Been a right PITA day. One of those where everything you pick up is either
not worth repairing, or seems to get worse if you as much as bring a
screwdriver anywhere near it. And so it was with sinking heart that I put
the Technics SL-PG480 CD player on the bench. "Not playing discs" said the
ticket, and when I reached for a screwdriver, I needn't have bothered - the
owner had already kindly removed all the case screws, to save me the trouble
.... I probably should have just sighed at this point, and sent it back
where it came from, but I've always liked these, so I thought I would just
give it 5 minutes. Everything basically did what it should, except focus
search didn't take place. That's an unusual problem on one of these, so I
thought I would just whip the deck out first and have a look at the
connectors, as someone had clearly been in there before me. There was
nothing obviously wrong, so I thought I would just check the continuity to
the laser focus coils whilst I could easily get at the connections. With an
analogue meter on a low ohms range, I checked the coils. The tracking ones
were fine, and the lens deflected left or right, but the focus ones read
open, with no lens movement.

The deck fitted to these is a Philips CDM12.1 and the lens carrier and coils
are clearly visible and accessible on the top of the laser, so I had a close
look with my powerful headband magnifier. You could clearly see that one of
the superflexible tails that connect from the fixed pins that come up from
the laser flexiprint to the focus and tracking coils on the lens carrier,
was laying detached by the side of its pin. It didn't look broken - just
never soldered or soldered properly in the first place. Pointy tweezers, a
fine tipped iron, and some fine gauge solder, soon put that right, and the
lens then deflected normally when the meter was applied again. All worked
nicely, as these always do, when it was reassembled.

Makes a change to get a decent result like that, and just goes to show that
you shouldn't just get jaded with all the crap passing across your bench,
and just not bother even attempting a repair on the basis that spares ain't
gonna be available anyway ... d;~}

Arfa

Makes a change to get a decent result like that, and just
goes to show that you shouldn't just get jaded with all the
crap passing across your bench, and just not bother even
attempting a repair on the basis that spares ain't gonna be
available anyway ... d;~}

The irony is that, had spares been available, it would have taken longer to
fix the unit, and cost the customer more.

Arfa Daily wrote in message
news:EJDYn.71351$wi5.62269@hurricane...
Been a right PITA day. One of those where everything you pick up is either
not worth repairing, or seems to get worse if you as much as bring a
screwdriver anywhere near it. And so it was with sinking heart that I put
the Technics SL-PG480 CD player on the bench. "Not playing discs" said the
ticket, and when I reached for a screwdriver, I needn't have bothered -
the
owner had already kindly removed all the case screws, to save me the
trouble
... I probably should have just sighed at this point, and sent it back
where it came from, but I've always liked these, so I thought I would just
give it 5 minutes. Everything basically did what it should, except focus
search didn't take place. That's an unusual problem on one of these, so I
thought I would just whip the deck out first and have a look at the
connectors, as someone had clearly been in there before me. There was
nothing obviously wrong, so I thought I would just check the continuity to
the laser focus coils whilst I could easily get at the connections. With
an
analogue meter on a low ohms range, I checked the coils. The tracking ones
were fine, and the lens deflected left or right, but the focus ones read
open, with no lens movement.

The deck fitted to these is a Philips CDM12.1 and the lens carrier and
coils
are clearly visible and accessible on the top of the laser, so I had a
close
look with my powerful headband magnifier. You could clearly see that one
of
the superflexible tails that connect from the fixed pins that come up from
the laser flexiprint to the focus and tracking coils on the lens carrier,
was laying detached by the side of its pin. It didn't look broken - just
never soldered or soldered properly in the first place. Pointy tweezers,
a
fine tipped iron, and some fine gauge solder, soon put that right, and the
lens then deflected normally when the meter was applied again. All worked
nicely, as these always do, when it was reassembled.

Makes a change to get a decent result like that, and just goes to show
that
you shouldn't just get jaded with all the crap passing across your bench,
and just not bother even attempting a repair on the basis that spares
ain't
gonna be available anyway ... d;~}

Arfa


My favourite was finding an insect cocoon built into the optics section of a
Philips AZ1101 and a micro-facetted (fittingly the delicate tracery looked
as though it was part of the optics) piece of insect wing precisely in-line
of the optical path from the laser to the mirror system.

--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England
electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
http://diverse.4mg.com/index.htm

"N_Cook" wrote in message
...
Arfa Daily wrote in message
news:EJDYn.71351$wi5.62269@hurricane...
Been a right PITA day. One of those where everything you pick up is
either
not worth repairing, or seems to get worse if you as much as bring a
screwdriver anywhere near it. And so it was with sinking heart that I put
the Technics SL-PG480 CD player on the bench. "Not playing discs" said
the
ticket, and when I reached for a screwdriver, I needn't have bothered -
the
owner had already kindly removed all the case screws, to save me the
trouble
... I probably should have just sighed at this point, and sent it back
where it came from, but I've always liked these, so I thought I would
just
give it 5 minutes. Everything basically did what it should, except focus
search didn't take place. That's an unusual problem on one of these, so I
thought I would just whip the deck out first and have a look at the
connectors, as someone had clearly been in there before me. There was
nothing obviously wrong, so I thought I would just check the continuity
to
the laser focus coils whilst I could easily get at the connections. With
an
analogue meter on a low ohms range, I checked the coils. The tracking
ones
were fine, and the lens deflected left or right, but the focus ones read
open, with no lens movement.

The deck fitted to these is a Philips CDM12.1 and the lens carrier and
coils
are clearly visible and accessible on the top of the laser, so I had a
close
look with my powerful headband magnifier. You could clearly see that one
of
the superflexible tails that connect from the fixed pins that come up
from
the laser flexiprint to the focus and tracking coils on the lens carrier,
was laying detached by the side of its pin. It didn't look broken - just
never soldered or soldered properly in the first place. Pointy tweezers,
a
fine tipped iron, and some fine gauge solder, soon put that right, and
the
lens then deflected normally when the meter was applied again. All worked
nicely, as these always do, when it was reassembled.

Makes a change to get a decent result like that, and just goes to show
that
you shouldn't just get jaded with all the crap passing across your bench,
and just not bother even attempting a repair on the basis that spares
ain't
gonna be available anyway ... d;~}

Arfa


My favourite was finding an insect cocoon built into the optics section of
a
Philips AZ1101 and a micro-facetted (fittingly the delicate tracery looked
as though it was part of the optics) piece of insect wing precisely
in-line
of the optical path from the laser to the mirror system.

--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England
electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
http://diverse.4mg.com/index.htm





I once found bird **** inside of a sealed relay...

Mark Z.

On Tue, 06 Jul 2010 06:32:17 -0500, Mark Zacharias �ʇoɹ�:

"N_Cook" wrote in message
...
Arfa Daily wrote in message
news:EJDYn.71351$wi5.62269@hurricane...
Been a right PITA day. One of those where everything you pick up is
either
not worth repairing, or seems to get worse if you as much as bring a
screwdriver anywhere near it. And so it was with sinking heart that I
put the Technics SL-PG480 CD player on the bench. "Not playing discs"
said the
ticket, and when I reached for a screwdriver, I needn't have bothered
-
the
owner had already kindly removed all the case screws, to save me the
trouble
... I probably should have just sighed at this point, and sent it
back where it came from, but I've always liked these, so I thought I
would just
give it 5 minutes. Everything basically did what it should, except
focus search didn't take place. That's an unusual problem on one of
these, so I thought I would just whip the deck out first and have a
look at the connectors, as someone had clearly been in there before
me. There was nothing obviously wrong, so I thought I would just check
the continuity to
the laser focus coils whilst I could easily get at the connections.
With
an
analogue meter on a low ohms range, I checked the coils. The tracking
ones
were fine, and the lens deflected left or right, but the focus ones
read open, with no lens movement.

The deck fitted to these is a Philips CDM12.1 and the lens carrier and
coils
are clearly visible and accessible on the top of the laser, so I had a
close
look with my powerful headband magnifier. You could clearly see that
one
of
the superflexible tails that connect from the fixed pins that come up
from
the laser flexiprint to the focus and tracking coils on the lens
carrier, was laying detached by the side of its pin. It didn't look
broken - just never soldered or soldered properly in the first place.
Pointy tweezers,
a
fine tipped iron, and some fine gauge solder, soon put that right, and
the
lens then deflected normally when the meter was applied again. All
worked nicely, as these always do, when it was reassembled.

Makes a change to get a decent result like that, and just goes to show
that
you shouldn't just get jaded with all the crap passing across your
bench, and just not bother even attempting a repair on the basis that
spares
ain't
gonna be available anyway ... d;~}

Arfa


My favourite was finding an insect cocoon built into the optics section
of a
Philips AZ1101 and a micro-facetted (fittingly the delicate tracery
looked as though it was part of the optics) piece of insect wing
precisely in-line
of the optical path from the laser to the mirror system.

--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair
briefs , schematics/manuals list on http://diverse.4mg.com/index.htm





I once found bird **** inside of a sealed relay...

Mark Z.

I once found a live rodent inside an old RCA radio/turntable console.

On 06/07/2010 14:21, Meat Plow wrote:
On Tue, 06 Jul 2010 06:32:17 -0500, Mark Zacharias �ʇoɹ�:

wrote in message
...
Arfa wrote in message
news:EJDYn.71351$wi5.62269@hurricane...
Been a right PITA day. One of those where everything you pick up is
either
not worth repairing, or seems to get worse if you as much as bring a
screwdriver anywhere near it. And so it was with sinking heart that I
put the Technics SL-PG480 CD player on the bench. "Not playing discs"
said the
ticket, and when I reached for a screwdriver, I needn't have bothered
-
the
owner had already kindly removed all the case screws, to save me the
trouble
... I probably should have just sighed at this point, and sent it
back where it came from, but I've always liked these, so I thought I
would just
give it 5 minutes. Everything basically did what it should, except
focus search didn't take place. That's an unusual problem on one of
these, so I thought I would just whip the deck out first and have a
look at the connectors, as someone had clearly been in there before
me. There was nothing obviously wrong, so I thought I would just check
the continuity to
the laser focus coils whilst I could easily get at the connections.
With
an
analogue meter on a low ohms range, I checked the coils. The tracking
ones
were fine, and the lens deflected left or right, but the focus ones
read open, with no lens movement.

The deck fitted to these is a Philips CDM12.1 and the lens carrier and
coils
are clearly visible and accessible on the top of the laser, so I had a
close
look with my powerful headband magnifier. You could clearly see that
one
of
the superflexible tails that connect from the fixed pins that come up
from
the laser flexiprint to the focus and tracking coils on the lens
carrier, was laying detached by the side of its pin. It didn't look
broken - just never soldered or soldered properly in the first place.
Pointy tweezers,
a
fine tipped iron, and some fine gauge solder, soon put that right, and
the
lens then deflected normally when the meter was applied again. All
worked nicely, as these always do, when it was reassembled.

Makes a change to get a decent result like that, and just goes to show
that
you shouldn't just get jaded with all the crap passing across your
bench, and just not bother even attempting a repair on the basis that
spares
ain't
gonna be available anyway ... d;~}

Arfa


My favourite was finding an insect cocoon built into the optics section
of a
Philips AZ1101 and a micro-facetted (fittingly the delicate tracery
looked as though it was part of the optics) piece of insect wing
precisely in-line
of the optical path from the laser to the mirror system.

--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair
briefs , schematics/manuals list on http://diverse.4mg.com/index.htm





I once found bird **** inside of a sealed relay...

Mark Z.

I once found a live rodent inside an old RCA radio/turntable console.


On more than on occasion I found dead and desicated mice inside
microwave ovens with no apparent means of entry (or escape) I can only
assume they were manufactured in.

Ron(UK)

On Jul 6, 8:47Â*am, Ron wrote:
On 06/07/2010 14:21, Meat Plow wrote:





On Tue, 06 Jul 2010 06:32:17 -0500, Mark Zacharias �ʇoɹ�:

Â*wrote in message
...
Arfa Â*wrote in message
news:EJDYn.71351$wi5.62269@hurricane...
Been a right PITA day. One of those where everything you pick up is
either
not worth repairing, or seems to get worse if you as much as bring a
screwdriver anywhere near it. And so it was with sinking heart that I
put the Technics SL-PG480 CD player on the bench. "Not playing discs"
said the
ticket, and when I reached for a screwdriver, I needn't have bothered
-
the
owner had already kindly removed all the case screws, to save me the
trouble
... Â*I probably should have just sighed at this point, and sent it
back where it came from, but I've always liked these, so I thought I
would just
give it 5 minutes. Everything basically did what it should, except
focus search didn't take place. That's an unusual problem on one of
these, so I thought I would just whip the deck out first and have a
look at the connectors, as someone had clearly been in there before
me. There was nothing obviously wrong, so I thought I would just check
the continuity to
the laser focus coils whilst I could easily get at the connections.
With
an
analogue meter on a low ohms range, I checked the coils. The tracking
ones
were fine, and the lens deflected left or right, but the focus ones
read open, with no lens movement.

The deck fitted to these is a Philips CDM12.1 and the lens carrier and
coils
are clearly visible and accessible on the top of the laser, so I had a
close
look with my powerful headband magnifier. You could clearly see that
one
of
the superflexible tails that connect from the fixed pins that come up
from
the laser flexiprint to the focus and tracking coils on the lens
carrier, was laying detached by the side of its pin. It didn't look
broken - just never soldered or soldered properly in the first place..
Pointy tweezers,
a
fine tipped iron, and some fine gauge solder, soon put that right, and
the
lens then deflected normally when the meter was applied again. All
worked nicely, as these always do, when it was reassembled.

Makes a change to get a decent result like that, and just goes to show
that
you shouldn't just get jaded with all the crap passing across your
bench, and just not bother even attempting a repair on the basis that
spares
ain't
gonna be available anyway ... Â* d;~}

Arfa

My favourite was finding an insect cocoon built into the optics section
of a
Philips AZ1101 and a micro-facetted (fittingly the delicate tracery
looked as though it was part of the optics) piece of insect wing
precisely in-line
of the optical path from the laser to the mirror system.

--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair
briefs , schematics/manuals list onhttp://diverse.4mg.com/index.htm

I once found bird **** inside of a sealed relay...

Mark Z.

I once found a live rodent inside an old RCA radio/turntable console.

On more than on occasion I found dead and desicated mice Â*inside
microwave ovens with no apparent means of entry (or escape) I can only
assume they were manufactured in.

Ron(UK)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Inside the overall case, or actually inside the "oven"?

On 06/07/2010 17:48, hr(bob) wrote:
On Jul 6, 8:47 am, wrote:
On 06/07/2010 14:21, Meat Plow wrote:





On Tue, 06 Jul 2010 06:32:17 -0500, Mark Zacharias �ʇoɹ�:

wrote in message
...
Arfa wrote in message
news:EJDYn.71351$wi5.62269@hurricane...
Been a right PITA day. One of those where everything you pick up is
either
not worth repairing, or seems to get worse if you as much as bring a
screwdriver anywhere near it. And so it was with sinking heart that I
put the Technics SL-PG480 CD player on the bench. "Not playing discs"
said the
ticket, and when I reached for a screwdriver, I needn't have bothered
-
the
owner had already kindly removed all the case screws, to save me the
trouble
... I probably should have just sighed at this point, and sent it
back where it came from, but I've always liked these, so I thought I
would just
give it 5 minutes. Everything basically did what it should, except
focus search didn't take place. That's an unusual problem on one of
these, so I thought I would just whip the deck out first and have a
look at the connectors, as someone had clearly been in there before
me. There was nothing obviously wrong, so I thought I would just check
the continuity to
the laser focus coils whilst I could easily get at the connections.
With
an
analogue meter on a low ohms range, I checked the coils. The tracking
ones
were fine, and the lens deflected left or right, but the focus ones
read open, with no lens movement.

The deck fitted to these is a Philips CDM12.1 and the lens carrier and
coils
are clearly visible and accessible on the top of the laser, so I had a
close
look with my powerful headband magnifier. You could clearly see that
one
of
the superflexible tails that connect from the fixed pins that come up
from
the laser flexiprint to the focus and tracking coils on the lens
carrier, was laying detached by the side of its pin. It didn't look
broken - just never soldered or soldered properly in the first place.
Pointy tweezers,
a
fine tipped iron, and some fine gauge solder, soon put that right, and
the
lens then deflected normally when the meter was applied again. All
worked nicely, as these always do, when it was reassembled.

Makes a change to get a decent result like that, and just goes to show
that
you shouldn't just get jaded with all the crap passing across your
bench, and just not bother even attempting a repair on the basis that
spares
ain't
gonna be available anyway ... d;~}

Arfa

My favourite was finding an insect cocoon built into the optics section
of a
Philips AZ1101 and a micro-facetted (fittingly the delicate tracery
looked as though it was part of the optics) piece of insect wing
precisely in-line
of the optical path from the laser to the mirror system.

--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair
briefs , schematics/manuals list onhttp://diverse.4mg.com/index.htm

I once found bird **** inside of a sealed relay...

Mark Z.

I once found a live rodent inside an old RCA radio/turntable console.

On more than on occasion I found dead and desicated mice inside
microwave ovens with no apparent means of entry (or escape) I can only
assume they were manufactured in.

Ron(UK)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Inside the overall case, or actually inside the "oven"?

In the cabinet, among the high voltages. It was quite common to find
assorted dead insects in there, often ones not native to the UK.

Ron

On Jul 6, 12:51Â*pm, Ron wrote:
On 06/07/2010 17:48, hr(bob) wrote:





On Jul 6, 8:47 am, Â*wrote:
On 06/07/2010 14:21, Meat Plow wrote:

On Tue, 06 Jul 2010 06:32:17 -0500, Mark Zacharias �ʇoɹ�:

Â* Â*wrote in message
...
Arfa Â* Â*wrote in message
news:EJDYn.71351$wi5.62269@hurricane...
Been a right PITA day. One of those where everything you pick up is
either
not worth repairing, or seems to get worse if you as much as bring a
screwdriver anywhere near it. And so it was with sinking heart that I
put the Technics SL-PG480 CD player on the bench. "Not playing discs"
said the
ticket, and when I reached for a screwdriver, I needn't have bothered
-
the
owner had already kindly removed all the case screws, to save me the
trouble
... Â*I probably should have just sighed at this point, and sent it
back where it came from, but I've always liked these, so I thought I
would just
give it 5 minutes. Everything basically did what it should, except
focus search didn't take place. That's an unusual problem on one of
these, so I thought I would just whip the deck out first and have a
look at the connectors, as someone had clearly been in there before
me. There was nothing obviously wrong, so I thought I would just check
the continuity to
the laser focus coils whilst I could easily get at the connections..
With
an
analogue meter on a low ohms range, I checked the coils. The tracking
ones
were fine, and the lens deflected left or right, but the focus ones
read open, with no lens movement.

The deck fitted to these is a Philips CDM12.1 and the lens carrier and
coils
are clearly visible and accessible on the top of the laser, so I had a
close
look with my powerful headband magnifier. You could clearly see that
one
of
the superflexible tails that connect from the fixed pins that come up
from
the laser flexiprint to the focus and tracking coils on the lens
carrier, was laying detached by the side of its pin. It didn't look
broken - just never soldered or soldered properly in the first place.
Pointy tweezers,
a
fine tipped iron, and some fine gauge solder, soon put that right, and
the
lens then deflected normally when the meter was applied again. All
worked nicely, as these always do, when it was reassembled.

Makes a change to get a decent result like that, and just goes to show
that
you shouldn't just get jaded with all the crap passing across your
bench, and just not bother even attempting a repair on the basis that
spares
ain't
gonna be available anyway ... Â* d;~}

Arfa

My favourite was finding an insect cocoon built into the optics section
of a
Philips AZ1101 and a micro-facetted (fittingly the delicate tracery
looked as though it was part of the optics) piece of insect wing
precisely in-line
of the optical path from the laser to the mirror system.

--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair
briefs , schematics/manuals list onhttp://diverse.4mg.com/index.htm

I once found bird **** inside of a sealed relay...

Mark Z.

I once found a live rodent inside an old RCA radio/turntable console.

On more than on occasion I found dead and desicated mice Â*inside
microwave ovens with no apparent means of entry (or escape) I can only
assume they were manufactured in.

Ron(UK)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Inside the overall case, or actually inside the "oven"?

In the cabinet, among the high voltages. It was quite common to find
assorted dead insects in there, often ones not native to the UK.

Ron- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

My all time favorite was the peanut butter and bannana sandwich that
someone left in a VCR. (Problem: the tape wouldn't load)....I always
appreciated the snack. Lenny

On 7/6/2010 11:35 AM klem kedidelhopper spake thus:

[note message TRIMMING]

My all time favorite was the peanut butter and bannana sandwich that
someone left in a VCR. (Problem: the tape wouldn't load)....I always
appreciated the snack. Lenny

I guess that's going way beyond the concept of the "cup holder" to a
"sandwich storage compartment", eh?


--
The fashion in killing has an insouciant, flirty style this spring,
with the flaunting of well-defined muscle, wrapped in flags.

- Comment from an article on Antiwar.com (http://antiwar.com)

On Tue, 6 Jul 2010 13:21:03 +0000 (UTC), Meat Plow
put finger to keyboard and composed:

I once found a live rodent inside an old RCA radio/turntable console.

He supplies the motive force for the turntable. Kinda like the
Flintstones ...

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

"Franc Zabkar" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 6 Jul 2010 13:21:03 +0000 (UTC), Meat Plow
put finger to keyboard and composed:

I once found a live rodent inside an old RCA radio/turntable console.

He supplies the motive force for the turntable. Kinda like the
Flintstones ...

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

LOL. Aaah ****. Thank you. I needed that.

Dave

On 6 jul, 13:21, "N_Cook" wrote:

My favourite was finding an insect cocoon built into the optics section of a
Philips AZ1101 and a micro-facetted (fittingly the delicate tracery looked
as though it was part of the optics) piece of insect wing precisely in-line
of the optical path from the laser to the mirror system.

I had this exact thing earlier this year! I was working on an AIWA
system which would not read discs. was about to toss it aside when I
noticed some dirt near the laser . After carefully removing the lens
there was some kind of dead insect blocking the beam path - removed,
cleaned up, reassembled and worked fine!
why it chose precisely the most precision-made heart of the machine to
live in is beyond me...
-B

I had this exact thing earlier this year! I was working on
an AIWA system which would not read discs. I was about
to toss it aside when I noticed some dirt near the laser.
After carefully removing the lens there was some kind of
dead insect blocking the beam path -- removed, cleaned
up, reassembled and worked fine! Why it chose precisely
the most precision-made heart of the machine to live in
is beyond me...

Good taste? The desire to live in an upscale community?

Meat Plow wrote:

I once found a live rodent inside an old RCA radio/turntable console.


I've seen rodents elected to piblic office.


--
Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.

David Nebenzahl wrote:

On 7/6/2010 11:35 AM klem kedidelhopper spake thus:

[note message TRIMMING]

My all time favorite was the peanut butter and bannana sandwich that
someone left in a VCR. (Problem: the tape wouldn't load)....I always
appreciated the snack. Lenny

I guess that's going way beyond the concept of the "cup holder" to a
"sandwich storage compartment", eh?


There was a credit card commercial about things they covered,
including some kid shoving a peanut butter & jelly sandwich into a VCR.


--
Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.

I once found a live rodent inside an old RCA
radio/turntable console.

I've seen rodents elected to piblic office.

Ho-ars, too (as Gus would say).

On Jul 7, 8:38*am, Meat Plow wrote:
On Wed, 07 Jul 2010 10:03:28 +1000, Franc Zabkar
wrote:

On Tue, 6 Jul 2010 13:21:03 +0000 (UTC), Meat Plow
put finger to keyboard and composed:

I once found a live rodent inside an old RCA radio/turntable console.

He supplies the motive force for the turntable. Kinda like the
Flintstones ...

- Franc Zabkar

Damn, no wonder the TT styoped working after he escaped. I could never
figure that one out. Time to go to Pets-R-Us to look for a suitable
replacement. Might even check into a hamster as they live longer.

Well at least you can still get spare parts for it.....

b wrote in
:

.....
I had this exact thing earlier this year! I was working on an AIWA
system which would not read discs. was about to toss it aside when I
noticed some dirt near the laser . After carefully removing the lens
there was some kind of dead insect blocking the beam path - removed,
cleaned up, reassembled and worked fine!
why it chose precisely the most precision-made heart of the machine to
live in is beyond me...

More precisely, 'why it chose that spot to die in ... '

Perhaps it was exploring and the owner tried to play something, and it got
zapped by the 'death ray' from the laser.


-B

"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
news:EJDYn.71351$wi5.62269@hurricane...
Been a right PITA day. One of those where everything you pick up is either
not worth repairing, or seems to get worse if you as much as bring a
screwdriver anywhere near it. And so it was with sinking heart that I put
the Technics SL-PG480 CD player on the bench. "Not playing discs" said the
ticket, and when I reached for a screwdriver, I needn't have bothered -
the owner had already kindly removed all the case screws, to save me the
trouble ... I probably should have just sighed at this point, and sent it
back where it came from, but I've always liked these, so I thought I would
just give it 5 minutes. Everything basically did what it should, except
focus search didn't take place. That's an unusual problem on one of these,
so I thought I would just whip the deck out first and have a look at the
connectors, as someone had clearly been in there before me. There was
nothing obviously wrong, so I thought I would just check the continuity to
the laser focus coils whilst I could easily get at the connections. With
an analogue meter on a low ohms range, I checked the coils. The tracking
ones were fine, and the lens deflected left or right, but the focus ones
read open, with no lens movement.

The deck fitted to these is a Philips CDM12.1 and the lens carrier and
coils are clearly visible and accessible on the top of the laser, so I had
a close look with my powerful headband magnifier. You could clearly see
that one of the superflexible tails that connect from the fixed pins that
come up from the laser flexiprint to the focus and tracking coils on the
lens carrier, was laying detached by the side of its pin. It didn't look
broken - just never soldered or soldered properly in the first place.
Pointy tweezers, a fine tipped iron, and some fine gauge solder, soon put
that right, and the lens then deflected normally when the meter was
applied again. All worked nicely, as these always do, when it was
reassembled.

Makes a change to get a decent result like that, and just goes to show
that you shouldn't just get jaded with all the crap passing across your
bench, and just not bother even attempting a repair on the basis that
spares ain't gonna be available anyway ... d;~}

Arfa

Isn't it *nice* when you get something like this to keep you going. Wife's
monitor went dark the other day, and since I'm the official fixer in the
house, she gave it to me. No power to the LCD screen. Found two
electrolytic caps shorted and the surface mount fuse on that board blown.
They were obviously filter caps, intended to cut down on ripple, and since I
couldn't get exact replacement parts I put in something physically and
electronically larger for the job. Replaced the fuse, and she is back up
and running. Funny thing is, they fit the physical space dedicated to the
job of filter caps better than the ones that were originally in there. Not
the slightest bit of difficulty pulling the others out and putting them in.
And if *they* overheat, there's something serious going on. I got an easy
fix, and wife is happy again. What else could you ask for?

Take it easy...

Dave

"Dave" wrote in message
netamerica...

"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
news:EJDYn.71351$wi5.62269@hurricane...
Been a right PITA day. One of those where everything you pick up is
either not worth repairing, or seems to get worse if you as much as bring
a screwdriver anywhere near it. And so it was with sinking heart that I
put the Technics SL-PG480 CD player on the bench. "Not playing discs"
said the ticket, and when I reached for a screwdriver, I needn't have
bothered - the owner had already kindly removed all the case screws, to
save me the trouble ... I probably should have just sighed at this
point, and sent it back where it came from, but I've always liked these,
so I thought I would just give it 5 minutes. Everything basically did
what it should, except focus search didn't take place. That's an unusual
problem on one of these, so I thought I would just whip the deck out
first and have a look at the connectors, as someone had clearly been in
there before me. There was nothing obviously wrong, so I thought I would
just check the continuity to the laser focus coils whilst I could easily
get at the connections. With an analogue meter on a low ohms range, I
checked the coils. The tracking ones were fine, and the lens deflected
left or right, but the focus ones read open, with no lens movement.

The deck fitted to these is a Philips CDM12.1 and the lens carrier and
coils are clearly visible and accessible on the top of the laser, so I
had a close look with my powerful headband magnifier. You could clearly
see that one of the superflexible tails that connect from the fixed pins
that come up from the laser flexiprint to the focus and tracking coils on
the lens carrier, was laying detached by the side of its pin. It didn't
look broken - just never soldered or soldered properly in the first
place. Pointy tweezers, a fine tipped iron, and some fine gauge solder,
soon put that right, and the lens then deflected normally when the meter
was applied again. All worked nicely, as these always do, when it was
reassembled.

Makes a change to get a decent result like that, and just goes to show
that you shouldn't just get jaded with all the crap passing across your
bench, and just not bother even attempting a repair on the basis that
spares ain't gonna be available anyway ... d;~}

Arfa

Isn't it *nice* when you get something like this to keep you going.
Wife's monitor went dark the other day, and since I'm the official fixer
in the house, she gave it to me. No power to the LCD screen. Found two
electrolytic caps shorted and the surface mount fuse on that board blown.
They were obviously filter caps, intended to cut down on ripple, and since
I couldn't get exact replacement parts I put in something physically and
electronically larger for the job. Replaced the fuse, and she is back up
and running. Funny thing is, they fit the physical space dedicated to the
job of filter caps better than the ones that were originally in there.
Not the slightest bit of difficulty pulling the others out and putting
them in. And if *they* overheat, there's something serious going on. I
got an easy fix, and wife is happy again. What else could you ask for?

Take it easy...

Dave


Indeed Dave, and funnily enough, since that one "good 'un" at the start of
the week, I have had a really good run of repairs. Pretty much all stuff
with genuine problems, that were for the most part fixable with in-stock
parts, and parts actually available and reasonably priced, for the others.
Just one (and a half ! ) causing me problems at the moment ...

Arfa