Jump to content

Sony MDS-JB 940 Static Mini Disc Player (fault)

Rate this topic


fourbanks

Recommended Posts

5 belts will last at least 20 years i think the main thing is to make sure that any spare parts are kept in good storage. i'm hoping my next unit will be like new so that i'll have most of the spares for it from my unit i just broke 

a hard lesson learned and at the age of 60 i haven't done to bad in this hobby the only other error i have made was getting rid of jvc vhs machine on an easily rectified fault for a new super vhs machine thinking it would be better to buy new then pay out 70 pounds on a 5 year old player and i was wrong as little did i know that i had bought the best vhs machine ever built as most of the internal components were that of it's bigger brother from the super vhs model and made in japan and the new model i purchased had come about at the start of downturn in japan and was now made in Germany and with regret and i have the 2 top German players not as good as my standard vhs 

I think all of us have made errors at some point the idea is if you can learn from mistakes then you can then pass your knowledge onto others and with confidence 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i did not Stephan which was a bad error on my part as at the time it would not come out where as before he had albeit hit and mis 

Then my bad. I did urge you not to wait - of course what happened was you waited until the disk was firmly stuck in the unit. I will edit my instructions just in case....

It's not difficult to get the hinged part off. But with a disk in there, it was doubtless locking and jamming everything and you probably bust the overWRITE head (it's electrical, and is nothing to do with LIGHT, just someone back East mixing up their l's and r's in writing the manual) which is easy to do.

You CANNOT use the 730, it doesn't do MDLP, and it won't fit in the 940. I thought I already pointed this out, sorry (again) if I did not in fact.

Five belts will only last 20 years if you keep them in the DARK as was pointed out to me in my very last communication from Jim.

Edited by sfbp
Link to comment
Share on other sites

thats why I berate the use of a small special purpose  rubberband for such a non audio action, that will render the deck frustratingly useless( every thing else working),  whereas some gears/cogs would have done much better and would I bet have worn better as the insert/ejection process not some thing that happens frequently,  & wouldnt have worn out  just by being inactive? You can bet I ll be storing the rubber bands in the black hole of calcutta. As I have 4 decks I may need to get more..... Will see what the first ones are like.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Then my bad. I did urge you not to wait - of course what happened was you waited until the disk was firmly stuck in the unit. I will edit my instructions just in case....

It's not difficult to get the hinged part off. But with a disk in there, it was doubtless locking and jamming everything and you probably bust the overWRITE head (it's electrical, and is nothing to do with LIGHT, just someone back East mixing up their l's and r's in writing the manual) which is easy to do.

You CANNOT use the 730, it doesn't do MDLP, and it won't fit in the 940. I thought I already pointed this out, sorry (again) if I did not in fact.

Five belts will only last 20 years if you keep them in the DARK as was pointed out to me in my very last communication from Jim.

is the JB 730 any good in case i'm unlucky in getting hold of a 940 i know the parts wont work in it but i'm after a good unit so may have to get hold of anything that's at least as good as the 940 

i have my old 920 special edition and might even get hold of one of those if needed as it's been a superb unit but with the display fading to a level i can no longer see it 

it still works well none the less but at at least 15 years old it will pack up at some point i'm sure 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I see there is on ebay uk this  jb940 going -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sony-Minidisc-player-MDS-JB940-/252136955041?hash=item3ab4889ca1:g:i-EAAOSwAYtWKRez

 

has a scratched  case but maybe transplant the mechanism? the scratched case may keep the price lower?

 

 seems like prices in general have gone up very much - I bought my 2 spare JB940 a couple of years ago for about £70-80 each.

 

I saw this advert. is this the bit that broke?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sony-MDS-JB-940-MD-Losch-und-Schreibkopf-Head-over-Light-NEU-/140989709713?hash=item20d3a43d91:g:qWUAAMXQ9qpRXYyb

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I see there is on ebay uk this  jb940 going -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sony-Minidisc-player-MDS-JB940-/252136955041?hash=item3ab4889ca1:g:i-EAAOSwAYtWKRez

 

has a scratched  case but maybe transplant the mechanism? the scratched case may keep the price lower?

 

 seems like prices in general have gone up very much - I bought my 2 spare JB940 a couple of years ago for about £70-80 each.

 

I saw this advert. is this the bit that broke?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sony-MDS-JB-940-MD-Losch-und-Schreibkopf-Head-over-Light-NEU-/140989709713?hash=item20d3a43d91:g:qWUAAMXQ9qpRXYyb

thanks freddy i may go for this i'm going to keep an open mind and yes that was the part that broke so that to could be another angle to look at. if a did go down this route tho i would get the complete lens 

i'm looking at this also but my gut feeling here this will reach top money 

 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SONY-MDS-JB940-QS-Minidisc-Deck-Remote-Excellent-Condition-99p-NR/121794562101?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D33840%26meid%3Dfb290ee7bc13428d876882b293b098ae%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D252136955041

also what is the difference between the uk model and the copper screws and the EU model ?

Edited by fourbanks
Link to comment
Share on other sites

yes and still 6 days to go.  will go for some silly price.  I think the time gone now for cheap ones on Ebay?

"UK Edition" which according to Sony is "specially tuned for British ears".  I think they tweaked the insides a bit the odd component. don't know if was much of a difference. I suspect compared to hifidelity these days a bit of a joke? I anyway  run all my digital thru a new Audiolab 8200CDQ  dac I  just  got  at an end of line price reduced from £1000 to £600 so any  changes to the audio circuitry irrelevant.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nick, you won't be able to install the laser. Jim can do it. I can do it. Your electronic friend probably WON'T be able to.

thanks for letting me know i'm going to bid on a few on ebay to see how the land lies if you should see anything that is good then please let me know as i may indeed mis something 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Try this one: if you check the service manual you will find it has an MDM-7A which you can drop right in to your 940. Look in the service manual of any unit you find. The ones you need will be made in 2000 or 2001, and will have this type of drive, listed on the first page of the service manual in big letters.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SONY-MDS-JE470-MINIDISC-RECORDER-in-Silver-/221909035527

Alternatively, simply hang on to it. It does PC-Link which your 940 does not. To me that PC-Link connector is more valuable than the keyboard - however beware that I am not certain it does both. So if you need a keyboard model, keep looking. The JE770 does do both keyboard and PC-Link. Note that the x80 decks have a different, more advanced unit in them, which you do NOT want.

There's also this one:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sony-MDS-JE440-Mini-Disc-Player-/171975757516

However we have no idea what the auction will take it to. There are some wildly overpriced 440's listed as of today.

Any 440, 470, 640, or 770 uses the same MD unit and should be fine. There are frequently bargains on these, if you watch carefully. Check the completed listings to see what they typically sell for (it's an option under Advanced Search).

Stephen

Link to comment
Share on other sites

well got my 5 belts today. Comparing the old with new, the old had stretched quite a bit! Just replaced the old one. I think best to  take off the hinged bit, rather than try and poke the belt thru the front? - not very hard after the tiny spring on the side has been pulled off ( I used a needle ) Then used a pair of tweezers I have never used before the put the new one on. Result one now fully working JB940. I am glad  this post was made by the op and the resulting links, as I would not have had a clue what the matter was. Sorry that his  attempts at remedy didnt succeed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
On 17 September 2015 at 1:19 AM, sfbp said:

Dead easy. Just make sure you don't leave the belt twisted if it ends up that way after you first put it on.

If I recall correctly, this is roughly the sequence

 

Hi sfbp,

Your instructions were 100% OK and I was able to replace the belt with no problems using a special tool (the adapted paper clip).  

The only problem I had was when I re-assembled the player it didn't power up, it just remained on standby.  Well I hummed and I hawed and pressed the power on button 100 times but the obstinate thing refused to power up.  So once again I disassembled the player, jiggled the eject mechanism about a bit (think almost hitting with a hammer) and lo and behold it powered up and worked OK.  I have a spare belt which should come in useful in about 10 to 15 years (if I'm still alive).

 I recently went into my attic a re-discovered a box of minidiscs about 500, mainly jazz albums, BBC Radio plays and other programmes.  So a lot of listening ahead.  

So once again many thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, 940man said:

...the obstinate thing refused to power up.  So once again I disassembled the player, jiggled the eject mechanism about a bit (think almost hitting with a hammer) and lo and behold it powered up and worked OK.

You probably did not have the OP in proper parking position - see this discussion>> here <<.

Just a few - unintentional - turns of the gears at the back of the drive during disassembling/reassembling can slightly move the OP out and open the microswitch. The MDM7 mechanism family seems to be sensitive to this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

FYI-  I replaced the band in my MDS-JB940 over a year ago (actually closer to two years ago) with a actual "Rubber Band" that I got from a bag of rubber bands I bought at the dollar store.  I use the deck every week to record a radio show and it is working fine.   You don't have to worry about replacement sources just grab a rubber band.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 10 months later...

I have a lot of these machines all with the belts to replace. Rather than spend £5 a time on each one, and then more for stocking up for the future, I’d like to try buying a packet of the right sort of rubber bands (orthodontic?).

 

What size are the actual belts new? (un-stretched / stretched?)

 

Can anyone advise, please?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's the largest commonly available size for orthodontic bands (I just went back to the links that I originally posted).

However the use of them comes with no warranty or promises from me. I have NOT tried this... I purchased my replacements from someone who sold me the "correct" O-rings. YMMV, as they say, caveat emptor. I was hoping someone who'd actually done this might jump in and reassure you, but alas.....

Note that such bands tend to vary a bit within the bag - you may want to sort through and pick out a good one (you've plenty of choice!).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for your response.

It may be worth buying the official belts if I could get them at a better price, which should be possible as I need a quantity. The best price I’ve seen currently is £5.99 each!

Where did you get yours from and for how much?

Quote

However the use of them comes with no warranty or promises from me. I have NOT tried this... I purchased my replacements from someone who sold me the "correct" O-rings. YMMV, as they say, caveat emptor. I was hoping someone who'd actually done this might jump in and reassure you, but alas.....

Are the originals O-rings or bands?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...