kgallen

Is your MO disc an 80 minute one? Try a 74 minute one, the track pitch of 74/60/CD discs is the same. It's finer on 80 minute discs. I know that is no kind of solution but it's probably reinforcing the "I'm getting just very slightly stuck" symptoms - as opposed to "my laser is broken". We don't want to go there (and we do have a tendency to immediately jump into the "my laser is broken" "diagnosis").

Possible the sled slider has become a bit dirty - e.g. hair and the sled can't track without getting slightly jammed? Limp suggestion I realise...

(Waffle, not a solution...) There is something weird going on at the moment... all these machines "suddenly" not working. On my side today, the CD section of my Tascam MD-CD1 has just stopped working - I just played Toto IV quite happily. That finished and I put in another disc. Nada. Won't read it. Won't read anything. Huh? Fortunately the MD section is still working, so I'll use that - which is what I'd prefer to do anyway :-)

Thanks for doing the video, that's great. Ooo that's an unusual noise. I wouldn't expect so, but I wonder if this model uses a belt for the spindle drive. Service Manual is listed on this page (I'll need to take a look later, sorry): http://minidisc.org/part_Sony_MZ-S1.html ETA: Nah no spindle belt, it's direct drive as they usually are. Hmmm.

Hi, Welcome! Give us a bit more info to work with. What have you done, what have you tried? Different MO disc? What's on the disc? Is it an ARTAC disc (SP,LP2,LP4) or one with MP3/WAV/WMA etc on it, which the MZ-S1 seems to support. Try a standard ATRAC SP disc if you have one. Tried a CD disc (if you have one)? Charged the battery/tried a known fresh/new battery? Run from a mains adaptor? Plugged in the headphones? Ejected and reinserted the disc? Anything happen or change if you press any buttons? Do you need to press any buttons for it to do what you said in your post? What else have you observed? LCD backlight works (bright amber)? What do you see on the LCD? Anything? Nothing? Disc symbol rotating? etc Any more detail on the sounds? i.e. just a constant "rotating" sound, or one that stop and starts, or a sound like something moving? etc Any other noises? Anything on the LCD that corresponds with any of the different sounds?

But your help and knowledge is certainly "very beautiful" :-)

I’m no use round here - @NGY is your man! My only suggestion would have been to carefully measure continuity of the OWH but since by inspection you’ve seen the lead frame is indeed fractured then you’ve done the job just fine with the excellent analysis equipment installed in your head! Hope you can fix it - interesting to see the OWH strips do take solder. Depending where the break is, you might need to separate the plastic parts away to avoid melting or deforming them. Then maybe - advice from @NGY needed here - lay a short length of copper wire across the break and solder either side. Tinned copper wire if you have any, if not maybe a single core from some small CSA twin and earth cable.

Agree. Doesn't look like a Sony chip. For start it seems to have the DAC and ADC on-chip. Sony seem to prefer external devices. I looked at the Sony CXD2654 (JE520, 1998), CXD2656 (JE530, 1999) and CXD2662 (JE440, 2000) and the pinout is nothing like. The Sony chips are very similar pinouts but nothing like the Technics/Panasonic device. So at best maybe ATRAC1 v4.5 Type R.

Indeed. Here it is. I think 980 is the same PCB set as 480, referenced below. Check the dimensions on your own machine though. These ribbons seem quite robust, so unless they've been really abused I'd expect them to be ok. Oxidation of the exposed fingers is what we've generally found.

20 years production of (Sony) machines I think, 1993-2013. Tascam MD-CD1Mk3 could be bought new in Europe ‘til late 2017. Any others?

I think he's probably bang on what he thinks the source of them is. Shame that pile were such a load of junk. However to hark back to his first minidisc video, the range of machine designs is huge even across, just the 5 manufacturers he had here. Of that load of 58 was it - other than a few that looked like colour variants of a model, there must have easily been 40 different designs.

Short on time? I'm watching the full one AGAIN! So what does that tell you... oh yea, I did watch the short one a little while ago too, that was fun, but I'm glad I watched the long one first!

45 mins in, that chunky Sharp machine. Recon he's got an 80 minute Sony disc there, which has a finer track pitch. Very original minidiscs were 60 and 74 minutes and the track pitch is wider. It played his MD-CD disc ok. Wadaya recon?

39mins, we have a winner!!!!

I'm going in... for the full whack 73 minute mega version! Deep breath... So given he has all of those remotes etc, might need to standby on eBay to see if anything turns up. I could be up for a couple of decent portables remotes...

I think I'd be looking at the Standby issue for clues why it's not coming on. Some wire/cable disturbed when the drive was removed etc.

Explain to me again where we are with the Standby condition...

With the components in-circuit you'd have to be very careless with e.g. bare ends of ribbon cables or deliberately rubbing your hands across the PCB after scrubbing your nylon clothes with a cotton duster. Out of circuit it's much easier to damage CMOS devices. In the industry we use the ESD Human Body Model as one means to characterise the device in this respect.

It is I agree. On the negative side it's annoying having a great machine out of service, particularly if it's your only one. On the plus side, look how much you're learning about your machine! Still keep looking for those 'obvious' / 'simple' explanations though. One rubber belt change can't kill a fully working machine! If there's anything we've learned on this forum in recent times, these machines are well designed with quality components and rigorous manufacturing and test processes. It's tended to be something daft in the end...

From the data sheet for the chip I’d agree the amplitude should be somewhat nearer 3V. But at the level shown in your scope I’d be surprised if this is a fault given the way the circuit is configured. If you’re measuring at IC201 then the clock does have the series termination 100R and ferrite bead in the way.

Edited my previous post a bit. In summary I'm not sure I see strong evidence that IC803 is faulty, sorry.

Don't necessarily agree. That chip supports a directly connected crystal across the XIN/XOUT pins. The crystal is excited by a lower amplitude sine wave than the usual digital levels. In this application they haven't used a directly-connected crystal, they are sourcing the clock from elsewhere. The clock they have sourced is probably a full-swing digital signal, and they don't want this for XIN so they've ac coupled it with capacitor C899. -> I suspect this is as intended. Hmmm. There are a few different datasheets about but none of them are particularly comprehensive. From the CLKSEL and FS[1:0] settings looks like the input clock should be 11.2896MHz and the output 90.3168MHz. It's not stated but it would seem reasonable that the CLKA output swings to the rails of the chip supply, which is stated as 3.3V typical. However there are some voltages annotated around that chip and it doesn't look like 3.3V on CLKA, more like 1.5V. Can you clarify on your document? OK just found the SM, it says 1.7V at IC803 pin5, even though the chip supply is 3.3V. From your top oscilloscope trace, it looks ok-ish to me (at 1V/div) - it's maybe 1.5V pk-pk on your scope but you are approaching the limits of that scope - 90.3168MHz on a 100MHz BW scope. Also the probe cap is probably 20pF on top of the input pin cap and that chip has a CLOAD(max) of 15pF. Also I note the input the clock is driving, IC201 pin 20 OSCO. This chip also seems to support an external crystal on pins 19 and 20. It's likely it's ok with a low-swing clock signal on pin 20 as there will likely be a Schmitt-trigger stage internally to square-up and level shift the crystal resonance to the correct digital levels of 3.3V. -> I would still conclude IC803 is ok. But I do concede the SM seems a bit inconsistent between the schematic, the waveform page and possibly the chip datasheet.

I found these too: 1. The PressIT labels are mentioned on minidisc.org I found this live website listing them and it seems you can buy them at £3.75 per pack of 5 A4 sheets (inkjet and laser) which totals 60 labels each for MD and spine. Can't see any other details though, like label size. Blurb says 12 MD labels and 12 spine labels (doesn't seem many for an A4 sheet!): https://www.rpadistribution.co.uk/Items/120.htm ...however I did try to "Add to Basket" and it went to a duff page. There is a London phone number: 020 3183 0000. 2. Avery Vinyl labels Having a bit of a google, using vinyl labels is suggested, e.g. Avery 22828 which are 1 3/4" x 1 1/4" (45mm x 32mm). Inkjet and laser compatible it says. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Avery-Removable-Durable-Rectangular-22828/dp/B009KLXQJW/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=avery+22828&qid=1590005694&sr=8-1 found here in a later comment (active thread in the past couple of days!): Digging a bit more, there seems to be quite an active MD following on reddit. Just been following a few threads!

If I just consider the "full size" label, which occupies the left half of the top of an MO disc: Across a range of Sony, TDK and Maxell discs, this label seems a pretty consistent 52mm H x 35mm W. The mould depression in the disc typically gives a 1mm margin on all sides (so 54mm x 37mm). I know these are "address labels", not "proper" MD labels... On eBay I can find 50x36 labels, 32 per A4 sheet, e.g.: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/White-A4-Laser-Printer-Copier-Inkjet-Sheets-Sticky-Self-Adhesive-Address-Labels/171028860767?hash=item27d21d4f5f:m:mjtNPA7UGsdZ-UFtQVqDl9A 52x30 (taller, narrower): https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/A4-Address-Labels-All-Sizes-Sticky-Self-Adhesive-Sheets-for-Inkjet-Laser/252590025184?hash=item3acf89e9e0:m:mWZpvtpnodG7bQ6q_qkV8qg

Good. With a disc in, WP should show the state of the movable flag that is used to indicate a write protected disc - the little white slider in the corner of the disc case. When writeable (slider covering the hole) then I'd expect WP=0V, when write protected (hole is open) then 3.3V. REFL is the disc reflectivity. With a recordable MO disc then the REFL hole is open so I'd expect 3.3V. If you have a pressed MD-CD disc then the hole is blocked so expect 0V. The REFL hole is next to the WP hole in the MD disc case. OUT switch should show (probably) 3.3V with a disc out and 0V with a disc in. (The state should be different with a disc in compared to a disc out.). This is possibly the most interesting one given our issue. The switch is burried so it's hard to see. But having this one change state between disc out and disc inserted is obviously important!