CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[mattsme]

Hi everybody,
I was watching a movie earlier on my BARCO data 500 and the picture suddenly died. The fans were still going. I turned it off at the mains, waited a bit and then turned it back on (silly idea maybe!) It showed the Barco start up screen and then when I selected the RGBHV input the convergence was out a lot - I went to the menu screen to converge the picture and it died again.
I took the case lid off and there was a bit of a smell of burning plastic - probably not a good sign!

Looking at the SMPS status LEDs the scan fail LED was on. The other LEDs were on but the "-17v" LED was off.

I turned it off again, pulled out the SMPS board and checked all 8 fuses and they were all fine.

Also, previous to the projector dying it had sometimes been exhibiting the same fault as described in this thread here (horizontal bars appearing at top and bottom of picture):

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=843918

I checked the +17v previously - it was a tiny bit low so I corrected it but the fault did not go away. I am ashamed to say that when the projector started exhibiting the fault I would go for an Arthur Fonzarelli style fix by thumping it at the rear of the chassis from the top (it's table mounted) - this would often do the trick for a while!

So, what is the diagnosis? What board or boards do you think I should look to change?

I am in the UK or else I would have just emailed Curt to get some boards off him, but considering postage and the awful exchange rate coupled with my unemployment I think I am probably best off trying to source parts in the UK.

This site has been a fantastic help and I have had masses of fun with this hobby so far!

[km987654]

The SMPS will shut down if there is a short in the system. If a board has shorted you should be able to find it as the smell usually gives it away.

BTW your money is worth more than $US.

[mattsme]

Thanks for your help km I shall have a board sniffing session!

As for the £/$ thing all I meant was that a couple of years back £100 would buy me around $190, at present exchange rate it buys me $138.

[km987654]

Consider this when you are thinking how bad that is. Last year in june $1AU was worth $.98USD today it is $.63USD so to purchase something that costs $100USD will set me back $158AU. You are way in front you should take advantage of that and look to Curt for some spare parts if you want to keep the machine running.

[mattsme]

Yep, bad for both of us, AUD and GBP down against the dollar.

I've had a play with the projector this morning, it is now turning on fine without the scan fail LED showing up. I can't smell any plastic now. I have noticed I can make it exhibit the horizontal bars problem if I push down lightly on the SMPS board, so perhaps that is the problem.

I have noticed there is a red LED on the top of the Horizontal output board that is glowing dimly, does anyone know if this is normal - does it indicate a fault or just that a signal is present?

I am going to email Curt for a quote for an SMPS board - won't harm and perhaps it will be the cheaper option.

[jkruger]

Pull the SMPS and check all the solder joints. They are very common failure points.

[mattsme]

Thanks Jkruger!

I have found and resoldered two bad looking joints holding the big white transformer and that seems to have done the trick with the horizontal bars problem!

However.....when the projector died the convergence went out a fair bit. I have just been trying to converge the picture again and the controls are not working - things like raster shift, keystone and pin-cushion work but when it gets to the bit where you do the convergence in each section with the rectangle the controls do nothing (the numbers move up and down but the image does not shift at all) - this is the same with all three colours. It seems to have saved what my settings were but not applied them.

Does this mean that the convergence board has died?

[jkruger]

I would resolder all the points shown in the picture first. You may have other probs but since you found two bad joints already It makes sense to resolder them all.

[mattsme]

Thanks Jkruger,

I have now resoldered all the points in the picture (top left was fiddly!) - the convergence problem is still there but I appreciate that ruling these other joints out is very worthwhile.

Any ideas where to look next, or am I looking at getting a Convergence board?

[jkruger]

Personally I would check all the other boards for bad solder joints and obviously swollen or leaking capacitors and sniff everywhere for anything burnt. If you don't fix it that way then Curt has the boards for you. He know exactly what to look for and repair/mod to make them more reliable.