How did you manage to insert that towel and tape so neatly?

Did you remove the Reader from the front and slip it in or remove the flywheel itself?

Thanks.
 

Tip: the further you slide the folded wiper toward the centre shaft of the large roller, the more back tension you will add. Just make sure you don't add too much tension. There only needs to be just an ever so slight drag to correct for even the worst bounce.
 

Thanks for the information.

Paul.
 

Rory
 

Karen???

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
 

Aaron

 

Paul, yes if you are still running those stupid center brain roller springs remove them. They just cause problems and are only needed if the platter to projector distance is say 20 feet or more apart.

The older black Christie rollers after awhile would start wobbling on their shafts, causing ridiculous amounts of bounce, even with the spring removed. The new green rollers virtually eliminate this problem as well as make threading easier. One word of warning though, if any of your operators in the booth have a tendency of ramming their fingers through the 2nd and 3rd brain roller instead of gently opening that 3rd brain roller with one hand while the film is placed in between them with the other, get them to stop that. That practice alone causes pretty severe bouncing.
 

To find out if it's a reader problem, first try to put a "known good" reader in it's place. If the problem goes away, it's a probably a bad reader. Get a repair/exchange from your local DTS dealer.

If the timecode is blinking a lot, try readjusting the pitch of the aux. roller (black roller to the side of the reader). Adjust it for maximum film wrap. If that does not clear up the blinking (the reader should have a solid light when reading TC), then try adding additional rollers, or perhaps a cleaning roller.

There is a good troubleshooting guide (for blinking readers) on our web site techcenter. It's free to all users. Go to www.dtsonline.com. Click on "cinema", then click on "techcenter" (see on left side of screen). Login (all info you give us will not be shared, for our info only). Then, once in, go to "cinema products". Manuals and troubleshooting guides are posted there for the DTS-6, DTS-6D, DTS-70mm, DTS-6AD, and DTS-ES. You'll need Adobe Acrobat reader (link for download in techcenter). You may print out entire manuals or just section of, if needed.
- For the readers, go to the DTS-6AD section seven.

Let me know if you have any questions. If you forget your password (for techcenter), please let me know.

Karen at DTS
khultgren@dtsonline.com
 

Try the trick I mentioned above. I can take a poster tube like a baseball bat and slam the film between the platter and projector and with the modification above, there is no blinking of the reader's light. (Of course, only do that with a junk trailer.)

I've found adjusting the roller on the reader and adding new rollers only helps in a situation that is mild. In more drastic situations, it does no real good. The Value Choice modification above adds just a tiny, tiny bit of drag to the roller, effectively eliminating even terrible bouncing issues.
 

I think that it may be the print because I haven't noticed this before but it may have happened. I'm going to take this down week to add the towel drag to improve the reader read rate.

Thanks to all who have responded.
 

That is an awful extreme situation. Could you please fill us in as to your projector make/model as well as the platter make/model?
 

Don't get me wrong.. solving the problem is the important issue, and maybe it was the right thing to do. After all, if having steel rollers made worked, than great!

I'm wondering if there is some other problem that's was causing the readers not to track correctly. The people at DTS might like to know exactly what it was, so they know if their readers are at fault. Maybe the platter or projector manufacturer made some change recently that causes DTS problems.

And now, if one of those readers goes bad, it can't be simply repaired/exchanged. DTS will have to fix *that* particular unit.

Where I used to work (not DTS), we needed a fixture to repair tape drives; it took a while to set up. So we only did it once in a great while. When the pile of broken units got high, and we had a production run of new units, only then would we set up the fixture.

My point is that there may be a delay repairing a DTS reader if you need that particular one back. Also, you might want to permanently label those readers so if one does go bad, someone won't accidently throw it in the repair/exchange pile and lose it.

(PS: I modified a Century JJ2 intermittent one time. You know that knurled lever that opens/closes the intermittent pad roller? I had a "flat" milled on one side. When you close it, it hits the side of the outside intermittent sprocket bushing/support, and scrapes the paint off. A tech didn't listen to me and sent it back for repair/exchange. <sniff-sniff!> So, if anyone sees it, send it home!
 

If you put tension on the film (pinch the edges with your fingers) just before it runs into the DTS reader, does the green LED stay lit?

Are you using syncronous motors? (you are if you can interlock a print between screens.)

Did you try connecting the extra black-colored ground wire on the reader cable?

Did you ever try removing the special mounting bracket at a projector, and mounting just the regular DTS bracket and reader, and pluging the DTS cable directly into the DTS reader?

I have to admit, the idea of (stainless) steel DTS roller/flywheel appeals to me. While not absoultely necessary, I bet it would reduce those drop-outs that (admittedly rare) do occur.
 

Rory