Optikinetic solar 250 overheating

Had some issues at a gig where both of our solar 250's were over heating, the modern 250 that we have has a thermal cutout but the older one doesn't.

Are there any known mods/upgrades available for the fans?

Thanks

Rich

Update your profile when you have a minute, uk power is 8% higher than Europe but as nobody can tell where you are we will have trouble helping you....

Porrito,

Back in the olden days I had the biggest mobile disco on the south coast, there were dozens of projectors and all sorts of tricks were tried to make the lamps last, the problem is that halogen lamps have a narrow operating window, if they run too hot the envelope or filament melt but if they run too cool the metal halides stick to the quartz and it goes black. We found that under running them by 10 percent had the desired effect. That was achieved by fitting a suitable sized resistor in series with the primary of the transformer. A cheap and effective "modern" alternative would be to use a metal oxide varistor, a 10 or more ohm 5a one would do the trick, it might not drop the light output much but would slow the inrush current considerably and depending on how hot it gets may also have the effect of reducing the voltage to the primary enough to extend the lamp life and also dropping the transformer temperature. Anyway, that is what I would try if I found myself in that situation again, although as we are talking about mains voltage this should only be attempted if you are confident that it can be done safely. 

kedwardsleisure wrote: I used to be the resident in a well-known 80's bar. They used a load of solar250s to project rotating images of Adam Ant and a speedo-clad David Hasslehoff over the walls. The lighting was under maintenance contract. After a few months (these were new ones) the solar 250's got so dirty they would cycle on and off throughout the night every few minutes.

Reasonable critique by the sounds of it!