Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: BARCO ICMP

This is topic BARCO ICMP - Transport buttons in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 07-13-2018, 04:27 AM:

Does anyone have an idea what BARCO has in mind with the transport buttons on the ICMP?

- Carsten

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 07-13-2018, 07:09 AM:

Care to clarify your question some?

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 07-13-2018, 08:56 AM:

If I could read minds, I'd be in a totally different business.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 07-13-2018, 10:03 AM:

Just interested why they are there and when/how they'd become functional.

Oops, and I was unclear, of course, they are not ON the ICMP itself, but on the keypad of the DP2K-10S and DP2K-6E - but I'd expect them to work with the ICMP.

See them here (unlit) bottom right:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9tCRXZPbFA

There are similar buttons on the NEC NC900/NC1000 button panel:

https://www.nec-display-solutions.com/p/download/cp/Products/DigitalCinemaProjectors/Products/SupportedProducts/NC900C/Media/Highres/JPG-Picture-NC900C-ProjectorDetailViewConnections-highres.jpg

'Future use', I know that phrase, but what does it mean for products that have already been phased out like the NC900C?

- Carsten

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 07-14-2018, 12:16 AM:

We can only guess what the supposed purpose of those buttons is.

I think in both cases they might have expected some basic content playback capabilities to become available in the base firmware of the projector. Barco sells some of those units also as non-DCI projectors for example, were it could make even more sense to have some basic playback capabilities built into the firmware.

In the future they might be able to link those to the ICMP, which would give some basic functionality to those otherwise dead buttons. [Wink]

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 07-14-2018, 07:30 AM:

I'm wondering why for now they are not making them available as generic GPI?

And of course my hope was that a specific person would chime in with an educated guess ;-)

- Carsten

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 07-14-2018, 09:55 AM:

quote: Carsten Kurz
I'm wondering why for now they are not making them available as generic GPI?

Maybe because then somebody like you will come along, build some stuff based on the GPIs of those buttons, only to see it break after the next firmware update. [Wink]

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 07-14-2018, 10:11 AM:

You mean that's the reason we see so few GPIOs on cinema gear in general? [beer]

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 07-14-2018, 10:28 AM:

And because they don't work so well... a senior Barco person advised me to not try and use them.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 07-15-2018, 10:09 AM:

They work nicely, the trouble is, they take undefined states during projector/ICMP boot up, so, the electronics behind them needs to filter these spurious events out.

- Carsten

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 08-14-2018, 06:22 PM:

So, Tom seems to be back from his holidays...??? [eyes]

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 08-16-2018, 06:05 AM:

"They work nicely"... nope. Action linking is not reliable. Link a GPO to something like "lamp on" and it works... sometimes.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 08-17-2018, 06:45 PM:

Maybe we should all place a bet on what they're for and those who loose have to pay for a crate of Belgian beer for Tom? [beer]

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 08-17-2018, 08:33 PM:

Well we know what they are for, it is written in the manual. The question is, how/when can they be used ;-)

- Carsten