply boards - just basically cleaned it all as best I could so there was NO dust to impair the fans or hold heat on the circuit boards.

NOTE - after cleaning, check the mirror for dust via the "two-screw access panel" as noted in the post above. If you see any clean it thoroughly as well or you'll have dust blobs.

My HD70 used to heat up and start flashing random colors within a about a half hour of turning it on... now I can run it many hours with no issues.

And to re-enforce - the vertical stripes are caused by bad contact from the main board to the DLP board below - the main board seats onto the DLP board from above via a multipin connector mounted onto the main board. If there is any marginal contact there - you'll get vertical stripes.

Yeah I used to clean that little fan to fix the problem, but that hasn't been enough in well over a year. I've even taken it out multiple times and cleaned every single little fin on the squirrel cage and still, it overheats almost instantly. The fan smells toasty, like a circuit board that's burned up-but it still spins and hasn't set any error messages yet. When I get some free cash (not likely anytime soon) I'll order a replacement fan and see what that does, but this problem has progressively been getting worse for years now. It's flickering a bit even as I'm typing right now

Well - it may be that your fan has indeed gone bad ... but good luck to you finding an exact replacement... before thoroughly cleaning mine over the winter I searched high and low in vain for a replacement. I found one that was 'close' and even had the same brand/model/part number - but it was slightly different than the original. You might get a parts-only HD70 off fleabay and hope the fan is still good on it...?