Finally, there’s a new project on my desk. Markus found a cheap CD555 at an online second hand shop. Of course, unsurprisingly, it is not working. He contacted me to have a look at it and if possible to repair it… and here we are.
The CD555 has some scratches and the speakers are badly worn. Some edge of the case are broken, the previous owner might dropped it or crashed anyhow. Likewise, keys of the CD-Player are broken.
Screws are used to keep the speaker together and they definitely need some restoration. But first part is to check the electronics and if it possible, or to be more correct, if it is worth to repair it. From a economic view it is never worth to repair a 35 year old sound machine. But aren’t we a little bit sentimental? If not, why are you visiting this website?
Unfortunately the soft eject function of the CD-Player is broken. Let’s see what we can do in this case. There was also a small rubber ring glue onto the CD-puck. The idea behind is unclear. After disassembling the machine I figured out the CD-puck is original and no need for such a “solution” come to my mind. Neither the CD is spinning nor does the it read the TOC. After switching to CD the disc spins some degrees anti clockwise.
The cassette deck is not working and full of grease. Some teeth are visible means the usual gear is broken. After clicking on play the system hangs and the cassette cannot be removed anymore.
Whoever repaired it had done a great job with reassembling. They also added thermal paste – although in masses – to the significant parts (already removed most of it for the pictures). The indicator for the radio frequency is an interesting solution. Someone put a lot of effort to replace it – why ever it gets lost in the first place.
The 3300uF capacitor got a 10,000uF capacitor in parallel. I don’t think that this has a huge impact on the overall sound or power supply. The uProc panel got repaired, the 220R resistor for the photo-transistor to recognise the end of the tape got replaced. Another resistor puts the CPU’s rewind/wind output to ground.
The panels are all of release #7. Anyway, the radio and amplifier are working. Pretty sure this will become another challenge. For now let’s disassemble the thing and analyse the electronic in more detail…
