First: I wish you all a happy new year. Let’s hope for peace and healthiness. Since I still had problems with the belts I was using from eBay I now found another manufacturer. After several months of usage I noticed that one belt, that got already replaced, failed. Not sure if it was a quality issue of just one belt […]
Category: Tape Mechanics
New Micro-Processor Board running inside the CD555 for the first time
Finally, after endless months of development Revision C of the new Microprocessor Board is running inside the machine to control the tape and the CD-Player. Let’s not talk about Revision B since it still had some faults. However, it has been a long way and took many fails and expenses to come this far. Some days ago, for instance, I […]
New MicroController Board Rev.C running inside the CD555
After a while there has been some progress regarding the new Micro-Controller Board. Let’s skip Revision B since it still had some issues and move forward to revision C. This revision finally made it inside the SoundMachine. Everything fits and is working although I have to change the position of connectors for easier assembly. It is not possible to get […]
Tape mechanism repaired
It took a lot of time and patience to repair the tape mechanism. First, the broken lever to switch the servo head between play and fast spinning mode had to be repaired. I tried to glue it but of course it brake again immediately. The problem was that the pin got pressed below the panel with the notch which led […]
CDM2 repaired and a first impression of the tape mechanism
Since the assembled CDM4 is not working I repaired one of my spare CDM2. The issue I had was related to the little peace of plastic on the focus. It adds some weight and stiffness to the metal film of the focus. I figured out my “fix” with a double sided tape to place the plastic plate back on the film was […]
FC455 donor for the tape mechanism
Last days a non working FC455 tape deck popped up in the bay for about 20 Euros. Since it is quite hard to get a SER1 tape drive it was a good chance to get some spare parts like capstan wheels for my broken unit. The SER1 release in the CD555 is the most advanced of this series therefore a […]
1 + 1 = 1
I decided to mix up the parts of unit #4 and #5 to finish another one. Since there are some severe issues with the tape mechanism on unit #4 there are two broken switches on unit #5. However, this way I can finish another CD555 much quicker and can focus on the battery pack. Summer is coming we are going […]
Unit #3 finally working, tape mechanism fixed
Finally unit #3 passed all tests and I used it for about a week. Even the tape mechanism is now working great. I finally got a solution for the white lever and the play/fast forward problem. All I need is to create another video explaining what exactly I have done. To ensure that the lever snaps back into its default […]
Final video for repairing the tape mechanism
Here is the second part of repairing the tape mechanism. Hopefully you find some tips and methods to get your tape back working. However, you need a lot of patience… https://youtu.be/5WmVaMAiEAA
Game over for unit #4
Well as described in my last post one fly wheel of the capstan was broken. It is impossible to get one and quite an effort to create new one. However, I rebuilt the wheel just to be able to check other functions. Of course my wheel is not stable and would lead to horrible wow and flutter parameters. It is […]