Christie Emergency start and reset buttons

[Carsten Kurz]

A colleague just called me about his Christie 2210. The TPC has died, and he was trying to use the emergency start button - however, he noticed that this button seems to be blocked behind the faceplate. Now, is that an actual blockage, or is there just some soft rubber to protect the opening? When he tries to activate that button with a pen, nothing happens. He said when using a torch, it looks as if the reset button is blocked the same way. I told him not to take the board out for a closer look for now, because he won't be able to clear a tamper error without a working TPC.

Was anyone ever successful in trying the emergency start with a dead TPC?

[Marcel Birgelen]

Don't know specifically about the 2210, but usually you should just be able to push it with the tip of a pen or paperclip. I guess the rubber itself is the button, but maybe some grease or other gunk made it in there? Please note that you need to hold the button for a while.

[Carsten Kurz]

He said it would look like metal, sheet? Maybe a piece of EMI shielding got in the way there? The pictures I have seen of the PIB so far seem to suggest these buttons sit on a small PCB behind the faceplate. There should be no space for something to go in between there? Is there something else that would prevent the emergency start from working (except the obvious power supply failure)?

[Alban Birch]

We had a TPC die on a CP2210 not too long ago, it turned out to be the 24V Standby-PSU, we got a new one at the local Electronics-shop for ca. 20€ and everything worked just fine.

[Adrian Avram]

The emergency button is recessed behind the PIB's faceplate, and need to be pressed with a tip of a pen, paperclip. It will open the dowser and the lamp. The projector's channels cannot be changed, it will stay on the last active format. The next press will close the lamp and the dowser.
Yes I had to use it a couple of time, it worked as described.

[Matt Heuer]

The button movement is very small and does not have a good "tactile" feel to it when pressed and is thus hard to tell if it actually did anything from the ones I have dealt with. Also If I remember correctly if you press it too long it will not work, it seems to need just a very brief press and release. Any one else observe the same?

[Marcel Birgelen]

He said it would look like metal, sheet? Maybe a piece of EMI shielding got in the way there? The pictures I have seen of the PIB so far seem to suggest these buttons sit on a small PCB behind the faceplate. There should be no space for something to go in between there? Is there something else that would prevent the emergency start from working (except the obvious power supply failure)?

Sorry for the late reaction from my side.

Yes, there is a little PCB mounted behind the faceplate of the PIB, so the buttons should be on there. If it's EMI shielding that's in the way, it should be silver-colored and not black. Both the Emergency Start and Reset buttons are black and a bit rubbery.

The only thing I can imagine that could've happened is that during production, the holes of the faceplate weren't entirely punched through. Otherwise, he's probably engaging the button correctly, but something else is broken, like you indicated, most likely a PSU failure, for which Christie is a bit infamous.

Like Matt already described it: There is no click or other tactile response when pressing the buttons, like with so many of those RESET-style buttons, you just hope for the best... As for the exact duration: This may vary between model, but from what I remember, it takes about a second or two. You definitely don't need to press it a minute long or so. Don't know what happens if you press it too long, maybe something triggers a timeout, to avoid the projector not operating if the button is stuck in an "always on" state.