kgallen

Yea ok so that jack on the front is TRS balanced and there is only one channel on that box so if your MD material has any stereo material then you're going to need to merge them, which will take a couple of resistors and a bit of faffing about. Otherwise you will need that 3.5mm TRS jack (MD end) to 2x 6.35mm TS jacks and just plug one of them into the Scarlett and you'll have to pick the left or right channel to work with...

Is there anything on the back or is the input that 6.35mm jack on the front? If it can support a "real" microphone then make sure that 48V phantom power is never turned on otherwise poof will go your MD... (probably phantom power is only on the XLR though, you should be safe with TRS jacks...) I'll try and dig out some kind of manual so I can qualify my rash statements!

Either: 3.5mm TRS (MD end) to 2x 6.25mm TS jack plug (mixer end) Or if your mixer has them: Phono (RCA) inputs using a 3.5mm TRS to 2xRCA plug The mixer probably has "balanced" jack inputs which use TRS. Using a "mono" TS jack plug makes the input "unbalanced". The historical reason for TRS jacks was for balanced connections (Hot,Cold,Shield) versus TS jacks for unbalanced (Hot,Gnd) connections. The TRS format got "stolen" for stereo (unbalanced) connections. The TS "unbalanced" jack can be plugged into a TRS "balanced" input socket. Since the ring is the Cold connection, Cold gets shorted to Shield which results in an unbalanced connection. If your portable is battery powered or using a Sony Class2 (no earth) PSU then there is no chance of a (mains) earth loop between MD and mixer. After that you're into a "Direct Inject" (DI) box but you don't want to go there for this setup. The "weird sound" is due to phase cancellation - I bet you lose most of the "centre field" of the stereo image, which is usually the vocals. Post a front-on picture of your mixer then I can advise more directly.

These codes from the "Error History" are documented in the Service Manual. May not be of use to you immediately but they may be of interest in conjunction with reading other parts of the SM. UTOC - User Table Of Contents - the area of the disc that holds track information - positions (addresses) on the disc, titles and other track-specific information PTOC - An area of the TOC that is created when the disc is manufactured and cannot be changed, holding information like the length of the disc (60/74/80 mins) Address - the entire length of the recordable track is manufactured with a "wobble" in the pregroove that encodes an address (number) that the deck reads to work out where it is on the disc See the Minidisc Tutorial. Get some of these on occasion is to be expected. Sometime the deck has to "retry" - bad spot on a disc or the deck got knocked for example.

Yep. Extraction and reinsertion a couple of times will cause the contacts in the PCB socket to scrape the fingers on the FFC ribbon enough to cut through any tarnish and reestablish a connection. The FFC fingers are tin plated so relatively soft.

Guys this is fantastic stuff. I’m learning too! Keep up the great work and voyage of discovery! @NGY you are a gem beyond words. However for now the lid stays on my 530 as it’s working beautifully :-D Maybe I do some of these measurements on one of my 4xx decks...

Higher the number the more current is required to drive the laser to achieve the required light output. This is not a good thing. The higher current will likely result in more heating which is what degrades the lasers faster. However there is manufacturing spread in characteristics (as with any manufactured object). This means some laser diodes will need more drive current from new. Similarly some will require less. However as the manufacturing process will be tightly controlled the current spreads seen across laser diodes (at new) should be relatively small. Needing to increase the drive current as the laser ages is a downward slope to an expired laser.

Ah right I see... Just looked at the schematics. So there is already a 1 ohm resistor in the circuit, R169 (1 ohm 1%) that is between the +3V terminal and Iop terminal of the jig board. So yes, Iop (in mA) is equal to the DVM voltage reading (in mV). Carry on Sergeant!!

I'm not really comprehending these measurements :-( So you're measuring Iop using a digital voltmeter attached to your jig board? The DVM is on a voltage mode (not on a current mode). It's not clear to me from the SM how the DVM voltage reading relates to the actual Iop current. Page 37 does say the Iop in milli-amps is equal to the DVM voltage reading in milli-volts when measuring across 1 ohm. Well you're not going to put a 1 ohm load across the Iop terminals, that's a recipe for blowing up the driver chip. Maybe NGY knows how the setup works...

Its unlikely you need to replace them. Generally the exposed fingers at the end gather some tarnish/oxidation. All that is required is to pull the ribbon from the socket both at the MD drive end and the main PCB end and reinsert. Maybe twice. They aren’t desperately fragile but you need to keep them square in and out of the sockets and avoid putting a crease in them. Actually I found they are pretty much a standard electronics item off the shelf. I have a thread on here on just this topic (I’ll add when on a proper computer). They are 1.00mm FFC cables. You need the right length/width/number of cores and Forward/Reverse contacts (all Sony MD I’ve looked at needed Forward). On my thread I haven’t documented the 520 requirements as I haven’t ever had the lid off mine :-) Kevin ETA: Here is the FFC cable thread: (23/Oct/2020 I've updated the eBay UK links):

Oh dear. I wonder if I should replay my tired old record again that all educated and sensible people here are sick of me wheeling out. Maybe we need to check your ribbon cables for oxidation... :-D

Laser life and mechanical damage probably the only ones in practice. NGY will know better but unless you're into thousands of hours of laser use, particularly in record mode, then unless your machine has been abused then I'm not sure how many true laser failures are actually seen. We blame the laser a lot, mostly unjustly from what I've seen. When my newly acquired 530 gave C13's I looked to the laser for months. It wasn't, it was the ribbon cables (but everyone here is bored of that story, sorry [*]). Sure, audio performance can deteriorate when electrolytic caps dry out and if you're unlucky similar in the power supply section can result in noisy power supplies which can unsettle the digital logic. But we're talking Sony Japan here and they don't build their machines with junk components. My 520 is from 98/99 and is like new. Did you ever read the odo counters in your 520s? (Need to enter Service Mode - warnings per NGY from earlier in the thread). Kevin [*] It's where it all started for me on this forum

This seems too perverse to be true (note: I'm not disbelieving your analysis!). There must be some bizarre explanation! Whilst I've had similar with my Tascam MD-CD1 [*] (not actually the new track issue though), I've never had this with any of my Sony decks, not least my beloved 520. Let us think a while... [*] This deck has more firmware bugs than you can shake a stick at. Admittedly many are related to titling.

On the skips issue via TOSLINK I would also be interested in your answers to: - Have you tried a number of different CDs - Do you notice any difference in the skip issue between early tracks on the CD (inner radii) and later tracks on the CD (outer radii). - (I've read the thread and I think this is already in the pipeline) Is there any chance we can do an MD to MD TOSLINK copy - make an analogue CD recording on the "best" MD machine to get a first gen disc then TOSLINK that across to the second MD deck. I'd like to factor out an issue with the CD machine. - Another random idea is to test and be consistent with which way round the TOSLINK cable is used. Mark one end with some insulation tape. Try one way round then the other (in terms of which end is in the CD and which in the MD). Note if this makes any difference to skips or not. TOSLINK cables are not the most high-spec products and it's possible one end or the other doesn't mate so well with the connector in the CD or MD decks. This could cause significant transfer attenuation or light scatter which the receiver might not be able to handle. The receiver is trying to recover a clock signal as well as data from the optical stream. Jitter due to marginal receive power (light intensity) or multi-path effects can blur the interpretation at the receive end. This can cause the receiver to "slip" a bit of the data. Maybe I'm getting too deep here...! - Maybe I've missed it - do we know the make/model of the CD player? NGY - it's a bit of a long shot but I'm musing about bit slips on the digital transfer from the CD. Possible the CD XOSC is drifting out of spec? Just a wildas* thought out of the blue.

On the 520 (like the one in front of me now), if the unit is turned on, then moving the input selector switch between the three settings should result in an appropriate input message on the display: Optical In, Coaxial In, Analog In. Moving that switch carefully between the options a few times should help clean the contacts. Sorry for the lack of input from me, NGY's comments are far superior to any from me, but I will chip in if I have any thoughts to add, I am following! Kevin

Looks good! That's all you need! I must make one too some day...!

Can you play a disc recorded on another machine in the 470? Can you record to this machine (from say a CD player)? Will that then play back on this or another machine? Try SP and LP2 modes. Have you tried more than one disc? The symptoms you report usually occur when trying to play an MDLP track/disc on an SP-only machine but this isn’t the case here with the 470.

I can’t add to perfection! :-D The only thing I can reiterate is ESD precautions for both the laser and PCBs. When handling an unmourned OP it is paramount that the ESD link on the laser is bridged and removed in accordance with the Service Manual. Also when replacing such, the SM does detail the procedure and subsequent calibration. Test equipment in absentia, NGY has documented the pragmatic steps.

I usually use Sony minidisc blanks. But I’ve recently opened for use a couple of JVCs I’ve had in stock. I think they are quite attractive looking (in a minidisc kind of way you do understand!). I think they look better in real life than in this photo:

I found only one seller of the Sanwa LP1 in the EU in the Republic of Ireland. Rest were outside of EU so VAT and import duty would have been costly. The sale nearly went bad as they ended up not shipping the unit they had as they said it was a demo model and not fit for sale. They offered to order another from Japan for the original price but I had to wait about 4 months for it. Fortunately the seller came good in the end but I was nervous! It was the best part of 200GBP/Euro.

Yes my 530 is now perfect!

Yes, left and right << >> (might need to be in the Service menu). But the OWH will move with the OP rather than separately so this won’t gain you clearer access to the laser.

The Sanwa LP1 fits and works fine. I was able to check and set my MDS-JE530. Although it turns out the laser wasn’t the problem just oxidised ribbon cables!

I ended up buying the LP1 after spending over 100GBP on a good quality second hand Ophir LPM but the head just didn’t fit...

If this is for an MD machine, getting that head near the laser will be a real challenge. I’ve made the same mistake myself...