Hello all,

I am wondering if anyone knows the cause of a fault I have on two SLHF950 machines.

I repaired the faulty slides on both of them. Now I try a tape in play mode and the capstan runs full speed tangling and damaging the tape. I can get the machine to pick up most of the slack if a hit rewind but that only work momentarily before it stops. The drum motor hardly spins at all. The three electronic fuses are OK - not blown.

I suspect there is a fault on the SS50 board. Voltages in measure correct. Any ideas?

regards Noel

Roger Bailey,

The SLC30 has two actions when its loading and unloading. Dropping the tape into place while flipping up the cover flap - then threading the tape around the video head drum assembly. The second action is controlled by a small black gear that can break which affects the driving of the load ring which wraps tape around the head.

Your problem however sound like a broken gear inside the large clear/white disk gear on top of the load motor. The gear driving the planetary gear set that mounts over the motor shaft (and has a D shaped hole in it) often cracks and jams. They are under a lot of strain so it is unlikely you can repair it, you just need to get a replacement if you can. Also make sure that the swiveling end underneath the lever that is driven by the capstan roller solenoid has not accidently been placed the wrong side of the metal pin that sticks up. This lever controls the change between loading and unloading action from cassette in and down to the tape being spooled out of the cassette and visa versa when unloading.

regards Noel

Dear Noel,

Have you checked you have the 4'43MHz signal in the servo board and main servo IC? This is usually generated within the video board so you can track it back.

Greetings,

Gabriel

Thank you Noel. I did not know of that site. I have a manual for my SL-C30 now, thanks. I have found the fault - one of the plastic gears in the cassette loading assembly has lost 2 teeth because an axle used in the loading sequence was too tight for the teeth. (It's hard getting a cassette out of the machine when it is already lowered.) I only have 16 tapes I have to convert to digital so if I can't find a gear I will have to load and unload each cassette by hand. I think it plays OK but I have not got that far yet. Thanks again.

Hi all, who here know of the Sony SL-C80 is this a rare machine?

James

Hi James,

Un which country are you based? Depending on that, the C80 can be relatively common.

Greetings,

Gabriel

James,

The Sony SLC80AS was the model sold in Australia and there are a few around but they are not that common. They were marketed as "sports" model with two timers and the most strangely designed remote control of any Sony beta.

You get a real time tape readout and perfect stills. (care of SLC9 heads)

Most of the ones I have seen have issues with the timer displays failing. I have never spent much time trying to fix that.

regards Noel

I am in Australia Gabriel... Thanks for the info Noel.

James

Hi James,

As Noel suggested, the C80 was sold in Australia under the -AS suffix.

In Spain we had the C80E version, which was very common. Today, it is not difficult to spot one in an assorted degree of conditions. It wasn't sold in many different countries AFAIK.

It is an overall simple machine, despite its appearance. Its mechanism is mostly based on the C30 model with an improved three heads assembly for perfect pause and frame advance. Because of that, it makes use of a dedicated additional board.

From the ones I have serviced, I can say many of them suffer from common issues (black loading gear, 3H Hall sensor and its dreaded glue, planetary assembly and eject left gear among others). But they also develop poor loading and threading torque, muffled audio and display issues. The clock/counter one is usually quite faded. The secondary (timer) is usually bright but you can only enable it vía the original remote: the huge RMT-220.

Right now I own a very special specimen in grey color. And the remote is also grey!

Greetings,

Gabriel

Hi,

I'm trying to get an AG-7 tape changer working with a C7. I have a later machine with the C7 logo on the front flap but I'm starting to suspect that the machine itself is of an earlier version which doesn't support the AG-7. I searched a while back and found info on the modification but for the life of me I can't find it now. Does anyone have the details for the modification at all? Would be so great to get this up and running finally...

Many thanks,

Alex

Hi Noel,

With the HF950 fast capstan issue - I have the exact same issue with a HF100. Started off as an intermittent fault but has progressively become worse, so much so that's now constant. I'm working through the circuitry and have a donor machine so have swapped components and boards narrowing it down to the main servo circuitry (not capstan motor or drive PCB). I'll post the fix when I find it in the the hope it helps you...

Many thanks,

Alex

Hello to all, Ive been trying to locate a service manual for a SL-C5UB for some time now but no luck, anybody on here have a spare or copy to help me on my quest to repair my machine.

Thanks, Ian

Ian,

I can take photos of some pages if you send me your email address and tell me what you are specifically interested in. What faults are you trying to fix?

regards Noel (betaheaven.com)

Hi Noel thanks for the reply. Picture sync is terrible so I'm led to belive that it the notorious electrolytics on the servo board.

Cheers, Ian

Hi

Ian,

OK there is information on Palsite to address that issue. Send me an email if you want photos of circuit information/board layout or Capstan and video head electronic alignment procedures.

My contact details are on Betaheaven.com

regards Noel

and Hi to Kevin. I sorted out the alignment issue with the Sanyo M10s thanks. I still have an issue with the cassette mechanism not full lowering different tapes correctly into place for some reason.

Dear all,

Just a quick question I have with a couple "stubborn" Sanyo VTC-M10 and VTC-M20 with unstable picture when cold. The symptom is picture shaking.

So far the power supply capacitors have been changed and the tracking potentiometer has been checked to be OK.

Do you know any typical fault related to this symptom? I shouldn't blame a tape path misalignment because, to my experience, this is seldom found on Sanyos unless someone has fiddled the machine before (doesn't seem to be this case). Pinch roller is also in good shape and I have also swapped it with identical results, though.

Are these machines prone to servo capacitors failure?

Thanks in advance,

Gabriel

Gabriel,

I have had quite a few where the back tension lever builds up an oscillation. I think its due to contamination on the supply reel or the belt that grabs it varying the amount of friction. See if just touching and applying pressure to that lever changes the picture shaking.

When this happens I pull the parts out and clean them., I scrape along the friction felt with a knife to rough the surface up and disturb any dirt particles lodged in it.

regards Noel

Thanks a lot Noel,

Touching and varying by hand the back tension lever is usually within my check routine for VCRs. However, these two Sanyos don't seem to improve even a bit with this procedure so that was the reason for suspecting a servo issue.

I am also thinking on measuring capstan and head motors stability via speed/phase signals, just to see any possible jittering causing this issue. But honestly this will require me some time.

All the best,

Gabriel

Gabriel,

Kevin is the expert on the Sanyo machines so I would recommend you ask him what the trick of the trade are there.

I have just been playing and with trying to get a couple of NEC machines going. Never again - no manuals - no parts.

regards Noel