Christie CP2230 and NEC 3200S Ballast Compatibility

[Mete Tunca]

Hello,

I would like to know whether the ballast of the Christie CP2230 projector is compatible with the ballast of the NEC 3200S projector. Or vice versa. Does anyone have any knowledge about both projector?

Technically they do look identical from I what I've found on internet but this knowledge is limited to photos.

Best,

Mete

[Steve Guttag]

I'd be surprised if they are absolutely compatible. I suspect that they are both made by Sanrex. In addition to the physical unit, you'd have to ensure that the communications match too or each projector will not be able to control the other ballast.

[Leo Enticknap]

It could be that they are the same (SanRex) model, but have bespoke firmware in them that differs, and results in different APIs. If that's the case, it might be possible to flash one with the other's firmware, but unless replacement hardware is now completely unavailable and the only alternative is a complete replacement of the projector (in which case you have nothing to lose), I would not be inclined to try that science experiment.

It's the same principle whereby a TI ICP supplied by NEC can be repurposed for a Series 2 Barco by running the recovery script that Barco provides, because this totally "nukes" it to a blank OS flash drive and rewrites everything from scratch, including the Barco login list. But there is no way (that I know of) to repurpose an ICP in the other direction, because NEC do not offer the equivalent tool.

[Randy Stankey]

It could be that they are the same (SanRex) model, but have bespoke firmware in them that differs.

I agree with that. I used to work in a shop that made circuit boards. Different orders might be built with the exact, same parts on the exact same production line. The boards would be identical in every way but, once they pass inspection and testing, would have different firmware burned in.

There was an incident where orders got mixed up and the wrong firmware got installed. Luckily, there was an order, coming up in the next couple of weeks, that had that same board but called for the other firmware and management was able to "massage" the paperwork to make things come out right. One order ended up getting bumped ahead by two weeks and the other was two weeks late but, at least, nothing had to be scrapped or reworked.

Depending on the way they are made, there might be a label on one of the integrated circuits that has a different label on it. One might say something like "Ver. 1.0" and the other might say, "Ver. 2.0" or something like that. It's not always true, however. It depends on how the manufacturer specified things.

Long story short... Yes, what Leo says is likely to be true. Unless you know, beforehand, the only way I can think of to tell the two apart, for sure, would be to read out the firmware and analyze it. That would take special equipment and software that few people are likely to have in their home workshops.