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Author Topic: Enigma Tamper Failures Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 08-12-2016 06:02 PM                     Actually, quite a few of us have quite a bit of control over how the systems are put in.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-13-2016 04:38 PM                     Well, considering that most of the locations I service get twice yearly maintainance with the exception of a few and many see me five or six times because of mainly sound issues or replacing screens and other normal maintainance I would say that I have no theater's except the NC-900 I posted earlier that have any existing problems. My customers also frequently replace air filters and all sites exhaust popcorn poppers outdoors. The stuff just isn't breaking folks. In the last 6 years I've had... Approximately three media block failures. One strange acting xenon switcher that got replaced One ballast board, and one lens driver board fail in different NC-900's. I did replace a light engine because of some demolition work that got to be a little too violent for one NC-2000 light engine which developed about 30 stuck pixels, but can't blame that on anyone but the stupid contractor. That engine is now spare parts. The digital stuff has been uber reliable overall. I do repair - replace a lot of older QSC amplifiers. Quite a few screens. Still replacing speakers at sites. Normal maintenance items now that equipment is getting older, fans batteries, etc. I have had to lightly clean two NC-2000 light engines. The light dump heatsink was plugged with fuzz. I have replaced two DSS-100's recently, so thankfully all those are gone now and make great door stops. Mark  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 08-13-2016 04:49 PM                     So you make two service viists per year per projector? Didn't you say you had some 330 (give or take) systems? Just what are you doing on those calls, Mr Maytag man? The hours needed to do meaningful calls would keep you busy indeed.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-13-2016 05:08 PM                     I wish! With the exception of a few locations you could eat off the booth floor so the equipment stays very clean. The sites with carpeting are the dirtiest of the lot. Sites that do get dirty fast change filters frequently. I generally do updates on site if I visit them regularly and any other cleaning the staff doesn't do. Yes, I do quite a few updates remotely too. I also check the fans in the GDC's to make sure they are ok, but I have 95% IMB systems. I have changed a few sites filters on their GDC's. I started replacing hard drives at 4 years which I usually do one at a time to preserve the existing data. All TMS servers get removed, disassembled yearly and cleaned. Those racks also get cleaned. I update all those remotely In projectors I remove and clean the cooling system components, especially the heat exchangers. Simply vacuuming them out doesn't get all the dust. I do the same with the projector LVPS. They are very tight between fins and tend to plug with dust that makes it through. Amplifiers have to be removed from racks, taken apart and cleaned properly about every five or six years, input level pots cleaned with Caig, especially on the DCM's! The DCM's rectifier heat sink is angled and simply blowing air through the unit isn't gonna clean it. Check system balance once a year, check system eq on the second visit. Check exhaust systems, etc. But need I continue? I imagine you do most of these sorts of general maintenance items too. And 98% of the time this is the sort of stuff I do. Actual equipment failures I listed in the previous post may as well be non-existent. Lucky for me there haven't been any except one DSS-100 which I installed remotely with the help of a local IT guy. The stuff is so reliable that I decided to start dialysis a little early rather than put it off any longer and am just going to resume long distance traveling again after several months. My Expedition has 258K on it since 2009 if you think I don't do much driving around... Mark  |  IP: Logged Jim Cassedy Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1661 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Dec 2006 posted 08-15-2016 09:38 PM                     quote: Kenneth Wuepper Every little junction and diode or transistor offers a multitude of possibilities for failure. The entire system is a ticking bomb Thank you Kenneth, for putting here an opinion I've been voicing to people for years, going way back to when I was head engineer at a 1" videotape editing and duplicating company. I used to try to tell people that the mathematical probability of all the tens of thousands of transistors, & crosspoints on all the microchips in all the equipment we had working 100% right at any given point in time was probably not in our favor. I would come into work almost EXPECTING equipment to fail. If it didn't- - I was pleased & felt 'lucky' that day. But when something did f'k up, it didn't upset me much, since expected it. It took awhile for some people to understand my attitude, but they eventually, 'got it' .  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-16-2016 01:55 PM                     And as Steve mentioned lead free solder makes all that a much larger reality. Even though PCB's are designed a bit differently today there is no disputing the high component density trends are a factor... Mark  |  IP: Logged

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