Ampro Resource

Well, I wasn’t happy with how hot the projector was running with the original modification. So the projector went under the ‘knife’ again.

I enlarged the opening in the back panel to give the new fan better air intake. I also drilled out some of the vent holes to allow more airflow out of the power supply area.

The enlarged holes really seemed to make a difference in terms of how much air was coming out of the power supply — I suspect this was a big help.

Watched Shanghai Knights and the internal temperature only manged to climb to 31C. It seemed to be holding steady at this point. On power down, the temperature did climb higher than it had in the past but only by a few degrees. (highest temp was 52C)

I’m going to have to watch it for a while and see if its stable. I’ll probably also see if I can get some data from the AVSForum on ‘safe’ temperatures — but I suspect this is a good trade-off. Nearly silent power supply for a few degrees. I’m certain the unit wasn’t operating within a few degrees of its maximum temperature so I’m pretty sure I’m safe.

Check the gallery for some pictures of the process.

Well, cutting the hole was quite a bit of work – I tried several methods, but the best ended up being a combination of a jigsaw with a metal cutting blade to rough the hole out and by hand to clean it up. I still have a pretty ‘ragged’ hole, but that’s not a big deal.

Before the mod the temperature would sit around 30C while running, and climb to a maximum of 48C after I turned it off.

The new fan is very, very quiet. I can clearly hear the other two fans working away (they have to be changed next, but I wanted to stick to one change at a time). The projector seems to be running a little ‘hot’ however, as the internal temperature climbed to 33.5C after running for 90 minutes. It seemed to be still slowly climbing as well. This fan may not have enough ‘static pressure’ to push air out the vent holes — or my opening may not be big enough.

I’m going to enlarge the opening and see how the fan does. I may also try opening up the vent holes a little to increase air flow ‘out’.

The 4 vantec fans and the papst fan arrived.

I’ve taken the 60mm fan out of the power supply and have test fitted an 80mm fan in its place. It appears that the 80mm fan will fit inside the enclosure without any real problems.

The only ‘trick’ is going to be enlarging the opening enough to get reasonable airflow. I’m going to have to borrow a dremel tool and see if I can do that. All I was able to accomplish tonight was to get two of the mounting holes drilled. I started to cut the opening by hand, but soon gave up on that.

If you check the gallery http://www.lowtek.ca/boguslink/ampro I’ve posted a picture of the fan inside the power supply of my Ampro.

I haven’t been able to get full specs from the web on this fan (2410NL-04W-B30). However, from the avsforum.com posting on fans, someone else with an Ampro had the following fan in their unit (2410ML-04W-B30).

The 2410ML has specs you can find. (4000 rpm, 19cu/ft, static pressure 0.16, 31dBA)

It will be tricky to match specs like that with a quiet fan. Really the best you can do is ~20dBA with a 12cu/ft fan (which would be lower than the stock). It might make a lot more sense to replace it with an 80mm fan. There might be room to fit an 80mm fan in the case, might be tricky drilling the holes to mount it..

As an aside, I’ve been thinking about trying a constant height setup. With the 9″ tubes, I’ve got probably enough light — and a constant height setup would really impress the natives. Something I have to at least try — however, it might not be practical due to headroom issues in the second row.