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Old 2nd Oct 2019, 12:27 pm   #1
G6Tanuki
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Default Kodak Carousel slide-projector - remote-control?

An ancient friend has an equally-ancient Kodak "Carousel" 35mm slide-projector and around 50 carousels loaded with slides, dating from his time as a Professor of Architecture.

The projector still seems to work - and there's a box of several new replacement bulbs - but the hand-held bit of the remote-control has been lost somewhere over the years.

The 'receiver' for the projector-end is a small black oblong box with a transparent window on the front, and a short flylead with a DIN-plug on the end, which plugs into the projector.

Does anyone know anything about how this works? I'm assuming the link is infra-red (it allegedly provided next-slide/last-slide buttons and a focus control).

My hope is that I can somehow lash-up a simple box-with-buttons-on-a-wire for him and plug it into the DIN-socket on the projector, rather than trying to divine the particular IR wavelength used and encoding-method.

[It's not helped by him being 400 miles away].
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Old 2nd Oct 2019, 12:47 pm   #2
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Default Re: Kodak Carousel slide-projector - remote-control?

Have a look here:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...z0EoW4QKuUdeNT

Google is your friend, as they say

Cheers,

Nick.
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Old 2nd Oct 2019, 12:49 pm   #3
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Default Re: Kodak Carousel slide-projector - remote-control?

Or if money's not a problem, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kodak-Car...wAAOSw~kJdY63D
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Old 2nd Oct 2019, 1:19 pm   #4
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Default Re: Kodak Carousel slide-projector - remote-control?

I am not sure how standardised the remote controls were across the Carousel range (my guess is that they were), but the pinout I have for the 6 pin DIN socket is :

1 : change reverse
2 : change forwards
3 : +ve supply
4 : focus motor
5 : focus motor
6 : -ve supply

The slide change buttons are wired between +ve (pin 3) and pin 1 or pin 2 as appropriate. The focus switch is essentially a centre-off DPDT thing wired as a reversing switch. Inputs from +ve and -ve (pins 3 and 6), output to the motor (pins 4 and 5).

And yes the wired remote control is just switches.
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Old 2nd Oct 2019, 1:37 pm   #5
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Default Re: Kodak Carousel slide-projector - remote-control?

Thanks for the suggestions and directions! I think I see a way ahead here, the switchery looks easy to replicate and fit in a small box; likewise a length of old cat.5 Ethernet cable and a 6-pin DIN are in my junkbox.

[My friend wants to review the slides, and identify those he wants to get digitised for inclusion in his memoirs].
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Old 2nd Oct 2019, 2:33 pm   #6
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Default Re: Kodak Carousel slide-projector - remote-control?

Looking at the diagram I have more carefully, it appears that the focus switch was designed to short-circuit the focus motor (providing dynamic braking) in the centre (off) position. Whether this is terribly important I don't know. A couple of SPDT (changover) momentary pushbutton switches could be wired to do that, press one to focus one way, the other to focus the other way.

The 'change' buttons seem to be just normal press-to-make ones.

I have a scan (which I found on a website somewhere) of the user manual for a high-end Carousel (with a connector for an external triac to control the lamp, possibly autofocus, etc). It includes the full circuit diagram of the projector and wired remote control. If it's any use to you, PM me with your e-mail address and I can send it to you.
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Old 2nd Oct 2019, 3:03 pm   #7
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Default Re: Kodak Carousel slide-projector - remote-control?

If you use two separate non-locking SPCO switches for the focus motor, you will get the "shorting" action with both switches at rest anyway. (Pin 4 to common contact of one switch, pin 5 to common of other switch, positive supply to both NO contacts, negative to both NC contacts).

This will stop the motor quickly on release, and might give you better control if there is any tendency for it to overrun if the armature has much inertia. I don't think this is especially likely; the reduction drive will give it an easier time, but will also reduce the amount by which it will move under its own stored energy.

(That was also exactly how I wired up the volume control motor on my Seeburg ESL100 .....)
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Old 9th Oct 2019, 9:53 pm   #8
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Default Re: Kodak Carousel slide-projector - remote-control?

I've made up a box with four suitable push-button switches [forward/back, focus in/out] and a 25-foot wire with a DIN-plug on the end - this is on its way to Scotland as I speak. Hopefully it will do the trick and allow my architecturally-inclined friend to properly check-out his sets of slides of things like 1950s Marks&Spencer shops and 1960s "National Benzole" petrol-stations!
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Old 9th Oct 2019, 10:26 pm   #9
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Default Re: Kodak Carousel slide-projector - remote-control?

Sounds interesting, look forward to seeing his book, maybe.
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Old 20th Oct 2019, 5:29 pm   #10
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Default Re: Kodak Carousel slide-projector - remote-control?

I had a Kodak Carousel back in the day, but my one had a wired remote, which plugged into
a DIN plug (on the back?).
I sold it when I was temporarily "financially embarassed", along with a Tamron 80-250mm
zoom, & my Yaesu FT227 ham radio.

I vaguely remember seeing the ones with the (IR) remotes around the shops, but never investigated them.
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Old 21st Oct 2019, 1:13 pm   #11
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Default Re: Kodak Carousel slide-projector - remote-control?

The IR-remote ones were standard-fitment in university lecture-theatres 40+ years back; I remember frustrated lecturers instructing whichever student was nearest to the projector to 'give it a whack while I select the next slide' when the feed-mechanism jammed (when it did this it would usually remove the current slide, make a rapid click-click-click for a couple of seconds then re-display the same slide!).

Update on my homemade wired-remote - it has made its way to Scotland where it would appear to be working perfectly!
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Old 21st Oct 2019, 2:33 pm   #12
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Default Re: Kodak Carousel slide-projector - remote-control?

Well done, that's nice to hear. Hope you get an acknowledgement in the book!
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Old 21st Oct 2019, 3:26 pm   #13
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Default Re: Kodak Carousel slide-projector - remote-control?

Seeing this thread the other day reminded me that I had one of these Kodak Carousel slide projectors. It had been a few years since I'd seen it last, as it's been buried in the very depths of the loft. Yesterday evening I spent a happy hour up in the cold loft, unearthing loads of stuff in my quest to find it. I eventually found it complete with its wired remote, one carousel partly full of slides and the tape recorder that originally went with it, plus all the interconnecting leads. These are a bit of a pest to use without the remote control, and I noticed that there was one of these projectors listed in the "offered" section a while ago, and that one had the remote control missing, which seems to be quite common for them to become lost along the way. I'm convinced that there should be more carousels of slides with this machine, but search as I may, I could not locate them, so presume lost in time somewhere along the way. Although I've got quite a large loft, there's a lot of stuff up there, so they'll probably surface sometime when I'm looking for something else, another time, another day. I came across quite a bit of 8mm gear while I was looking, all pretty pointless and valueless these days, unfortunately. The surviving carousel was with the projector itself in its purpose made carrying case. Now it's down in the house, I'll let it acclimatize to the house temperature for a day or so and then fire it up for some 2x2 slide fun, hoping that it still works and the cardboard slide frames haven't come unstuck with the damp - it was working fine before it went up in the loft a few years ago
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Old 23rd Oct 2019, 12:56 am   #14
Oldmadham
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Default Re: Kodak Carousel slide-projector - remote-control?

Quote:
Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
The IR-remote ones were standard-fitment in university lecture-theatres 40+ years back; I remember frustrated lecturers instructing whichever student was nearest to the projector to 'give it a whack while I select the next slide' when the feed-mechanism jammed (when it did this it would usually remove the current slide, make a rapid click-click-click for a couple of seconds then re-display the same slide!).

Update on my homemade wired-remote - it has made its way to Scotland where it would appear to be working perfectly!
I remember the click-click-click well!
It also was supposed to correct the focus for the "popping" effect of slides going slightly convex, but from memory that didn't always work so well.

That said, the Carousel was a revelation compared to what i had before.
I took it up to work on afternoon shift, & set it up in the Tx Hall, along with my old one.
We had a Fernseh FSS slide scanner with various glass slides.
i put its standard test chart up on the Kodak, & was astounded by the brightness, contrast, & above all, the resolution.

My previous "K-mart special" was a mess in comparison, dull, barrel distortion, colour aberration, you name it!

I was equally impressed by the resolution, etc, of the test slide itself which was well capable of testing the limits of the FSS scanner, & in turn the TV system.

Interestingly, the (brand new) slide scanners used in the telecine chains at the Commercial TV studio I briefly worked at a few years previously were archaic in comparison--very similar to the K-mart one, in fact.

I was never a big fan of Kodak, but they pretty much "hit the jackpot" with the Carousel.
It took a few years for the competition to catch up!

Last edited by Oldmadham; 23rd Oct 2019 at 12:58 am. Reason: iPad's pretend keyboard
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