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Author Topic: NEC900 Lamp Lit Change Error James Wyrembelski Expert Film Handler Posts: 114 From: Beaverton, MI, USA Registered: Sep 2015 posted 06-27-2019 09:21 PM                     So tonight the projector is started to begin the show. By the time I get downstairs I have sound but no picture. Upstairs, everything is running as normal. I noticed on the DCC program the lamp is listed as being "off". So, I tell it to turn the lamp on and get an error from the projector U/702 "Lamp lit change 1: Stopped by lamp over voltage protection" Didn't know exactly what to do, so I shut the system down and swapped the lamps out just in case and everything went back to normal. Bulbs currently have about 1300 hrs. So, bad lamp or did it just not strike? I didn't know until later that you can manually strike. I had this happen the other day where the lamp didn't strike but I just ejected the playlist and started it back over and everything was good. Probably could have done that to begin with but I had a decent crowd and the show should have already started  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 06-28-2019 05:14 AM                     Likely a bad lamp if new ones work? You may just have ONE bad lamp, you should check which one still works. You can also turn the lamp on manually on the projector control panel.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 06-28-2019 07:23 AM                     Likely just a bad lamp and if it is under 3000 hours (and under 2-years old), call your dealer for a warranty replacement. Don't fool with trying to keep a bad lamp going, they can and have taken out the ballast on failure and odds are it will be the lower one to ensure extra work on replacement. I guarantee you that the cost of changing the ballast (labor) exceeds the value of the lamp, particularly if it is in warranty. The logs will back up your story (and they require them for warranty claims).  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 06-28-2019 07:35 AM                        NEC came out with a new model of lamp for the 900 a couple of years ago. The original version (NP-9LP02) was at high risk of taking the ballast with it on failure, because two contacts could melt and short. The new version (NP-9LP06) is a much lower risk. Only the newer ones are available from NEC now, but when ordering, I'd suggest making it clear to your dealer that you do not want the 02s (just in case they have old stock still in their inventory). Agreed with Steve on the ballasts. Replacing them can easily need 3-4 hours' work, especially if the projector has to be removed from an inaccessible location (e.g. a pod), and then replaced and realigned afterwards.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-28-2019 09:28 AM                     Agree on a bad lamp. Seen this many times before as I look after over 30 of them. Three things... 1.Never stock more lamps than you can use up in 2 years based on the 3000 hour life, because the 2 years is the NEC shelf life warranty on them. If you use a lamp thats more than 2 years old and it fails during the 3000 hours, then it's not going to be replaced by NEC. 2. New style lamps can still take out a ballast. This some times happens when a lamp explodes and the electrodes touch together briefly. I had it happen from a new lamp explosion. But the good thing is the new lamps rarely ever fail or explode now, and most make it to the 3000 hour mark. 3. Replacing the top ballast (3-hours) is not nearly as painful as replacing the bottom ballast (4.5 hrs).The ballasts are stacked and if the bottom one fails you are going to be removing the top one to get to the bottom one. BIG PIA!! Lots of tiny multi pin connectors to undo, and many itty bitty screws, some of which are non magnetic. Mark  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 06-28-2019 11:01 AM                     Holy crap! A Film-Tech first; so far all are in agreement! Imagine if NEC had put the ballast in slots and had enough slack in the cables to allow one to pull out the offending one without having to dig your way into it, including the 1 post out of 4 nylon standoff. It would be super easy and virtually no cost yet make the service of them 90% faster.  |  IP: Logged James Wyrembelski Expert Film Handler Posts: 114 From: Beaverton, MI, USA Registered: Sep 2015 posted 06-28-2019 12:31 PM                     Thanks. I was pretty sure it was just a bad lamp. The error message threw me off a bit though. The new ones come with kapton tape around the one side of the bulb. The last time our tech was here he was explaining exactly the issue everyone is talking about with the ballasts. Unfortunately my backups didnt have this as they must have been old stock. I'll probably just order new ones and use these ones as a filler until they arrive and keep them just as back ups. Interestingly the ones that went bad are still the originals from 2015, that shows how much use this thing had before we took over! quote: Holy crap! A Film-Tech first; so far all are in agreement! I'm honored to have made this happen  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-30-2019 03:19 PM                     quote: Steve Guttag Imagine if NEC had put the ballast in slots and had enough slack in the cables to allow one to pull out the offending one without having to dig your way into it, including the 1 post out of 4 nylon standoff. It would be super easy and virtually no cost yet make the service of them 90% faster. I think their many years of LCD projecctor experience told them that ballasts raely fail. So they ended up burying them in the bowels of the projector the way they are used to. In all fairness the small Sony projector could use the same lamp, although X 4. And they had the same lamp problems. And in all fairness out of 30+ NC-900's that I installed I have only replaced 5 ballasts. Lamp failures have stopped and so has the need to change ballasts. Mark  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 06-30-2019 09:03 PM                        There are some positives with NECs, but their Achilles' heel is ease of serviceability. The designers clearly didn't even begin to think about the time and skill level needed to swap out major components if they fail. I have no experience servicing Sonys and very little with Christies, but comparing NEC and Barco, it is very obvious that the designers of the popular Barco models thought about ease of maintenance from the outset (and even more so with their new RGB laser projectors: at Cinemacon, they demonstrated disassembling one to the chassis in just 20 minutes or so), whereas NEC simply didn't worry about how many tech hours are needed to accomplish a typical repair. As a general rule, and assuming that both have been maintained per the manufacturer's recommendations, my experience has been that NECs are less likely to have a major component go bad in regular use, but when they do, the repair is a lot more difficult and time consuming. In contrast, I deal with far more component failure breakdowns involving Barcos, but on a B or C series (which accounts for about 95% of the Barcos I service regularly), only the signal backplane takes more than an hour to replace. The bottom ballast in the 900 is a classic example of what I'm talking about. Replacing the liquid cooling pump in a 2500 is not fun, either.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-01-2019 04:39 PM                     I don't find the other NEC's in the lineup an achilies heel to service at all. In fact the NC-1200, 2000, 3200 and 4200 are very easy to service. They also equire very little of it... The NC-900 is what it is... It also saved a lot of theaters fomr permanently closing. Mark  |  IP: Logged

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