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Author Topic: Planar PT-1545 Touch Screen monitor John Roddy Expert Film Handler Posts: 114 From: Spring, TX, United States Registered: Dec 2012 posted 12-23-2016 07:31 PM                        In the past, we've gotten away with just using any VGA monitor and a mouse. You could hook up an old CRT display at it if you want.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-23-2016 08:46 PM                     Next time I'm at a theater that has an ELO I will get the model number. But my theaters rarely ever break down, so it might be a while... You could also email GDC Tech Support, I am sure they can recommend something other than Planar. I know I am going to stop pushing them. The majority of the ones I have in the field also came from Strong as part of equipment packages... Oh, ILO Monitors also seem to be way more serviceable. There is plethora of Youtube Vids on this but I'd also want to actually talk to ILO Tech Support to see how far they carry through on out of warranty items and in supplying parts. Mark  |  IP: Logged Leslie Hartmier Expert Film Handler Posts: 100 From: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Registered: Jul 2012 posted 12-24-2016 06:38 PM                     Thanks John, we have used regular VGA monitors, but the touchscreens are far more convenient if you're doing mods to SPLs etc at the content server. Great if you don't, or want them to follow a policy of doing everything on the TMS though. Mark, GDC is compiling a list of suitable monitors for me. I'll let you know what their list contains. As I said, the last time I visited the topic with GDC, Planar was the only one they supported. Leslie  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-24-2016 07:09 PM                     Leslie, I can't believe that others haven't also become dismayed with Planar and no manufacturer is ever going to rely on another single manufacturer to keep supplying a certain model touch screen for ever. So I will be interested in seeing that list for sure. Thanks and Merry Christmas! Mark  |  IP: Logged Dave Macaulay Film God Posts: 2321 From: Toronto, Canada Registered: Apr 2001 posted 12-26-2016 01:32 PM                     I think it's about cost/benefit like most business decisions. When Regal, AMC, Carmike or the other big chains tell Dolby "we want the derver to work with Planar touchscreens - not the expensive multitouch ones, just the cheapest one-touch model" Dolby jumps at it. When Bob's Movies with it's 4 screens asks for their ELO screens to be supported, Dolby either deletes that email or replies with a simple "no". The Doremi servers have talked to most APC UPS units for a long time. I got nowhere asking for Tripplite to be supported. They just added a brand I had never heard of before and can't remember now. I assume some mega chain with a huge order in the works asked for it. It's not worth the cost of creating and testing a new software module to talk to a new device unless a large volume sale hinges on it.  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 12-26-2016 03:43 PM                        Since most of these things run on Linux, the drivers likely already exist so it's not something that they would have to write from scratch. Just add it to their disk image would be all that's required in many cases, I suspect.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-29-2016 01:44 PM                     My spudger tool kit arrived and I finally cracked this thing open. Don't even try doing it without a spudger kit. Two spudgers is better as you do the first sides! Start at the power button. It appears to be the easiest area to flex the spudger under. Then work across away from the power button and up the next side using two spudgers at the corner. Then do the opposite side so that you leave just the top snapped together. Next take a look inside and see how the wires are running from the rear panel pcb's to the screen itself. You don't want to break these or rip them out of their sockets or the monitor is a sudden doorstop. Lastly, carefully separate the top edge and reach in and unplug the ribbon cable first. It's the more fragile one and easiest to tear apart, it is in a black malke connector that plugs into the pcb. Then unplug the larger bunch of wires and you can lay the two halves of the monitor on the bench and unplug the two smaller cables. Note that the larger bunch of wires and the ribbon feed the screen itself. The ribbon is likely the power for the CCFL inverter which unfortunately APPEARS to be integrated into the screen itself. Going to lay the boards on the bench connect it all back up to the screen and check voltages. If the voltages appear normal then I'm going to take a peak inside the screen assembly at the CCFL inverter itself. The capacitors in this unit appear normal, but that doesn't mean they are not bad. Pictures follow....  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-29-2016 03:36 PM                     It would appear that everything is ok and all that's wrong is a bad CCFL tube. The one tube in the pictures is OBVIOUSLY bad. This IS the most common failure mode for monitors. Yes, the lamps are available from a US Source at about 30 bucks each. Still worth doing it though. If a person gets good at this its about a 90 minute job to re-lamp one. Some spare Kapton tape might also be handy during re-assembly. Also... Am going to build a CCFL tester out of an old laptop CCFL inverter. That way you can test these tubes in place and not have to rip the LCD panel apart to see if they are ok or not. It' not a difficult job to tear the panel apart, just a delicate one... It's held in by four screws, two on each side of the front, and there are four tiny ones in the back cover that need to come off. Then the back of the panel snaps off. It is also a common issue for the wires to burn off the ends of the tubes and or for a hole to burn through the glass section of the tube. Lastly, Converting these to LED would not be an easy task. The tubes are in U-shaped reflectors and need to be put back in them. They are too narrow for the usual LED strip that is being used to convert monitors. The tubes aside fomr being in a U-shaped reflector also mount into a plastic frame. Oh, the touch screen stays attached to the front panel and the connection for that is actually the flat ribbon cable. The CCFL tubes are the two small pink/white wires with a connector. Running 600 VAC up that tiny wire seems odd. Lastly, my recommendation is... Shut these things off when not in use or if you don't absolutely need them turned on. If you run on a scheduler on your server then they really don't need to be on. Or run your projector remotely from the box office like many seem to do these days...  |  IP: Logged Kristo Nalo Film Handler Posts: 24 From: Skopje, MK, MK, Macedonia Registered: Nov 2016 posted 12-30-2016 06:30 AM                     I also have a lot of things that we can call it vintage and if this things bring you life again you would see the different of the Hi-Tech than the vintage and you will truly amazed. I also have 7 monitors from studios companies because they want it to paste out all the older model and I brought them for only $400 and all of them works great.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-30-2016 01:30 PM                     Well, if you repair these be sure to order the lamps and have them on hand BEFORE you rip it all apart. The lamps are quite easy to get Now I have this thing all over my bench and really don't want to move any of it around unnecessarily because the stuff is so fragile when it's apart. So I guess I move my today's project on to my desk for now. Mak  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-20-2017 04:06 PM                     I just got a second dead PT-1545 going again. The lamps in this one were fine, the CCFL power supply was at issue. The power supply is a nightmare to trace, although the actual inverter itself on the ps board is pretty simple and more or less exactly the same as what is on a dual lamp replacement inverter board, tracing how it is control ed by the video input card is next to impossible. So the solution here was to hang another small inverter board on the monitor just to power the lamps. There is room in the internal chassis for a small board, however I didn't like the idea of extending the leads fomr the CCFL lamps over or near the low voltage DC supply. So I decided to outboard the supply and mount it to the rear of the monitor in a small plastic box which is on order. This process is about a two hour job, and not sure from a cost standpoint that I would do it again or not. It would be nice and easy to be able to mount the new board to the rear of the LCD display itself and just sandwich this back together. However there is only about 2mm spacing between the boards and the rear of the LCD panel. I may consider extending the lamp leads to the rear chassis area on the next one, but the ignition voltage of these lamps is about 3kv and the run voltage is a few hundred, so its gonna have to be well insulated, and the two leads should be kept separated. Here are a few pictures. The board plugs in to both power source and the lamps. The flying yellow lead is brightness. High brightness it gets tied to +5 volts. Low brightness to ground. Just going to leave this on medium brightness. A fairly long wiring harness what has wire with crappy insulation on it is included with each board. You have to tack it to these locations. Ground, +12 volts for the board supply and + 5 volts to turn the board on. The board will mount along the right rear of the monitor in a vertical position. one toggel switch to turn the lmaps on or off. A 3 volt relay could also be used if you want to, as there is a switched 3 volt supply on the video card. The main power supply is an always live type. I am just going to put a small toggle switch on the plastic box to turn the lamps on and off. The key to these boards is getting one with 8mm pitch CCFl lead sockets.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 01-20-2017 06:56 PM                     Side question, yet follows this topic of LED displays, but adding home Flat screen TV's in this: I have a 32" Visio, where once in a while, screen will blank out for about 5 seconds, then comes back on. It does this about once every other day. Flaky PS, esp the caps? thx - Monte  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-20-2017 07:33 PM                     Could be. Some times caps are obviously leaky or look bulged at the top... Always recap it first and see how it goes. If it uses one central CCFL supply I would suspect that next. You may be able to get the exact supply from them, or a general purpose one that also works ok. There are a number of different size ccfl sockets on the generic supplies, so be sure to get the correct one. Mark  |  IP: Logged

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