CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

Murillo · Joined: 30 Dec 2007 Posts: 113 Location: Sweden

Hello

I had some problems with my projector (Barco 1209) that sometimes used to show when I watched two movies in a row. At some point it sounded like a small firecracker and the image jumped a little but nothing more happened and I could continue to watch the movie.

When I was watching a movie today, same thing happened but now the projector acted like when there is no source connected. I first thought that I accidently pulled out the source cable, then I tried to press source input on the remote control. But that didn´t help. So I turned off an on the PJ and it worked for about 45 minutes before the same thing happened again.

There is definitely something wrong with my PJ, could somebody please explain what it is and how I can fix it?

Best regards

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2011 12:25 am Post subject:

Most likely you have HV arcing in the set. Each time you hear the arc, you risk blowing one of the boards in the set, or damaging the HV quadrupler.

You need to open the covers of the set, and find out where the HV arcing is coming from. You can also disconnect the red HV wires going to the tubes one at a time to see if you can narrow it down to one tube HV lead. DO NOT disconnect the HV lead going from the HV quadrupler to the HV splitter.

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

Sounds like it might be HV arcing . can you run the PJ with the cover off and look for any blue sparks in the dark. They might be coming from the Boot of the High voltage leads or the High Voltage splitter. Also look closely at the HV cables, if they look like they have a black soot on them cleaning them will stop HV charge from jumping for the Carbon to ground or another board.

Athnasios

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

Damn Curt beat me to it!! Very Happy

Nashou

Murillo · Joined: 30 Dec 2007 Posts: 113 Location: Sweden

Thank you for your quick replies. But I am a little lost with the terminology. Which are the red HV wires going to the tubes and Is the black box at the low right (when you open the lower cover) the HV quadrupler?

Phoenixed · Joined: 13 Oct 2011 Posts: 514 Location: The mitten

Murillo · Joined: 30 Dec 2007 Posts: 113 Location: Sweden

Yesterday I lifted the cover and watched the boards for more than two hours and nothing happened. Don’t know if this is good or bad. Sad

Today I lifted both covers and looked for a short while, since the front cover is not supposed to be off for a longer then a few minutes. There was no blue sparks or fire cracking sound. However there was black soot on the cable that went to the HV splitter which I cleaned before I started the PJ.

Maybe this is normal but the PJ sounds like there is static electricity when it starts up, like walking on a carpet.

Would it be too much trouble to change or fix all possible units that might cause the arcing? Or should I watch movies as usual, but with cover lifted so I can se when something happens? The fire cracking sound does not happened so often, usually if watch more than one movie in a row and not always.

Best regards

HaydnG90 · Joined: 22 May 2006 Posts: 1356

I'd try cleaning all the sooty deposits anywhere near HV sources, leads etc. No point replacing stuff ad hoc. Better to know what is causing your arcing issue. Eliminating conductive surfaces such as carbon deposits may solve your problems at least for now.

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

Phoenixed · Joined: 13 Oct 2011 Posts: 514 Location: The mitten

Murillo · Joined: 30 Dec 2007 Posts: 113 Location: Sweden

Today it happened again, I didn’t se a blue sparkle but the sound of a small fire cracker was there and the color of the image tinted a little bit towards yellow/brownish. I turned of the PJ and saw a little blue spark close to the quadrupler when I restarted it. Is it possible to determine where the arcing is coming from based on this information? Or is the blue sparkle normal at startup? What about the color of image tinting towards yellow/brown?

Best regards

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

Murillo · Joined: 30 Dec 2007 Posts: 113 Location: Sweden

[/quote]Yellow Brown would indicate the arcing is affecting the blue tube. You might have a High Voltage leak at the blue socket for the splitter/quadrupler.

Athanasios[/quote]

Now that you mention the blue tube there is a thing that I wanted to ask about my blue tube that I didn’t think was related to this problem. When I use my PJ the blue tube seems a bit unstable at work. I’m not shore how to describe it but it’s easiest to se on dark images or night shots, the image goes darker/brighter all the time, in some kind of in waves. When I noticed the problem I looked in to the tubes and noticed that the blue tube worked unstable.

If this is the problem with arcing, how do I solve it?

Best regards.

Ile · Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2011 1:14 pm Post subject:

Arching could also be inside tube, it's caused by debris in gun assembly. If you have video camera use that to identify arching location.

Tapping tubes neck gently and normal using would probably make this problem disappear. Using Barcos service menu "run in cycles" feature (flashes full white image) could make debris burning process bit faster. Few hour was needed for my BG808s blue tube.

DolbySR · Joined: 08 Jun 2011 Posts: 47 Location: Switzerland

Murillo · Joined: 30 Dec 2007 Posts: 113 Location: Sweden

I tried to do the run in circles but I had no internal patterns memorized on a block and didn’t have the time to set it up.

But I took some images on the blue tube on a black screen in a movie to show you how it looks, a also took an image on the green tube just for comparison.

The pattern on the blue tube is from when I once tried to set sharpness and turned up the contrast. Unfortunately it made burns on the tube, but it doesn’t show on screen.

Is it possible to determine whats wrong by looking on the images together with the firecracking sound?

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

That is what a high G2 looks like on the blue.

I'm a Marquee guy so not sure what the problem could be here. Curt would be the best bet to help out here.

Athanasios

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 4:16 am Post subject:

If the blue tube is flickering as well, then you have contamination within the tube itself. The only cure is to change the tube, or leave it alone, as this sometimes clears up by itself.

Given that internal arcing in a Panasonic tube is really rare, I still think you have arcing somewhere else, a HV lead going to the tubes, or a small crack in the splitter, etc.