Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: NEC NC2000C "Lamp Unlit" error

This is topic NEC NC2000C "Lamp Unlit" error in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 11-26-2015, 03:43 PM:

On the first show today I got a "Lamp Unlit" error with red taillights during the first show. When I attempted to manually turn on the lamp, the projector went through the lamp on cycle, but didn't attempt to strike the lamp.

I powered down the projector then turned off the breakers on the projector. After rebooting every things worked normally.

The only error in the logs was "Lamp Unlit". I verified that all breakers and switches were on when the error was discovered.

The last update on this projector was version 4216 about a month ago. This is the first time I've ever seen this error and not had it be the result of a missing cue or some other operator error.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 11-26-2015, 04:22 PM:

Not that this will fix it but GET OFF OF 4.216! Everyone should be on 4.217 by now. 4.216 and 4.215 should have skull and crossbones next to them.

Odds are, on this problem, it is a one-off where perhaps the power supply had a problem and needed a reboot. If it becomes a trend...then that is another story.

I think one thing were are going to start seeing as this stuff ages is geriatric problems. Things like the negative issues with ROHS components causing intermittent connectivity or even chip creep from thermal cycles.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 11-26-2015, 05:05 PM:

Looking back it appears the last update was 2.417. I was looking at the wrong folder when checking for the last update.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 11-27-2015, 11:32 AM:

It's nothing to do with Firmware. 98% of the time it's just a bad lamp that throws that error. The other 2% of the time it's a cranky ignitor. If it's the ignitor it usually doesn't start to happen till after you have 500 to 700 hours on the lamp. I had one fool me into thinking the lamps were bad when it actually turned out to be the ignitor. I swapped the suspect ignitor between two projectors and the problem followed the ignitor.

Mark

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 02-21-2016, 05:11 PM:

I had this error happen again today. This is only the second time I have seen it, and again there was no other error besides "Lamp Unlit".

I was not able to resolve it by simply restarting the projector this time. I had to actually change the lamp. This projector normally uses as 4K bulb for 3D, so I swapped in the 3K bulb we use during long periods without 3D. The 3K bulb was just over 400 hours, the original 4K bulb was 1230 hours.

When I tried to strike the lamp after the change it threw the same error. Before moving on to the possibility of an igniter issue, I decided to try another bulb - this one a used 4K bulb with over 1500 hours. After restarting, this bulb lit up immediately with no errors. So I decided to go back to the 3K bulb just to see, and it lit up immediately after restart.

For reference the 4K bulbs are Ushio DXL-40SCN and the 3K are Ushio UXL-30SC.

The only thing odd I observed was the original 4K bulb has a dark line on the glass on the cathode side. Normally our bulbs display no darkening when removed at 1500 hours.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 02-22-2016, 01:17 PM:

This one could be the igniter... Eight out of ten times is a defective lamp. The other two times it's a bad igniter. Generally the projector will automatically go back to Standby Mode to protect the LVPS if the issue IS the igniter, but I've also seen a bad igniter throw a simple Lamp Unlit Error as well...

Change the lamp first... If it does it again leave the lamp in and swap ignitors between another like projector. The igniter is extremely easy to change out... probably the east to replace part in the projector next to the router. You only need to remove the operators side cover to do it. If the projector you got the igniter out of starts having the issue then you have verified it is the igniter.

I have now had three legit NC-2000 issues in five and a half years. Two igniters and one router have failed. The igniters that failed were both the version 1 type.

Mark