Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Alt Power Supply on a Barco Series 1

This is topic Alt Power Supply on a Barco Series 1 in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=16;t=002880

Posted by Justin West (Member # 920) on 11-30-2016, 05:01 PM:

An acquaintance is selling a Barco Ser 1 projector w/o power supply. I have seen similar projectors with either a high-reactance PS (Irem) or a switcher (Strong) wired in and running. I cannot, however, seem to find out how they overcame the issue of communication between the analog PS and the digital projector (since these weren't made to communicate but, rather, just to pump out the wattage). Is there a switch to block or override? Something to uncheck in the program? Thanks for any tips. [Eek!]

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 11-30-2016, 05:46 PM:

I guess there is as Series 1 Kinoton don't really know much about the ballast if not mistaken. But a Barco as-is will look for their ballasts, I am not sure that you can easily disable that communication. I believe when the system is configured to be a Kinoton, then it stops looking for them.

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 12-01-2016, 03:42 AM:

Series 1 - what model? Is there a series 0? I've seen a few DP50/100 projectors but don't know if they have different electronics from a DP1500/2000/3000.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 12-01-2016, 06:39 AM:

I remember Kinoton S1 as having only relay-start for the lamp power supply, no communication. So any lamp ballast can be used.

- Carsten

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 12-01-2016, 10:53 AM:

Well, somehow one has to fool the projector computer into thinking there IS an active power supply. I have saved a pile of Wrong switchers just for this purpose but never had the time to get into it.

Mark

Posted by Justin West (Member # 920) on 12-01-2016, 02:17 PM:

Marco, Carsten, I believe the Kinotons are Barcos and so are Cinemeccanicas...other than maybe some proprietary modifications (like the lamphouse on the Cinemeccanica version, e.g.). It's Cinemeccanica series 1 that I and a fellow op have seen with an old Irem rectifier as well as one with a Strong switcher. This could certainly be a savings for an operator facing a repair/replacement of the original PS if one could use an old rectifier in storage.

Dave, the DP50 was a 1.3k res projector, right? It's not useable for cinema today so I don't believe it counts. The DP90 and DP100 would be considered Series 0 and the DP1500-2000-3000 etc would be considered Series 1 [uhoh]

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 12-01-2016, 02:34 PM:

Series 1 is a very broad brush. If you are referring to the DP100 (used an IREM power supply at first and later units used a Barco designed one)...you are going to have communication issues. Even the boards in the ELCA box had to be right for the power supply used. There is an RS232 connection to the LPS. So it isn't as simple as a contact closure.

The DP1200-DP2000 use an entirely different supply and require a suitable controller (same supply as used on all of the current xenon based S2 projector though they now have them as individual 2.4KW units that are paralleled as needed to achieve the necessary wattage of the projector.

The DP3000 shares a great many things with the DP100 so there may be solutions there (never had my hands on a DP3000).

So, depending on what it is you are receiving is how you may have to react to getting it going. Odds are though, you won't be able to easily kludge something in without the projector yelling at you. Now, the igniters are all DC so if you get voltage to them, it will likely strike the lamp when it sees the No Load voltage go high.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 12-01-2016, 05:05 PM:

You would need some sort of serial based signal unit that replicates what the rectifier is telling the projector. I just don't see it working any other way.

Mark

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 12-01-2016, 05:37 PM:

quote: Carsten Kurz
I remember Kinoton S1 as having only relay-start for the lamp power supply, no communication. So any lamp ballast can be used.

A Barco decides what to look for depending on its identity. A 1200 does not have coolant - so no pump and some extra fans are expected. The backplane with all the connections is common between all the models, then the software configures itself depending on what model that is.

Hence, a Kinoton will probably have something in the software that tells the software not to look for a ballast communication device. Nothing that can be switched off via the regular software unfortunately.

Posted by Justin West (Member # 920) on 12-04-2016, 07:54 PM:

So, I think I get the gist of what you are saying, Steve, adding to what Carsten and Marco described about Kinotons, it sounds like these Cinemeccanicas were designed/programmed not to communicate as they were built with a high reactance Irem or a Strong Switcher...but those that started out with an actual Barco-made power supply probably were programmed or set up to demand communication from the rectifier? Hence you cannot easily replace a Barco supply with a non-communicating rectifier. OK...so my question is: has anyone actually successfully done this, no matter how difficult...that is, replaced a Barco digital supply with an older analog rectifier? Thanks! [eyes]