Looking for Sony SRX Controller software / RM-PJ4K / RS-232 protocol for SRX-R105

[Agnes Leijon]

the lamp must be properly disposed. It must be exploded before it's disposed. Usually the process is to put it back into its box (which gives protection), smash it (while protected) and then it can be disposed as special waste (Quartz + tungsten, check with your local laws). Xenon is an inert gas and won't pollute the environment.

But, again, you'll need protection to remove it.

What matters is that the projector is not disposed "as is" as someone might find it, open it, handle the lamp and get injured.

You'll find that cinema projectors - or PRO projectors - are far from being "plug and play" I'm afraid ?

Checked the spare lamps today. Luckily the lamps have protective housing so we don't have to touch them directly. Photo below of a spare one.

There are no warning signs anywhere, not on the lamp/housing, on the box or on the manual. Text about protection in manual - yes, but no signs. Which I had thought was very important with all regulations in EU and Sweden. Not everyone reads the manual. Also Xenon is not mentioned anywhere.

But the manual does mention this method of tying up, taping the box and crushing the lamp inside the box by dropping it Never seen instructions like that before. However I will leave that to the professionals.

We are lucky to have a VERY good hazardous waste system in Sweden, so I know exactly how and where to dispose of them when it comes to that. There will even be staff I can talk to when visiting the recycling station. But I wouldn't have known as much if not for your tip, thanks I would have probably just dropped it off with regular bulbs.

[Leo Enticknap]

I haven't seen that type of packaging before, and would guess that the plate to which the anode flylead is attached is something Sony-specific.

You're right: all xenon arc lamps are shipped in protective packaging that makes them safe to handle without protective clothing, as long as the lamp stays in that packaging. Ushio uses a reinforced plastic clam shell-type holder with the two pieces held together by clips. Osram used to but now uses a stout fabric wrapper with polystyrene inserts around it. I can't remember what LTI does now.

As for safety warnings on the packaging, the general expectation is that these things are only ever handled by trained professionals, and so there is no need to go to town on it. By the same token, drugs that are only ever given to patients by physicians and nurses in hospitals do not come with a "Warning! This is seriously badass stuff that could kill you if you take too much of it!" label on the bottle, whereas painkillers sold directly to the public over the counter do. The Ushio lamps that I handle most of the time do have a bright red "Wear protective clothing" label stuck on the clam shell case such that you have to peel it off in order to open the case. But that's a final, last line of defense reminder to the technician who should already know that, not the basic training class.

[Stefan Scholz]

Checked the spare lamps today. Luckily the lamps have protective housing so we don't have to touch them directly. Photo below of a spare one.

There are no warning signs anywhere, not on the lamp/housing, on the box or on the manual. Text about protection in manual - yes, but no signs. Which I had thought was very important with all regulations in EU and Sweden. Not everyone reads the manual. Also Xenon is not mentioned anywhere.

But the manual does mention this method of tying up, taping the box and crushing the lamp inside the box by dropping it Never seen instructions like that before. However I will leave that to the professionals.

We are lucky to have a VERY good hazardous waste system in Sweden, so I know exactly how and where to dispose of them when it comes to that. There will even be staff I can talk to when visiting the recycling station. But I wouldn't have known as much if not for your tip, thanks I would have probably just dropped it off with regular bulbs.

If you are interested - Sony has published a video showing the results of a lamp dropped accidentially, and the resulting harm to a puppet. And then they show a guy in a NASA style astronaut suit that changes and handles lamps safely. (Sorry, but I can not work in such a suit.)
As this is is a "professional product", it is to handled by "trained professionals", the instructions are given for those with factory training.
A note from the past - given by Dr. Kugler of Osram when I was young. He said, most lamp explosions happen by people having the bulbs laying bare on a desk, and thereby scratching the surface of the glass.
Otherwise, he said, it is mechanically quite robust. So just keep them in the safety packaging, and have them handled with care.

[Agnes Leijon]

It was a try in the cinema business, and only a few appeared as R 105-110 units.
This used a complex media player, that came with a storage server, Show Management Server, Switch, etc., all in different rack mount appliances for the cinema version.
Withdrawn shortly after. AFAIK some were used in commercial applications for simulation and projection in other fields.
Contrast wasn't great on these, image uniformity, stability also. And the efficiency wasn't really great.
It eventually has a DVI input, which not necessairily support HDMI over DVI, or only some 1.0 standard, making it difficult to play encrypted content.

At the time 20 years ago a control software connected over a serial management port was pretty much standard on mot equipment in a professional domain. Integrated web servers are fairly new.

You should just try to set it up. Install the software, try to connect, and see what it does. The lenses had a very narrow zoom range, but from the optical quality they were outstanding. Way better than those on the cinema versions.


Where are you located in Sweden? It's also on the baltic coast like I am, but there can be many miles in between.

I'm in Gothenburg, so the west coast of Sweden.

I have been going through the files but it's hard to know where to start. The folder called 'T-series SRX Controller' only downloaded as a single setup.txt. The folder that begins with 'SRX Controllerv for R 220' demanded a password for even unpacking the zip, and the one I could find in another folder did not work. The SRX Controller in the 'SRX 320 Software' folder actually installs and opens on the WinXP Machine but I am stuck on what to write in the login screen. A user/pw can be found in another Readme, but I think I am getting the network setup wrong. I have it connected with a crossed network cable but it wants a network address in the format XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX and the one displayed on the projector is 192.168.1.320 (I tried writing 001 but it didn't work). I will try some other alternatives next time.

I also realized that the mini PC I am using only has VGA and no DVI or HDMI. Going back home to rummage through my old cable stash then... Because I assume I have to display the video through the same device as the controller..?

[Marco Giustini]

You need to set your PC to an IP address which is on the same range - say 192.168.0.10. Then from a command prompt you can try and ping the projector with

ping 192.168.1.320

(001 and 1 is the same, don't worry)

Assume that the projector is set to a 255.255.255.0 subnet mask - if it can be confirmed on the display, even better. Don't worry about the gateway, you can leave it empty.

If that gives you a reply, you can try again. If memory serves, the SRX controller will give you the same, unhelpful, error message regardless of what the error actually is ?

Do you need a crossed ethernet cable? Modern devices won't need it. Try with and without. In doubt, you can place a small switch in between.

[Harold Hallikainen]

I have it connected with a crossed network cable but it wants a network address in the format XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX and the one displayed on the projector is 192.168.1.320 (I tried writing 001 but it didn't work).

Is that maybe 192.168.1.230? The dotted decimal is breaking a 32 bit address into four 8 bit octets, each of which can have a value between 0 and 255, so 320 would not be valid.

Also, a fun program to find stuff on the network is AngryIP. It can scan for a range of ports on a range of IP addresses.

Good luck!

[Leo Enticknap]

A note from the past - given by Dr. Kugler of Osram when I was young. He said, most lamp explosions happen by people having the bulbs laying bare on a desk, and thereby scratching the surface of the glass.

When I started in the industry in the late '80s, I wouldn't go as far as to say that xenon lamps blowing up was commonplace, but it happened often enough that treating these things with respect was drilled into all junior projectionists, and there was a cast iron rule that two people had to be present in the booth whenever a lamp was being installed or removed (so that in the event of an accident, the second person could summon help).

Now, it almost ever happens. In more recent years, I've seen lamps abused and molested beyond belief - run to 10,000 hours, run for months without any exhaust ventilation running, you name it. The envelopes were black and they flickered like candles, but they didn't blow up. And if doing this to a lamp didn't provoke it into exploding...

image.png

... I'd like to know what would!

The last time I personally witnessed a lamp spontaneously exploding was in November 2000. The theater at which I was working at the time was a former newspaper printing works on a river bank. The river flooded and our basement (which of course contained all the incoming power supply breakers and switchgear) with it, and we were closed for almost a month. The day before we reopened, we went through everything in the booths, firing it up and checking that everything worked. About ten seconds after striking one of the projector lamps ... KABOOM! It was such a kaboom that it put a dent in the side of the lamphouse. When we looked in the other projector's lamphouse, we found it full of condensation, including on the bulb envelope. The whole building had gotten thoroughly damp. After drying out the lamphouse and leaving a small space heater under it overnight, the lamp struck and worked without incident.

None of this is to advocate complacency and a lack of care when handling today's xenon arc lamps. I'm as careful with them now as I was when I first handled one under the supervision of a chief in 1989. But I'm certainly not as scared at the prospect of one going off in my hands as I was then.

[Agnes Leijon]

You need to set your PC to an IP address which is on the same range - say 192.168.0.10. Then from a command prompt you can try and ping the projector with

ping 192.168.1.320

(001 and 1 is the same, don't worry)

Assume that the projector is set to a 255.255.255.0 subnet mask - if it can be confirmed on the display, even better. Don't worry about the gateway, you can leave it empty.

If that gives you a reply, you can try again. If memory serves, the SRX controller will give you the same, unhelpful, error message regardless of what the error actually is ?

Do you need a crossed ethernet cable? Modern devices won't need it. Try with and without. In doubt, you can place a small switch in between.

I will try again soon with someone more experienced in networks. But if 001 and 1 is the same then something else is up because I already tried that and got error message. And as the next poster stated out it is probably 230 at the end, I just wrote the wrong one from memory but I stood beside the projector when I tried so it would have been correct then.

There is only COM or Network to choose from and I can only put in one network address, no subnet mask or gateway options. The subnet mask you wrote is the one displayed at the projector.

The projector manual is the one that states I need a crossed ethernet cable. And since I had one such cable lying around that hadn't been used in 10+ years I thought I might just use it, to rule out any errors in that end.

[Agnes Leijon]

Is that maybe 192.168.1.230? The dotted decimal is breaking a 32 bit address into four 8 bit octets, each of which can have a value between 0 and 255, so 320 would not be valid.

Yes, probably. I must have written the wrong order from memory as I was no longer at the projector. But not when I actually tried it.

[Marco Giustini]

Is that maybe 192.168.1.230? The dotted decimal is breaking a 32 bit address into four 8 bit octets, each of which can have a value between 0 and 255, so 320 would not be valid.

Do'h!

I didn't really think too much about that .320! I just thought "cool, Sony used the model number of their next line of projectors for the IP address!" ?

[Stefan Scholz]

I'm in Gothenburg, so the west coast of Sweden.

I have been going through the files but it's hard to know where to start. The folder called 'T-series SRX Controller' only downloaded as a single setup.txt. The folder that begins with 'SRX Controllerv for R 220' demanded a password for even unpacking the zip, and the one I could find in another folder did not work. The SRX Controller in the 'SRX 320 Software' folder actually installs and opens on the WinXP Machine but I am stuck on what to write in the login screen. A user/pw can be found in another Readme, but I think I am getting the network setup wrong. I have it connected with a crossed network cable but it wants a network address in the format XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX and the one displayed on the projector is 192.168.1.320 (I tried writing 001 but it didn't work). I will try some other alternatives next time.

I also realized that the mini PC I am using only has VGA and no DVI or HDMI. Going back home to rummage through my old cable stash then... Because I assume I have to display the video through the same device as the controller..?

Ok, than it seems to be icomplete.
Well, when I am back home, I can try to find the complete set of files. Maybe on another computer back from the era. Sorry.

[Agnes Leijon]

Ok, than it seems to be icomplete.
Well, when I am back home, I can try to find the complete set of files. Maybe on another computer back from the era. Sorry.

Today I tried again and brought my husband that is a bit more experienced in network issues. So after some fiddling with the application that installed the other day on Windows XP, the projector actually started, with a green status lamp.

So - huge step forward! I connected another computer (Mac) throught the Hdmi Cable and mirrored a window on my screen. And although it was very faint I could see it did display on the wall.

Next we have to look up how to work the SRX controller, and try the projector at a greater distance. I doubt it will be a good quality but at least it is not broken.

[Stefan Scholz]

That is good news.
You will manage.

[Agnes Leijon]

The projector is now actually running and did provide a better picture than I expected. Good thing it is in another room than the big projector screen because of the loud fan noise. Now we just have to figure out if there is any interest around for running a small alternative movie business And then of course connect sound through long cable connections in the big hall where the screen is.

The software does give constant error messages when running, but it doesn't matter much because you can still press the on button - the only vital bit of the software. Seems like it is already perfectly aligned to
the big projector screen vertically and keystone-wise. Almost like someone had this running in this house before, but it seems unlikely.

Thanks for all your help with software, and also info on security issues.

[Stefan Scholz]

I have found another copy of the installation file. It was installable on Win XP.
Here is the link to the folder: T-series SRX controller