Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Help! My reel to reel died!

This is topic Help! My reel to reel died! in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 12-22-2000, 02:03 AM:

Hello,
I have an Akai 280DSS quad tape deck. I acquired it from a friend. I cleaned it up, and tried to make it work. no luck. Tried rapping on the control board and, Presto!
all that rapping must have wore off, it no longer functions. any help or a schematic would be appreciated.

Josh

Posted by Dave Bird (Member # 490) on 12-22-2000, 03:40 PM:

sniff....Brings back memories of when dad's 8-track finally gave in. How will I ever explain the joy to my kids of the program change (CH - CHUNK) and the hit and miss of finding songs in audible fast-forward?

------------------
Dave Bird

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 12-23-2000, 09:15 AM:

As the owner of old stereo equipment, I'll chime in here:

How hard did you whack it? Any chance you broke the PC board under the control switches? You might have a gooked up switch that is partially engaged...

I've got an old Pioneer reel to reel. If there is a chance of getting a schematic, I'll post the model #. I love things that go KLUNK when you push the buttons.... Except a movie projector...

Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 12-23-2000, 11:13 PM:

I didn't hit it hard enough to damage the board. My guess would be a bad solder connection, or a bad control transistor

wish I could find a schematic.
maybe in my stocking

Josh

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 12-27-2000, 08:52 AM:

My reel to reel is a Pioneer RT1020L.

I will gladly pay for a copy of the manual.

Ken? Ken Layton? YOU, oh master guru, are the famous KING of the manuals! Please? HELP! There are 2 of us in need!

Reel to reel RULES!!

Posted by Matthew Bailey (Member # 601) on 12-27-2000, 04:50 PM:

I also hav an Akai reel deck. There is an
article in Popular Electronics on restoring
& repairing reel to reel decks. You might
check the Online Radio Trader website or
look up Kurluff Enterprises or Online
Radio Trader in the search engines
besides reel to reel tape decks.

Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 01-01-2001, 11:08 PM:

Matt, can I call you Matt?
what issue of popular electronics was that article in. very interested.

Josh

------------------
"where to they teach you to talk like this, in some Panema City wana hump-hump-bar? sell crazy someplace else. we're all stocked up here" As good as it gets

Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 01-01-2001, 11:18 PM:

I don't have a manual, but I know someone who does. Contact my friend Frank Burnham here in Olympia. He lives across town from me out in the sticks.

Here's his address:
Frank Burnham
6931 Whitaker
Olympia, Wash. 98502
(360) 866-0055

He doesn't always get to the phone, so sometimes it's better to write to him. He's got TONS of consumer equipment service manuals.
And mention I sent you.

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 04-13-2002, 04:32 AM:

Bringing this back to life.

Josh sent me this deck to repair for him. So far, I have found a defective micro-switch, and I also found what I think is a fusing resistor burned out on the control logic board. There is another like it on the same board, and it measures about 2 ohms or so, but the other is open.

So far, I at least got the machine to rewind, but the play circuit does not engage the take-up motor or the capstan.

Ken, I will call that gent you referenced, and hopefully, he might be able to at least identify the part. I really don't want to stuff something in that circuit that may cause more damage. Does he have an email address?

Anyone else have a deck like this? As Josh said, it is an Akai Model No. 280DSS. It really is a spiffy machine, and is well worth saving for him.

Posted by Bernard Tonks (Member # 809) on 04-13-2002, 07:39 AM:

I have the Akai stereo tape deck model 4000DS with the service manual, lovely machine and very reliable when I used it in the cinema until I purchased two Revox A77 Mk 4 full track stereo @ 15 ips.

Visit the Akai website: www.akai.com

Information for purchase and after sales service.

U.S.A. & Mexico: E&S International Enterprises, Inc.
7849 Canoga Avenue, Canoga Park, CA 91303 U.S.A.
Tel. 1-818-887-0700 Fax. 1-818-702-2202

Might be worth a try for a copy of the manual.

Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 04-13-2002, 09:57 AM:

How I always wanted an Akai Quad machine! I was never able to lay my tarry mits on one though

I only ever got as far as the 2+2 models. Wish I still had that too, I seem to be developing a love for sound gear of a certain aged, having just repaired a Dynacord tube power amp I was given, I'm setting about the elderly 24 channel studio master desk that's sat in the loft. Also serviced my old Marshall guitar amp and dug out my Fender Strat (strings have rocketed in price since I last bought any!) Someplace I have a Sansui quad stereo processor in that loft too, and there should be an RCA ribbon microphone hidden away also.

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 04-13-2002, 12:27 PM:

Bernard, I might have to go that way of Ken Layton's friend does not have one. So far, I have not located a web site that has the subject model. Maybe I am not looking in the right places.

Posted by Jerry Chase (Member # 660) on 04-13-2002, 12:46 PM:

In addition to contact Akai or the person Ken suggested, you could try
Marty Gasman mgasman@tiac.net

A comment from one website:
"Curiously,the matter of Akai cold solder on the 280DSS/GX280DSS has been brought up. I've known at least 10 people with these machines,and
the problem manifests itself a little differently in each one. Mine lost its "stop" mode,never to be recovered(currently a door stop in my barn, another guy had his go into reverse during 4 channel playback, another would play exactly half the tape, then rewind automatically, and ad nauseum. Akai's remedy was the GX270DSS, completely redesigned from the 280.

From newsgroups:
"The 280DSS and similar models, like the 285D, are notorious for bad feedthrough connections on the relay board (system control). Pull the board, resolder them all carefully, and you should be OK."

"Oh by the way, those chips that are used in the
record and play amplifiers on t6he Akais, they are scarce as chicken
teeth. They use them in the CR80DSS and the 1730DSS also. I imagine
they use them in any other akai gear of the same vintage, stereo or
quad. If I'm not mistaken, the 280DSS and the 1730DSS use the same
record and play boards. those same boards were used in the stereo
versions as well. there was just one of each. "

That is about all of the searchable info you'll find on the net.

Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 04-13-2002, 01:25 PM:

Paul:

My friend Frank Burnham has many original factory service manuals for lots of brands. It wouldn't hurt to call or write and tell him I sent you.

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 04-13-2002, 02:38 PM:

Does anyone know how to get the program-change mechanism on an 8-track player to start working again? I have a Sharp QUADRAPHONIC 8-track player that is now stuck on program 2; the program switch button sends a pulse but something on the other end's not responding and I'm too dumb to figure it out. For quad tapes it's supposed to pulse it twice each time. If I can't fix it before I find another machine I'll have to just pick one up.
I have a few DTS-encoded CDs made from quadraphonic reel-to-reel tapes (made by someone with their own DTS-encoding software. Pretty neat.)

Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 04-13-2002, 02:44 PM:

The program change on an 8 track is done by pulsing a driver power transistor which in turn pulses the track change solenoid. The driver transistor should be tested and so should the solenoid. The solenoid generally has a protection diode wired across it that could be shorted so you might need to unsolder one side of it from the solenoid.

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 04-13-2002, 03:44 PM:

Just to be sure, I'll have to ohm out everyone of those feed-through connections. Some of the other machines had the same problems. However, I think most of the existing problems are with that fuse resistor.

Thanks for the info, Jerry. I'll probably pursue that avenue, also.

Oh, by the way....

Defination of an Ohm.........That's an English 'ouse....

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 04-14-2002, 10:19 AM:

Since this is a running topic about reel-to-reel, I'll add this:

Thanks to Jerry Chase, I got in good with the Ampex site here on the net.

I've repaired a professional Ampex AG-440C 2-channel/2-track deck. It now runs like a champ.

I've also got a Technics RS-1500 reel-to-reel that has an additional 4-track head for playing that old stuff that I did back in the old days on my Sony 4-track mono machine.

The Technics only needed a few capacitors replaced on the power supply board. I use it a lot.

The Yamaha is just sitting. I've had no luck finding the manuals for this-un.

What to do? What to do?

Posted by Jerry Chase (Member # 660) on 04-14-2002, 10:46 AM:

What Yamaha? Yamaha bike?

Model #?

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 04-14-2002, 10:50 PM:

Just an update. I got the Akai running. Nothing a microswitch would not cure, and the repair of 15 fractured traces on the edge connector of the control board.

However, I am still going to try to track down a roadmap for that thing.

Posted by Sean Weitzel (Member # 244) on 04-16-2002, 05:56 PM:

Bruce,

Does that ampex site, and your newfound friends happen to have literature on the old Ampex video tape recorders? I recently acquired a VP6000 1" type A machine and the head drum power supply needs help! I want to rebuild it but have no idea what some of the component specs are.

Posted by Donna Sylvester (Member # 726) on 04-16-2002, 11:26 PM:

I have an operator's manual for a 1730D-SS and it does not have a schematic in it. The only other thing I have on my machine is a list of Akai factory authorized service centers (circa 1970).

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 04-17-2002, 09:42 AM:

Jerry:

Since the Yamaha reel to reel is buried in the chaos that I call home, you can find out the model number by looking back thru the previous posts on this subject.

It's all original, except for one knob, and the power cord hook-up. When I got it, someone had smashed the plug on the back of the machine.

Ya gonna buy it?

I USED to own a Yamaha 'cycle.

Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 04-26-2002, 11:23 PM:

Well, the machine is running again, now I just have to fix the record circuit, and align the playback circuits and meter drivers.