Recently the CDM2 in Unit#4 failed to play. Hooray! At least something to work on 🙁 The Sound Machine right from hell.
The CD was not spinning and the sound the motor produced was quite noisy. It was quite obvious that this is a mechanical issue. Even by hand I was not able to spin the motor. Unfortunately, this means to disassemble the machine again.
Well, it seems I am getting faster in removing the CDM2 from the device by opening the device and loosen the front panel. After analysing the mechanics I noticed a little piece of metal blocking the spindle. It is a small U-shaped metal plate with a magnet effecting the spindle. I have never seen this before in my other CDM2s and reckon it acts as a kind of eddy brake to slow down the CD to stop faster when opening the compartment. I am curious, let me know if I am right or leave a comment if you have more information on this topic. I am keen to know more about the idea behind this part.
The “eddy brake” is glued into the panel. This glue got weak over the time and the magnet moved towards the spindle and blocks it. Since I am not able to remove the spindle – it is pressed to an axis – I can only remove the whole thing. After some testing without those parts I cannot identify any difference? I have another non working CDM2/29 which does not have this feature.
However, another interesting detail and there is always something new to discover and to learn. Thus, when you face the same issue, check if the spindle got blocked by a little piece of metal. Below are some pictures, but unfortunately you can only spot this detail when removing the CDM2 from the device and after removing the very CD555 front panel.
