CINEGEL ROYALE

Quite some time ago, maybe as much as two years, I acquired a Cinegel Royale 9.5/16mm sound projector. It seems to me a very compact machine, particularly for a dual-gauge jobbie, and well engineered. The main removable covers, eg lamphouse, back and base, are held on by a single knurled knob or a couple of screws, but nonetheless fit well because they are accurately made and the screws are supplemented by locating pins. The interchangeable gate parts are of similar ilk, and the machine is notable for having a sliding adjuster that moves the sound telescope from the 9.5 to the 16mm position - I suppose it also serves as a fine-tuning adjustment for 9.5 sound reading, as per Vox. The size of the light sensitive area of the photocell is quite sufficient to cover the necessary range.

One of the ways it achieves compactness is by not having a full amplifier on board - it just has a pre-amp in the base. Although this suits me fine, it is basically where I stalled last time around and, as far as I can tell, I never did get round to telling you about it. The preamp basically looked like a small bomb had gone off in it; I couldn't make it work then and, although I have replaced the capacitors, I can't make it work now. This left me with two basic jobs, building a pre-amp and replacing the photocell with a diode/solar cell arrangement that would somehow still cover the span between the position of a 9.5 track and a 16mm. As I looked into things, I found I had a third job which, being an idiot, I had not spotted before.

Start with this pic of the sound head, removed from the projector and partially dismantled. The film enters from the right, thru the rollers and round the static sound drum. Then round the damped roller bottom left and round the flywheel (this has been removed but locates in the hole next to the damped roller). It then passes to the sprocket, then round the lower right roller and on to the take-up. Now a second pic, from a different angle. The static drum has a removable sleeve; here is the 16mm one, just placed on the end - it normally goes up flush to the face of the unit. As you can see, there is a big hole in the side of the drum, big enough to cover the 9.5/16 range. The sleeve has a small slit in the correct place (note locating pin and matching notch in the sleeve). It is embarrassing to confess I just did not realise that I would need a separate sleeve for 9.5, which had not come with the projector. I suppose I just thought the 16mm one was turned round. This was moderately challenging, but I rose to it. The third pic is of the two sleeves, the original 16 and my 9.5. Mine is in two parts, because I assumed the 9.5 film would run snug to the face of the unit as the 16 did. It didn't, so I had to make a spacer (with its own notch and locating pin), and cut some off the outside of the sleeve.

Then I had to get back to the two problems I first thought of. Here are the before and after pix of the pre-amp. I say before, but actually I had cleaned it up a lot before taking this pic (left). You can see at the left-hand end of the base two pins that connect to the photocell when the base is in place under the main body of the machine. At the opposite end is a similar arrangement, but with contacts, for the 110v feed from the projector. At the bottom, towards the left, are the two output connections. Top, opposite these, is the volume control and light (which just shows power is on), tho' there is no separate switch in the original.

As you know, I don't like making alterations to projectors that cannot be reversed, so in adding a new pre-amp I just used existing holes, hence one or two slightly odd arrangements. The connecting pins at the ends, and the output connectors remain, and there is a new pot for the volume. Right is an encapsulated tranny, 120 + 120 in, 12 out (all these are parts I had to hand). Above it in the pic is a bridge rectifier. The pre-amp is one of those incredibly useful basic units that Maplin have, of course, ceased to offer. Above it, and held down by a rather crude arrangement with that strip of paxolin stuff, is a tiny on/off switch. There's not a lot of clearance under the machine for a big switch, nor an appropriate hole, so this, basically designed for PCB mounting, is mounted in a grommet and held in place by the paxolin. I must get around to adding an LED to replace the "On-Off" light.

Now the final problem, making a small solar cell approx 8mm square cover sound tracks that are 12mm apart, even to centres, let alone edge. Here are pictures of my solution, alongside the original photocell. For scale, both are 65mm/2.5" long. The two white discs are Teflon; everything else except the springs is brass. The two connection pins are simply held on by nuts. The two rods carrying springs are plain and a force fit into the base disc (right), just for the other disc to move up and down on. On the left is the 16mm position, with a larger, threaded, knob on top of a smaller sleeve. For the 9.5 position, a smaller, threaded knob is used. Both knobs have screw slots as fingers could not get inside the static drum. You can see the upper (left) disc has a cut-out where I plan to put a cell, if I can find a way to fix it to Teflon, and figure out a way to stop the leads from the cell getting caught in the springs. The central rod has to resist the pull against the springs, and I had to cut a flat in the side and put a grub screw thru the base to hold it in position.

As you may by now expect, all of this is still a bit theoretical, in that I have yet to complete and test; we shall see. In the meantime, I have some other pix of the projector for you. NB in first pic machine is on a table so lower arm is higher than it would normally be. I shall not insult your intelligence by naming the obvious.

Let us begin with the naming of parts.  1 is the double-purpose film guide roller and pull/push Rewind Knob. 2 is the Framing Knob,  3 is the inching knob, with an unscrew-then-push-pull claw position changeover. 4 is the Sound Optic changeover lever and 5 the Sound Optic itself. 6 is the cell housing, 7 a damped roller and 8 the smoothing drum with flywheel. 9 is the volume control (my added on/off switch is somewhere behind the front foot). 10, between the motor and lamp switches, is a momentary contact switch, used after the motor switch is turned on, to boost the motor into motion. I am not sure if there is a capacitor in the motor (none visible elsewhere) or some other arrangement.

11 is the sprung lever that allows the gate to open and 12 the single pin that otherwise holds the front gate in position. Nearly all other projectors have two separate springs and points of contact. This pic shows the arrangement in more detail - a single knurled knob (and making sure the claw is back) allows this to be taken off for gate changing. Here are the various changeover bits - there are separate sound and silent gates for 9.5; the aperture plate is the rear, fixed gate. Finally, a close-up of the rear gate and claw.

Here, now, are what you have been waiting for - the chitterling pix.

The rear cover has the usual single knurled knob for removal. These first two pix show the sound optic beneath the lamp housing - same lamp for projection and sound - in its two slightly different positions. You can also just see the pin near the top of the sound telescope that varies the width of the slit. Shot 3 shows the two-speed motor pulley, and the odd side drive to the projector mech. (The red thing is an oil cup - see pic 5.) If you try to run the belt direct, it fouls the flywheel. Then we have the real guts of the machine; note the barrel shutter, three-prong claw and lubrication arrangement from the red cup. 6 & 7 are how the body looks with the mech and soundhead removed. The loose wires attach to the back of the cell housing, as seen in the following pic; the bearing on the left with oiler tube from the front is for the lower sprocket; next to it is the damper pot for the roller - 7 above.

As I understand it, there is a silent version of the same machine. This is presumably why the sound head is arranged as an  independent add-on unit, although this does lead to a rather cramped layout. I am hoping to acquire a silent version, so I can compare and see if a home conversion would have been possible or if it was just to simplify manufacture.

Having tested, I found that, in fact, it does not seem to need a pre-amp at all; there is quite adequate volume from just connecting the cell direct to the mic socket of an amplifier. At the moment, the sound is a bit muffled and the machine almost seems to be running too fast. Obviously more fine-tuning needed. Also, the light seems quite dim on the screen, so a lamp conversion and possibly a separate source for the sound is indicated. This may have to wait while more urgent projects such as 17.5 move to the head of the queue.

For some reason I had completely forgotten I'd previously started to write about this machine - too lazy to amalgamate so here's a link: Royale