Tamper Marriage issues

[Armand Daiguillon]

Hi all,

Got an issue I was hoping one of you wise people might have a solution for.

We've been having issues in one auditorium where the tamper system got triggered every so often. (NEC 900C Unit, perched high up in an inaccessible area inside the auditorium and is not actually in any way being tampered with)
Typically when this would happen (maybe once every other week) i'd just log into the DCC, re-marry it and it would be fine.
Suddenly it got worse and would not reset and ended up in us canceling shows for an entire day.
At that point we called in our local tech guy that services everybody in the area.
He came in and then said he temporarily bypassed all the tamper switches and that it should not happen anymore.
It was fine for a day but then started happening again around once a day.

When I look at the log in the DCC it shows the following repeatedly -

2023/02/22 04:31:47(U)(584) IMB:Marriage NOT Active
2023/02/22 04:31:47(U)(582) IMB:Physical Marriage Tamper
2023/02/22 04:31:47(U)(520) IMB:ICP Communications Status
2023/02/21 12:49:22(U)(177) Tamper Fail(2)
2023/02/21 12:28:48(U)(177) Tamper Fail(2)
2023/02/21 12:14:24(U)(177) Tamper Fail(2)
2023/02/21 11:28:18(U)(177) Tamper Fail(2)
2023/02/21 09:56:05(U)(177) Tamper Fail(2)
2023/02/21 09:44:51(U)(177) Tamper Fail(2)
2023/02/21 09:18:44(U)(177) Tamper Fail(2)
2023/02/21 08:31:11(U)(177) Tamper Fail(2)
2023/02/21 08:25:45(U)(177) Tamper Fail(2)
2023/02/21 08:10:31(U)(177) Tamper Fail(2)
2023/02/21 08:05:45(U)(177) Tamper Fail(2)
2023/02/21 06:51:46(U)(177) Tamper Fail(2)

Interestingly enough the log changed. I took a screen shot to send to tech a few days ago and rather than say -
2023/02/21 08:10:31(U)(177) Tamper Fail(2)
it originally said -
2023/02/21 08:10:31(U)(177) Tamper Fail(2B8738F705)

I feel like this error log is telling exactly what the problem is - but tech guy says it could be any one of around 6 boards and that they'd need to be swapped out one at a time. (which involves a lot of time and trips that I cant afford)

Does this error log tell any of you specifically what the problem is ?


Thanks everybody !!!

[Fraser Falconer]

Hi Armand,
The 177 error is a Service Door Tamper. The number in brackets indicates which switch is causing the issue. All the tamper switches go into the Slave PCB ( I have had a couple of these fail, one was from water ingress though, so not a PCB failure as such.) but could be a CPU reseat issue as well.

Cheers Fraser

[Steve Guttag]

A 177 error is a door. I'm curious as to how he "bypassed" the switches. Those are SPDT switches so it is imperative that only one of the poles are connected. If s/he merely zip-tied the physical switch, there is no guarantee that the switch was making internal contact.

Now, the IMB marriage tamper is the result of other things. It shouldn't cause a door tamper but a door tamper will get you red taillights (but I don't think it will cause an IMB marriage tamper...once the door tamper is cleared, the projector should go back to green (or orange).

The ICP communication status may be the clue. I'd reseat the ICP, for sure and, honestly, I'd reseat the CPU Board while I was at it since it is responsible for talking to everything (via the Slave UC board). Even better, if Dexoit is handy, a fresh application would be good (let it dry before reinserting the board(s)).

I have a Christie, right now, where the ICP is causing a periodic Marriage tamper when it wakes up in a bad state. It's going to be a cold solder joint or something but when the temps get real low (or real high), it gets fussy.

Of course, all of this is "at your own risk" and requires the knowledge/ability to clear a marriage tamper.

[Armand Daiguillon]

Yeah, i'm not sure how he bypassed them either - just said that the bypassed switches should be replaced since they should not be bypassed.
My concern was just that he wanted to replace board by board, specifically - he said (texted) mother board, slave board, icp and imb. He said each should be replaced one by one until we know which was causing issue.
But it seems to me that the error log is stating that the issue is coming from "Switch #2" - it would seem to me that that's the switch that triggering and should be checked/replaced ?
Does that seem right or do you guys think I should replace each board ?
To me it seems that just seems like a time consuming waste of time if system is saying where actual problem is ?

Thoughts ?


THANKS !!

[Carsten Kurz]

Are all your NECs installed that way? If not, first thing would be to swap this unit with one that doesn't cause issues so often.

[Armand Daiguillon]

Are all your NECs installed that way? If not, first thing would be to swap this unit with one that doesn't cause issues so often.

I wish I had the luxury of a spare unit to swap out with
For now i'm going to ask the tech to replace just that switch and then if it persists we'll swap the slave board.
I just hope its not too expensive - we're so close to going out of business ... its not a good time for things to break.

Thanks all.

[Steve Guttag]

Changing the switch is a good idea but that shouldn't be causing a marriage tamper...that is likely a different issue. Marriage tampers are caused by board removal. On NEC, there is a switch that checks to see if the bottom most board is removed and I've had where the faceplate of an IMB was not pressing in far enough on the switch. I had to put a small piece of foam so it would press it in to the point of contact...never had an issue after that.

That ICP error makes it sound like it couldn't talk to it which is why I'd also reseat those boards (and DeOxit) and see if that doesn't make the marriage tamper go away.

[Leo Enticknap]

The problem with the 900 is the sheer amount of labor needed to replace the card cage tamper switches and the motherboard. There is a lot of disassembly and reassembly involved. Also, your projector is in a problematic location for access, and therefore doing anything beyond pulling, DeOxit-ing, and reseating the cards in the cage will likely require lifting it down and then back up again. If you're going to sink that much into labor, it makes sense to replace everything besides cage cards that might be involved: motherboard, slave PWB, and the tamper switches, if the DeOxit ritual doesn't cure it. Hopefully it will: $15 for a can of it would be a lucky escape.