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Topic: Christie ACT failed

Andrew Freeman
Film Handler

Posts: 9
From: Springfield, Vermont, USA
Registered: Apr 2017

posted 08-08-2017 06:36 PM

Hey everyone,

Long time reader, first time poster. We had a tree fall cause a power outage at one of our theaters, and after everything came back to life, our ACT seems to have stayed dead. I've noticed that while there are no status lights, and the Cue, Error and Ready lights are blank as well, the LED's on the buttons themselves and the green light indicating the Ethernet cable is working and connected both light up when the ACT is plugged in. Please let me know your guys thoughts and thank you much.

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Arnold Chase
Film Handler

Posts: 41
From: West Hartford, CT United States
Registered: Nov 2013

posted 08-08-2017 09:48 PM

Given that this happened after a tree hit the power lines, (and I assume that your facility has three-phase power), there's a good chance that the tree caused some nastiness between the primary phases. Since this can create nasty power spikes, the first thing I would suggest would be for you do a reset: hold the #1 and #5 down for five seconds - you should see the CUE /READY / ERROR lights flash. You can also check the 5 volt and 12 volt power rails on the back of the ACT, where there are terminals internally connected at the input area. If one or more of the power rails are missing, hopefully there will be blown fuses inside which will solve your problem. Please note, however, that these outputs are apparently isolated from the internal electronics, so if they check good then you will still need to open the unit and check for other blown fuses inside.
One other thought is because the ACT does not have an internal backup battery, if power is lost it will revert to a startup condition.

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Ken Lackner
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1907
From: Atlanta, GA, USA
Registered: Sep 2001

posted 08-18-2017 02:26 PM

This is a very common failure with the ACT. I probably replace one unit every other month due to this. They usually fail at power up. An unusual power event is likely to cause an issue, but I've had units fail even when connected to a UPS. Christie will replace the ACT if under warranty. Are you able to log into the web GUI?

Arnold, that's some interesting information. In all my years servicing these and reporting this type of failure to Christie (which has happened more times than I can count), never once have they suggested any type of troubleshooting that could be done to recover the unit in the field. I will have to try this button 1 and 5 reset next time. Does that restore factory settings, including IP address? I would guess that the fuse is good since the buttons light up, it's just the Ready light that doesn't come on (and the unit doesn't respond to any commands and you can't log into it, but it does seem to have power).

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