Need a technician reference

[Jill Mobley]

Leo, thank you for your response. You described my area. 10,000 people, 1 screen theater.
It is a Barco.
I will reseat the board today. What do I use to clean the contacts?

Jon, thank you. I will look up Heartland today.

[Leo Enticknap]

We endorse DeOxit on F-T so frequently that they really should be sponsoring this forum! Start by spraying a light coat of D5 on both sides of the PCI contacts, then, when it has dried totally, apply a light coat of G100. Again, wait for it to dry before reseating. You will need to know how to clear the tamper using Communicator and the Dallas key after pulling and reseating the board.

[Jill Mobley]

Thank you, Leo. Items ordered, will arrive Wednesday. I reseated the board on Saturday. I have not seen the contacts cleaned so I am hoping this helps. I have an old can of "tv tuner cleaner" but was afraid to spray it anywhere near my precious projector!

[Leo Enticknap]

If you feel comfortable doing so, another thing to try would be to pull and reseat the connections between the backplane and the green formatter. To clean them at the backplane end, use a paper towel with some G100 on it to wipe them lightly, before plugging them back in. I would not risk spraying the stuff anywhere near the actual light engine, though.

I find that the least messy way to clean the contacts with G100 is to hold the board vertically, with the contact end resting on a paper towel. With the straw about 2-3 inches from the contacts, spray very lightly into the towel, then raise the straw until it's just covering the contacts, with as little as possible on the board above. The excess should then drain onto the towel, after which you can lay the board horizontal while the contact strips dry.

[Jill Mobley]

OK, this is a very clear description. I have not been in this part of the projector. I will have a look tomorrow. The G100 and D5 will arrive Wednesday.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I would recommend Chase Taylor for sure. Heck, my furthest drive to customer was 980 miles away from me, but it WAS a nice drive through the country!. Never call Strong unless it's a last resort. They guy they send out to work on your booth may have just started in the industry yesterday.(that has actually Happened).

BTW: That looks like a formatter board problem...

[Jill Mobley]

Mark, I am only 200 miles from you. Where is Chase Taylor from?

[Leo Enticknap]

Chase is based in Troy, AL.

I fear a bad formatter, too, but it's worth checking the less expensive things to fix first. The definitive diagnostic test would be to swap the connections between the backplane and the formatter for green, with another color (blue, for example). If the blob stays green, you have a bad formatter. If it goes blue, the problem is upstream.

The last I knew, Barco/Cinionic does not sell formatters for field replacement (NEC does) - you'd have to replace the light engine (five figures, assuming the projector is out of warranty) or look for a used donor machine, if a formatter has gone bad. Fingers crossed that it's a connection issue.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Yes, Troy, AL. If I had not recently had a kidney transplant I would be happy to come there... But the doctors say not till they wean me off the anti-rejection meds beginning early August. .

[Barry Floyd]

Chase Taylor installed my projectors, servers and sound processor back in 2013. Did a great job. I've since gone to Barco training school myself to be able to work on my own stuff. Replaced and configured my own new servers this time last year. If Chase is available, he's the guy to call.

[Jill Mobley]

The green stripe is gone. ?? The projector had been off all day Saturday for maintenance. Hoping it was cold. ??

[Leo Enticknap]

I think that's very good news. Formatters do not break and then fix themselves - if they go bad, they stay bad. Connections, however, can corrode, heat cycle, and, in the case of xenon-lit projectors, UV-nuke their way into unreliability, and flash memory in ICPs and CCBs can succumb to data rot and need reflashing. If it were me at this stage, I'd want to pull, clean, and reseat every connector between the ICP and the green formatter board, and force-reflash the firmware in the ICP. If the problem returns, a new backplane to formatter cable loom for the green, and/or a new backplane, would likely be the next step. Neither are pricey parts, but replacing the backplane is quite a long and fiddly job.

[Steve Guttag]

I can confirm that we've had a formatter where the connectors for the DMD corroded and cause, essentially, a failure on both that was intermittent until full failure. I've only had one do that, however. Normally, they either work or they don't. Mark G tells of having to retorque the formatter to the DMD to get a reliable connection but those are the only instances I know of an intermittent formatter. 99% of the time it is the ICP plugging into the edge connector and the Barco edge connectors on the signal backplane are notorious for being the most touchy.

[Leo Enticknap]

Hence the value of applying a coat of DeOxit gold to the card contacts on installation (or the two-stage DeOxit treatment at a PM for a projector where this wasn't done at installation).

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Best case scenario is that pulling, contact cleaning, and reseating the ICP will fix it. Worst is that this is a Barco projector and that the green formatter is toast (the only fix for which is a new light engine). Intermediate is a connection between the backplane and the formatter (will take some labor to figure out, but won't need a pricey part).

Randy: there are far more physicians, dentists, and Diesel mechanics in existence than there are movie theater techs. A typical small city has 50,000 people with teeth that need planned maintenance, but only 5-10 DCI projectors. Neither was I moaning about the fact that I occasionally have to do long haul travel. It comes with the job, and so be it. I was merely pointing out that often, the cost of that long haul travel has to be borne by the smaller, independent theaters that are least able to do so, because they don't have a mega-chain tech on standby to jump in the car, and are not located anywhere near a service vendor.

Along time ago At the old Showest I heard there was an estimated 480 Cinema Service Techs. Of course that was in the film days. Pre-Covid there ere probably more than that because a lot of IT people learned install and work on Digital.