NC1000 ERROR - "586: IMB: Service Door Tamper" - non conclusive.

[Gordon McLeod]

We have had few issues with NEC some of the first 1200c had issues with the Rubicon lamp ballast but no issues since changing to the Sanrex one. The biggest issues is the lens mount memory/controller getting so slow it is unreliable. The 900 c it was lamp ballasts initially and some had lens mount failures. We also had a few formaters fail but compared to the christie issue (PIB failures lamp communication failures ) which are a plague

[James Gardiner]

Engineer has given up on the unit.
They have not been able to rectify the problem. Replaced/swapped everything apart from the motherboard.
And as it appear to have more then expected corrosion from salt air. Was supposed to be filtered better than this..
Not worth fixing has been the call. 8.5 years old, Ran at 1 lamp at 70%. Filters always bearly dirty when checked. expected 14years lifespan, so only reached 60% is life before called dead.
Not impressed.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Corrosion may well explain the issue you have with a tamper switch not closing. But yeah, having a unit fail after 8.5 years due to corrosion is a pretty sad affair. Salty air is a real issue though, especially with air-cooled units that do take quite a lot of air. I guess that's where the Barco cooling system has a bit of an advantage, although you still end up with a lot of air flowing over the backplate and everything that's connected to it... But, this will eventually become a problem with other equipment too if not properly addressed inside the booth.

There aren't so many NEC machines around here, so I can't really judge their reliability. I know a few smaller places that have been running the venerable NC900c for over 10 years now, but picture quality is nothing to write home about...

[Leo Enticknap]

And as it appear to have more then expected corrosion from salt air. Was supposed to be filtered better than this..

Ironic and coincidental... throughout the fall of 2024 I had an NC900 in a VIP's residence in Malibu on the Pacific Coast Highway that gave no end of trouble, I suspect because of the very salty air. The projector was located about 70-80 feet from the Pacific; closer at high tide. First it was a ballast (the bottom one, of course), then the ICP died, and then the green formatter started to spew digital crap all over the screen. Reseating the intervene board and/or signal cables (can't remember which) fixed it, then a couple of weeks later, the green digital noise was back. Despite being a billionaire and our recommendation that it was time to think about a new projector (this one was 11 years old), he asked us to come out yet again and make another attempt to fix it. The following day was January 7, 2025, by the end of which he needed a lot more than a new projector. The last time I drove past the property (early December 2025), it was still a dirt lot with one charred tree stump remaining where the beach-facing yard was.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Despite being a billionaire and our recommendation that it was time to think about a new projector (this one was 11 years old), he asked us to come out yet again and make another attempt to fix it.

One customer I worked for about 20 years ago was quite the exorbitant type, probably not a billionaire, but let's say not really in the need of any extra money... He also pinched every penny. Whenever I told him that he was being pennywise pound foolish, he told me: Remember, you're not getting rich by spending money...

I guess it's a common trait of those super rich people...

[Frank Cox]

Whenever I told him that he was being pennywise pound foolish, he told me: Remember, you're not getting rich by spending money

That's not what that expression means.

Penny wise and pound foolish is something like buying a lower efficiency appliance because it's cheaper but the operating cost is so much higher that the initial saving disappears.

There's a difference between having a million dollars and spending a million dollars, but a lot of people somehow don't see that.

One of the most insightful explanations of money management that I've ever encountered is the "fuck you money" scene from The Gambler:

https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?pc=MOZR&q=the+gambler+fuck+you+money&ru=%2fsearch%3fpc%3dMOZR%26form%3dMOZLBR%26q%3dthe%2bgambler%2bfuck%2byou%2bmoney&mmscn=vwrc&mid=34E2C149D7B006B245FE34E2C149D7B006B245FE&FORM=WRVORC&ntb=1&msockid=a8eab92eecb211f0ab8a8f0bd5de0d52

[Marcel Birgelen]

Penny wise and pound foolish is something like buying a lower efficiency appliance because it's cheaper but the operating cost is so much higher that the initial saving disappears.

That's exactly what applies here.

If he had to choose between the crappy cheap solution that would fail within a year for $50, and the guaranteed-to-last solution for $150, then he'd consistently choose the $50 solution. So, I think the expression matches perfectly.

For those people, I guess, money saved now is worth more than potential money saved in the future. From the perspective of optimizing cashflow, he might actually have a point. But for a technical minded person like me, this way of thinking is frustrating.

[Leo Enticknap]

For those people, I guess, money saved now is worth more than potential money saved in the future. From the perspective of optimizing cashflow, he might actually have a point.

It's often a difficult call to make. For example, there is no economic case for putting Michelin Defender tires on your car if you only drive 5,000 miles a year. They will reach the six year mark, beyond which CA law requires that they be replaced and shops are not allowed to service or repair them, long before they reach the 80,000 mile warranty expiration. But if you drive 35,000 miles a year, as I do, buying the cheapest tires on sale would cost over double that of the Defenders over their designed service life (assuming regular rotation and rebalancing, checking the pressures, etc.).

The issue with NEC projectors is not that that they are inherently not capable of lasting as long as their competitors: it's that the three or four unplanned repairs that they'll likely need during a 10 to 15 year service life will likely cost a helluva lot more than they would for the equivalent Barco or Christie model, primarily because of the number of skilled labor hours needed to do them.

[James Gardiner]

On this topic, I’ve decided to replace them with Barco units, as they are more likely to endure the environment than NEC models (for example, the sealed light engine and tighter filtration implementation). Barco projectors are generally regarded as more reliable and easier to service—factors that are particularly beneficial in a regional location and make the slightly higher purchase price worthwhile.

That said, I’m being deliberately cautious. A recirculating air-conditioning system is being installed, with no external air intake, although I do expect some minor leakage.

In this context, would a HEPA filter be recommended, or would that be excessive? If not HEPA, is there an intermediate or lower-cost filtration option that would still be effective? Also, could you clarify the difference between an air scrubber and a HEPA filter?

[Marco Giustini]

A recirculating air-conditioning system is being installed, with no external air intake

Any cinema I've been, featuring a recirculating AC system (no external air or very minimal) had spotless projectors. Yes, the downside is that if the AC breaks, the room overheats fast. But I remember opening a projector after 12 months of usage and finding it SPOTLESS inside, filters included, so I feel it's worth it.

If you don't get air from outside, maybe HEPA is not required. I think when looking at filtration you want to look at what particle size it filters.

Wiki says "a HEPA air filter must remove—from the air that passes through—at least 99.95% (ISO, European Standard)[4][5] or 99.97% (ASME, U.S. DOE)[6][7] of particles whose diameter is equal to 0.3 μm". I don't think there is a standard for "air scrubber", those will probably only remove larger particles. In my mind an "air scrubber" is a machine which filters air on a building site to take down the pollution to an acceptable level.

Good filtration is a long term investment.

[Sihong Cheng]

I had an NC1000C stop during a show this morning with the following error:

Error: 586 – IMB: Service Door Tamper

We have exercised all known tamper switches and reseated the IMB2000 (it re-married successfully). We have specifically checked the tamper switch behind the front cover / lid.

We also attempted to clear the tamper using the special button sequence, however the error will not clear.

My question is: shouldn’t there also be an indication of which tamper switch is not closing? At present, we are only seeing the generic 586 error.

Is it possible this fault is originating from the IMB itself, rather than a physical door or microswitch?

My main concern is that I may need to bring in an engineer. However, I’ve already shown this to the most experienced engineers in our region, and there is uncertainty around both the root cause and what spare parts might be required. This is a 4-hour drive each way, so it’s important to be confident about the likely failure point and to bring the correct spares.

Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Although you confirmed that the safety door was closed, the design of NEC is very compact. Have you checked the connection cables at the alarm device? Because there is a possibility of loosening at the connection cables. Just by fastening the casing during assembly, the alarm device was not fully closed.

[Leo Enticknap]

It's been a while since I've done an NEC tamper switch swapout, but my memory is that the cables are soldered to terminals on the switches themselves, meaning that unless they were ripped out entirely, you wouldn't get a loose or unreliable connection (either the connection would be good, or non-existent) at the switch end. Obviously, checking and reseating the connector at the board end is always worth doing.

But I agree with you about NEC casing. If a side panel is not properly seated in its hooks or has a ding or two in it, that can be enough to stop the pin on the interior side of the cover from pushing the lever on the switch down reliably. I've been bitten by that a few times.