"Mark D. Zacharias" wrote in message
. net...
Leonard Caillouet wrote:
"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
...
As I said in the previous post, one notable exception to the "don't
touch it !" rule, is Pioneer players. The laser power pot is a
minuscule little thing located on the laser flexiprint, and is
adjusted as part of the setup procedure. Pioneer provide a set of
testpoints in a single row on their players, and detailed
instructions in their manuals, on how to adjust the entire pot-set,
which is often a total of eight pots, and which includes the power
pot. Interestingly, Pioneer lasers very seldom fail or wear out. I
think in 30 odd years, I have only ever replaced perhaps two of the
original types ( there were several, but all pretty similar looking
) and maybe two or three of the later ones which have a couple of
tiny pots on their PCB. Arfa

This is an interesting point about the Pioneer pickups. Ican't
recall ever changing more than one or two myself. I worked at a
store that sold tons of Pioneer (Elite, mostly) and since then have
not workde on them very much. I can recall cleaning lots of spindle
motors, but rarely, if ever changing pickups, Is this the experience
of others? What would you attribute the difference in reliability
to? Pioneer has always had very good laser products in terms of
performance. Do others percieve the reliability to have been very
good relative to their competitors as I do? Are the current and
lower end products holding up as well?
Leonard

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One reason Pioneer pickups were so reliable is that the pickup was mounted
"upside down" on many models, thus very little dust etc would settle in on
the turning mirror.
Still, even their models which played the disc label-up were very reliable
so far as pickups were concerned. Except of course for those which had the
lens fall off...

Mark Z.

Hi Mark

Have you ever managed to replace a completely missing lens, with one from a
different pickup ? I had quite an argument with someone once, who said that
it just can't be done, but I do it all the time - I should think at least 4
or 5 a year - did one just 2 weeks ago. I use a lens from a scrap KSS series
pickup. I think that the trick to getting it to work - or indeed even
replacing the 'real' lens when it's still rolling around in the bottom, is
to make sure that //every last trace// of glue is removed from both the
lens suspension, and the underside of the lens lip, and then to make certain
that the lens is refitted absolutely flat. I then refix it, by putting a
couple of tiny drops of cyanoacrylate superglue onto the tip of a tiny
flat-end jeweller's screwdy, and letting it seep into the crack by
capilliary action. Sometimes, I've found that the focus bias and offset need
to be adjusted slightly to optimise the performance back to normal, but
mostly, I've found that it just works right off, with no improvement to be
gained by adjustment. I'd be interested to know what others' experiences of
dealing with this problem are.

Arfa