Barco Light Engine

[Marcial Feliciano Ramos]

Hi all,

Usually we have random problems with our light engines that we can solve in house. But we have one that doesn't give us any clues. Doesn't give us any image, colors or problem. To check, we swapped a new ICP and the problem continues. Any suggestions? Thanks

[Steve Guttag]

you need to provide a LOT more information. What is it or isn't it doing?

[Marcel Birgelen]

Doesn't give us any image, colors or problem.

So, no image, no colors and no problem. I guess you're all right then.

Like Steve indicated, without more input, we can just throw around some wild guesses, but nothing particular helpful. If you have particular image problems, some pictures of that particular problem may be helpful too.

[Marcial Feliciano Ramos]

Usually, we start with bad colors, lines or missing colors. We start from there the troubleshoot. But right now, we don't have anything on screen. The only problem that the communicator its giving is TI-ICP System Status Fail. We already swapped a brand new ICP and the problem is the same. We put a light engine from another screen and it works fine with the original ICP. So we know the problem is on the light engine but since it doesn't show anything we don't know where to start troubleshooting. Please advise. Thanks

[Leo Enticknap]

If you've swapped another light engine, then you will have pulled and reseated all the connectors on the backplane in the process, so we can rule that out. The only other things that come to mind now are:

- Pulling and reseating the multi-pin connectors on the formatters
- Force reflashing all the firmware.
- Is the dowser getting stuck in the down position?

What surprises me is that all three formatters seem to be affected; not just one. That suggests a common denominator somewhere.

[Marcel Birgelen]

It's almost like the ICP crashes on some unexpected event, as the whole ICP seems to become unresponsive. Maybe it's worth trying to connect the formatters one by one?

[Marcial Feliciano Ramos]

If you've swapped another light engine, then you will have pulled and reseated all the connectors on the backplane in the process, so we can rule that out. The only other things that come to mind now are:

- Pulling and reseating the multi-pin connectors on the formatters
- Force reflashing all the firmware.
- Is the dowser getting stuck in the down position?

What surprises me is that all three formatters seem to be affected; not just one. That suggests a common denominator somewhere.

Hi Leo,

Done both suggestions and checked the dowser and nothing. The problem continues.

[Marco Giustini]

Marcial,

You know that the issue is the engine. Those things are really not serviceable - even if you would be up to the task, I believe Barco don't sell spares for those. So, besides re-searing the connectors on the formatters and making sure that all is properly plugged in, I believe the engine needs to go back to Barco - am I mistaken?

It's been a while since a Barco but when you power up the engine I believe there are some status LEDs on the formatters. Try comparing a good engine with the bad one and also the RGB formatters between each other to see if one is "dead" or displays a different behaviour. Still, that would only tell you that the engine needs to go back to Barco!

The only thing you COULD try are to swap the cables between two engines. But, again, you may end up with TWO dead engines.

[Leo Enticknap]

If any of those cables have deteriorated to the point of causing a short (e.g. through UV exposure) ... not something I'd want to risk. Agreed with Marco - it has to be the light engine. It can't be the ICP, because swapping them would have pinpointed that, and it can't be the backplane, because swapping in another light engine, connected to the same backplane, would not have gotten rid of the fault if the backplane were bad.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I thought it was clear it's the light engine.
Still, it could be something as simple as a break or fault in one of those cables. IMHO, the ICP is crashing, this only happens when something pretty unexpected happens. We all know that a single formatter failure usually doesn't cause the ICP to crash.

[Emmanuel Nwokafor]

It's obvious that one of the formatter board is faulty that's why the ICP is reporting an error. As long as you tested the ICP in a working projector and it works fine the faults is from the light engine
Repair takes approximately 3-6 months, the other option is to swap a bit faster but expensive

[Marcial Feliciano Ramos]

Hi all,

The green board was faulty. Swapped it and everything is working perfectly. Thanks all for the suggestions and responses.