Repairs to Sony Betacam VCR
I have a Sony Beta SL-C80AS PAL VCR that has faulty audio (wow
& flutter and some distortion). I am looking for someone who could service
it for me. I am 90km from Gosford, so do not have easy access to specialised
service outlets. I have a pile of Beta tapes that I wish to dub to DVDs.
I would appreciate any help you can offer. (P. K., Gosford,
NSW).
We have spoken to
our Serviceman and he says that unfortunately you have left it too late. There
are few parts and even fewer technicians interested in fixing complex 20+ year
old Betas.
His advice is to change the pinch roller, roughen the upper and
lower head drums to prevent stiction (without damaging the heads) and make sure
the reel brakes are not stuck on. In addition, clean the ACE head (make sure it
is not worn out) and change the electros in the power supply.
Starship Enterprise Door Sounder Mods For Switch Operation
I have recently finished building the Starship Enterprise door
sounder (SILICON CHIP, June 2006) and it works fine. However, I noticed
space on the PC board for two capacitors, two 220kΩ resistors, a JP1 jumper and
a terminal block TB2 marked S3-S4. Does this mean the unit can be operated from
an extra set of switches?
Also, with out trying to be disrespectful, if it was difficult
simulating the sound, why not simply record the original sound from the TV show
onto the chip? (G. G., Wollongong, NSW).
As you have guessed, the Starship
Enterprise door sounder can be arranged to operate from an extra set of
switches, by adding the extra components. When this is done though, there must
be a recorded sound for each of the four switches, so each sound can use only
one quarter of the chip’s memory. In other words, the project then can deliver
one of four short sounds, instead of one of two longer sounds.
The sounds that were finally programmed into the recorder chip
for this project were in fact taken from a recording of the TV show, as we did
find it too hard to simulate.
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