MDS-JE530 Jog Dial

[markwalsham]

Hi everyone,

I recently got back into MD with the purchase of a used Sony MDS-JE530 deck, which all appears to be in perfect working order, and I am once again enjoying recording and listening to MD's again!

One small issue is that the jog dial button is slightly erratic, in that when titling tracks or skipping tracks, it can sometimes not respond or responds in bigger leaps that you require. For example, you are playing track 3, turn the jog dial to move to track 4, and it jumps to track 7!

Does anyone know if these can be cleaned using switch/contact cleaner, or whether once it has started to fail, it needs replacing?

Happy to have a go, as the deck on cost me £10, so if I can fix it, that would be great.

Any help as usual, appreciated.

Thanks, Mark.

[sfbp]

if you are comfortable taking it out of the chassis, I would be inclined to use some contact cleaner. But that stuff leaves a really bad smell so you don't want to do it in situ, ie. without taking it out.

Whilst you've got it out, you can see what sort of a switch it is (Sony's part numbers don't convey much as to the real part, you'll have to look on the schematic) and see if it needs/is worth replacing.

These AMS dial connectors (1-475-643-11, note: i looked at the contemporaneous JE630 so you will have to check) have only 4 connections. Two for signal, ground and rail. So if you can find one it might be worth doing. I'm not sure it's worth trying to buy the part, as this still doesn't tell you who made it. Don't forget it has the push function too.

Hope this helps!

Stephen

PS if you're seriious about MD, you might want to start amassing used or broken machines as a source for parts like this.

 

[markwalsham]

Stephen,

Thank you for the reply, and I managed to dig out the service manual for my model, and yes, not much help, slightly different part no, but pretty meaningless to be honest.  I think the best course of action is to get the deck onto the bench, and take it apart and see if there is anything obvious going on.  My concern is that the knob/wheel is a closed design, with little that can be done to repair or fix it, but I guess I won't know until I try!

Good shout on repairs/spares - always keep a look out for kit and if I can pick up some other decks (or same) that should give me some wriggle room.

Thanks again,

Mark.

[kieronkirk]

On 3/27/2019 at 10:44 AM, markwalsham said:

 

 "One small issue is that the jog dial button is slightly erratic, in that when titling tracks or skipping tracks, it can sometimes not respond or responds in bigger leaps that you require. For example, you are playing track 3, turn the jog dial to move to track 4, and it jumps to track 7!"

 

My 20 year old JB930 occasionally does the same when titling or skipping tracks.

This is something that I can live with but of course there is no problem when recording.

Kieron.

I should have mentioned using the remote control, not sure if the JE530 has an easy remote as the JB930.

[kgallen]

Old thread I realise, but as we're in those kind of days it's worth pointing out that before you start ripping your machines apart with some fanciful notion of replacing the part, it is worth just giving the control some gentle action back and forth a few times to move the wiper across the track and move any dirt or oxidation. This works for both AMS "digital" knobs and analogue controls like the headphone volume. Sometimes this is really your only option, since having been inside a few decks recently, the pots that Sony has chosen to use are often (better quality) fully enclosed types, so there tends not to be a way in for much dirt - or thus attempts to inject switch cleaner. In this equipment, Sony haven't used cheap open-construction pots that can fill with dust, even if there is the added "benefit" you could get some cleaner/lubricant in there. Better to not have the problem in the first place?

 

So give 'em some action, especially if this is a machine that you've just picked up and has been sitting around for a decade or more. There may be a slight benefit to doing this with the machine on, as a small amount of electrical current flow can help the cleaning action of switches (although I suspect this is marginal given the low currents passing in such designs).