Has anyone dealing with a Barco ULC-30A chiller for their DP4K-L series projectors encountered an OT Stepper HGBP error? Barco has been less than helpful and basically indicated the chiller has to be replaced. I am astounded the chiller cannot be repaired. I would expect the stepper stator could be replaced or some small part like thar and will look into it further. Seems so unreasonable to replace the entire unit.
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The last DP4K-L I looked after was retired in 2024. Thankfully, I never had to mess with the chiller beyond air filter cleaning and one coolant flushout. I still have trouble comprehending how much coolant that thing needed - enough to float the frickin' Titanic.
My guess would be that the part likely could be replaced, but that there are now so few of these machines left in service (they were so expensive that my guess would be that no more than a few hundred were ever built in the first place) that it's not worth Barco's while keeping the parts inventory and techs' knowledge needed to support the replacement of individual parts; and that their policy now is that if anything goes wrong with an individual chiller, you just replace the entire chiller. It's a bummer, because even shipping something that size is going to be seriously pricey, let alone the cost of the chiller itself if the unit is out of warranty.
By the same token, I recently had a DP2K-32B that had "transitioned" to a DP2K-36B-RGB+ (laser retrofitted, in other words) that threw a chiller pump error. The service manual tells you to replace the entire chiller if it dies. Once I got on site, I discovered that, thankfully, the only problem was that the serial data connection between the chiller and the light source unit had heat cycled itself loose, and that reseating it fixed it. If the pump had actually been bad, we would have needed to replace the chiller, even though the fans and boards in it would still have been OK. -
I think that logic about the reason it can't be easily repaired makes sense. I actually out of curiosity also reached out to Cooltech of Italy that makes them to ask if they had any recommendations. I will inspect it further now that I know Barco isn't much help.
No chance anyone has some of these spare sitting around if they were already taken out of service?Comment
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it was a long time ago but I remember Barco mentioned that the (external) chillers were not serviceable and would be swapped if had trouble. After all those should be 3rd party units, would require some refrigeration engineer to service them on site. I think the same applies to other manufacturers.Comment
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I wonder if a refrigeration tech (the guys who service big air conditioners and the freezers in grocery stores) would be able to source compatible parts.Comment
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So I 100 percent believe it would be repairable given a more detailed understanding of the error code.
I have worked on plenty of hvac and usually they give more definitive error codes with a manual indicating which circuits to check for resistance or voltage to determine which device might be broken and need replaced. I have ordered a new stepper motor/stator for the hot gas bypass valve to see if there is any way that is what went bad as it's a 1 minute job to swap that. I just wish I could get more detailed diagnostic codes out of it somewhere. There is no handbook for the electrical measurements in the device that I can find.
If this was sold directly as a refrigeration device from cooltech I am certain the repair process would be easier.
It's so wasteful for large pieces of equipment to be abandoned if there is a tiny defect somewhere.Comment
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