Christie CP2210 Blue Bars

[Jon Shepard]

Hi! This is my first time posting on here, wasn't 100% sure which subforum to post.

Blue Bars: I am having a problem where uniform Blue (Cyan) colored bars are appearing on the screen, on all content and test patterns.

What I've Tired: I Receded the IMB, PIB and GDC Boards, I also receded the LED COLOR board with-in the Projector's Security panel. I have also switched out the PIB Board and tested it in another projector, that projector played perfectly fine. Not sure exactly what else I can test at the moment and wanted to reach out and see if anyone else had had this problem before.

[Steve Guttag]

You can stop all of that. You have a bad blue formatter...that is one of the tell-tale signs of a bad formatter. You need to do a prism swap.

[Marco Giustini]

Steve,

Cyan is Blue + Green, wouldn't that be a bad RED formatter?

[Steve Guttag]

Yes, I'm sure I misspoke on the colors...I saw Blue and jumped. If it is Cyan that is left, then yes, RED. One can put up solid colors as test patterns and see which one is bad too.

[Marcel Birgelen]

If there is a bad connection with the RED formatter, expect something like RED SATELLITE ERROR in your logs. If none is in there, then it's usually the formatter board itself that has gone bad. In the case you still have extended warranty on the machine, I wouldn't touch anything, get your service provider in there and let them fix it.

Otherwise, if you're into a bit of DIY: The light engine on a CP2210 is relatively easily reachable, I guess a last effort you could do is to make sure if all the flatband cables, especially on the RED formatter and DMD are correctly seated, although this is pretty tedious work... Meanwhile, the quickest fix will probably be a complete light engine swap, although this looks like something that can be fixed with a formatter replacement.

[Jon Shepard]

Thank you everyone for replying, I will check and see if it still has the extended warranty (I doubt it). I haven't personally really messed with the Light Engine or Formatters at all, so will be looking at the manual today!

[Marco Giustini]

the manual won't help on an engine I'm afraid. It's not designed to be repaired on the field (though I'm sure Mark will dispute that!). I cannot fully remember how the 2210 is made inside but if you can, you could swap the RED ribbon cable from the electronics to the Engine with another colour and see if the issue follows the COLOR (engine issue) or the signal (wiring/electronics issue). But I've been there before too and you're probably wasting your time unfortunately.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I'll only say one thing... If you take the red formatter board off with the engine in the wrong position, a whole bunch of tiny gold contacts will fall out and disburse all over your booth... Further complicating the repair. Get an exchange prism from your Christie dealer and have your tech do the swap out. It will need to be converged and the color space checked anyway...

[Emmanuel Nwokafor]

Sometime the backplan and connection can cause that
I'll advise you swap cables from one formatter to the other to see if fault will move with it

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Sometime the backplan and connection can cause that
I'll advise you swap cables from one formatter to the other to see if fault will move with it

Sure, if the cables will reach... The last light engine I had with lines was quite a ways back. But it just turned out to be an improperly torqued formatter board.

[Marco Giustini]

It's been a while: can that be done at the LEQD? (if I remember the name right: Light Engine Quick Disconnect? I might be making that up! You know what I mean!)

[Marcel Birgelen]

The LEQD is between the backplane and the formatter boards, not between the formatter and the DMD. Usually, if there is a fault in this part of the communication though, you get satellite errors in your log.

Christie doesn't consider individual formatters/DMDs to be a replaceable option. Keep in mind that replacing stuff like the DMD or anything mounted on the prism, including the prism itself, requires recalibration, which is certainly not something that should be done in the field. Compared to many other models, a light-engine swap on these Christie projectors is actually pretty easy. Still, it's something that a trained professional should do, imho.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Oh, they are replacable, but Christie is only interested in selling light engines. I have a source for both DMD's and formatter boards for most model projectors. They would be good, used parts, but that beats buying a new engine. It's been a long time since I was inside a 2210, and there were only two that I serviced. I ended up installing almost all NEC because everything in them was built to be servicable. And in the end, very few ever needed servicing anyway. The 2210 on the other hand turned out to be one of the most unreliable projectors ever. It's also interesting that Christie discontinued manufacturing it back in 2013. So it was made for a relatively short time... Oh, and yes, the LEQD does not allow things to be swapped around. I forgot about that backplane...

[Steve Guttag]

As usual, Mark has an interesting perspective on things. Christie has a rather reasonable light engine repair/exchange program...complete with a good reusable shipping container. They do a real good job with it. Changing out the Christie CP2210 light engine is not a tough job but I've found that one will need to do some mechanical alignment when done (check your leveling...that sort of stuff). As compared to an NEC, you'll be in and out in less than ½ the time (NEC built for servicing? Are you kidding? Yes, they can be serviced but they are the worst of the three and one is bound to get cut on some sharp sheet metal. The intervene board...which sounds like a good idea but has too high a tendency to get a bent pin on reinsertion despite all of the guides and such...one is often working blind on pushing it back in. Anyway, between the Christie CP2210 or an NEC prism, I doubt many, if any (except Mark, of course) would take the NEC change, given the choice.

As to the CP2210's longevity...well..it was replaced by the CP2215...the difference? The color of the skins and the ability to support the 2.2KW lamp. Everything else is the same.

[Marco Giustini]

The LEQD is between the backplane and the formatter boards, not between the formatter and the DMD

Well, the formatter is directly attached to the DMD!
That's what I meant, were the formatter data cable soldered on the LEQD or plugged in? Do I remember right or the data cables used to be attached to the LEQD via connectors which were then removed to reduce connection issues?

Anyways, I am digressing