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Author Topic: looking for tips on what to check to restart a v-5 projector Pete Naples Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1565 From: Dunfermline, Scotland Registered: Feb 2001 posted 10-17-2005 06:36 PM                     V5's are good value for money, but you can't seriously compare them to the Phillips/Kinoton FP20/30, or the Westar/Century, can you?! I service one of the earliest V5 in the UK, it's not THAT old, yet some parts are an issue, it never gave a super steady image, even when new. Sound performance is also a wee bit lacking, it's passable, especially in this day and age of digital, but I've rarely come across a V5 where both channels focus in the same place, you almost always have to compromise one channel to peak the other. It's also rather maintenance heavy. Don't get me wrong it's a perfectly good machine for the average operation, where at installation the only real consideration is one of cost. I doubt greatly you'll find Vic 5s at 40+ years old still giving a more than good enough performance. Now the Victoria 8, that is a whole different ball game, and price tag, up there with the DP70. Like everything else in life, you get what you pay for.  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 10-17-2005 10:41 PM                        V5s are maintenance heavy? Compared to what? Other than the odd gear box exploding, there's not much to them to go wrong, or maintain. Now speaking of V8s and drive controllers, I wonder how fast one of those'll go before causing themselves excessive wear or self destructing. Some of those four feature nights run a little too long...  |  IP: Logged Pete Naples Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1565 From: Dunfermline, Scotland Registered: Feb 2001 posted 10-18-2005 05:08 AM                     The gearbox is one thing, and granted they last a fair while, but the ones I service, we are very often changing belts. The automation system (the factory fitted one), is dreadfully unreliable, and guess what?! No manual override, if the PLC, or the PSU is dead, you cannot run the machine manually. The microswitches associated with the change-over and speed Watt-Governor are another source of trouble, they wear with time, and have to replaced, but they have to be very carefully aligned, or the thing will shut down the instant the change-over opens. I also see a lot of oil leaks, mainly from the intermittent input/output shafts, have had one where the gasket continually failed, the reason being that the mating surfaces weren't flat!  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 10-18-2005 05:41 AM                        quote: Pete Naples ...but the ones I service, we are very often changing belts. Are the site projectionists not capable of doing that themselves? At every V5 site I worked all maintenance was done in-house apart from A-chain issues. Changing two rubber bands while keeping the red dots in the right place hardly calls for a PhD in astrophysics. As for the shutter gearboxes, sales of spares must be a nice little earner for Cinemeccanica.  |  IP: Logged Pete Naples Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1565 From: Dunfermline, Scotland Registered: Feb 2001 posted 10-18-2005 05:46 AM                     Yeah the guys do it themselves, or I do it if I happen to find one needs changing when I'm there. Recetnly you can buy the gearbox internals, so now we overhaul them in the workshop. Still a nice little earner for all concerned!  |  IP: Logged Dan Harris Film Handler Posts: 86 From: Bristol, UK Registered: Jun 2003 posted 10-18-2005 05:52 AM                     Is the "factory" automation different from the Vector 500 option? Or is it the same internal electronics? We had a few Vector problems when ours were installed, one turned out to be a faulty PLC, one a faulty control panel, (and a faulty FM-35, but thats not Cinemeccanicas fault!), however, had no problems just flipping the Auto/Man switch and running them manually. However, these problems were all on 11-year old machines retrofitted with the new automation, havn't had any problems on three new machines. The only problem we've ever had is with the gearbox, however, that was when our company would only pay to replace them with reconditioned units. Once we had changed them out for brand new units, never a further problem.  |  IP: Logged Pete Naples Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1565 From: Dunfermline, Scotland Registered: Feb 2001 posted 10-18-2005 06:09 AM                     I'm talking about factory fit Vector 1000, the 500 does offer proper manual control. First time I came up against one with a dead automation, I was utterly gobsmacked to find you can't run the thing in manual.  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 10-18-2005 04:15 PM                        That indeed is a flaw with the automation. I'll even give you the input/output shaft leaks on some machines which are minor compared to say, a Super Simplex (wall, floor and ceiling automatic rust inhibitor). However, I still can't agree that they're heavy on maintenance.  |  IP: Logged Pete Naples Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1565 From: Dunfermline, Scotland Registered: Feb 2001 posted 10-18-2005 04:21 PM                     Daryl. I'm not asking you to agree, that's the whole point of a discussion forum! Let me put it another way, compared to the amount of maintenance that operators carry out on the Westar or Century machines (also common round here), the Victoria 5 requires more regular attention to keep it running well. The Super Simplex is not common here, so I can't possibly comment on its oil leaks, the Vic 5s leak more than 40 year old Westars, I've also found some with horrendous casting defects (I've got a picture somewhere, I'll post it up if can find it). On the whole they seem to be getting worse, the older ones require less TLC than 2-3 year old machines, but I think that's true of most makers. Like I said before they do offer good value for money, I once heard them referred to as the 'Ford Escorts' of the industry, everybody has them, everybody complains about them, but still buys another one.  |  IP: Logged

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