Swapping the Aperture/Turret/Magnet Controller Card on a Kinoton PK60D

[Don Furr]

Don....

http://www.learningaboutelectronics....controller.php

If I had everything needed to program a chip, I wouldn't know "how" to do it. I wouldn't think that Kinoton would share that sort of data with anyone. They had rather sell me the IC's!!
I've sent an email to Mark at BL&S to see what the price might be for a pair of chips if this should happen again. I'm all about keeping spares for everything. We don't know how long this "stuff" might be around.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Like I said, thevon chip programming can be off loaded and saved. Then used to program new blank chips. I ran into issues with an early HP digital scopecI had some years back...a very expensive one with a color display in it. Powered it up one day and it would not pass the self test. I asked around and met a guy in Colorafo that worked for HP and knew the scope. He said that certain chips only held their program foe x number of years after which it begins to disappear bit by bit. So he had a friend with tje same scope and borrowed the ROM chips from his frirnds He off loaded and saved programming on each chip and then reprogrammed all my five of my ROM chips snd slso reprogrammed the five the was sent. This returned my scope to good working order.

[Dave Macaulay]

Too many years ago I took the Kinoton service course. As I recall you used a special cable and PC program to set up the turret (and the platter). I had the cable and a set of manuals and programs on CD. Long gone. If it works ok, go with what you have. May be different now but Kinoton went after anyone who made manuals or software public. Are there any in the manuals library? Doubtful.
One can admire the technology, but "stupid" US platters and turrets did ok without computer control.

[Sam Chavez]

I always scoffed at the idea of a computer controlled platter. A Platter with film running is the best analog servo there is. Kinoton made an excellent platter mechanically, a little so so electronically. There didn't seem much reason to add software unless you are say, running 16mm, 35mm, and 70mm, all with varying film frame rates.

[Steve Guttag]

I disagree. The Kinoton ST-200E was the only platter that really handled film. The rest had rather primitive, easily confused speed controls that worked in spite of themselves. Where I gave Kinoton low marks was on their film path and trying to make the bottom platter a "special case". They also didn't lift the film enough as it left the platter. Their payout, on the "E" version was second to none...by a long, long stretch. There was no fiddling with getting the right sensor, the right spring tension...never had to "time" the platter, replace micro switches...etc. The film didn't bounce about as it ran the film path...it just worked. Kinoton "E" platters worked as part of the projector rather than in a complete state of reaction and panic to what the film was doing.

[Dave Macaulay]

Steve: I agree they ran super smoothly. There's a value in simplicity and Kinoton wasn't simple.
The E series was probably the best projector ever made. And if something electronic broke... similar to Digital, there's no rubber band and duct tape fix possible. The most common complaint I hear about digital is that if it stops working it's dead until a tech comes. With their old SImplex and Century machines they could usually bodge something together to keep it making money.
The turret is another over complex design. As I recall, you calibrate the lens offsets in software, I may be wrong but if so, that seems a bit silly. The US made turrets may have been Rube Goldberg-ish things (hello Strong...) but lens offsets were done by adjusting the lens tube or mechanical stops.
And regardless of their stupidity, Ballantyne type and Christie platters (best to forget DIS and Speco...) certainly ran quite a few million shows with excellent reliability. And a failure could generally be rectified in house, mostly using a spare brain until the microswitch or power control could be replaced or recalibrated as needed.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

The turret is another over complex design. As I recall, you calibrate the lens offsets in software,

I'd call it less complex to be honest. It seems like turrets that used mechanical stops, etc always had some sort of issues over time with that hardware,. But the electronic's reliability is all based on the quality level the PCB is manufactured to. And I am not impressed with the quality of Don's PCB. Crappy IC sockets and those ten cent green connectors spell trouble to me. The SMT aspect is probably the best part of the board. It's just too bad the rest of it is not up to that level. .

[Pete Naples]

Pete are those the cables that allow a person to re-program the IC's in the controller card?

Don, no I don't recall that. Although it's been a long time. The cable had more to do with interfacing PC software for calibration

Same interface used on E series projectors to update firmware, change parameters etc. Also on ST200E platters.