andy29

I didn't even realise there were ATRAC players like that. I admit I am using a bluetooth to FM transmitter at the moment because it's the best I can do unless I'm playing a tape! I know it's rubbish but it's better than nothing at the moment. I guess there are always the semi-serious 12v FM transmitters and good bluetooth receivers if anyone fancies a project. I always wondered if it was possible to somehow get the unit to take an input from the phono sockets where you would plug in an MD or CD changer, but I think you would need to do something about the control connection. But maybe something like an Arduino could be used to fool it into thinking it's talking to a changer? But by the time you've done that it probably easier to mod the thing inside for a line input. Yes it's a shame that the band spacing is done differently, otherwise I suppose the tuners really would be interchangeable.

Oh ok True, there's no set date yet but they seem to be eager to switch over to DAB, so FM will be gone eventually and I look forward to listening to music in glorious 80 kbps mono MP2. It would be good to still be able use an FM transmitter to get something into it, but that depends on what this problem really is. I know it's a bit of a cheat though, and obviously the MD part is the most important. I see what you were thinking with how it's maybe a different problem... who knows... I feel like I might need to ask one of the sellers where they got their information from and what exactly the unit does.

Hi sfbp, thank you. I'm sorry because I probably didn't explain properly, but what I was meaning is how in various places (eg. eBay) I've seen slight variations on how the tuner circuits are 'weak', how the chips 'burn out' and how they become unable to recieve any signals - some ads for units clearly state how they have the 'common problem' with the tuner. Supposedly only on the European ones. Some say it's intermittent. When it's mentioned it's often said as if it's a well-known problem, so it makes me wonder where that idea comes from. It would be interesting to know what the problem really is. Because if it's actually components and not the chips, maybe it could be repairable. But I can't find anything about it online at all.

Hello, I often have thoughts of buying an MD car head unit... I tend to be attracted to ones like the Sony MDX-C7900, C5970 etc. because they seem to be from the same kind of generation as my XR-C5100R. But I've seen that some (on the European versions at least, and I am in Europe) commonly have faults with their radio tuners. What is it that actually goes wrong with them? It doesn't sound good.so it's possibly pointless asking, but it is fixable in any way at all or it is just terminal for the radio? Would they still be able to receive a car FM transmitter right next to them if they've gone 'weak'?

Edit: For the answer to the original purpose of this thread, the problem for me was bad solder joints. The pause/vol-/vol+ switches are on a board which slots into the power board at a right angle, and after reflowing the solder that joins them (I think it was three connections), the problem went away. After some use I still don't know what it is... I can literally brush lightly on the front and it'll go off. It's just those black RXGs - I know what you said, but in my case it's the clear coloured ones which work okay! Time after time. So strange. Anyway, I am pleased with this old R30... after seeing its insides, I am amazed that all of the fragile parts still work fine after all this time, especially on a portable. And in some ways it's better than my NF-610, having a microphone socket and timestamp recording, for example. Even the disc usage display is useful.

Thanks, I was lucky that was the problem really. It could have been a lot worse. I'm glad it was something that was even repairable. I tried the air but unfortunately nothing has changed, sadly. I suppose the switches are pretty much sealed up. I have taken the tape off. I was worried about getting sticky gunk into the switch or anywhere else too so there's another reason for leaving it off. Yes, I've looked at this forum a lot and I noticed about Jim. I don't have many discs in use - 4 plain black TDK MD-RXGs; a couple of other, coloured TDKs; a couple of 'HiSpace' ones; one pre-recorded disc. All working fine in my two other recorders. After swapping discs way more than I would like to in such an old machine, I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't like the RXGs. No idea why... they're just minidiscs... nothing is bent, nothing looks unusual or wrong. It's not like it's reading them and rejecting them, unless it does it extremely fast and I'm mistaken? It's something to do with that switch. I can make it go off with the others very, very occasionally, but it is consistent with the RXGs. But again I'm glad it works as much as it does.

It was the solder joints! The pause/vol-/vol+ switches are on a board which slots into the power board at a right angle, and there are three solder connections which connect them together. They were cracked. Redid them and it works great. Thanks for your help sfbp... even sat here looking at them they didn't really look too bad so there's no way you could have known. I wonder if you have any thoughts about another small problem though (I hadn't really used it other than a quick test of everything, so I didn't see it). Sometimes if I press lightly on the front (as you do when you push the record button), the whole thing will turn off and I need to remove power to get it going again. Sometimes when inserting a disc it says 'no disc', shutting the door a little more firmly stops that. I think I've narrowed it down to what appears to be the 'disc inserted' switch. In the recorder, it's in the front left corner, next to the write protect detection switch. It keeps working if I fix it down with some tape, or put a ~1mm pile of tape on the disc, so maybe it's not quite getting pushed down enough. Attempting to clean the switch didn't do anything and the metal which holds the disc doesn't look bent upwards so I'm not really sure what else to try. I wanted to check the switch more closely, but I cannot make the mainboard's screws move, so I can't get to the other side. I don't know if you think it's best to use a bit of tape to hold it down and just leave it at that?

No problem It needs a LIP-12, but that site has one of those too. I think the battery connections were part of what had to be desoldered to remove the power board (I will check), and if they were, I wonder if I could use the bench supply to give it a nice stable 3.6v DC. Unless it would kill the charging function, or the connection isn't quite so straightforward. Edit: Yep, there are connections for Li+ and Li-. They're marked as test points in the schematic, straight through to the battery, unless they miss out details.

Ah ok. I figured that not all of them would be there since you don't have either type of battery connected, if that's the reason why. Yes, I can see that you need to try it with a low voltage - if only my 3.6v lithium cell was working, I wonder if that would take the voltages away from their limits where they get flaky and show that it can work as it should. Maybe that's why even a dead cell sometimes helps it a little. So what happens if I find a low voltage, is it then a case of looking for bad components or joints, or will there be places to make adjustments? I appreciate you don't know everything about the R30, I will have to have a look at the schematics again, I guess something should say. I did try cleaning the buttons as the first thing I did, but yes, they look like they're sealed and it didn't help at all. I am still wondering if I should reflow the solder joints between the switch board and the power board. I will have to have another look but if I put some small pressure on it, the pause/vol-/vol+ buttons do seem to work better. Maybe the lithium cell was pressing against the spring, pushing the board slightly, and creating a red herring...

Heh, thanks, well I am possibly getting close to the limit of my abilities now, but I'll take my time with it. Looks like you need to de-solder the power board from the battery connections to get to the test points on the other side. But maybe it's not so bad. I suppose I just need to check voltages until I find that some are wrong, and move onto the main board if I don't find any... or is there something more specific I should aim for? I see the voltages on the schematic now, thanks for pointing that out.

It is 'feeling' more like some kind of voltage problem, because I tried running it with the lithium cell inside (I hadn't bothered before - it is 0.8v (!) and it was otherwise working fine with the AA holder on its own) and the keys feel about 75% reliable rather than about 25% without it. It certainly seems to make a difference when it's in. I had a look at the service menu and it ties up with the service manual like it should. I didn't see any settings it didn't mention, though I was of course being ultra careful and not pressing anything unless I was completely confident about what it would do, so it's possible that I missed things. It's almost like you can't adjust the voltage settings using the menu like you can on the later models? Mine only seems to have the power supply discrimination test and charge test in the power supply mode, where the later manuals show many more values which can be set. I can't see any 'manual' and 'overall' modes like the later ones either, just servo/audia/mecha/power/assy. I can go back in and note down what I do have in the power mode, if that might help, and in case there are more values there than I thought. But even then, is it possible to work out what should be what, what test points to use and so on? I'm starting to wonder if the lack of instructions from Sony might ruin the whole thing. Sorry if I start to be awkward, I wish I understood this more.

Thanks... I see you've recently been talking about power supply adjustments in the N510 thread below this one... is that the kind of thing you mean? I guess that might actually be easier to do than replacing parts, as long as it doesn't need special discs, etc. I do have a proper bench power supply. Looking at the R30 service manual it doesn't seem to have as many settings available as the N510 - just a 'power supply discrimination test' and a 'charge test' unless I've missed something. Are they what I want or am I going in the wrong direction entirely?

Hello, carrying on from my post a while ago - thanks for your help - I now have an MZ-R30. Everything appears to be working fine, except that the pause button is very hit and miss, and the display and mode buttons only work some of the time, too. Occasionally the pause button will work with a light press, but most of the time it only works when pressed quite hard (which I obviously don't keep doing). I see that this kind of thing is mentioned in the Minidisc.org FAQ: "My portable MZ-R35 Minidisc player/recorder is 2 years old and works very well, except for the display and mode buttons." "The problem you mentioned is very common with the MZ-R35 and with the MZ-R30. In most cases it is not because of direct damage to the 2 keys you mentioned. It is related to the 3 keys mounted on the right side of the recording switch (the red one). In some cases the only problem is with the display and mode keys." Does anybody know what that actually means - what is usually wrong with the pause/vol-/vol+ buttons? I have opened the recorder and had a look, and at a glance everything looks okay. If I press the pause button directly with my finger it works better but still not perfectly, and if I short the button's pins where they're soldered to the board, it is still only works sometimes. The volume ones work easily and consistently if I do the same thing with them. That makes me wonder if it's more to do with the solder connections either on the button or the side of the board, or something worse. I thought it would be a good idea to ask here first before I do anything, since you guys know what you're doing.

Freddy, those Sharps look great. Looks like they do plenty of things, and I like that they do sound activated recording too. Shame about the lack of date stamp, but there you go. Seems like they don't tend to go for much money at all, especially if you consider that you don't need to buy a special battery or AA holder as well as the recorder itself. Being able to use and recharge an AA with no extras is very attractive. Philippe, it's useful that the old units will still play newer SP recordings, at least it lets you still make some use of them if you need a good quality recording.

Heh, the MZ-R5ST does look very nice, probably a bit too nice for me at the moment though. Maybe I will put it on the list of things to get one day. I actually got the NF610 a decade ago, the NetMD attracted me but it sadly got pushed aside by a 128MB MP3 player after half a year or so. I listened on the bus to college with earbuds and didn't take much notice of the quality. It's only recently that I've come back to it and I'm trying to make better use of it. How things have changed. I see what you mean by the laser read suspension problems... that's exactly the kind of surprise I was worried about. It's a shame they decided to use the cheaper parts. I didn't realise the older versions of ATRAC would be such a big step back. My Sharp deck is actually an MD-R1 MKII which I didn't notice was so old until I've just had a look. I wonder how it compares. Maybe I'll have to have a play with some sounds. Seems like it's narrowing down to an R30/35/50, or a Sharp one.