Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Wiring Info reqd for GPG-4 Cinemeccanica Slide Projector

This is topic Wiring Info reqd for GPG-4 Cinemeccanica Slide Projector in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Lindsay Morris (Member # 1430) on 09-23-2007, 05:17 AM:

I have recently acquired a 85mm sq Glass Slide projector to enable me to replace the old carbon arc RCA Hylite twin lens slide machine.
Yeh I know I am still using glass slides... what are they??? maybe some of you older fellas can recall what they looked like [Wink]

This newer unit is a GPG-4 Cinemeccanica with a 2.5kw vertical xenon on the back and a single lens fitted with a neat litle zoom unit and all the slides are inserted into slots in a rather well made chain like thing that hangs below the lens head.
As it was originally designed it had a simple timer and a couple of press buttons that started the thing going and it would step thru each slide in turn until it came to the last slide which is a blank made out of metal with a lug sticking out the side. The lug tripped a small micro switch and the thing then stepped on around continuosly until slide No 1 was about to go into the head but was stopped by another blank this time with a lug that operated a different micro switch and there it sat until you either turned it off or you pressed the button again and the cycle would repeat.

Problem is that over the years this unit has been much modified to work in with automation and also take pulses from a tape deck to advance the slides and so on.
None of that work was ever documented so the wiring is a complete shambles and of course it came with no wiring diagram anyway [Eek!]

I would like to restore this to original (as that is all that I need) and I am hoping that some of the Italian members may be able to supply me with a wiring diagram.
Not sure how wide these units went over the world maybe some made it to USA or other large markets.. there were quite a few installed in Australia but many long since dumped in favour of data projectors.

Lindsay

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 09-23-2007, 05:43 AM:

quote: Lindsay Morris
I have recently acquired a 85mm sq Glass Slide projector to enable me to replace the old carbon arc RCA Hylite twin lens slide machine.

I can't help you with the new machine Lindsay, I've seen such things, but don't have any documentation on them. I've seen them used outdoors for projecting advertising slides onto buildings in London at special events.

Since Cinemeccanica are still very much in business, have you tried writing to them directly to see if they can help?

I didn't know RCA made slide lanterns; do you have any pictures of the old one? I hope it's going to a good home when you take it out.

Posted by Lindsay Morris (Member # 1430) on 09-24-2007, 04:48 AM:

Stephen,
The old RCA Hylite unit was strictly not RCA but rather a made up unit done in OZ by National Theatre Supplies (NTS) who handled all the RCA stuff over here.
It is not badged anything other than RCA so that was what we used to call them apart from being called a stereo... cos it had 2 "eyes" which were pretty crude lens mounted on lollipop looking sticks.
I like the presentation of the stereo machines as the screen images were "wiped" back and forth or you could do a neat dissolve with another attachment it had.
One had to be very careful which slide you went to remove as the dissolving unit sat in front of the lens so both slides always had light shining thru.
Frequently in the past you would see the slide on the screen vanish as the operator grabbed the wrong one... been there and done that many times being inattentive to the task at hand [Big Grin]

At this point have not decided what to do with the old girl (RCA) but I guess it will sit in my shed for a while until I work out what to do with it.

Might have to give Cinemeccanica a pulse and see if I can get something from them but I rather hoped that a FT member may just have a copy of what I need.
If I really get stuck I will simply rewire the thing as I think it should be done.
There is only a couple of relays and some micro switches in there and the little motor that does the driving of the chain.
Being an ex Telco techie relay technology is a piece of cake to me as the slide machine is nothing compared to some of the bits of gear we used to have in telephone exchanges a few years back.
But it would be nice to get it back to how the makers originally had it wired up.

As to pics... hmmm whenI work out how to do it will post one of each unit.
Lindsay

Posted by Damien Taylor (Member # 4255) on 11-04-2007, 05:05 AM:

Just found out I have one of these too Lindsay, although missing a lot of parts!

Posted by Damien Taylor (Member # 4255) on 11-04-2007, 05:07 AM:

I found mine in the Quokka on saturday, although she's in an awful way:

Lamphouse on another ped

The original pedestal in a terrible way

I have two lenses and part of the lollipop contraption modified for the westrex ped in the top picture.

[ 11-04-2007, 10:39 AM: Message edited by: Damien Taylor ]