Dolby IMB3000 DSUB / XPand 3D

[Torsten Juergens]

Hi,
Can someone tell me the pin assignment of the 15DSUB input for the XPand control of the Dolby IMS3000. The old DSUB no longer fits. I would like to exchange the old connector.
Thanks

[Leo Enticknap]

The IMS3000 doesn't have a DB15 3-D connector - that is on the projector (CCB on a Barco, CPU on an NEC). On all the XPandD installs I've done, the cable that came in the box hooked into the projector (including at least one with an IMS3000 that I can recall) and just worked - no worrying about pinouts needed.

[Torsten Juergens]

Yes Leo you are right, sorry.
I mean the Christie CP4415.

[Torsten Juergens]

Update:

The cable was originally connected to our NEC NC2000C.
I have now replaced the DB37 with a DB15 connector and tried it out on the NEC.
I connected the two control lines with the conn-sync pins of the DB15.
The test was successful and it now works on the Christie too.

[Carsten Kurz]

The pin relation between DSUBB37 and DSUBB15 can be found e.g. in the old Masterimage MI2100 manual:

It's interesting, I never found a proper documentation on the series 2 3D/DSUB15 connector and signals so far.

Bildschirmfoto 2021-11-28 um 15.36.38.png

[Ioannis Syrogiannis]

I was asked to look at a similar change recently, and I wasn't lucky enough.
On what you write, Torsten and Carsten, I don't quite follow the following:

Torsten, you write "I connected the two control lines with the conn-sync pins of the DB15.".
The conn-sync pins of the DB15 are 7 (CONN_SYNC+) and 14 (CONN_SYNC-). Which are the control lines?

Carsten, do you mean that what is marked as (+) and (-) on DSUB15(3D-Port) which correspond to pin 7 and 14 respectively is the same as (+) and (-) on DSUB37 (9 and 28, 30 connected to 28) and should connect to 3 and 5 on the DSUB9?
I am asking, firstly because there is no mention that one is equivalent to another on the tables shown and on an XpanD cable that was working with DB37, 9 and 28 were connected to 1 and 2+6 respectively on DB9 (2 and 6 were shorted somewhere).

On another thread, Leo says he had the DB15 (on an SP4K) - XpanD DB9 connected and working easily. Leo, did you use a ready-made connector? Could you share what the pin-out was, if you are aware?

Marcel as well is mentioning using XpanD with a new type of lighter glasses, from what I can find.

Any insight is greatly appreciated.

[Leo Enticknap]

On another thread, Leo says he had the DB15 (on an SP4K) - XpanD DB9 connected and working easily. Leo, did you use a ready-made connector? Could you share what the pin-out was, if you are aware?

'Fraid not, sorry. XpandD supply a plug 'n play cable for Barco CCBs, which I simply plugged and played.

[Torsten Juergens]

Hello Ioannis,

I'll post a picture of our connector when I'm back on site at the weekend.

We currently use the Xpand X101.
As for other glasses, I tested the following:

Volfoni Edge 1.2
GetD GL410
Xpand X106 Evolution

My impression is that the contrast is much better with all three glasses.

The new glasses also no longer produce a color cast.

Our X101 tints the image slightly green, so with the new ones
glasses, less light may be lost through color correction.

The projected image was subjectively only slightly brighter with the X106 compared to the X101.

May be important. The X106 is water resistant. Xpand also provides professional cleaning solutions for it.

Unfortunately, the X106 did not work reliably with our Xpand One emitter. We might have to use a stronger one.

I didn't want to measure, I just wanted the visual impression!

[Dave Macaulay]

image.png
Pinout for Barco S2 3D connector.

[Ioannis Syrogiannis]

Thank you Dave.
The SPXK projectors have the exact same pinout on their 3D connector. And the same I found on some NEC projectors as well. Could it be that it is universal? Hopefully.
On the XpanD system I was trying to connect, the key pins on the DB9 were 1 and 2, while 6 was shorted to 2 on the original cable.
My intention was to keep the original cable (DB37 -> DB9) and make an adaptor.
On DB37, as one can see on the table Carsten is having, the plus and minus of the sync, is pin 9 and 28 respectively.
Indeed, that corresponds to 7 and 14 of the DB15 3D connector.
So, after I correctly made the adaptor, between DB15 (3D connector) and DB9 (XpanD emitter), the connections were:
DB15 -> DB9
pin 07 -> 1
pin 14 -> 2 + 6
I can't tell with certainty whether the 14 -> 6 connection makes any difference.

The adaptor that I made was connecting 7->9 and 14->28 on the original connecting cable. And that worked, eventually.

I write "eventually", because I fell into a trap, assuming that the two DB37 were identical. Hence, instead of using a female, for the adaptor, since the connector on the projector is female, I used a male one.
In retrospective, the two DB37 are not the same. It's probable that the maker wanted to keep the GPIO capacity of the projector port, and hence extended to the female all pins, other than the relative to 3D.
A considerable thought from the side of the original cable maker, a foolish assumption from mine...

So thank you all for your replies. I hope this clears things out for someone else, that may be asked to unearth such a device.
I also hope I won't need to further disturb the peace of the since-long-in-the-past rested in it equipment.

[Dave Macaulay]

Yes, the GPIO connector does lots more than just supply the 3D sync signal. It gets tricky when you use 3D and GPIO. Some 3D cables have an extender with the GPIO still available, not all though. I think that is why the 3D connector was added to S2 projectors. It also has a signal that 3D mode is active on the projector so an automatic 3D adapter mover can work without needing other commands. There's more, a serial connection and other signals I don't know about.

[Carsten Kurz]

The D-SUB15 3D connector is common for all S2 systems (part of the ICP), and hence was carried forward to so called S3 and S4 electronics. It was rarely used with S2 systems, since the D-SUB37 generic GPIO was already present on S1 projectors, and cables could be reused with S2. Now with the current equipment upgrades to S3 and S4, the old GPIO D-SUB37 connector is gone, and D-SUB-15 cables and adaptors become necessary. Strangely, the D-SUB15 3D connector is underdocumented in all manufacturer manuals that I have seen. While the GPIO D-SUB-37 is more universal and highly configurable, the dedicated 3D connector is more or less preset and supports very few configuration options. It just mirrors some signals from the D-SUB37 GPIO connector that are relevant for 3D systems.

[Torsten Juergens]

This is my new connector on the original XPand One cable.





And it works !

[Torsten Juergens]

Here are the images.