Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Solaria One Battery and IMB-S2 Warning

This is topic Solaria One Battery and IMB-S2 Warning in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 01-14-2016, 08:52 AM:

Didn't see this mentioned on other battery threads. Sorry if it is redundant.

Discovered last year the hard way about battery dying on IMB board if projector not plugged in for long period. Turns out keeping the projector plugged in does not recharge the battery, as we just learned the hard way.
According to the service bulletin they sent me while preparing to send me a new IMB ("Maintaining the Christie IMB FIBS Anti-Tamper Circuitry Service Bulletin"):

quote:
To avoid unnecessary activation of the Christie IMB anti-tamper circuitry during long periods of inactivity, Christie recommends that you use the projector scheduler to periodically remove the projector from standby mode by turning it on and then off EVERY FORTY-EIGHT HOURS (emphasis added)

It goes on to recommend you run the projector for 3.5 hours every time you cycle it. Just the projector, not the lamp.

Not a problem for most of you. We're closed for remodeling and I decided to check the projector just because of this happening last year. I don't know how it applies to other Christie projectors.

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 01-14-2016, 09:29 AM:

48 hours is not a long amount of time!!

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 01-14-2016, 01:13 PM:

and 3.5 hours to recharge. What kind of crappy batteries do they use?

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 01-14-2016, 01:25 PM:

so are Christie saying that if you are doing some works and you have to disconnect your mains for 3 days... [Smile]

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 01-14-2016, 02:16 PM:

Yup.

Although there is something somewhere about connecting an unused IMB to a battery charger. Maybe they are suggesting you have to remove the IMB before you shutdown for an extended period.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 01-14-2016, 04:11 PM:

There was a similar issue with NECs being discussed here a while ago. Such that their cinema controller board would lose time and date after a while (a few weeks or months), and that certain software versions wouldn't cope with time/date being reset - resulting in a bricked cinema controller. That's important to know for seasonal operators.

- Carsten

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 01-14-2016, 04:44 PM:

At least in the NEC that CPU board is not ludicrously expensive like an ICP is... It's actually quite reasonable.

Mark

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 01-14-2016, 05:08 PM:

Do you know wether NEC is/was able to recover these? At least that NEC issue seems to be limited to two (redrawn) software versions only, so the weak point was not the battery in itself, but the software, so that could be fixed to prevent future issues.

- Carsten

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 01-14-2016, 05:35 PM:

Sure but in that case it was due to software and only happening after weeks.

Here we're talking of 48 hours! It's unacceptable!

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 01-14-2016, 05:48 PM:

2-weeks is unacceptable too. But the rumor is true...it IS possible to recover an NEC controller if it "bricked" due to 4.215/4.216 software.

I wonder how well the seasonal (drive-ins or beach theatres) are doing with IMS S2s that are down for the season?

Posted by Amanda Mundin (Member # 3386) on 01-15-2016, 04:31 AM:

There is/was apparently some issue with the charging of the battery on the IMB-S2, we had a service exchange done on ours end of last year, never had the problem though. But ours is still under warranty.