Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Unable to connect Christie TPC over Ethernet

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Posted by Lucas Crantschaninov (Member # 10028) on 12-03-2017, 02:45 PM:

Hello guys,

I'm trying to connect a Christie Series 2 Touch Panel with the projector over the ethernet cable, instead of using the provided TPC cable.

When using the original TPC cable attached to the back of the projector, everything works fine, but when unplugging this cable and using the ethernet port at the bottom of the TPC + a 24VDC Power Supply, I get the "PIB Connection lost" alarm.

I've tried to manually set the TPC's IP under the projector range but had no luck.

Does someone had a similar experience? Any hint?

Thanks [Big Grin]

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 12-03-2017, 03:53 PM:

I don't know for sure but I think the TPC connects through the umbilical via serial to the projector. Otherwise how would it adjust the various projector IP addresses?
Or - the TPC connects to the projector router, and possibly the router won't pass some connections to the TPC on the external port? It is not just a dumb switch.
I've never considered remote mounting of the TPC with network communication and no umbilical. It's easy with a Barco DCTP but even there a serial link is still needed for some "out of the ordinary" tasks.

Posted by Adrian Avram (Member # 7931) on 12-04-2017, 01:33 AM:

The PIB's router is expecting TPC communication on a specific port, via the connector J10/P10 on the backplane. If you can tap into those 4 wires, with a ETH socket, then your remotely located TPC (with local PS) will talk with the projector via the ethernet cable.

Posted by Stephan Shelley (Member # 8587) on 12-06-2017, 05:59 PM:

What Adrian says. The TPC, PIB and ICP are on an internal network . The management network is an external network. You could make a breakout from the DIN connector on the projector and it should work. Do not change the IP address of the TPC. It will only work with the address it came with. Christie sells 30' extension cables for the TPC.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 12-07-2017, 01:50 AM:

A clue to the Christie IP scheme is in their ICP recovery where they have you connect your PC to the internal network on a 192.168.254.x IP scheme (they suggest your 4th octet be 99.

Now this doesn't tell you the port(s) that the TPC is using for communication or the TPC's IP address but that can be found. I haven't tried but either by going into the TPC's WinXP environment or by merely using an app like WireShark while your PC is connected directly to it. Asking Christie tech support might also be worthwhile. The worst they can do is tell you no/nothing.

Posted by Stephan Shelley (Member # 8587) on 12-07-2017, 02:52 PM:

The internal IP for the TPC is 192.168.254.242. This does not change with the projector IP configuration. It is not like the series 1 Christies or the touchpanel commanders for Barcos.