Keeping the equipment going during a shutdown

[Tom Bert]

some good tip&tricks from the CTC: https://www.cinema-technology.com/po...for-re-opening

[Sean McKinnon]

Thanks Tom! I actually wrote most of the information in your link that my employer sent out to all our cinema customers and posted on some mailing lists. It appears that CTC has copied my work word for word so I guess I should be flattered.

[Leo Enticknap]

From the CDC page:

Leave the projector’s uninterruptible power supply (UPS) powered with the projector in “standby” mode. Doing this will help to keep the security certificate in your media block from being lost...

Is this always the case? Some projectors and IMB combos power down the IMB completely when the projector is in standby mode (one example I know being the NC3240S with a Dolby cat745 IMB), during which time the IMB is using the battery. Enigma cards are also unpowered when the projector is in standby. And in Series 1 systems, the media block is in the server, not the projector. I understand the need to keep the text short and sweet, but IMHO, this is not a safe rule of thumb.

Thanks for corrections to the table. Will update it when I get a mo. Does anyone have any info for other GDC models?

[Carsten Kurz]

What about series 1 projectors? Manufacturers just announced end of parts support for these, so, a module failure due to a shutdown/interruption now is fatal.

[Sean McKinnon]

When it was written it was written for our customers which none have that specific equipment and none are still operating series 1 equipment. Who knew it would be so popular?

[Leo Enticknap]

Completely understood, and my earlier comment was not meant as a flame. The fact that whoever copied and pasted your sheet onto the CDC's website didn't know what I pointed out above, does not give me confidence in CTC at all.

BTW, we are working on our own advice sheet for our customers, and my boss wants me to pare down detail and distill it to barebones stuff. But there are so many equipment combos in use in the field, that this is darn nearly impossible.

[Carsten Kurz]

The trouble is, many exhibitors do not even know their specific set, e.g. wether it's IMB or HDSDI/LD based. Then some have a mix of different generations. Some had upgrades/module swaps. Im am pretty sure that most systems will survive a shutdown of 2-3 months - but, it may still be advisable to power them up for shorter periods every one or two weeks.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

BTW, we are working on our own advice sheet for our customers, and my boss wants me to pare down detail and distill it to barebones stuff. But there are so many equipment combos in use in the field, that this is darn nearly impossible.

Here ya go, this is the bare bones for ya:

"Due to the possibility of many generations and types of equipment installed in your theatres, it is recommended that ALL projection and server equipment be powered up for at least 4-6 hours, once per week to avoid any issues with dead batteries or lost security certificates."

With the costs involved in a bricked media block/LD module et al, it is FAR CHEAPER to pay the electric bill and some labor to avoid a costly failure.

[Leo Enticknap]

Those bare bones will work in the case of boards that have rechargeable cells and/or supercaps on them (and agreed that this is perfect advice for theater managers who do not have technical expertise at their disposal, as a starting point), but not for boards that have one-time batteries on them.

The zombie apocalypse is ramping up - California's governor just issued a curfew order for the whole state.

[Steve Kraus]

Caps are probably the brown circles. Greens are the BR2477A lithium cells. Maybe someone could solder on to the test points and hook up an other source while messing with those two cells.

Click to enlarge.

[Carsten Kurz]

Right. Is there some mark on the brown cells as well? Maybe both are lithium cells, but one type is rechargeable. Then wondering why there are two of both types. Maybe on the CAT862, they are used in a serial connection (6volts)? There is a public FIPS report available about the CAT862, but those that I read do not cover the backup batteries.

Those brown-edged cells could be the same/similar type as used on LD/Enigma Boards - VL3032 rechargeable cells. While we're at it...


LD_Board.jpg

[Bruce Cloutier]

Greens are the BR2477A lithium cells. Maybe someone could solder on to the test points and hook up an other source while messing with those two cells.

These green cells are lithium and in fact the same that we used on the series 3 JNIORs. I regret that by the way. The cells for Series 4 are in holders for your convenience.

There could be two for really only two reasons. (1) if 3V isn't enough these would be used in series. And (2) these cells cannot provide much in the way of current. If they might be called upon to run something other than backup memory they might be in parallel doubling their ability to supply current or marginally increasing their longevity. And, well, I guess there could be two separate backup circuits each with its own battery.

The shelf life on those cells were originally quoted at 10 years. We have found them dead (in JNIORs) in just over 6 years. The JNIOR relies on the battery only when it was was powered off. A unit that was always powered should have seen the maximum life out of the cell. You can still find these cells on DigiKey and the link to their datasheet. Soldering (or really desoldering) can be a challenge because of the mass of metal acting as a heatsink. We usually cut them off first and desolder the remaining tabs in replacing with a new cell.

Lithium should retain most of its voltage right up until it is ready to die. Those green batteries should have a little over 3 volts on them when new and for quite a while. If you see 2.9 or 2.8 volts then they are on their way out and it won't be long. Also the voltage should drop significantly with load as they cannot provide the high currents.

The voltage across the brown cells should very slowly drop once the charging is removed.

[Steve Guttag]

Dolby and GDC have now written their recommendations for their respective servers (including legacy products).

Note, those with the CAT745, I would recommend power them daily for an hour. I had one site that due to the death of the owner, shut down for several months and when the theatre powered up several months later, one CAT745 was dead and another made it just a week later...the other 5 have been fine but, as it turns out, the two that failed were the oldest two in the plex. As such, I believe that the effects of no power on the CAT745 are cumulative...the longer you leave it off over its life, the closer you to battery failure (certificate loss) you become. Conversely, I've had CAT862s off for over a year and without incident.

[Steve Kraus]

Are there links to the manufacturers recommendations?

No apparent marks on the visible side of the brown devices. But the silk-screened legend says B3 and B4 next to them (with B1 and B2 next to the green ones).

[Carsten Kurz]

I received something through a different channel (Dolby and Doremi products):

https://dolby.app.box.com/v/Dolby-Pr...uring-Shutdown