This is something that has been on my mind for a very long time, but I haven't written anything about it until now.
Remember my SONY Digital-Audio-Tape deck? The truth is, that I almost only use as an Optical-Digital to analog audio converter. It's even more true ever since the tape mechanism unfortunately started slowly failing (more on that later).
It is a higher-end model (ES series), and the quality of the D/A converter is absolutely brilliant. Modern D/A converters that are built into cheaper modern consumer devices (computers, phones, game consoles, music players, etc.), 30 years later, are still no match for this old digital tape deck. It is a brilliantly clean output, and you'll hear zero noise/hiss/interference when using headphones with its built-in headphone output. There is also virtually zero latency, which is often a problem for modern digital audio/video devices.
I've been using it for the audio output from my desktop computer for quite a few years at this point, using an optical TOSLINK connection.
Now, about that little annoyance...
You know how old Hi-Fi components (tape decks, CD players, Minidisc recorders, etc.) usually have a physical "TIMER" switch on the front panel, that you can set between Off, Play, and Record (in case of devices with recording functionality)?
Well, now you know. It can be used to set the action that the device will start doing as soon as it receives power. Intended for automation with external timer switches, but can also be used with an amplifier that has switched sockets for external equipment (just like my own), or even a dedicated hi-fi timer component.
If it's set to Play, the tape deck / disc player will start playing the inserted media as soon as it receives power. If it's set to Record, it will start recording from its input onto the inserted media as soon as it receives power. Pretty simple. Needed to schedule recording a radio or TV program? That was the solution.
How do you activate the A/D / D/A converter mode in a DAT or Minidisc deck? You have to press the Record button while no media is inserted. Pretty simple stuff. So, you would think that the designers thought of this, and when the TIMER switch is set to "Record", and power is received, but no media is present, the device would still perform the same action that gets called by the user manually pressing the Record button? It's pretty logical, isn't it?
Unfortunately, this is not the case. The device simply does nothing after powering on, just as if the TIMER switch was set to "Off". The Record button has to be manually pressed after powering up.
And how annoying this is for me! As I said, I use this deck almost exclusively for the D/A converter mode. When I switch my amplifier to the DAT audio input, the amplifier automatically gives power to the DAT deck. But alas, every time I do this, I have to also get the DAT deck's remote control from the basket of almost 20 different remote controllers, unless I'm physically at the Hi-Fi tower in which case it's not so inconvenient to press the button directly on the deck, or if the DAT deck was already powered and in D/A converter mode earlier.
Seriously, wouldn't it be logical for the TIMER switch in the "Record" position to be pressing that Record button for you automatically, right after powering up? Why didn't the designers think of that?
If only, if only I had the ability to re-flash the firmware of the internal microcontroller, and access to the firmware in source-code form. I would probably be able to quickly solve this problem, by adding no more than a few lines of code. But there is nothing I can do.
With the amplifier that I built myself, the ability to do anything I could ever possibly want with the firmware of the internal microcontroller is really one of the best things about that entire project. Unfortunately, commercial devices almost never give this kind of possiblity. And back then it would have definitely been forbidden, since modifying the firmware could probably also be used to bypass the Serial-Copy-Management-System. (SCMS - a disgusting thing, I still hate it. Thankfully, the sound card in my computer does not care about it at all.)
I've had to get the other remote control just to press that one button probably thousands of times at this point. I could have saved so much time and annoyance if I was only able to fix this tiny little issue with the firmware.
Universal remote controls - those are also a possibility, but they come with a myriad of other problems and inconveniences. I've thought about the possibility many times, and concluded that a universal remote controller is something I'd also have to build on my own from scratch, with my own, self-written firmware. And it probably still wouldn't fully replace the original, physical remote controllers, which sometimes have over 50 different buttons that are always physically in the same position.
===============
While I'm talking about the DAT deck, I will mention its unfortunate hardware issues. I've talked about them on my profile, but my profile is locked to only trusted visitors.
Once in a blue moon, I'd actually use the DAT deck for playing/recording DAT tapes. Some months ago, on one such occasion, I've noticed that it started having severe problems with the tape transport. It would get stuck when trying to fast forward or rewind, it would be unresponsive when pressing the play button, and eventually the whole deck would lock up and stop responding to any tape-transport related buttons, requiring a reset / power-cycle. Looking through the window of the tape door, it seemed that the issues concentrate mostly around the take-up reel, it's the thing that's getting stuck.
Recently, I did some research about the issue, and browsed through this model's service manual. I've assumed from the beginning that the problem is most likely caused by a belt, because what else could have possibly gone so bad with time, when the deck was stored in pretty much ideal conditions for the past few years, the mechanism was not used often, and the machine was generally cared for?
But at first glance, it doesn't seem like the DAT mechanism has any belts, aside from the belt of the loading tray/door motor, which doesn't matter for the rest of the mechanism when the tape is already loaded. And that belt is in fine condition, anyway.
During the research, I've found that there is in fact a second belt deep within the mechanism, a toothed timing belt. I concluded that the issue is most likely caused by that belt, based additionally on forum posts that mentioned a similar take-up reel spindle issue.
Sony Part Number: 3-368-417-01 (170TN10-1.0T).
I've looked online... This part is impossible to find at a fair price. Seems that only genuine Sony replacements were ever available, and of course they're not making them anymore. Doesn't seem like there are any aftermarket ones. And this isn't a normal belt that I can replace with a common one from a 100-pack of various sizes.
Well...
I don't know if I can justify spending that much money on a tiny piece of rubber, that will probably fail at some point again. This old DAT deck is not like a daily-driven car where you will obviously be able to justify spending that kind of money on a new automotive timing belt.
Last weekend, I disassembled the Hi-Fi tower in order to upgrade the amplifier (the possible upgrades I wrote about in this blog entry). I did take some photos of that process, but I'm still not sure if I should write a blog entry about the upgrade.
I did also use the chance to take a look inside of the DAT deck. But I did not try removing the mechanism. It's probably very complex to take apart, and there's no point in doing so if I likely won't even be able to fix it without a replacement part.
It's a shame.
Thanks for reading.
Remember my SONY Digital-Audio-Tape deck? The truth is, that I almost only use as an Optical-Digital to analog audio converter. It's even more true ever since the tape mechanism unfortunately started slowly failing (more on that later).
It is a higher-end model (ES series), and the quality of the D/A converter is absolutely brilliant. Modern D/A converters that are built into cheaper modern consumer devices (computers, phones, game consoles, music players, etc.), 30 years later, are still no match for this old digital tape deck. It is a brilliantly clean output, and you'll hear zero noise/hiss/interference when using headphones with its built-in headphone output. There is also virtually zero latency, which is often a problem for modern digital audio/video devices.
I've been using it for the audio output from my desktop computer for quite a few years at this point, using an optical TOSLINK connection.
Now, about that little annoyance...
You know how old Hi-Fi components (tape decks, CD players, Minidisc recorders, etc.) usually have a physical "TIMER" switch on the front panel, that you can set between Off, Play, and Record (in case of devices with recording functionality)?
Well, now you know. It can be used to set the action that the device will start doing as soon as it receives power. Intended for automation with external timer switches, but can also be used with an amplifier that has switched sockets for external equipment (just like my own), or even a dedicated hi-fi timer component.
If it's set to Play, the tape deck / disc player will start playing the inserted media as soon as it receives power. If it's set to Record, it will start recording from its input onto the inserted media as soon as it receives power. Pretty simple. Needed to schedule recording a radio or TV program? That was the solution.
How do you activate the A/D / D/A converter mode in a DAT or Minidisc deck? You have to press the Record button while no media is inserted. Pretty simple stuff. So, you would think that the designers thought of this, and when the TIMER switch is set to "Record", and power is received, but no media is present, the device would still perform the same action that gets called by the user manually pressing the Record button? It's pretty logical, isn't it?
Unfortunately, this is not the case. The device simply does nothing after powering on, just as if the TIMER switch was set to "Off". The Record button has to be manually pressed after powering up.
And how annoying this is for me! As I said, I use this deck almost exclusively for the D/A converter mode. When I switch my amplifier to the DAT audio input, the amplifier automatically gives power to the DAT deck. But alas, every time I do this, I have to also get the DAT deck's remote control from the basket of almost 20 different remote controllers, unless I'm physically at the Hi-Fi tower in which case it's not so inconvenient to press the button directly on the deck, or if the DAT deck was already powered and in D/A converter mode earlier.
Seriously, wouldn't it be logical for the TIMER switch in the "Record" position to be pressing that Record button for you automatically, right after powering up? Why didn't the designers think of that?
If only, if only I had the ability to re-flash the firmware of the internal microcontroller, and access to the firmware in source-code form. I would probably be able to quickly solve this problem, by adding no more than a few lines of code. But there is nothing I can do.
With the amplifier that I built myself, the ability to do anything I could ever possibly want with the firmware of the internal microcontroller is really one of the best things about that entire project. Unfortunately, commercial devices almost never give this kind of possiblity. And back then it would have definitely been forbidden, since modifying the firmware could probably also be used to bypass the Serial-Copy-Management-System. (SCMS - a disgusting thing, I still hate it. Thankfully, the sound card in my computer does not care about it at all.)
I've had to get the other remote control just to press that one button probably thousands of times at this point. I could have saved so much time and annoyance if I was only able to fix this tiny little issue with the firmware.
Universal remote controls - those are also a possibility, but they come with a myriad of other problems and inconveniences. I've thought about the possibility many times, and concluded that a universal remote controller is something I'd also have to build on my own from scratch, with my own, self-written firmware. And it probably still wouldn't fully replace the original, physical remote controllers, which sometimes have over 50 different buttons that are always physically in the same position.
===============
While I'm talking about the DAT deck, I will mention its unfortunate hardware issues. I've talked about them on my profile, but my profile is locked to only trusted visitors.
Once in a blue moon, I'd actually use the DAT deck for playing/recording DAT tapes. Some months ago, on one such occasion, I've noticed that it started having severe problems with the tape transport. It would get stuck when trying to fast forward or rewind, it would be unresponsive when pressing the play button, and eventually the whole deck would lock up and stop responding to any tape-transport related buttons, requiring a reset / power-cycle. Looking through the window of the tape door, it seemed that the issues concentrate mostly around the take-up reel, it's the thing that's getting stuck.
Recently, I did some research about the issue, and browsed through this model's service manual. I've assumed from the beginning that the problem is most likely caused by a belt, because what else could have possibly gone so bad with time, when the deck was stored in pretty much ideal conditions for the past few years, the mechanism was not used often, and the machine was generally cared for?
But at first glance, it doesn't seem like the DAT mechanism has any belts, aside from the belt of the loading tray/door motor, which doesn't matter for the rest of the mechanism when the tape is already loaded. And that belt is in fine condition, anyway.
During the research, I've found that there is in fact a second belt deep within the mechanism, a toothed timing belt. I concluded that the issue is most likely caused by that belt, based additionally on forum posts that mentioned a similar take-up reel spindle issue.
Sony Part Number: 3-368-417-01 (170TN10-1.0T).
I've looked online... This part is impossible to find at a fair price. Seems that only genuine Sony replacements were ever available, and of course they're not making them anymore. Doesn't seem like there are any aftermarket ones. And this isn't a normal belt that I can replace with a common one from a 100-pack of various sizes.
Well...
I don't know if I can justify spending that much money on a tiny piece of rubber, that will probably fail at some point again. This old DAT deck is not like a daily-driven car where you will obviously be able to justify spending that kind of money on a new automotive timing belt.
Last weekend, I disassembled the Hi-Fi tower in order to upgrade the amplifier (the possible upgrades I wrote about in this blog entry). I did take some photos of that process, but I'm still not sure if I should write a blog entry about the upgrade.
I did also use the chance to take a look inside of the DAT deck. But I did not try removing the mechanism. It's probably very complex to take apart, and there's no point in doing so if I likely won't even be able to fix it without a replacement part.
It's a shame.
Thanks for reading.
