Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Strong CPA-10 Automation Problem

This is topic Strong CPA-10 Automation Problem - A little bit of Crazyness in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Jean-Michel Grin (Member # 1360) on 07-15-2002, 04:15 AM:

Hi All

Am Firs I will beg your pardon for my weak English, bum I’m sure that you can help me for the problem that I have with my Strong CPA-10 Automation systems.

Actually we have two multiplexes they use X-90 console and one Super Highlight all fitted with CPA-10 Automation. They all Work fine. But in our second Multiplex (most recent) all consoles are X-90, and anytime when we switch on the xenon Lamp, the CPA-10 will reboot !
In a Another single-screen theater, we got a Super Highlight II console with a Super reactance rectifier the problem is worst: When the lamp is ignited the CPA-10 reboot and at the intermission when the rectifier is switched off, the CPA-10 Restart the show immediately ! Funny isn’t ?
Of course we have been tried all solution from Strong: Moving away the igniter from the automation cable duct, Putting a new earth link between the Lamphouse and the main earth wire, plugged the CPA-10 main line in a different wall outlet, adding a RF suppression filter on the main line of the CPA-10, Replaced the RF capacitor at the anode termination post, Checked the earth termination on each console and electrical panels. But the problem still the same, especially when the xenon Lamp is Old. The only way to solve this problem for the moment is to let the xenon burning all the day ! but the Changeover Douser plate don’t like it and every 6 month we have to replace them !!
If Someone in this forum has the same problems, and found a solution, please tell me what can I do ? That will be very nice

Best regards,

Jean-Michel Grin – Europlex Cinemas (Switzerland)

Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 07-15-2002, 05:15 AM:

As well as the capacitor at the anode termination post, there are some others behind the lamphouse on the X90. We had exactly this problem with exactly this equipment. Strong sent us a load of capacitors and a modification to carry out, I can't remember the details, but it involved removing factory fitted caps behind the lamphouse and adding the ones they sent. (They were bright orange in colour).

Sorry to be so vauge, but it was a while ago. Maybe Pat Moore can help on here?

Posted by Rick Long (Member # 213) on 07-15-2002, 10:00 AM:

We have had similar problems with these automations in Strong Highlight consoles. Interestingly enough the units using 2K bulbs seldom gave problems but the 3K-equipped units were very troublesome, especially, as you say, when the bulbs got older.

We have tried line filters on the line feeding the automation, but to no real advantage.

At one point, the projectionists resorted to shutting off the automation before turning on the xenon lamp, then turning the automation back on. Once the show was running,they placed the manual lamp switch back to the OFF position. Of course this defeats the advantage of the automatic CLOCK-start function of the CPA-10.

I suppose it really comes down to keeping that ignition pulse as short as possible. If you are getting a long ignition pulse instead of a series of short ones, you may wish to try changing the 555 I.C. on the auto-ignition board, as well as perhaps beefing up the rectifier capacitors to give you a higher available starting current.

Another possible solution that I never got around to trying was to replace the ignitors with the newer type used by Strong which are powered from the D.C. from the rectifier. Our experience with these ignitors has been that these usually work first time, every time with an almost inaudible strike length.

Good luck.

Posted by Pat Moore (Member # 380) on 07-15-2002, 08:55 PM:

Jean-Michel;

The CPA-10 can be troublesome, as it was never quite armor-plated against that 30-40,000 Volt ignition pulse a foot or so away from the computer.

The best way to troubleshoot I've found is to disconnect, one-by-one, the CPA-10 interfaces to the outside world. You will have to go through the manual as I don't remember what plug does what functions, as I am now in Thailand for a little business. Example: there is a single plug that handles all the dimmer connections. Unplug that from the main board of the CPA-10 and then light the xenon. If the system reboots, the problem is somewhere else. Do that with each plug until you find the one (or two) that does not make the CPA-10 reset. Refer to the manual to find what connections are handled with that plug and cable.

A common problem I used to find was with the failsafe. It's cable was too close to the positive DC lead of the console, so it picked up everything that happened and knocked out the automation. Once you find the culprit, isolate that component or cable as you've been trying.

You might also add a ceramic disc capacitor, very high voltage (such as .01mfd, 1kv)from the positve bulb connection to ground. Make this connection as close to the bulb as possible -- right at the positive feed-through where the bulb cable is connected. That might help as well.

Another trick -- there are two can capacitors used in our xenon systems that isolate the DC circuit from ground. One is between negative and ground, the other between positive and ground. They then share a common wire to ground. Be sure that ground wire goes directly to the ground terminal of the console and not to somewhere on the chassis -- that ground may not be reliable. Alternate -- temporarily disconnect that ground wire from the capacitors and see if that effects the problem with the automation.

Good luck, have patience.

Pat

Posted by Jean-Michel Grin (Member # 1360) on 07-17-2002, 03:56 PM:

Thanks,

I Will try these tricks:

Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 07-13-2006, 12:15 AM:

It has been 1456 days since the last post.

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 07-13-2006, 12:15 AM:

Hello folks.

I'm pretty sure this is entirely related to the power coming into the unit or by the field generated by the lamphouse igniter but I thought I'd see if I'm not barking up the wrong tree here.

We've got Strong Highlite consoles with CPA-10's in them and in our #1 house 9 times out of 10 at power up the CPA-10 complains of either a start times memory fault or program fault or occasionally both.
Other times upon striking the lamp the system will shut down and complain of a program fault.

Most recently as I'm stepping off the stage hosting a sold out show of Pirates I see the lens turret rotating. I run up to the booth and the automation not only "forgot" to bring the lights down it also forgot which lens to use!
Reprogrammed it from scratch and we're fine, but I'd like to prevent that kind of stupid misshap in the future.

Any ideas I should try?

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 07-13-2006, 06:44 AM:

When you get a memory fault of any kind...replace the battery (it is the kind that has leads coming off the ends (not a conventional drug store battery). If the battery is changed while the power is on, you won't loose any settings.

The other likely culprit is the power supply for the CPA-10

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 07-13-2006, 09:16 AM:

The memory litimum battery is good for around five years; we generally replaced it with one of a larger value. We had many fixes ( power supplies, cabling shielding, chassis shielding, wire jumpers on main board, ferrites et cetera ).....Eprad Ultimation and CPA series where state of the art 20 years ago but more heartache compared to Pennywise and Component Engineering [Cool]

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 07-15-2006, 01:49 AM:

Oh don't get me wrong. I love CE automations. I consider myself somewhat of a TA-10 guru, I love those things to death.
These CPA-10's I'm stuck with are hell!

I'll check the batter out.
Also, and this is kind of a dumb one, can this automation be programmed to start when it hits a cue?
I.E. projectionist press the go button, automation waits for a cue, then times out and opens the douser, switches sound, etc.

In my mind I'm seeing it as an extra cue as the first step of the program, is this correct?
Thanks!

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 07-15-2006, 03:13 AM:

quote: Dominic Espinosa
I.E. projectionist press the go button, automation waits for a cue, then times out and opens the douser, switches sound, etc.

You could go into the supervisory and change the changeover value to be longer than the default 7 secs.. Thus, when you press the RUN, the dowser will open a lot longer.

quote: Dominic Espinosa
In my mind I'm seeing it as an extra cue as the first step of the program, is this correct?

When you press the start button, that is cue "Zero" and when the dowser opens, that is cue "One". as mentioned above, you can prob set the changeover delay to a lot longer interval...to lengthen the cue "ZERO" delay.

I have 18 of these CPA-10 units that I have to watch over.. If one knows how to do "batch-line" command editing, you can make these units work like clockwork.. In which I have done.

These 18 units that I take care of,run absolutely perfect - only once in a while, one program loses it's settings, but with the other program being intact, I just copy the one program to the other and change the lens factor settings since I also have double movable maskings.

But, they are far from being durable at times... I've had to do complete changeouts of automations due to some CPU processing that simply will do some odd stuff - even with new batteries installed.

It takes a person who really knows all about these units to stay on top of them ... that person has to be a computer geek to really know what makes these units tick..

quote: Steve Guttag
The other likely culprit is the power supply for the CPA-10

..and that is the absolute truth..swapped out PS a few times...to clear up crazy headaches that these units can produce.
Mine are installed in X-90 units.

-Monte

Posted by Jean-Michel Grin (Member # 1360) on 07-15-2006, 05:22 PM:

Hi Guys !

I'm so surprised to see that my first post on film-tech forum couls came back on the scene.
In our multiplexes, where we had problems with the CPA-10 at the xenon ingnition, I tried a thing. By putting capacitors in a "crosswork" circuit, we solved on part of the problem.
Next time i could give You the schematics to do the same rescue.

Best regards,

JMG

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 07-15-2006, 08:04 PM:

Definitely the battery in our #1 house. This morning it did the same thing again, flopped the lens over to flat and didn't do anything.
Checked the program after the show got out and what do you know, 0 instructions!

Now I have another problem. Our #2 house won't run the lamp.
We had started the show and it stopped at the end of the trailer pack saying "missed cues 1, 2". So I figured there was something else wrong and started it manually.
Figured I'd start trouble shooting the automation starting with power cycling it. I hit the power button and the lamp shuts down. Motor, exciter, etc. all stay running.
Flip the switch on the automation and nothing.
The lamp will strike if you take it out of auto and flip the switch. On the lamphouse of course, not the automation.
I don't know these automations well at all but would I be correct in assuming there's a relay that's not closing when you flip the switch or hit the start button on the automation?
Or is it something else entirely?

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 07-16-2006, 02:39 AM:

quote: Jean-Michel Grin
I'm so surprised to see that my first post on film-tech forum couls came back on the scene.

Well, that's the beauty of this forum, it doesn't erase posts automatically (that's the admins job) so others can search for the questions that have already been answered instead of cluttering it with the same question 10 times causing the regulars to loose interest. Though that probably still happens quite a bit [Wink]

Back to the topic at hand.
I felt dumb when I realised what happened. Old sloppy connector on the back of the lamp switch just fell off. It fit pretty loose anyway so I crimped it a bit with some pliers and what do you know? It works!
Lesson learned? Always check the simple stuff.

quote: Monte L Fullmer
When you press the start button, that is cue "Zero" and when the dowser opens, that is cue "One". as mentioned above, you can prob set the changeover delay to a lot longer interval...to lengthen the cue "ZERO" delay.

Well, the reason I bring it up is so that when the operator finishes threading and wants to start the show he or she wouldn't have to first motor it up to the starting position and then hit the go button.
Cueing the leader would mean it would start at exactly the right spot every time no matter how much leader the operator used during threading and there's no worry of the operator leaving the motor on by mistake or any other mishaps.

Wouldn't it be just as simple to make cue 1 the lights down, douser open, all that jazz cue, cue 2 lights up and cue 3 intermission?
It seems to me I saw something like that somewhere else but I think they were runing CNA-100's, I'm not really sure though.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 07-16-2006, 03:54 AM:

quote: Dominic Espinosa
We had started the show and it stopped at the end of the trailer pack saying "missed cues 1, 2". So I figured there was something else wrong and started it manually.

What happened here is that the system didn't recoginize any cues due to that the "CUE LEARN" wasn't turned on.

The failsafe/cue reader is completly turned off when "CUE LEARN" is turned off. You have to go into the supevisory and change your "CUE LEARN" settings.

I run mine on "manual" thus, when the "CUE LEARN" button is pressed, a "L" is displayed to the right on the LCD panel.

I tell my booth people to make sure that the "CUE LEARN" is engaged with the "L" display. Otherwise, the "missed cues 1,2, etc" flag will appear - meaning that the system couldn't learn any cue positions on the film, causing the "Shutdown Delay" settings to engage, causing the automation to shut down the console at the prescribed timed settings which is assigned to the "Shutdown Delay" in the Program settings.

quote:
1- Well, the reason I bring it up is so that when the operator finishes threading and wants to start the show he or she wouldn't have to first motor it up to the starting position and then hit the go button.
Cueing the leader would mean it would start at exactly the right spot every time no matter how much leader the operator used during threading and there's no worry of the operator leaving the motor on by mistake or any other mishaps.

2-Wouldn't it be just as simple to make cue 1 the lights down, douser open, all that jazz cue, cue 2 lights up and cue 3 intermission?
It seems to me I saw something like that somewhere else but I think they were runing CNA-100's, I'm not really sure though.

Reply on 1- : In your supervisory settings, have the sound changeover time factor set to 7 seconds. (which is the default settings from the time the RUN button is pushed, till the dowser opens). You can do two things: Either change the time factor to 5 seconds-(and if you have countdown leader, have the booth people lace the leader to where the area between "8' and "7" is in the framebox when threading. This will let the leader run through just as the dowser opens up - making a good opening presentaion..)

Or, leave the factor at 7 seconds, and if (a) - a countdown leader, have the number "11" in the framebox, OR,(b) - if using a regular frameline leader, measure out the required seconds on the leader and mark the leader to where it should be framed at - to ensure the 7 seconds from RUN button to dowser open when the leader has just passed the aperture opening..

On the second reply: you can email me your operational procedures and I could write you a Batch Line command list to insert in your two programs - with instructions on how to clear out all of the programs and start anew - is what I had to do with these 18 CPA-10 units..

CNA-100's are basically just like the CPA-10's, only difference is that it's tons user friendly. Only thing that I absolutely DO hate on the CNA-100's is that damned Cue Fault override button - the grey one. So many people, purposely and accidently press that and when it's engaged, it shuts down the failsafes completely. Thus, the machine and lamp stays on...and you don't know how many times I've replaced dowser blades do to this....GRRR...!!

-Monte

Posted by Raphael Friedland (Member # 3453) on 07-16-2006, 01:00 PM:

I have had it with the matrix and sequencer automation.
I had enough with system that won't respond, miss behave, and can not be bend.

For the past 3 years I started to work with a local automation maker,
a company by the name of Cinema Technologies.
Their software based PLC automation line is amazingly good, sleek, and inexpensive.
All I have to do is tell them what I want and within 72 hours I have it installed.

They are so ingenuously good, that I now run 7 projectors in synchro mode.
Not even one frame is lost from the audience, while the film travels from projector to projector.

I asked them to built me a feature that when I move the film from one screen to another, I won't have to re-program the automation again over at the new screen.
They came up with a bar code sticker that you put on the film.
The programming info is being carried with the reel.
It is loaded into the new automation automatically (thank you God).

I even control my projectors via internet and sms. -Imagine that!
I also have their units automate my video advertising.

Best of all it is parallel to the projector, locally and remotely controlled (without paying extra).
They have been in the market for several years now.

Take a look at their web page:
http://cinema.technologies.googlepages.com/endgame

Throw everything you know out the window.
This is the best amusement park in automation heaven.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-16-2006, 05:05 PM:

BAH! I have my CA21s doing all of that and more. The CA21 is the most flexible system out there, hands down.

quote: Dominic Espinosa
Also, and this is kind of a dumb one, can this automation be programmed to start when it hits a cue?
I.E. projectionist press the go button, automation waits for a cue, then times out and opens the douser, switches sound, etc.

Dominic, since you're such a badass gangsta, I can tell you how to semi-convert those crappy things into a start cue assuming they are similar to the CNA100/150 line. It's not a true start cue, but it does work. I will try and 'splain...

Set your douser open time to the longest possible setting. On the CNA-150 pieces of shit I had the unfortunate pleasure of working with a few years back, this was a maximum of 9 seconds, but that was just barely enough to make this trick work. You may want to get with Monte for specifics on how to alter this.

Now take cue 0 and program it to HOUSE UP and NON SYNC, so that when it executes it does quite literally nothing at all except open the douser 9 seconds later.

It's time now to make your new leaders. Figure out how much leader you have to have in the worst case scenario to make it back to the takeup ring. Assuming you are also stuck with Strong platters, this would be the bottom deck. Be sure to make this measurement in the house where the platter is the farthest distance from the projector, and try to position all of the platters to the same within a foot or two distance-wise from the projector. Add 5 feet to that number and write it down. For example's sake, I am going to say this is 35 feet.

After your 35 foot stretch of frameline leader splice on however much SOLID OPAQUE BLACK leader you want. Let's say you want 20 feet to help protect the beginning of the trailer pack. At this point your leader should be 35 feet of frameline+20 feet of solid opaque black. Now put a cue about 4 feet before the end of your black.

Program cue1 to whatever you want the movie to start in, for example HOUSE MID / SR.

Voila, you now have a makeshift start cue because the 9 second douser timer will end up opening the douser during the solid opaque black leader. Make sense? This will ensure your movies always start exactly where you want on the leader via that cue1 and extend the life of your projectors since there won't be people "bumping" the motor button to try and manually cue down the leader.

Now I know you're about to say "but all black leader on the market is crap and it isn't truly opaque!!!" Well, email me off site and I'll hook you up.

quote: Dominic Espinosa
Well, that's the beauty of this forum, it doesn't erase posts automatically (that's the admins job) so others can search for the questions that have already been answered instead of cluttering it with the same question 10 times causing the regulars to loose interest.

Actually, unless a particular thread is causing some sort of serious problem outside of the site, ALL posts are archived, right from the very first one back in 1999. Hard drive storage space is relatively inexpensive, so it makes no sense to delete older topics, as occasionally a problem will turn up and the resolution may be found here in the middle of the night. When talking about older or rare equipment, the knowledge archived here becomes even more important as time goes on. This is why we beg people that if you start a topic and end up finding the answer elsewhere (maybe your local tech who isn't a participant or the manufacturer), that you PLEASE post a reply explaining what the fix is. Sooner or later, the problem you are dealing with now will attack someone else. Many people down the road will be thankful for your efforts. [thumbsup]

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 07-16-2006, 08:31 PM:

Thank you all for your help on this one.
And thanks Brad, once again the tripple o.g. lays down the 411.
I wasn't really sure about that whole cue 0 thing.

Though I'm now thinking the battery isn't at fault in our #1 house. The automation just shutdown in the middle of a show with a start times memory fault (wierd, I think, since clock and timer start are both disabled) and a program memory fault.
I noticed when I restruck the lamp the automation reset, again with a program fault.
We're now running manually. Power supply interference anyone?

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 07-16-2006, 08:56 PM:

quote: Dominic Espinosa
I noticed when I restruck the lamp the automation reset, again with a program fault.

...Now...this could point towards a weak ground issue, or excessive ignition drain causing slight voltage drop to the automation - for when bulb ignites and with a more stronger pulse, it's interfering with the power to the automation causing reset.

I have one CPA-10 unit that does that occasionly..and I know where that is causing that - using an LTI bulb. If I shove in a Christie, I have no problems with this automation getting reset when bulb ignites.

Thus, you could have a sensitive CPA-10 that doesn't like voltage change all that well.

-monte

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 07-16-2006, 11:37 PM:

Monte, that's interesting considering we have an LTI in that house right now. Heh.
At any rate this is the first time it's done it since I've been here.
I'll check the hours on this bad boy and I do have a spare ready, it could use it I'm sure.
When I opened it up between shows tonight I noticed the battery is just sitting on the board with the leads just pressed into the holes, it's not soldered in.
Is this normal?
The battery is reading 3.5vdc. When I put it back in I bent the leads a little so it would make tighter contact with the holes. The unit hasn't forgotten the program but every time it's powered up it says "program fault 2-0".
Interesting to say the least.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 07-17-2006, 12:44 AM:

quote: Dominic Espinosa
When I opened it up between shows tonight I noticed the battery is just sitting on the board with the leads just pressed into the holes, it's not soldered in.
Is this normal?
The battery is reading 3.5vdc. When I put it back in I bent the leads a little so it would make tighter contact with the holes. The unit hasn't forgotten the program but every time it's powered up it says "program fault 2-0".
Interesting to say the least.

It's normal for the battery to be just pressed into the terminal holes ...

Program Fault 2-0 ... meaning that there is a command line that is assigned to program 2 that doesnt make any sense to the checksum factor when booting up.

When a system boots up, it does a check of all the system before final boot - like a computer that does a POST .. Power On Self Test. And if there is something that doesn't match the checking sequence, this Fault line pops up letting you know which program has the error line so that an edit or delete factor is needed to correct the checksum.

I bet if you goto SETUP, then PROGRAM, then PASSWORD, then SCROLL (arrow down) down to see all of the command lines - from 1 to 70, inbetween these areas is a line that simply doesnt belong there. I you find it, either change it, or delete it and it's usually a delete - which happens when you prob took out that battery and then reconnected it.

Yes, you didn't lose programming, but you could have accidently added another command line in there when you did took out the battery that doesn't make any sense to that certain program.

Curious, do you have programs assigned to each of the lens factor due to masking changes..in as well as autoturret lens changes?

I bet, that if you went through the remaining 7 programs, there is tons of lines in each program..which needs to be removed..

-Monte

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 07-17-2006, 06:55 PM:

quote: Monte L Fullmer
It's normal for the battery to be just pressed into the terminal holes ...

I realised that a little later on thumbing through the manual.

And it makes absolute sense that it would be program 2 faulting since I haven't been through it. We don't have any use to run in program 2 (which is flat for us) since Pirates is scope.

And yes, we're running turrets with an auto-changer 1 is flat 2 is scope the others are supposed to be empty.

This makes sense and I'll clear out pgm 2 now but that doesn't explain why it crashes shortly after starting or just shuts down and complains of a program fault.
Mostly it's stopping some time in the trailers but the other day it reset 20 minutes before the show ended.
Very wierd.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 07-17-2006, 11:01 PM:

quote: Dominic Espinosa
Mostly it's stopping some time in the trailers but the other day it reset 20 minutes before the show ended

..once again, as mentioned, it's a cue learn issue. Try this one out for size: go into supervisory and change your cue learn setting from automatic to manual - save and exit.

Then before you press RUN, press the <CUE LEARN> pad on the control panel to where the "L" is displayed in the LCD panel to the right.

This should clear up that premature shutdown condition that you have.

But, you have to make certain that the "L" is continually present in the display panel, otherwise, you'll go back to the problems that you are now experiencing..

good luck ... - Monte

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 07-18-2006, 03:12 AM:

I thought I'd mentioned this earlier. Sorry for the confusion, Monte.
It is in fact in manual cue learn and started in cue learn mode every time. The issue we were having was in fact that it was set to auto and cue learn mode wasn't active. I thought it was.
Clearing program 0 and copying that to each program before setting up our 2 regulars worked like a charm on the program fault messages, I feel dumb for not thinking of that earlier.
Last night after the random shutdowns and wondering if the battery was at fault I took a peak at one of our other setups and copied the pertinent settings down.
Set the cue learn to manual and all was well for the last show last night.
This morning on the first show though it reset in the middle of first trailer.
Luckily I was coming in while my assistant was having a meltdown trying to figure it out.
I got us rolling again and checked the learn times, the cues were in fact "learned" to the correct times.
He'd already cleared the message though so I don't know what it complained about after it stopped or if it even stopped on it's own. In either case I think we're getting close to a resolution with this thing.

If nothing else you've all helped me understand these beasts a lot more. Thanks a lot for that!
I'll keep y'all posted.
[beer]

Posted by Raphael Friedland (Member # 3453) on 07-18-2006, 11:24 AM:

Dear BAH! -Pooh.

I always considered myself an opened minded person. I will never put something down before I try it.
Please look at the REVIEW section on your web site under automation DA 21. -Grade: F+ !
How can you even begin to compare matrix automation to software automation.

Have you tried other systems lately and for that matter the PLCinema automation line?
I ask this because you are so adamant in declaring the DA21 "the most flexible system out there, hands down."

If I may, how much did you pay for it? Do you know how much I paid?
Much less than yours, and as you say "hands down".

Go and read the web page, I don't think you did. So for you here it is again:
http://cinema.technologies.googlepages.com/endgame

I dare you to challenge any function between your pitbull (Goliath) and my chiwawa (David).

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 07-18-2006, 01:44 PM:

Understandable and thx as always...

This all makes me wonder if that certain CPA-10 unit is just having its failure moments. I have had to replace complete units with operational bugs that were deem impossible to remedy.

Do you have any spare CPA-10 units in storage that you can change out with? Also, if you do have any units in storage, wonder if you could try changing out the ZILOG Z-80 CPU chip, which has the version number on it. If the troublesome automation has an old version, like v.1.004, it could be possible to grab a v.3.00 chip and do the replacement.

I know that STRONG do have new CPA-10 units still in stock, and will let them go for a real good price. That way, the swapout is painless.

You can also call up EPRAD, the makers of the automations for STRONG.1-419-666-3266 on any problems/question you have.

thx-Monte

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 07-18-2006, 04:36 PM:

quote: Monte L Fullmer
I know that STRONG do have new CPA-10 units still in stock, and will let them go for a real good price. That way, the swapout is painless.

IIRC, Dom's theatre now has the last two NOS CPA-10s that Ballantyne had in stock...

-Aaron

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 07-19-2006, 12:00 AM:

Uh..oh....(course, that was in '03 when I last heard that Ballantyne had these in stock...) .. are we looking at potiental "dinosaurs" then if parts are needed?

For I have 14 units in my storage area that either are questionable in operation, or definitely been bonepiles for fix-it-up jobs..

-Monte

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 07-19-2006, 11:51 PM:

Well it's been a day and a half and so far no more problems.
We're keeping fingers crossed but it's been behaving lately so I'm not going to mess with it any further!

Thanks though for all the 411 guys. That's so very gangsta of you [Wink]