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» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Digital Cinema Forum   » Enigma Tamper Failures (Page 1)

 
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Author Topic: Enigma Tamper Failures
Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

- posted 08-09-2016 10:09 AM      Profile for Steve Guttag   Email Steve Guttag   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I think I'm starting to see a new trend with respect to the Enigma (aka Link Decryptor). Yesterday, I had what was the 2nd or 3rd Enigma claim that one of its covers were removed. That is, that someone pulled the HDSDI or Legacy or PIB out, then proceeded to unscrew the four little screws that hold the heatsink/security cover from the Enigma itself. Naturally, nobody was doing that (furthermore, only the Enigma sounds the alarm, the projector(s) never claim any other cover was violated).

When this alarm goes off, the Enigma commits suicide and dumps its certificate, rendering it useless.

I've had it happen now on either all three OEMs or at least on NEC and Barco (yesterday was Barco). If you log into the Enigma, it will tell you the same thing the projector will.

Is anyone else seeing this as well? Also, has anyone found a place that will take a Barco Enigma and reload a certificate and render it functional again (including from a simple battery decay)? NEC will get them "fixed" and I believe Christie will as well but Barco doesn't "fix" boards that are out of warranty (just the ones that are in warranty).

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Dave Macaulay
Film God

Posts: 2321
From: Toronto, Canada
Registered: Apr 2001

- posted 08-09-2016 12:21 PM      Profile for Dave Macaulay   Email Dave Macaulay   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
That's weird. Probably the ROHS crap biting again... there are several tiny microswitches under the cover that trip the self-destruct.

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

- posted 08-09-2016 03:17 PM      Profile for Steve Guttag   Email Steve Guttag   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Yup, 4 per side. Note, it could even be a transistor or something that is failing but it is being read as a switch tamper. But it has now happened multiple times for me so I'm wondering if this is a trend of "geriatric" Enigmas.

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Marco Giustini
Film God

Posts: 2713
From: Reading, UK
Registered: Nov 2007

- posted 08-09-2016 04:04 PM      Profile for Marco Giustini   Email Marco Giustini   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
haven't seen that. Any chance the battery has failed and it's being reported ad tamper error?

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

- posted 08-09-2016 04:34 PM      Profile for Steve Guttag   Email Steve Guttag   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Not a chance. It doesn't have a battery error and the projector is used daily. In fact, it ran a morning show but failed before starting the matinee.

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Marco Giustini
Film God

Posts: 2713
From: Reading, UK
Registered: Nov 2007

- posted 08-09-2016 05:44 PM      Profile for Marco Giustini   Email Marco Giustini   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I appreciate the enigma has been in use when it failed - just wondering if there is a specific battery error for it or it just fails maybe with a 'tamper error'?
Do we know whether those switches are NO or NC? I have a dead enigma on my desk, I can check later.

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Dave Macaulay
Film God

Posts: 2321
From: Toronto, Canada
Registered: Apr 2001

- posted 08-09-2016 09:00 PM      Profile for Dave Macaulay   Email Dave Macaulay   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
It comes up with a definite physical tamper error, so it isn't a battery. I saw one quite a while ago with this error... the case had actually been opened (expensive goof by a "projectionist" wondering "what's inside that?).

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Marco Giustini
Film God

Posts: 2713
From: Reading, UK
Registered: Nov 2007

- posted 08-10-2016 03:04 AM      Profile for Marco Giustini   Email Marco Giustini   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Steve

Can you get more info if you go on Diagnostics/actual/link decryptor status/error messages?

A variety of additional errors would be displayed on that location ONLY - including battery error and which side of the LD has been opened (top or bottom)

That may give you a clue of what happened.

Dave
Those are computers programmed by humans. There is a chance that the error message reported by the LD could be misleading. Maybe the system cannot find the certificates anymore (because the battery has gone) and 'thinks' the LD has been tampered with. Just a theory.

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

- posted 08-10-2016 07:01 AM      Profile for Steve Guttag   Email Steve Guttag   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Marco, I'm not exactly new at this sort of thing. I'm more curious if this has happened to anyone else since I've seen it now 2-3 times in the last year. But since you were curious:

Link Decryptor - Certificate or key Error
Link decryptor - Security tamper
Link decryptor - Top side security enclosure open

The unit had painted screws for the covers and the paint wasn't broken. If you power one up like this, the FIPS LED will glow brightly.

We went through a spat of LDs that were bricking while in storage, despite being charged religiously (each one was being properly labeled as well as the boxes of when they were last charged, when the next charge date was...charge time was NOT LESS than 72-hours each time. We verified that 5V was at each charging terminal and it wouldn't be a group of them that would be bad, it would be random ones. So we bought one of the USL chargers that powers an SDI (or like board, like a legacy) and let the Enigma charge on the SDI board. This has the benefit of you can see the LEDs lit up (the normal charger port lights NOTHING up!). This has the benefit of one knows the relative state of the Enigma based on the LEDs. So far, none have had issue that have charged this way but it does mean more of a 1 at a time sort of thing rather than doing say 5 at a time.

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

- posted 08-10-2016 07:50 AM      Profile for Mark Gulbrandsen   Email Mark Gulbrandsen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I thought I had a bad enigma a few weeks ago but the errors it threw were not enigma related but related to losing the internal Ethernet link from the legacy board to the router. In this case one port on the router had died was all.... A new router fixed it,

Mark

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Marco Giustini
Film God

Posts: 2713
From: Reading, UK
Registered: Nov 2007

- posted 08-10-2016 08:31 AM      Profile for Marco Giustini   Email Marco Giustini   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
sorry Steve, I did not mean to teach you how to suck eggs - just tried to be useful if possible.

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

- posted 08-10-2016 07:32 PM      Profile for Steve Guttag   Email Steve Guttag   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Not trying to get into a spat. I was more polling to see if this is a trend or freak occurance since I have had multiples on it now and from different projector brands. I never intended on this thread to see diagnostic advice.

One great thing about F-T is the number of participants. One can get a MUCH greater feel for what is happening in the world rather than in their narrow corner of it. By throwing this one out there, I can get the sense that this is NOT a trend since nobody has had similar issues (at least nobody has come forward yet to say they have had the same thing).

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Randy Stankey
Film God

Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99

- posted 08-10-2016 09:39 PM      Profile for Randy Stankey   Email Randy Stankey   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Steve Guttag
Also, has anyone found a place that will take a Barco Enigma and reload a certificate and render it functional again (including from a simple battery decay)? NEC will get them "fixed" and I believe Christie will as well but Barco doesn't "fix" boards that are out of warranty (just the ones that are in warranty).
quote: Dave Macaulay
That's weird. Probably the ROHS crap biting again...
If this actually is a ROHS issue, I'd say that this goes beyond a simple warranty issue. If a device fails because it was redesigned for ROHS compliance, I'd say that it is fundamentally flawed from the start. The manufacturer shouldn't hide behind warranty loopholes when it puts out a flawed product.

While I do understand the basics when it comes to the difficulties in trying to make a product compliant to new, tougher, standards, I do not agree that a company should force its customers to be guinea pigs.

If these boards are, indeed, experiencing failures from trying to make them ROHS complaint, I think that the company should simply replace them, no questions asked.
(Or, at least, examine them to be sure that they weren't actually tampered with... e.g., as Steve mentioned, to be sure that the tamper seals on the screws aren't broken.)

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Harold Hallikainen
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 906
From: Denver, CO, USA
Registered: Aug 2009

- posted 08-10-2016 11:01 PM      Profile for Harold Hallikainen   Author's Homepage   Email Harold Hallikainen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I don't know that this is the issue, but switches (like the tamper switch) has a minimum current rating. If you do not maintain this "sealing current" or "wetting current," the contact resistance increases over time. In an IMB and similar devices, you want to draw very little current so the battery lasts, so you'll often be below the tamper switch minimum current. In the USL IMB, we added a source of current through the tamper switch when main power is available, then let it drop to just the very low current through from the battery when main power is not available. This SHOULD avoid issues with dry switching in the tamper switch.

Again, I don't know if this is the problem, but I know switches do not like low current.

Harold

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Sam D. Chavez
Film God

Posts: 2153
From: Martinez, CA USA
Registered: Aug 2003

- posted 08-11-2016 12:08 AM      Profile for Sam D. Chavez   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Steve Guttag
One great thing about F-T is the number of participants. One can get a MUCH greater feel for what is happening in the world rather than in their narrow corner of it. By throwing this one out there, I can get the sense that this is NOT a trend since nobody has had similar issues (at least nobody has come forward yet to say they have had the same thing).
What happened to "everyone's entitled to my opinion?" Unsolicited advice comes with the package.

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