tgotr

I was able to get a different unit locally (JE440), and it works fine. They said it had trouble ejecting, but I just lubed up the mechanism and it ejects fine. If I had an oscilloscope, I could get the 501 working as a playback only unit, that would be enough as I can just use my NE410 walkman for recording. I have gigs upon gigs of music on my server ripped from my CDs. Be a bit easier than recording like on a tape.

I got the portable unit in, it works, and it's giving me the same bleeps and bloops using discs recorded in the 501, so I will assume sfbp was right and the chip in the 501 was bad.

Well I've given up on the unit

well, if it listed the proper resistance, i could try to get back to square one.

And I burned out the laser. Yea I made it worse. This was my fault, so I can't complain. Gonna call this one a no go, a false start. Like sfbp said, it's an ancient player and it could have been dead before I touched it. If the portable player works out. I'll see into getting another deck. If things work out in my life, I could go head first into this hobby. Minidisc has been a curiosity for me since I was a kid. Nobody I knew had one, and this was the first player I've ever seen. I'd had been this mysterious thing. I don't think this has sullied the format for me, just made it more mysterious.

I can do that tomorrow. If anyone has the spec sheets so I can check the voltages. Alright I checked the voltages. I could only see three voltages labeled on the board, 12, -12, and 5v. They are all within acceptable variances, at least from what I know from working on computers and other stuff. I still wonder if the Trim pots next to the drive can do anything

I picked up a newer portable machine on ebay, one that runs on AAs and uses NetMD. I have a few Dedicated WinXP machines sitting around so I am good on the software. Hopefully the seller wasn't being lying in the auction about it working.

First four pictures are the same disc. The last disc has five tracks recorded onto it.

Like open the disc and show it? It seems self explanatory as what could you see with the protection closed.

Everything is hooked up directly nothing in-between. It goes from my CD player to MD, to the receiver. I even removed the receiver from the chain and used a cheapo chinese amp hooked up to the line out and some PC speakers, same result. I wonder if the issue is the recording mechanism in some way. Like I mentioned before, it sounds to me that it's catching the extreme highs only. Maybe the unit is well loved and worn out. Maybe all my discs are duds. Maybe I need to adjust something in the machine. Last time I had it opened, it looked like a row of pots were lined up next to the drive. I didn't fiddle with them, not knowing what they were. this is my first and only player. I bought it for $10 on facebook, thinking I could tinker with it because it's a format I've always been curious about. I'd love to get it going.

This is the player in DAC mode, switching between both Analog and Digital inputs. I have the player connected to my Hi-fi with Optical if that makes any difference. I've tried with analog out as well, still get good audio in DAC mode. VID_20190727_195038[1].mp4

ok, I can listen to the output if I put it in DAC mode or put a disc in and press record? Right? I have the output going to my Hifi at the moment.

I heard the music while it was recording, if that's what you're asking.

I tested recording with my CD player connected via optical and analog. It sounded fine whilst recording. The VU meter on the LCD screen looked appropriate too.

I have three recordables and they all do it.