I hade a TCD-5 PRO mounted on my chest when I did my first parachute jump back in 1980. Had two Sony "mosquito" microphones taped to the harness. It worked fine, but the TDD-5 was bent during the jump so it sounds little pitched as the tape was running slower. ;-) Great machine, now I have a TCD-5 PRO with sync facility for film production.
Appreciated the video. I run a audio repair shop in Finland and just bought myself the same recorder and had to track really difficult fault with the right channel oscillating at 25hz pumping the right meter needle quite powerfully. Cleaned the switch on the right side of the cassette deck and after that i wasn’t able to get the fault to reoccur.. hopefully stays like that like you said.. fragile wiring and not built for repair after 40 years..
@@12voltvids thanks for the info. Yeah that fixed the motorboating. What this unit seems to suffer is that when i record something the right channel sounds muddy and weaker compared to the left channel. I checked the bias oscillator voltages and they seem to be ok to my understanding but even if i raise the rec levels to match the playback levels the right channel still sounds muddy. The head looks good to my eyes and an old ac/dc casette sounds clear on both channels so it seems to be a problem with the recording. I think i need to get those calibration cassettes to go deeper to the troubleshooting or spend a week or something to get to know how this thing works. The tube amps are so easy to repair compared to this 😅
just took apart my Nintendo switch joycons and replaced the thumb sticks and replaced the slide on rails and the locking mechanism. it's a pain in the rear but i found it rewarding.
Last time I saw Tandy RadioShack batteries in the UK was about 25 years ago. They used to have a "Free Battery Club" card as well, that entitled you to one free battery every month.
I closed my store just this month. I have RS D batteries with good til 2024 date Dave! Unicomer South America just bought the intellectual rights to RS in 70 countries including Canada from REV (Retail ECommerce Ventures) in the last 24 hrs. RS is big in South America still.
I noticed that color scheme too all I remember was a green and I think red over a silver/aluminum color I think one color was carbon zinc while the other color was alkaline. They also had secondary rechargeables (Ni-Cad) white and purple or maybe it was black or maybe both one being a higher Ma hour that's going back quite the few years for me LOL. All that to say yeah don't every remember Radio Shack batts. (white with orange edges) LOL.
3 year ago a friend was trying to sell me one of these units(not working) for $50. It had leaking batteries and Im pretty sure its the DC-DC converter thats bad. I offered $20 but they declined my offer. Now I see they're going for hundreds of $ listed as junk parts. Guessing I should have bought my friends. Lol Though i think he's still got it. Im not one to buy something for a resale value per se. But i do like having high end electronics for my personal collection and personal use. Thanks for sharing this nightmare 👍
I know some fool would pay hundreds for mine and if I was hard up for cash I would probably take advantage of that but I also collect them, so it is in my collection.
@@12voltvids i think people see these items pop up as high valued on fleabay, then they start dumping a bunch of junk they picked up for nothing asking an arm and a leg for it. And thats crapitalism for ya ! Lol
I've stopped working on this model due to the difficulty in finding electrolytics small enough to fit on the tight boards. They're difficult enough to work on without having to source tiny electrolytics. Mouser, et al, have little choice in low-voltage (under 16v) electrolytics, and the higher voltage caps, while electrically fine, will not physically fit on the packed boards.
I have a couple of TCS-310 to fix... they share some vague resemblance to these units. The speaker seems the same, I expected a bigger speaker on the TC-D5M. The trouble with the TCS-310 is the central fork spring loaded selector is broken by the pressure of the spring. I manage to re-glue and reinforce it but it's still a bodge, I'd need new parts to be manufactured, but how? It's a very tiny intricate piece with tight tolerances and precision.
@@12voltvids well I assumed more speaker more better but it's already quite decent for quick reviews. What I did not like is The Spaghetti Incident inside.
I'll buy it if its still for sale. I need something like this to play cassettes in my car through the Aux input on my head unit. I like to play CD's and cassettes in the car, which was always the perfect place to listen to cassettes, the road noise covers any extraneous tape noise in Dolby B, plus cassettes sound great in general when recorded well. Great job and kudos for your patience in completing a delicate series of repairs. To hell with the bitchers and naysayers, you know what you are doing, these others are Monday morning quarterbacks, back seat drivers and morons. I love your channel and videos, they are informative, and as an aspiring audio electronics tech for my own gear I learn a great deal from you. Thank you for sharing what you do by inspiring and educating those of us who wish we know half of what you probably have forgotten!
Wouldn't catch me driving around with something like that to play music. Or anything else just sitting around. Had a friend a few years ago badly injured when his cell phone that was sitting on his seat became a missile. Car ran a light he hit them cell phone went flying off the seat into deploying air bag. Think about a baseball hitting a bat. Hit him in shoulder and shattered his clavical. 2" to the left and he would be dead. Something this size would do alot of damage if it hit you in a crash. Nothing is loose in my car. Everything bolted down. Anything t transport goes in the back with the restraint cover closed. Car crashes are nasty as it is, don't need stuff flying around in the cabin.
I have a Sony cassette deck i'm not looking forward to replacing the belts in. And a pair of SS-U701AV's i need to fix, the foam got hard and is falling apart.
Last time I was in a RadioShack in the states as they had long closed in Canada, I saw the famous RadioShack sign and thought wow I'm going to check this out when I walked in the store I was quite shocked to find it was actually a gun store and the radio shack was just a small section that the back they had a few things.
@@12voltvids As I remember RadioShack stand alone stores were rare they were mostly interrogated with another business especially in our small town. Macon had stand alone stores, but they just didn't have the sales to remain open. Even those stand alone stores had cell phone services to keep the doors open, but that eventually went under too. I have an EQ they designed and built the last time I used it it worked I haven't used it for a very long time so I don't know if it does now. Not long after I got it I noticed the sound would drop out, this was bad if I was recording from a source (cassette or CD) making my own mixed tape. I solved the problem it turns out the power supply caps weren't quite high enough in value and when the voltage dropped too low the circuitry would reset which caused the drop outs. Our power wasn't very stable lots of fluctuations micro brown outs which triggered the reset in the EQ. Anyway it was fun recording my own tailored EQ music after I figured out why it kept dropping the sound.
It takes a special kind of patience to strip down and rebuild something so fragile (wire - wise). Or really good editing...😜 Great job, do they sound OK with headphones?
Another company bought them their trying to follow in Tandy's tradition not too long ago I bought my brother a radio from them and also bought a set of batteries just like those about two years ago you can still buy electronic parts like caps and resisters from them as well they should be searchable on the internet.
Good video and I know you explained why you didn't change the belts. But given how even the best belts have a finite lifespan, how cheap a new set of belts are and how much of a PITA it is to open up the unit and get to the belts, it seems like a false economy (of time and money) to not change them while the machine is already open.
I don't have an online shop. I sell only locally. The main reason is i have been burned by buyers that claim items never arrived. Then PayPal refunds them and I am out not only the item but the shipping. I'll literally give something away before i take a financial loss to sell online.
@@salvatorev_ its loaded with them but I have never changed any and would refuse a job where someone demanded I change them. I'm refusing many jobs these days. Tired of getting married to old junk.
@@12voltvids right somewhere it gets boring and tiring , my camera CCD-V100 Pro from 1986 is still working the capacitors are not broken I hope it lasts I use it Often and it works great
I one 1 sony tc-D5M to record my tapes on to and i can antser yes its a bichts some time wane you repair it espesolie to rec meters BDW SORRY IF MY ENGELS IS BAD IM DUCHT SO ENGELS IS HARD TO TIPE
I hade a TCD-5 PRO mounted on my chest when I did my first parachute jump back in 1980. Had two Sony "mosquito" microphones taped to the harness. It worked fine, but the TDD-5 was bent during the jump so it sounds little pitched as the tape was running slower. ;-)
Great machine, now I have a TCD-5 PRO with sync facility for film production.
41:32 the official Sony service manuals are available online for free.
Also these units are the endgame for us walkman collectors/enthusiasts.
Yes I am aware of that
Appreciated the video. I run a audio repair shop in Finland and just bought myself the same recorder and had to track really difficult fault with the right channel oscillating at 25hz pumping the right meter needle quite powerfully. Cleaned the switch on the right side of the cassette deck and after that i wasn’t able to get the fault to reoccur.. hopefully stays like that like you said.. fragile wiring and not built for repair after 40 years..
The record/ play selector switch causes those motorboat sounds. Some tape decks use a dpdt relay and they can fail and produce same sounds.
@@12voltvids thanks for the info. Yeah that fixed the motorboating. What this unit seems to suffer is that when i record something the right channel sounds muddy and weaker compared to the left channel. I checked the bias oscillator voltages and they seem to be ok to my understanding but even if i raise the rec levels to match the playback levels the right channel still sounds muddy. The head looks good to my eyes and an old ac/dc casette sounds clear on both channels so it seems to be a problem with the recording. I think i need to get those calibration cassettes to go deeper to the troubleshooting or spend a week or something to get to know how this thing works. The tube amps are so easy to repair compared to this 😅
Loved all the kits and cheap parts you could get at Radio Shack.I think at one time they had their own battery club.
They did. A free battery every month. The key was to visit several stores and get a card at each store. Then make the rounds and get a few .
@@12voltvidsyou went to GOODWILL to buy that $10 item
just took apart my Nintendo switch joycons and replaced the thumb sticks and replaced the slide on rails and the locking mechanism.
it's a pain in the rear but i found it rewarding.
Last time I saw Tandy RadioShack batteries in the UK was about 25 years ago. They used to have a "Free Battery Club" card as well, that entitled you to one free battery every month.
I had a nice close up encounter with a Wedgetail Eagle yesterday and they are a very large bird.
I closed my store just this month. I have RS D batteries with good til 2024 date Dave! Unicomer South America just bought the intellectual rights to RS in 70 countries including Canada from REV (Retail ECommerce Ventures) in the last 24 hrs. RS is big in South America still.
Nice fix glad you had your other one to find that wire that came off! That plays nice for a small machine!
Comparable to dolby b home decks of the era
Thank you, this video allowed mine t be fixed without breaking it - by realizing I was NOT up for that and taking it to a pro.
I've never seen Radio Shack batteries that looked like those. Interesting.
I noticed that color scheme too all I remember was a green and I think red over a silver/aluminum color I think one color was carbon zinc while the other color was alkaline. They also had secondary rechargeables (Ni-Cad) white and purple or maybe it was black or maybe both one being a higher Ma hour that's going back quite the few years for me LOL.
All that to say yeah don't every remember Radio Shack batts. (white with orange edges) LOL.
Boy for a small tape recorder that thing has a lot of transistors and caps! Your birds in the background are singing up a storm!
The big one is looking for a small dog off leash
3 year ago a friend was trying to sell me one of these units(not working) for $50. It had leaking batteries and Im pretty sure its the DC-DC converter thats bad. I offered $20 but they declined my offer. Now I see they're going for hundreds of $ listed as junk parts. Guessing I should have bought my friends. Lol Though i think he's still got it. Im not one to buy something for a resale value per se. But i do like having high end electronics for my personal collection and personal use. Thanks for sharing this nightmare 👍
I know some fool would pay hundreds for mine and if I was hard up for cash I would probably take advantage of that but I also collect them, so it is in my collection.
@@12voltvids i think people see these items pop up as high valued on fleabay, then they start dumping a bunch of junk they picked up for nothing asking an arm and a leg for it. And thats crapitalism for ya ! Lol
@@TD75 , unfortunately this is true of what the world has become.
I've stopped working on this model due to the difficulty in finding electrolytics small enough to fit on the tight boards. They're difficult enough to work on without having to source tiny electrolytics. Mouser, et al, have little choice in low-voltage (under 16v) electrolytics, and the higher voltage caps, while electrically fine, will not physically fit on the packed boards.
@@TD75 Seems like a lot of work, but it's an option, I suppose.
I have a couple of TCS-310 to fix... they share some vague resemblance to these units. The speaker seems the same, I expected a bigger speaker on the TC-D5M. The trouble with the TCS-310 is the central fork spring loaded selector is broken by the pressure of the spring.
I manage to re-glue and reinforce it but it's still a bodge, I'd need new parts to be manufactured, but how? It's a very tiny intricate piece with tight tolerances and precision.
Why would expect a bigger speaker? It's not for listening to music. It's for replay in the field. Many radio reporters used these back in the day
@@12voltvids well I assumed more speaker more better but it's already quite decent for quick reviews. What I did not like is The Spaghetti Incident inside.
@@m80116 mmmm spaghetti
@@m80116 I think you made Dave want some sketty LOL.
I'll buy it if its still for sale. I need something like this to play cassettes in my car through the Aux input on my head unit. I like to play CD's and cassettes in the car, which was always the perfect place to listen to cassettes, the road noise covers any extraneous tape noise in Dolby B, plus cassettes sound great in general when recorded well. Great job and kudos for your patience in completing a delicate series of repairs.
To hell with the bitchers and naysayers, you know what you are doing, these others are Monday morning quarterbacks, back seat drivers and morons. I love your channel and videos, they are informative, and as an aspiring audio electronics tech for my own gear I learn a great deal from you. Thank you for sharing what you do by inspiring and educating those of us who wish we know half of what you probably have forgotten!
Wouldn't catch me driving around with something like that to play music. Or anything else just sitting around. Had a friend a few years ago badly injured when his cell phone that was sitting on his seat became a missile. Car ran a light he hit them cell phone went flying off the seat into deploying air bag. Think about a baseball hitting a bat. Hit him in shoulder and shattered his clavical. 2" to the left and he would be dead. Something this size would do alot of damage if it hit you in a crash. Nothing is loose in my car. Everything bolted down. Anything t transport goes in the back with the restraint cover closed. Car crashes are nasty as it is, don't need stuff flying around in the cabin.
I have a Sony cassette deck i'm not looking forward to replacing the belts in. And a pair of SS-U701AV's i need to fix, the foam got hard and is falling apart.
Our radioshack replacement here in Oz is called Jaycar.
Radio Shack appears to be online only with expanded offerings in other fields and less electronic supplies. They do have batteries.
Last time I was in a RadioShack in the states as they had long closed in Canada, I saw the famous RadioShack sign and thought wow I'm going to check this out when I walked in the store I was quite shocked to find it was actually a gun store and the radio shack was just a small section that the back they had a few things.
@@12voltvids they closed around 2016 here in the US
@@12voltvids As I remember RadioShack stand alone stores were rare they were mostly interrogated with another business especially in our small town. Macon had stand alone stores, but they just didn't have the sales to remain open. Even those stand alone stores had cell phone services to keep the doors open, but that eventually went under too. I have an EQ they designed and built the last time I used it it worked I haven't used it for a very long time so I don't know if it does now.
Not long after I got it I noticed the sound would drop out, this was bad if I was recording from a source (cassette or CD) making my own mixed tape. I solved the problem it turns out the power supply caps weren't quite high enough in value and when the voltage dropped too low the circuitry would reset which caused the drop outs. Our power wasn't very stable lots of fluctuations micro brown outs which triggered the reset in the EQ. Anyway it was fun recording my own tailored EQ music after I figured out why it kept dropping the sound.
It takes a special kind of patience to strip down and rebuild something so fragile (wire - wise). Or really good editing...😜 Great job, do they sound OK with headphones?
There were a few curse words, good thing I didn't stream live, besides the fact that I was on it for about 4 hours
Dave I believe Radio Shack came back into business but not as stores but just as to buy parts I think! Pretty Bird our American Eagle!
They went bankrupt years ago but someone is trying to resuscitate the name in the US
I think the Radio Shack brand is now on the web, but the original company it is not.
The same as Maplin electronics.
The big problem now is the Sony CX20084 speed chip for the D6C is now almost impossible to buy. I had to take one from another donor unit (A DDII)
I have 7 of them. And you can find them but its not easy or cheap. About 58 usd or so. Plus shipping.
Hi Dave, what lubricant are you usind for the gears?
I had a Sony tape recorder back in 1993, and the built in microphone did not pick up sound very well at all!!!!!!
It's zero degrees here in Ontaro right now. :(
You can keep it
Another company bought them their trying to follow in Tandy's tradition not too long ago I bought my brother a radio from them and also bought a set of batteries just like those about two years ago you can still buy electronic parts like caps and resisters from them as well they should be searchable on the internet.
Lithium grease
Would you recommend replacing the whole set of capasitors on those devices?
No
Good video and I know you explained why you didn't change the belts. But given how even the best belts have a finite lifespan, how cheap a new set of belts are and how much of a PITA it is to open up the unit and get to the belts, it seems like a false economy (of time and money) to not change them while the machine is already open.
Last time i ordered a set of 3 belts for one of these it was 45.00.
I've got one of these Sanyo decks 👍
15:02 😂 I LOVE that text ringtone
You should hear a few of my ring tones.
To nitpick or not to nitpick ? Could also be to help you out. Great repair.
Don't need help
@@12voltvidsIt's about them, not about you.
Where can I find your online shop? Im interested in what gadgets you got for sale
I don't have an online shop. I sell only locally. The main reason is i have been burned by buyers that claim items never arrived. Then PayPal refunds them and I am out not only the item but the shipping. I'll literally give something away before i take a financial loss to sell online.
@@12voltvids fair enough! Sorry to heart about all that and honestly partly why I sell in person too. Hope you have a good day love your videos 🎉
@@Jxnxdoe once bitten twice shy.
Dave how hot is it today? Or did you cool down?
Today a few degrees cooler
great canadian accent!
these devices are 43 years old, do they have problems with capacitors?
Can't get any to replace them. They are low profile and are no longer available. Fortunately the ones i have seen have been ok for now.
@@12voltvids does this deck have many capacitors to change?
@@salvatorev_ its loaded with them but I have never changed any and would refuse a job where someone demanded I change them. I'm refusing many jobs these days. Tired of getting married to old junk.
@@12voltvids right somewhere it gets boring and tiring , my camera CCD-V100 Pro from 1986 is still working the capacitors are not broken I hope it lasts I use it Often and it works great
@@salvatorev_ the v110 didn't use surface caps like the later ones did.
I one 1 sony tc-D5M to record my tapes on to and i can antser yes its a bichts some time wane you repair it espesolie to rec meters
BDW SORRY IF MY ENGELS IS BAD IM DUCHT SO ENGELS IS HARD TO TIPE
Krutovaremontamagnetafonatibe😉🫢🫢🤗🥰😎✌️💈.