Need Help Auto Re Striking Lamps

[Tommy Fermanian]

Group, Here is the problem, lately power company has become unstable... We are getting many electric flashes in which power comes off at the bat of an eyelash. Then comes back, Our servers and sound processors are Battery protected, hence if we get a flash , Show keeps going ,sound stays on, But projector lamp shuts down. In the 35mm days Lamphouse had automatic re-striking, ,Is there a way (simple) tu jury rig Christie projectors 2120 and 2220 to re strike automatically while ''on'' ?? When we get these flashes, Staff have got to run and re-strike 8 screens, many with different projection booths ? Any constructive help will help. We do not have budgets to Put massive battery packs that would be needed for projectors (besides running up to each projection booths) Thanks Tom

[Ryan Gallagher]

Do you have any automation or remote access configured to the control panels? Running to each projector seems like extra calories in this situation.
Others will know better methods. But network monitoring of the lamp status seems like a logical 1st step.

[Marco Giustini]

Yes, the first logical step is to network everything and control everything from a single location - you only need one computer.

If the projectors don't have that feature (I don't know) I could think of some sort of monitoring software which can be enabled/disabled via specific command which you can send via playlist.

When the playlist starts, you enable your "watchdog". The projector is then polled every x seconds and if the lamp is found off, a "lamp on" command is sent.
At the end of the playlist you disable the watchdog so the playlist can turn off the lamp and the watchdog won't try to strike it again.

Actually, maybe a Jnior would be up for the job?

[Tommy Fermanian]

Marco Thanks! That's interesting ! We already have logmein to monitor We will look into your suggestion T,

[Frank Cox]

Won't constant hot striking beat the bejesus out of the lamps?

[Tommy Fermanian]

in the regular case, probably , what is suggested is some type of monitoring, which will always strike the lamp if it’s out ?

[Steve Guttag]

It's more complicated than that. You need to only restrike if it is out when it should be on. And, you also want to put a limit on the number of attempts. Let's say it is out for a good reason (ballast failure, lamp actually exploded...etc.). Don't want to endlessly keep trying to restrike and at what intervals?

Some have used an actual light sensor to determine if the lamp is lit or not. Christie, on its UI let you know that the lamp is off so it is accessible via its API. But, you'd need to be polling the API or in some way be informed of its state as well as its proper state to act upon its differential. A proper automation could aid in this (e.g. JNIOR, eCNA, QSYS) and then set up a macro/routine that acts upon it. But the automation would need flags to know if the lamp should be on and since in a theatre that uses automations, the automation is normally the entity that tells the lamp to go on, it should know or be capable of knowing, what state it should be in.

I believe Barco is the only one of the the DLP people that has a proper "Lamp Recovery" mode that upon restoration of power that it automatically restrikes the lamp (and also will give up after 5 attempts). It is a configurable option. NEC drops the lamp on the mere prediction of power loss and Christie drops for a slew of things (noisy door switch, for example) and leaves you with the "unexpected lamp off" message with never an attempt of restriking after the event passes.

Christie is also notorious for letting its logs fill up with worthless API queries So, if you are constantly hitting it with a bunch of (PWR+STAT?)...then that is what the logs will fill up with while important stuff scrolls off. But that is better than running a dark screen.

[Jim Cassedy]

<edited> In the 35mm days Lamphouse had automatic re-striking,

It was even better when running 35mm with carbon arcs & motor-generator sets. Inertia kept the generator turning
for a few seconds after the power went out, and even if current dropped enough to extinguish the arc, it would often
re-light itself if the power glitch was brief and the carbons were still red-hot. This also worked if you had the solid
state rectifier units.

[Ryan Gallagher]

I would also have some serious conversations with your utility provider to find out what could be done to improve this situation, if anything. It may just be a faulty piece of gear upstream of you that is in need of service.

And continue to plan for the worst. ;-)

[Marco Giustini]

Won't constant hot striking beat the bejesus out of the lamps?

Well, when you have an audience waiting in the auditorium you can't really wait 5 minutes, can you?

Tommy,
If your projectors are networked, then you can open a small VNC window per each projector and align them on the desktop. I'm sure there is an app somewhere which can automate that for you (that is, you click on an icon and all your x VNC windows open up and align nicely on screen).

And yes, first and foremost, have a chat with your utility company. I don't know how things work there but they might have some quality of service parameters to meet. Have a look at "fine prints", contracts and such things. If you find something, you can notify them and held them responsible for any damage or loss of revenue.
Where an adult chat fails to achieve the goal, bringing MONEY to the table usually takes you somewhere. Unfortunately.

[Steve Guttag]

Jim, if you are a film theatre with carbon arcs...you have the automation you need, even if the arc drops...the projectionist...so long as he isn't asleep, of course.

During the latter days of the K-B MacArthur, when the theatre's days were numbered (under the K-B chain, in DC), we were still running carbons in 1982. Union Carbide (Nationals) had minimum orders or whomever K-B sourced them from had case-quantity minimums. But they could get Lorane carbons by the box. So, for the last month or two, that's what we got and boy did those carbons suck!

The MacArthur ran Futura IIs with 11s and 9s. One of the 11s was uneven in its diameter and when it got to the slightly smaller diameter portion, it didn't rotate/advance too well...and the light started to dim (which is how I noticed it)...so, for the rest of that reel...I was turning the feed, rather briskly, to keep up as it was only advancing about ¼ the amount it should.

[Gordon McLeod]

I spoke once with one of the ushio engineers because we were getting premature flickering and growths on the CXL 1.8K lamps in the 2210 ( in every installation) and he said that that design of lamps needed a hot restrike on a weekly basis to maintain the stability of the arc. The flicker and growths were always unsuable at about 1400hrs on a 1800 hr lamp. SInce I changed to the OSRAM XBO1800DTS the lamps run with out any issue to 1900hrs
On the carbon arc issue we used to use Lorraine after National closed the Canadian plant for all the Superx Lamps (coppered positive and negaive) and Marble in the rotaing black stick lamps with no issues
The only carbons we always had issues were the "Sunny Carbon" from Ibagawa and the Morganite SHip carbons

[Bruce Cloutier]

You can wire a photo-transistor to a JNIOR input to detect that the lamp is not on. Something like one side of the garage door electric eye that you might be familiar with. But the JNIOR would also need to know whether the lamp is supposed to be on or off. Then a simple program can pulse a relay or do something to help with the situation. Maybe at least alert someone before a patron has to wonder out to complain. They will anyway. There are people that live for the opportunity to complain. I suppose if you have a number of screens go dark, finding out about it isn't the issue. Coordinating the response by staff is another thing. Sounds like a need for practice drills. ;-)

Why isn't this a concern that the projectors all address anyway?