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Topic: Need help with unidentified red light reader

Paul Looker
Film Handler

Posts: 83
From: Pittsburgh, PA/United States
Registered: Sep 2009

posted 09-17-2009 12:00 PM

Alright, first off, this place has been through at least a dozen different owners since it opened and not a one of them has ever bothered to keep up maintenance on anything any more than was absolutely necessary. There are no manuals for anything. There are no spare parts for anything. It can take me weeks to figure out just what something is before I can then start spending even more time trying to figure out how to fix it. So I was really excited when I found this website and am hopeful that someone will be able to help me with this.

We've got what I think is a really simple problem.

That's our sound reader. The same on every house. No documentation anywhere in the place that says who makes them, what model they are, anything. Behind the area that red circle is covering is a little black lead that is really loose and seems to be the reason the red light is not coming on at all. I would at least want to try and fix this myself before calling out for a 1000 dollar service call. Especially if its just a screw that needs tightened, or the part can be easily replaced if we need to get a new one. I don't want to take anything apart without knowing how it comes apart and goes back together though. Is there a manual for this out there? Can someone walk me through it? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 09-17-2009 12:04 PM

It's made by Component Engineering, probably the STR-20 which should be in the manuals section of this site(STRD-20). Your sound reproducer is an RCA although I can't see enough to tell you what model it is... probably an MI-9030 although it could be older. Any idea how old this place is or when these were installed? The LEDs generally have a life span of 5 to 6 years, or quite a bit longer if they are switched off between shows. You start to loose segmnents in the LEDs as an indication of failure or you just can't make Dolby Calibrate level on your processor. For longest life span it's best to have a qualified tech install new ones. The LEDs have two rows of 12 segments in them. Any LEDs with missing segments should be replaced right away as they tend to drive the stereo decoder crazy. Component Engineering is still in buisness in Seattle.

Hope this helps,
Mark

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Brian Long
Film Handler

Posts: 7
From: Seattle, WA., USA
Registered: Jan 2005

posted 09-17-2009 12:27 PM

Paul,

The sound track reader you have is our ASR-40R model and the manual is located on this site.

Please feel free to call me at 206-284-9171 and I would be more than happy to help you troubleshoot your issue.

Brian Long
Component Engineering

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Demetris Thoupis
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1240
From: Aradippou, Larnaca, Cyprus
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 09-17-2009 12:43 PM

And it only took 27 minutes. Film-Tech Rules

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Monte L Fullmer
Film God

Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 09-18-2009 01:08 AM

Here is the back of an STR-20 that shows the connection place for the two small wires to be located:

Here is the plug that goes in the back of this and one will notice the two very small holddown screws where the wires are crimped down on.

(Sorry on the slightly blurry picts being taken with a celphone)

I've had the wires work loose from the crimp on this plug in as well the plug itself work its way out of the socket on a few of these readers - think it's mainly due to operator error in threading by bumping into this area during their procedure.

-Monte

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Eric Robinson
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 538
From: Santa Rosa, CA
Registered: Jan 2005

posted 09-21-2009 02:32 AM

Funny thing, every time I thread up a projector with these component engineering LED mounts I automatically reach around the back and give the plug a push.

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