Barco HDX-W20 Flex -- Formatter red satellite failure

[Dave Pierson]

I have been having a problem that is intermittent on my Barco HDX-W20 Flex (three chip DLP). The screen colors turn blue/green without warning. It can be reset via the "Reset Formatter" option on the system menu -- which sometimes will hold for a while and sometimes only for a few minutes before it flips back to blue/green. The message that comes up is on the projector's LCD display is, "Formatter red satellite failure".

I have re-seated cables on the the red DMD board and the formatter board but it's still happening. It also seems to "reset" when I turn the main projector power off and unplug it. However, it always crops up again eventually.

Since the projector can turn blue/green in the middle of a show without warning -- intermittently, I am anxious to fix the problem.

Has anyone else had a similar failure on a single formatter with Barco?

[Hao Niu]

hi：
When a fault occurs, check whether the indicator light on the FMT circuit board is on. If it is not on, how can the power management module on the FMT fail or there is no power failure on the upper layer of the cabl

[Marcel Birgelen]

It's not a DCI projector, but a big vennue projector and I'm not familiar with this particular model, but I guess it's innards will be pretty similar to most Series 2 DCI Barco projectors. I've seen single "sattelite failures" before, but causes are far and inbetween. Since it's happenig intermittently and can be restored with a simple reset, a connection problem seems like a likely source. I guess the first avenue I'd go from here would be to replace the cabling between the formatter and the red DMD and go from there. Overheating could also be a likely source, but then you'd expect some kind of temperature error happenig in tandem.

Is the light engine a sealed and watercooled affair like in the DCI and high-end big venue projector Barco counterparts or is this an air-cooled machine?

[Marco Giustini]

The usual troubleshooting route here is to swap the red cables with another colour and see if the issue follows the signal or the formatter board.

As mentioned, reseating also might help.

[Dave Pierson]

Hi Guys, I really appreciate your replies and suggestions.

Hao, I'm not sure what LED you refer to on the FMT board but I'll check to see if there is a difference in the configuration or behavior of the LEDs the next time the error occurs.

Yes Marcel, this unit is probably most similar to the Series 2 DCI. Yes, the projector is liquid cooled and the coolant level is fine. The temperature readings on all components, including the DMDs, is nominal and well within range.

I think Marco's suggestion to swap cables with a different color is sensible at this point. Then, hopefully it's only the cable itself and not something more expensive!

I do agree, and hope, that it is only a loose or faulty connection somewhere. We'll see! I will let you know -- and thanks again!

Dave

[Marco Giustini]

Bear in mind that cables could be the issue as well. It’s usually easy (ish) to swap cable at the PCB where all the formatters plug in. If the issue follows the colour, then it should be the formatter but could also be the associated cable.

if the issue moves to a different colour then you’re sure the issue is NOT with the formatter or the cables.

mind you I’ve had situations where I reseated cables and still had the issue. Then swapped cables around to diagnose, issue gone. But when the cables were back to their respective receptacles, issue was back. ?
there’s definitely a bit of black magic in that area ?

contact cleaner may help with that.

[Dave Pierson]

Yeah, definitely agree on the black magic! Sometimes I just have the thought that it's due to lose the red formatter and bam! Gotta watch what I think!

I'm not discounting Marcel's suggestion to replace the cables entirely -- but if I try swapping out first and that doesn't locate the problem then replacing them is the next logical step before I get into replacing PCBs.

I didn't even think about contact cleaner, so I'll give that a try too. Is there a brand you recommend?

[Marco Giustini]

I have used a dry cleaner in the past as I didn't feel brave enough to use a generic "wet" contact cleaner on such expensive equipment. I then realised that maybe the cleaner was actually removing some protection layers which were added during manufacturing. There was a thread here about DeOxit, which is not available in the UK so I never really looked into that. I believe DeOxit have some very high-end products which might help.

That said, re-seating the connectors will clean the contacts enough. Contact cleaner is for future reliability. If re-seating won't help, I wouldn't waste time in contact cleaners - not at this stage at least. Also not sure I'd invest in cables and I have a feeling you might not be able to source just them - they'll likely come with the engine! But I'm not sure.

Also, I am not familiar with your projector but try to run test patterns - on DCI machines we have the MCGD ones which are not patterns sent to the formatters but "commands" for the formatters to execute. If those patterns are bad, then usually that rules out everything else. All I am saying is that if you test with content, you'll have to include the whole playback chain into account as well.

But again, I've had a projector where an MGCD patter was bad - pointing to the formatter - and then it turned out it was the cable. So... good luck

[Marin Zorica]

Swapping out between cables and formatter will let you know either what problems is...... cables - > formatter - > DMD. Bad thing is that you cannot buy formatter bg itself in Barco, only complete engine replacement as i know? And formatter could be the same as in dci projectors, recently i did search for series 1 formatter for 0.98" dmd and pn number is seems is same with series 2,soke rental machines etc. There is something you could also try, to remove formatter and dmd, clean contacts.....this needs to be done in clean enviroment so the dust don't get in and after to redo convergency. I have done this with some which have problems with missing collors and it worked.

[Dave Macaulay]

These are similar to cinema projectors but also quite different. The imager is 1920x1200. Chassis is different. No secureity shield anywhere. Coolant system may be sealed and pressurized like series 1 as the HDX can be used sideways (portrait) while S2 cinema projectors can not.
The formatter cards are probably the same, prism also. The control card is very different from an ICP. More image processing options.
If I recall my experiences with them correctly changing a lamp requires special access via a dongle or similar from Barco to reset the lamp time etc although lamp adapters are same as cinema models. And Barco no longer provedes that dongle or whatever. So you have to keep track of the lamp hours and the constant complaining about lamp life exceeded if you don't have that access but change the lamp anyway.
Swapping the signal cables between colours is great to diagnose image corruption issues.
Reseating every connection you can find is a good plan.