Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: wierd thing that happened

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Posted by Will Hooks (Member # 3535) on 01-03-2006, 01:31 AM:

Hi, maybe you guys could give me some insight into what might of happened one night:

So, I was working up in the booth about one week ago when the weirdest thing happened to me. I had just started a projector and all was well until about five minutes after starting it. It mysteriously stopped as if the print had run through completely. There was plenty of tension throughout the film path so the payout, takeup and failsafe arms were fine. No alarms had gone off either. I proceeded to start it up again, then about 10 minutes later it once again stopped (same as the first time). So I started it up again for a third time. This time the print ran through fine to the end.

My theater uses the Christie SLC lamphouse, AW-3 platters, and P35GPS projectors.

What could have happened? I'm almost convinced that there are spirits and ghosts haunting my booth.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 01-03-2006, 01:35 AM:

Automation? Cue detector?

Posted by Wolff King Morrow (Member # 2226) on 01-03-2006, 01:55 AM:

Sounds like the automation (assuming you have one of course). If it happens again, check to see what cue position its on. If its on the correct cue, is could be the "stop" button making false contact ever so slightly. If the cue marker is reset back to zero, it could be a bad board alltogether.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 01-03-2006, 02:11 AM:

Nope, (Welcome to Film-Tech) called it's that failsafe assembly you have. What you have is the 3Q failsafe assembly made by SPECO and I've had that happened to me twice on different occasions.

The back of the failsafe unit is a circuit board that has a bunch of units that were soldered in the circuit board. The board and the metal backing are so close that the excess wires that are soldered onto the board will touch that back case causing a short and that causes system shutdown. I took off the back and removed the circuit board. Then, snipped off those extra lengths of the wires so not to touch the case and the problem was solved.

Also, check the wire harness going into the back of the failsafe assembly. This harness loves to work itself after time, and this could cause your problems as well.

(change your topic title to "Irregular Christie Shutdown", or similar..what you have is a "teaser" topic heading (which is causing us to guess instead of being a definite title) that will get you in trouble with the moderator since the posting rules weren't followed..a little tip..thx)

-thx Monte

[ 01-03-2006, 03:19 AM: Message edited by: Monte L Fullmer ]

Posted by Wolff King Morrow (Member # 2226) on 01-03-2006, 12:45 PM:

Ah, wasn't aware what cue detector he had on. Sounds like a really great design ;-).

Speaking of which, what are some really good cue detectors? I'm not exactly happy with mine, especially since I've had booth staff twice in the past 2 years misthread them and scratch the entire print all to hell. Beyond that, they also are very picky about foil tape not being "fresh" enough to detect.

Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 01-03-2006, 01:27 PM:

The Eprad no-contact detector worked well in two Strong installations I know of personally.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 01-03-2006, 01:49 PM:

..yea the FP-350 is the one made by EPRAD for Strong. Just got to keep the underside clean of dust though.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 01-03-2006, 03:15 PM:

Big Sky & Neumade make a cue detector that uses light to trigger the cues. The failsafe is a conventional microswitch with moving roller arm. I have used these for years with almost no missed cues. Will work with any automation since dry contacts are the output. Louis

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-03-2006, 06:02 PM:

This happens frequently. A newbie will post a question, use a "teaser" title, then they get chewed out by one or more people but then they still never change their title. Then they get banned or further chewed out by a moderator. Don't these newbies actually read the repsonses to their question? Or do they just post once and then go away?

On the off chance that Will is still around somewhere, HEY DUDE! CHANGE YOUR THREAD TITLE! READ THE RULES! Or risk the wrath of the Brad!

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 01-03-2006, 07:51 PM:

Not everyone eats, drinks, and sleeps Film-Tech. Some people may only check once/day, perhaps not realizing that they can receive voluminously detailed technical responses so quickly! [Cool]

Give the guy a day.

--jhawk

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 01-03-2006, 08:13 PM:

People only get booted if they blatantly break the rules. In such an instance, if he has been told by say 2 or more people as replies to the thread HE started, and then he posts anyway completely disregarding that, he will generally get one more notice, and if yet another reply of his turns up without the thread title fixed...BAM, gone.

After all, if someone is that freakin' stupid, they won't learn anything here anyway. [Razz]

Enough talk about banning...let's get back to the guy's problem please and see if he is smart enough to fix his teaser title.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-03-2006, 08:36 PM:

OK, problem idea: Was there maybe a short power outage? (Just a blink) Our current automation does not respond to such, but our previous unit would just stop if there was a short power blip -- just barely enough to blink the lights.

Posted by Brad Allen (Member # 470) on 01-04-2006, 12:48 PM:

A relay in the mix that needs replaced possibly.