that is why I like the Teletype machines (curiousmarc on youtube)- they are about as close to a digital computer as you can get while working completely electro-mechanic
People joke about how you just "put an arduino in it" and before that it was "Put a 555 Timer in it!" and before that, you had mechanical logic. And if you really like stuff like this, check out jukeboxes and pinball machines.
I highly recommend the "Electro-mechanical arcade game" TH-cam rabbit hole. Try "1937 Rockola World Series Baseball Arcade Game - part 1". Pure genius engineering.
Back in the late 1970s, my oldest brother had a complete "high end" Radio Shack component system including an 8-track deck. When he upgraded to Japanese components in the 1980s, some of the gear was passed down to me. I got the 8-track deck that would record 8-tracks, complete with record level settings and VU meters. The deck made very high quality recordings, they sounded much better than pre-recorded tapes. In the mid 1980s I would make mix tapes for my friends with the latest 80s tunes from my vinyl. Ny friends got a real kick out of playing these 8-tracks in their parents' console 8-track players. Hearing a Duran Duran 12" coming out of an 8-track was quite novel. You're right, 8-track was always a bit of a joke, but it was a fun curio for my friends and me back in the 1980s. 40 years later I wish I had kept the deck. Thanks for the videos and the memories.
I know some vintage car lovers and they're always happy when I can record some of their music on 8 track so they can use it in the 8 track player of their cars of that era.
@@PascalGienger I recently bought two Realistic TR-883's, one working, one for parts, and six blank tapes off EBay in three separate auctions, to do exactly this. I have a 45,000 mile survivor 79 Chrysler Cordoba (with Corinthian Leather) that has a factory 8Track player. I even recorded Metallica's "Hardwired" on to one of the tapes. They sound pretty good especially on the home system.
As an audio / TV tech from the '80's (yes, I time traveled, it just took a really long time), I always thought those plastic cogs for track changing would be a weak link, but surprisingly, they seem to have held up. You still have more gunk to clean, though. You noticed that when raising the head assembly, it was sluggish. Solenoids, springs and sliding mechanisms all move very quickly, but if you notice, after cleaning the cog and lever, the lever still went into place slowly. The only thing that can cause that is sticky grease. If you really want it right (and I doubt you care to do it), you have to disassemble it, clean it with isopropyl alcohol and then grease it with a proper grease. If this a vid then toss unit, then it's fine for the time being. Also, notice the motor pulley is barrel shaped (wider in the center than the ends.) That's to keep the belt centered, which is counterintuitive. If it's a straight cylinder, the belt may ride up or down. Anyway, thanks for the entertaining video!
yeah the barrel shape is one of those things that is actually counter intuitive that it would climb out from a concave pulley but stays centered on the convex.
One thing you didn't mention with your 60->50 mod was that it's easily reversible in case you pass this machine on to someone in a 60Hz market, rather than a permanent solution.
@@EarMaster55 yes, while the solenoid actuates the wheel is stationary. maybe they did that way to not have the solenoid directly kicking on it but that the force would always just be the static known force from the spring and would have more longevity that way and not like a pinball kicker. the wheels a bit worn too though.
I don't know why but I love a good story and repair. For the last 10 years I've been hooked on channels like 8-bit guy, LGR, Techmoan and tons others explaining the tech and everything leading up to it's inception, the conditions or climate surrounding it and on the other hand repairing it... Keep up the marvelous work man, amazing content as always 👏 😁
The store in Manchester was in The Underground Market and was called “Yanks” It imported “damaged” records from the States and because they were damaged they didn’t have to pay import duty. They were damaged in bulk and on purpose with a saw to notch the corners. That’s why they were cheap and that’s why they all had a notch on them
The fatal flaw in the 8 track format was fitting 2 sides of an album into 4 “programs”. Invariably, a violation of song sequence or dividing longer songs into sections of songs would be required to fit everything together. The loud “click” was the 70s version of a TH-cam commercial interrupting a video! Other times there might be an extended “intermission” of silence on one track, while waiting for the other tracks to finish up. Close to the Edge by Yes, a song that required an entire side of vinyl, was perhaps the worst example of 8 track song surgery. Classical recordings were like sitting ducks to this sort of musical massacre. That price really got my attention: no wonder I never purchased a home unit. $170 in 1972 is $1,200 in today’s US currency.
But if someone was willing to generate their own mix tapes, a lot of the down sides could be disguised by cleverly selecting songs that just fit the length of the tape loop. For a background music station, that's probably good enough. It's a horrible limitation on constructing an album though, and I'm glad record companies never considered the format much more than an afterthought. I would hate to have seen albums rearranged _on vinyl_ simply to match the order the 8-track forced on them.
Ah yes, like the split in the middle of the titular track of my John Denver "Rocky Mountain High" 8-track. So annoying, especially since the tape always got "stuck" after the track change and it took a few in-and-outs until it started playing again.
Heat shrink tubing to increase the pulley diameter without a seam, or have a machinist turn a new one on a lathe using your packing tape mod as a reference. Still, there's no denying that what you did worked. It's never going to be perfect. Audiophile 8-track is an oxymoron, after all. 😁
Heat shrink Tube was my first idea when Mat came around with "increasing the Diameter", but... It works with adhesive Tape. :-) And now I have to quote one of my favourite movies: "I don't want to know for which purpose something was designed, I want to know what it can do!" ;-)
The cut corner isn't so much to ensure that purchasers can't return the product for full price --it's really so that retailers can't return them to the wholesaler for full credit. There was an entire industry in "cut-outs" in the 70s, and it was commonly used for money laundering by organized crime until it was broken up by the Department of Justice in the 1980s.
I’ve this channel so much. This is fantastic!! When I was a kid I always wanted someone to sit down and explain things to me like this. “Let’s just take it apart and see what happens”. I’d get into lots of mischief on my own taking things apart just to see how it worked and I’d get in trouble. Now I’m 43 years old and do it all the time and I LOVE it. I feel like this channel puts me right back to being a 6 year old who would have LOVED this. 😍 Thanks! Olivia
I have found that different sizes of heatshrink tubing work's well on motor shaft's or pulley's to increase the diameter and no bump's or join's to worry about just shrink it on you can also build it up in layer's to vary the speed.
I second this suggestion. I've tried heatshrink myself to correct speed problems on machines with AC motors. While it's not as good as replacing the pulley with the proper one, it does work pretty well.
The era that this machine came out in is right up my alley as far as repair skills go. Robust mechanical parts (those springs are monsters!), and electronics that can be individually tested and replaced. I like the sound and features of later machines, but once they die, they're dead, if they have chips or contact soldered components. Dead for me, at least. My son is working towards his degree in electrical engineering, so who knows what he'll be able to repair in the not too distant future? We both love making old things work again, and we have you, Mat, to thank for pointing out so much of this historic -- and still useful -- audio equipment from the past. Thanks so much!
Matt - those cartridge carriers seem like they'd be simple enough to have scanned and made available for 3D printing to the world. Might make for an interesting video.
A trick I used as a kid was to just play the tone tape and the reference over separate speakers at the same time, and you can hear the slight tone difference and adjust so that they match. 1 Khz worked fine for that.
What a fantastic piece of electro mechanical engineering, it's a testment to the design that it even works after all these years. But it's a lesson to modern manufacturers that not only is it working, but it's repairable. Even for a machine that was probably viewed as budget and disposable in its time. Another engaging and entertaining repair video.
Anyone interested in paying $1100 for a 5-disc Blu-ray changer? OK then. That’s why you get plastic parts and cheap phenolic circuit boards and firmware updates for approximately two and a half weeks after you buy the item.
@Jason Arthurs: I was going to make a similar comment; the level of engineering skill and machining precision in designing and manufacturing these devices is a lost art now.... The way that particular mechanism works is a result of clever thinking around a problem they'd just created, and putting that into practice; the complex 'ballet' of levers and springs, notched bearing wheels, etc, are like clockwork, and took ingenuity to create..... The fact it's still serviceable/repairable is just a by-product of how well it was originally engineered and manufactured; I doubt anyone at the original production plant were thinking it'd be still operable/serviceable in almost 50 years time... Some of those other commenters here seem to have missed your original point somewhat...!! :-D
@Steven's Stuff Nah, I didn't miss his point. I'm sure with modern CNC machines, given enough budget a modern engineer could make something amazingly well built, the problem is he'd have to sell it for $1500 and nobody would buy it. Most of the reason why stuff is so cheaply made is because the consumer prefers it.
25:45 - I love the 60s technology, where problems could be addressed by a good thump on the cabinet. As for the speed, if it's the mains frequency that determines the playing speed, then the pulley diameter should be increased by exactly 20% (60/50). It looks like a simple part that could easily be copied by a machinist, given the instruction to increase the diameter by 20%.
Yes, on an AC motor the mains frequency determines the speed of the motor, which directly affects the playing speed. Using AC motors in a tape deck is very peculiar and definitely low budget, but not uncommon in old equipment
Oh wow, you just solved a huge mystery!!! I've often come across 12" records with cut away corners and never could figure out why any owner would do that. It was most likely done for the same reason at the cut away label!
Got a few sawed off CD cases but the real worst I've got is a CD where they drilled through the whole thing (case, disc, insert and booklet) from the top. It's close to the corner so not hitting a recorded part on the disc but it makes a slight whistling sound when spinning inside a player.
They also used to punch or drill a hole in the corner of the record cover instead of snipping the corner. And in one rare case I've seen a hole drilled near the MIDDLE of the record cover (through the front cover, record label, and back cover 😮)
@Techmoan You're absolutely right. No one would do what you did to that 8-track deck and call it a repair. This is an example of someone tinkering and adjusting, nothing more. I do enjoy watching videos where you tinker much more than the ones about sound bars.
I used to always want an 8-track recorder, but my Granny (R.I.P.) could not afford to buy me one. I was always fascinated with their mechanics and the stereo sound. Watching you go into a deck and work on it is a real treat for me.
When I was 15 I had a job bagging groceries at Stop & Shop and next door was Bradlees department store. I was friends with people who worked at Bradlees including the guy who always seemed to be tasked with going upstairs into the security office where the monitors hooked to the security cameras were and pressing the button to get the mechanism going again. That thing was antiquated at that time but I remember how interesting it was to see a 5 cart 8-track changer when I went upstairs with him to that office one day. The next year, they went with a continuously playing cassette based background music system similar to the one next door at Stop & Shop.
Wow, your tape hack got the speed perfect!! That was pretty incredible how accurate it was. This is unrelated, and I know they’ve been gone a while, but I really miss the puppet segments at the end. 😭 You shouldn’t let a bunch of whiners who don’t know how to have fun dictate what you put in your videos.
I’ve had a CD with a small notch cut out of the spine for years and I never would have imagined what it was for. That is such a simple yet mind blowing technique.
It's actually to stop the retail store from returning discounted inventory at full price. It's not for the customer at all, although it's easy to understand why this would be assumed.
A caddy of 5 carts of country music in a machine that can play them continuously.. I'm imagining a man strapped to a chair screaming "OK, OK, I'll tell you everything!!!"
I used to buy records in a record shop in Liverpool. They only sold "reject/obsolete" LP's. The only way you could tell was by the massive hole drilled through the label! There was generally nothing wrong with them and I was able to build a quite respectable collection at half the price of buying "new"!
I'm currently looking for an 8-track recorder so I can make some mix tapes (I have a couple of sealed blanks). Personally, I never cared for any type of machine that requires you to put the media into a cassette (the reason I've never owned a CD changer and why I sold my cassette player where you could load 5 or 6 tapes), but the tech is very interesting. I've really wanted to get back into 8-tracks though...when I was growing up, my Mom had a huge collection, including all of the Kiss albums released in the 70s (Mom was in the Kiss Army in the 70s), and since she passed 6 months ago, I like finding things that remind me of her when I was a kid.
The beauty of what you are doing is of such greatness. As a tech inclined one, i, of course like it. But even a no-tech-person would love this, I think. Thank you.
I have no idea what you do or have done professionally but you might have made a great teacher. I have watched a fair amount of your content and can't ever tell whether you are actually figuring something out as I/we watch and we (the fly on the wall) are seeing your discovery or, if you already know and you are encouraging us to figure it out. Either way, thank you. Your videos are my favorite part of Saturday morning.
One of the first blogs I read was about a guy who collected and sold 8-track tapes and players. He did an entry on a higher end 8-track player from the early 80's with a black faceplate, it wouldn't look out of place at all in a modern audio rig.
The strength of the solenoid pulling the wheel that raises the tape selection arm is entirely dependent upon the spring returning the solenoid to rest, so why not look for a slightly stronger spring? Seems like a part that can definitely weaken over time.
You've said several times that you aren't a technician. I was consumer electronics technician for 30+ years and you do a better job than a lot of people I've worked with in those years! Love the videos and especially the older tech!
In TP (sadly no longer exists) here in Denmark, the CDs (sorry, I'm not old enough for tape) with holes chopped in the case were all leftover stock from somewhere else. The record labels often printed far too many discs of some artists and sent them off to the high profile stores. But as the discs then didn't sell and the stores needed shelf space for new releases, excess stock was returned, the holes got chopped in them, and they were sold off to stores that were willing to sell them at a discounted price. They did the same thing with LPs (which really ruined the cover) and probably tapes too, but only ever seen it on disc formats.
Your tape method is a great way of getting a correct diameter dimension that can then be used to design a new part. Being a machinist I thought how easily one can make such a part but then I remembered my sons 3D printer. Something as simple as that pully can be drawn up in CAD quite quickly and printed for relatively little cost.
18:08: Alternatively: the circumference of a circle, or the distance traveled by the tape for one revolution of the motor, scales linearly with the diameter. Need to travel faster? => Increase the diameter. By how much? Well, you're driving that shaft slow at a ratio of 50/60, so to cancel that out, your diameter should increase by a factor of 60/50, or 1.2. Not that it would've saved you from pulling out the wow & flutter meter, as there may be other factors impacting the speed. But it would've saved you from listening, adding more tape, listening, adding more tape, until it "sounded about right". That's assuming you own a caliper, of course, as measuring the diameter of that pulley would otherwise be quite difficult.
Thanks for another great video! I love the look inside and walkthrough of the troubleshooting of the mechanisms. It makes me appreciate the inginuity and creativity of those engineers needed to produce quality audio with analog media before the days of IC's and desktop computers. I'm picturing a room full of people with drafting tables, pencils, and paper everywhere. Not sure I could manage without some sort of CAD software.
I’m sure there is a local machinist ( or hobbyist ) that would absolutely LOVE to turn you a new pulley at the correct OD ! You would probably only have to cover the cost of labor ( labour ? ) as most shops have got a lump or two of brass just lying about. Figure on it taking about a half an hour to do, and figure the cost from the shops regular rates. Great video ( as always!) and truly a blast from the past, lol. Cheers!
I can't tell you how excited I was to see Lionel Richie's "Dancing on the Ceiling" - it's a pretty good album. 4:11 - Oooh, Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler." My mom has that on vinyl. I'm pretty sure she wore out "I Wish That I Could Hurt That Way Again." 25:51 - "Se La" - man, I gotta listen to that song once this video's done. It's got a great message of worldwide peace, which shouldn't be surprising since Lionel also brought us "We Are the World." Your repair technique is improving as you go. Experience is the greatest teacher, and as you learn, so do we.
I had a combo turntable, radio,and 8-Track from Panasonic. I was kid when my parents bought it. The 8-Track also recorded and I would record off the radio. I was always frustrated that you could only fast forward and not rewind and being young not realizing that's how it worked. I was used to my cassette boom box. Always loved that big clunk noise when selecting the tracks. My parents bought quite a few artists on 8-Track and some blank ones for recording. I think it had a microphone input also. It's cool to see stuff from the past show up here.
Ingenious solution to the speed issue! The tapes are still running a teeny bit slow to the correct speed, so I think your recording machine's speed must have been a bit off, as you suggested it could be, but it's still closer than I'd expect considering the format anyway. :D
What a fantastic player. They have all the best vintage audio in America, it's just a pitty it costs an arm and a leg to import anything from there. Looking forward to next weeks video.
From my experience 8 tracks can be pretty reliable IF the tape loop has the right amount of slack, which (probably) was their main drawback when new because the loop had to be hand-assembled on the spool, and I suppose it was sometimes too expensive to have a decent quality control to check this on every cartridge that was produced. If the loop is too loose it will have alignment and tape eating issues. If you've got the patience to open your cartridges and correct this when necessary they will almost never fail you. I made a small "Loop slack" chart if you're interested. I can send it to you via message or anything if you want. BTW I love watching your channel as I'm much of an audio geek :D
I had to replace all the splices on my tapes. The glue would dry out after a few decades and the splice would break. Then I had to open the cartridge and scotch tape the two ends of the tape back together. Then I'd use a glue stick to reattach the original foil tape so that the head would switch to the next track.
I wonder how much of the stickiness in changing tracks was due to the springs being a bit worn out. I've got a desk lamp of similar vintage and it tended to sink down when in certain positions until I replaced one of the springs.
I currently have the same RCA 8 track changer like this one, but I have the model with the built-in am and fm tuner and amplifier. RCA ( Mark 8 MPX VYC 950 W) l also own a Mitsubishi MGA triple 8 track tape changer. Yes I still listen to this underdog format in 2022...lol Myself having well over a hundred 8 track tapes to listen to, these 8 track changers are nice to have. 👌🏾🤗
Five heads all lined up ready to play, imagine what kind of surround sound they could have gotten out of this had they worked out how to line up all the carts' tracks up perfectly so they all played at the same time, could have been mind-blowing at the time I'm sure, the Atmos of its' day... :P
We had one of those at a college radio station I worked at. We never used it in the 90's when I was at the college. However, the professor and other staff had said it had been previously used to play campus guest speakers for rebroadcast. Roughly gave an hour or so of break time to the switchboard operator in the station at that time. While we had CD carts and mini-disc machines, we still used high end cassettes and spent a lot of time cutting off the cassette leaders, so it sounded mostly seamless over the air when the auto reverse kicked in on the tape deck. My classmates would always groan at this because the master recording was always kept on mini-disc.
1:58 It looks like the head azimuths could use a bit of fine fettling, tune for maximum treble on known good tapes. Not sure where the azimuth adjustments are, but they should be easy enough to find.
The background music you played while removing the head switching board instantly transported me to the last time I took a flight. Pretty sure that's what was playing in the airplane as we took our seats and waited for the safety briefing...
The facrt it's working is the most important thing, but if the cartridge select gives out I'd give a shaper look at the spring that pulls the actuator back after the solenoid is triggered. I'm not sure if it's just the angle or what, but it looks unevenly worn. (that could just be the video angle, or I'm an idiot, so take it for what its' worth). Thanks for the vddeo. Love seeing your videos.
Matt I was getting very nervous when you had the power on and your hands were flapping around the insides of the machine!! Loved this. Wish I had your practical head on stuff like this.
@@Techmoan We were told in College to only use ONE hand at a time. in fact, put the other hand in your pocket. Do not touch anything with the other hand. Also, remove watches and rings. That was 1974 but the electricity is just as bad, if more expensive.
I think the lack of endless repeats was deliberate. With 8-tracks you would kill the unit if a store employee left the machine running overnight a few times. I'm of an age, (and a yank) where the 8-track tape was my break-through media technology. I received for Christmas in the late 60s a Panasonic stereo with record player and 8-track. I thought it was the coolest technology! It was a sort of like Star Trek: You shoved this cartridge into a slot and, presto, you would hear music. What a concept!
This isn't for commercial background music. It's a consumer-market item - the 8-track version of an automatic record changer. How do I know? It doesn't use a proprietary format, and it's stereo. Commercial BGM machines rely on proprietary formats for licensing purposes (there are some exceptions, of course). Also, BGM typically does not have a need for stereo. And I suspect the reason it does not automatically cycle back to cartridge one is specifically to discourage its use in a commercial environment.
I'm a long time channel fan But I have to let you know I've never seen a single ad on any of your videos .. Pre roll or mid roll You need support and ads are the only way we can do it for you Coming from a small time video creator
Where I bought my 8-tracks in the 1970s the ones at the department store seemed to have been melted with the tip of a soldering iron. There was a little round hole melted through the cellophane wrapper and into the plastic cartridge. I always wondered why they did that.
The mechanism with the nylon gear and solenoid is very similar to a stepper unit in an electromechanical pinball machine, they often need to be torn down and cleaned due to the old lubrication gumming up.
In the mid to late 70s I was in my teens and got my first job washing dishes at a greasy spoon. Once I discovered Rock music I was Hooked. I began buying a couple of 8-tracks every time I would get paid. In the end I had accumulated over 100 tapes. I had a low end Sound design player I received for Christmas and thought it was the greatest thing. At the time if I would have had this player I would have thought it was the greatest thing ever!
There is a certain universal language between engineers .. I can send a drawing to India .. and someone will understand what I'm saying despite the language barrier. It's a bit more difficult with the spoken or written word - I know because I've done it, and am frankly quite proud of how concise I can be. Harder still when trying to instruct the layman. Perhaps some bias, as I am familiar with the technology - but I think you do an awesome job of describing the working of the kit, what you're doing, and why. Feynman was quite good at this as well. It's an art. You sir, are an artist.
By the way, that New York album by Lou Reed is in my opinion one of his very best. It is recorded wonderfully but also simply, and is a proper 'adult' look at New York and it's infamous milieu.
Really good fix (bodge) job. I would say you fix them and I'd be more than happy with the results if I was to do the same job. There is no better feeling than taking something from 30% working to 100%. Excellent video
For what it's worth, if my math is correct, you need to increase the diameter of the drive pulley by 20%. That is, if it's originally 10mm, it needs to be 12mm to bring the speed up appropriately. And that means adding a band of half the difference of those thicknesses, since the band's thickness will add to the radius twice.
It may seem a bit agressive but I have a reel to reel recorder that had really bad incrusted tape oxidation that wouldn't come off with alcohol and sounded really muffled on the left channel, since I didn't have anything to lose I just went ahead and polished the head with Brasso Metal Polish and boy did it make it shine! That R2R sounds like new!
growing up in this time I love to see that people are preserving this old tech. To young people this stuff looks so "rube gold-berg" like you can put 1000 songs on one usb stick so it make all this stuff look so silly now
It's "Heath Robinson" in the UK. He also predated Rube Goldberg by more than a decade. I think just using the term "clockwork" is probably more accurate. I have no particular interest in getting an 8-track working, though I did end up with a tossed quadraphonic 8-track player and can't say that I won't feel an urge to tinker with it someday. But I will take the occasional cartridge if it's interesting. The other day I found three Walter/Wendy Carlos tapes, and one of them even used a different kind of foam that hadn't self-destructed.
In the 1980s growing up I had access to a hand me down 8track player. I prolly had access to maybe 40-50 8 tracks… Saturday mornings listening to the Rolling Stones was some fond memories
hello Techmoan, I remember seeing a carousel-shaped cartridge player work that was capable of reproducing 24 Hs. contents of the programming of Radio Municipal of the city of Buenos Aires, I wish you could get one of those and tell us how it works. great job.
Ah memories. We used to have one of those console stereos that looked like a piece of furniture where the lid lifted up to reveal a record player, am/fm radio, cassette player/recorder and an 8-track player/recorder as well. Going to Thrifty's and buying records and blank 8 tracks to make mixes on 8 track so we could listen to them on our quadrasonic 8 track player in the car. Sounded great at the time!
@3:15 In the CD-era they drilled a 1mm hole right thru both the case AND the CD. The CD error correction could handle that. (Others just made a slot in the case, like on your cassette.)
Bit of a tip for you - if you want to check the speed of the song and don’t want have a wow and flutter meter, playing the same song along on Spotify will give you a great reference point on timing. If the songs on the 8 track (or other piece of kit) are slightly out you can easily tell and adjust. Spotify allows you to easily restart the song again and again until you’ve got it bob on.
@@8bitwiz_ Harder to skip through to the next song on the album and line it up. Spotify (or TH-cam but that has some dodgy song speeds) allows you to skip around way more precisely.
Increase the spring tension on the track changing arm. The solenoid works against the spring and then when the solenoid releases the spring does the work of changing the tracks by rotating the white plastic cog wheel. You can see at the base of the spring, the first few coils are pulled apart. I don't know it that is because the spring is stretched to the arm or if the spring is really stretched when removed from the arm.
Our Price definitely cut notches in tape cases in the early 90s - I have a few cut price tapes from back then (with the receipts tucked inside) with the cut outs
Great ingenuity on the speed adjustment! Several years ago I adjusted the speed of a Realistic 3-cartridge changer using the internal screws of its 13.2 volt DC motor, should have tried something like this instead!
Thanks for the great video. PTFE tape (Plumbers Teflon tape) wound in the same direction of the rotation could also make a good substitute for the sellotape. Keep it up! Cheers
8 tracks are so cool, like a clunky, analog CD. Man this thing wouldn't be 70's tech if you didn't have to smack it occasionally to make it work... I'm having vertical hold flashbacks from the old TV sets I grew up with...
Love the "mechanical logic" in pre electronics equipment like this. Leveraging clever inventive tricks must have been very satisfying to design
it like a jukebox everything was mechanical back then a lost art for sure
that is why I like the Teletype machines (curiousmarc on youtube)- they are about as close to a digital computer as you can get while working completely electro-mechanic
People joke about how you just "put an arduino in it" and before that it was "Put a 555 Timer in it!" and before that, you had mechanical logic. And if you really like stuff like this, check out jukeboxes and pinball machines.
Analog clothes washer or dishwasher timer.
I highly recommend the "Electro-mechanical arcade game" TH-cam rabbit hole. Try "1937 Rockola World Series Baseball Arcade Game - part 1". Pure genius engineering.
Back in the late 1970s, my oldest brother had a complete "high end" Radio Shack component system including an 8-track deck. When he upgraded to Japanese components in the 1980s, some of the gear was passed down to me. I got the 8-track deck that would record 8-tracks, complete with record level settings and VU meters. The deck made very high quality recordings, they sounded much better than pre-recorded tapes. In the mid 1980s I would make mix tapes for my friends with the latest 80s tunes from my vinyl. Ny friends got a real kick out of playing these 8-tracks in their parents' console 8-track players. Hearing a Duran Duran 12" coming out of an 8-track was quite novel. You're right, 8-track was always a bit of a joke, but it was a fun curio for my friends and me back in the 1980s. 40 years later I wish I had kept the deck. Thanks for the videos and the memories.
Do you go to Duran Duran concerts? They still exist.
I have that pioneer deck It is pro quality you should get one and make modern tapes
Thanks for sharing your experience, Rob.
I know some vintage car lovers and they're always happy when I can record some of their music on 8 track so they can use it in the 8 track player of their cars of that era.
@@PascalGienger I recently bought two Realistic TR-883's, one working, one for parts, and six blank tapes off EBay in three separate auctions, to do exactly this. I have a 45,000 mile survivor 79 Chrysler Cordoba (with Corinthian Leather) that has a factory 8Track player. I even recorded Metallica's "Hardwired" on to one of the tapes. They sound pretty good especially on the home system.
As an audio / TV tech from the '80's (yes, I time traveled, it just took a really long time), I always thought those plastic cogs for track changing would be a weak link, but surprisingly, they seem to have held up.
You still have more gunk to clean, though. You noticed that when raising the head assembly, it was sluggish. Solenoids, springs and sliding mechanisms all move very quickly, but if you notice, after cleaning the cog and lever, the lever still went into place slowly. The only thing that can cause that is sticky grease. If you really want it right (and I doubt you care to do it), you have to disassemble it, clean it with isopropyl alcohol and then grease it with a proper grease.
If this a vid then toss unit, then it's fine for the time being.
Also, notice the motor pulley is barrel shaped (wider in the center than the ends.) That's to keep the belt centered, which is counterintuitive. If it's a straight cylinder, the belt may ride up or down.
Anyway, thanks for the entertaining video!
yeah the barrel shape is one of those things that is actually counter intuitive that it would climb out from a concave pulley but stays centered on the convex.
One thing you didn't mention with your 60->50 mod was that it's easily reversible in case you pass this machine on to someone in a 60Hz market, rather than a permanent solution.
I think a stiffer spring on the track mechanism might give it enough strength to lift the head rail.
I was thinking the same. The spring is doing all the work. Of course the solenoid still needs to be able to overcome the springs tension.
@@EarMaster55 yes, while the solenoid actuates the wheel is stationary. maybe they did that way to not have the solenoid directly kicking on it but that the force would always just be the static known force from the spring and would have more longevity that way and not like a pinball kicker.
the wheels a bit worn too though.
I don't know why but I love a good story and repair. For the last 10 years I've been hooked on channels like 8-bit guy, LGR, Techmoan and tons others explaining the tech and everything leading up to it's inception, the conditions or climate surrounding it and on the other hand repairing it... Keep up the marvelous work man, amazing content as always 👏 😁
I'm nostalgic for these good old times...when devices weren't totally glued shut to prevent repair. XD
Another one great is Adrian's Digital Basement
@@organiccold Ha, came here to post that!!
@@iocat smart people think the same haha
The store in Manchester was in The Underground Market and was called “Yanks”
It imported “damaged” records from the States and because they were damaged they didn’t have to pay import duty. They were damaged in bulk and on purpose with a saw to notch the corners.
That’s why they were cheap and that’s why they all had a notch on them
Just like Italian 'import' CD'S in the 90s. The cases had a cutout or a stamp. Sounds like a store I would visit nowadays. 👍
"Cut outs" were classified as destroyed for tax purposes and to avoid paying royalties to artists.
The fatal flaw in the 8 track format was fitting 2 sides of an album into 4 “programs”. Invariably, a violation of song sequence or dividing longer songs into sections of songs would be required to fit everything together. The loud “click” was the 70s version of a TH-cam commercial interrupting a video! Other times there might be an extended “intermission” of silence on one track, while waiting for the other tracks to finish up.
Close to the Edge by Yes, a song that required an entire side of vinyl, was perhaps the worst example of 8 track song surgery. Classical recordings were like sitting ducks to this sort of musical massacre.
That price really got my attention: no wonder I never purchased a home unit. $170 in 1972 is $1,200 in today’s US currency.
But if someone was willing to generate their own mix tapes, a lot of the down sides could be disguised by cleverly selecting songs that just fit the length of the tape loop. For a background music station, that's probably good enough. It's a horrible limitation on constructing an album though, and I'm glad record companies never considered the format much more than an afterthought. I would hate to have seen albums rearranged _on vinyl_ simply to match the order the 8-track forced on them.
Ah yes, like the split in the middle of the titular track of my John Denver "Rocky Mountain High" 8-track. So annoying, especially since the tape always got "stuck" after the track change and it took a few in-and-outs until it started playing again.
Some factory recorded cassettes had this problem. They just didn't care.
John, I can tell you that Relayer suffered quite a bit more than Close To The Edge did. Tales From Topographic Oceans wasn't great, either.
I always think of the ways Oxygène was split-up - “Oxygène II part 2” and all that! III part 1. Heh.
Heat shrink tubing to increase the pulley diameter without a seam, or have a machinist turn a new one on a lathe using your packing tape mod as a reference. Still, there's no denying that what you did worked. It's never going to be perfect. Audiophile 8-track is an oxymoron, after all. 😁
Heat shrink Tube was my first idea when Mat came around with "increasing the Diameter", but... It works with adhesive Tape. :-) And now I have to quote one of my favourite movies: "I don't want to know for which purpose something was designed, I want to know what it can do!" ;-)
Just itching to machine a new pulley up ! I’m thinking you could just machine it slightly oversize then sneak up on the speed with emery cloth.
It would be cool to partner up with one of the machinist channels and get new parts made when needed.
@@befoerderungsfall The quote was from Gene Kranz in Apollo 13:
“I don’t care what anything was *designed* to do. I care about what it *can* do!”
Even something like 3D-Printing a new one could probably work.
The cut corner isn't so much to ensure that purchasers can't return the product for full price --it's really so that retailers can't return them to the wholesaler for full credit. There was an entire industry in "cut-outs" in the 70s, and it was commonly used for money laundering by organized crime until it was broken up by the Department of Justice in the 1980s.
"If you purchased this book without its cover, you have received stolen property..."
I’ve this channel so much. This is fantastic!! When I was a kid I always wanted someone to sit down and explain things to me like this. “Let’s just take it apart and see what happens”. I’d get into lots of mischief on my own taking things apart just to see how it worked and I’d get in trouble. Now I’m 43 years old and do it all the time and I LOVE it. I feel like this channel puts me right back to being a 6 year old who would have LOVED this. 😍 Thanks! Olivia
Being an adult is awesome. I eat ice cream whenever I want, and get to take stuff apart without getting in trouble. ;-)
I have found that different sizes of heatshrink tubing work's well on motor shaft's or pulley's to increase the diameter and no bump's or join's to worry about just shrink it on you can also build it up in layer's to vary the speed.
I second this suggestion. I've tried heatshrink myself to correct speed problems on machines with AC motors. While it's not as good as replacing the pulley with the proper one, it does work pretty well.
Yep, heatshrink tubing was the first thing that came to my mind too.
There is one problem with this solution. Tube could shrink unevenly and you induce flutter.
Or use tape - it's very easy.
@@Techmoan Tape is fine, but after few years it would fall off.
The era that this machine came out in is right up my alley as far as repair skills go. Robust mechanical parts (those springs are monsters!), and electronics that can be individually tested and replaced. I like the sound and features of later machines, but once they die, they're dead, if they have chips or contact soldered components. Dead for me, at least. My son is working towards his degree in electrical engineering, so who knows what he'll be able to repair in the not too distant future? We both love making old things work again, and we have you, Mat, to thank for pointing out so much of this historic -- and still useful -- audio equipment from the past. Thanks so much!
31:02 I like the fact that "Don't Stop Me Now" is the last song played before you have to push the Cartridge button. How fitting!
Matt - those cartridge carriers seem like they'd be simple enough to have scanned and made available for 3D printing to the world. Might make for an interesting video.
Such a great feeling when you managed to get it all working again, even for maybe just a while,. Good Work
Spoiler alert, lol!
What a 🔨WAT 🤡 you are !
Cuts in cases were often used for promos given out by record companies
As mentioned, promos didn't have cut-outs or drill holes in them. They had "for promotional use only" stamps on them. Totally different thing.
The cheap promos were pulled from regular production and were stamped on the cover or booklet. The good promos had white labels on the disc.
I used to work at a CD plant for a few years. Cd artwork with a hole punched, a corner cut off, etc. were given out as gifts to us workers.
A trick I used as a kid was to just play the tone tape and the reference over separate speakers at the same time, and you can hear the slight tone difference and adjust so that they match. 1 Khz worked fine for that.
What a fantastic piece of electro mechanical engineering, it's a testment to the design that it even works after all these years. But it's a lesson to modern manufacturers that not only is it working, but it's repairable. Even for a machine that was probably viewed as budget and disposable in its time. Another engaging and entertaining repair video.
Adjusted for inflation, $170 in 1973 is equal to $1,115 in 2022.
Anyone interested in paying $1100 for a 5-disc Blu-ray changer? OK then.
That’s why you get plastic parts and cheap phenolic circuit boards and firmware updates for approximately two and a half weeks after you buy the item.
Modern manufacturers don't want to make products that last or are home repairable, they want the consumer to always upgrade.
@Jason Arthurs: I was going to make a similar comment; the level of engineering skill and machining precision in designing and manufacturing these devices is a lost art now.... The way that particular mechanism works is a result of clever thinking around a problem they'd just created, and putting that into practice; the complex 'ballet' of levers and springs, notched bearing wheels, etc, are like clockwork, and took ingenuity to create.....
The fact it's still serviceable/repairable is just a by-product of how well it was originally engineered and manufactured; I doubt anyone at the original production plant were thinking it'd be still operable/serviceable in almost 50 years time...
Some of those other commenters here seem to have missed your original point somewhat...!! :-D
@Steven's Stuff Nah, I didn't miss his point. I'm sure with modern CNC machines, given enough budget a modern engineer could make something amazingly well built, the problem is he'd have to sell it for $1500 and nobody would buy it. Most of the reason why stuff is so cheaply made is because the consumer prefers it.
25:45 - I love the 60s technology, where problems could be addressed by a good thump on the cabinet. As for the speed, if it's the mains frequency that determines the playing speed, then the pulley diameter should be increased by exactly 20% (60/50). It looks like a simple part that could easily be copied by a machinist, given the instruction to increase the diameter by 20%.
Yes, on an AC motor the mains frequency determines the speed of the motor, which directly affects the playing speed. Using AC motors in a tape deck is very peculiar and definitely low budget, but not uncommon in old equipment
I think the belt needs to travel 20% faster, the pulley diameter needs to be 20%/pi or 6.366% bigger. But I could be wrong?
@@AnonYmous-yz9zq I don't think it's about the linear velocity of the belt, but the angular velocity of the two pulleys.
Oh wow, you just solved a huge mystery!!! I've often come across 12" records with cut away corners and never could figure out why any owner would do that. It was most likely done for the same reason at the cut away label!
Yea my dad has some records like that, and they'd just chop off a corner.
Got a few sawed off CD cases but the real worst I've got is a CD where they drilled through the whole thing (case, disc, insert and booklet) from the top. It's close to the corner so not hitting a recorded part on the disc but it makes a slight whistling sound when spinning inside a player.
@@equinoxe3d that's crazy, i would not put that in a player, they all say not to put in disks with deformation.
@@Nukle0n Yeah, I did it only once in my PC to rip it, not using it otherwise. Got it for $1,50 so not complaining too much 😂
They also used to punch or drill a hole in the corner of the record cover instead of snipping the corner. And in one rare case I've seen a hole drilled near the MIDDLE of the record cover (through the front cover, record label, and back cover 😮)
@Techmoan You're absolutely right. No one would do what you did to that 8-track deck and call it a repair. This is an example of someone tinkering and adjusting, nothing more. I do enjoy watching videos where you tinker much more than the ones about sound bars.
I used to always want an 8-track recorder, but my Granny (R.I.P.) could not afford to buy me one. I was always fascinated with their mechanics and the stereo sound. Watching you go into a deck and work on it is a real treat for me.
The traces on that head selector mechanism are a legacy work of art. Very cool!
When I was 15 I had a job bagging groceries at Stop & Shop and next door was Bradlees department store. I was friends with people who worked at Bradlees including the guy who always seemed to be tasked with going upstairs into the security office where the monitors hooked to the security cameras were and pressing the button to get the mechanism going again. That thing was antiquated at that time but I remember how interesting it was to see a 5 cart 8-track changer when I went upstairs with him to that office one day. The next year, they went with a continuously playing cassette based background music system similar to the one next door at Stop & Shop.
Wow, your tape hack got the speed perfect!! That was pretty incredible how accurate it was.
This is unrelated, and I know they’ve been gone a while, but I really miss the puppet segments at the end. 😭
You shouldn’t let a bunch of whiners who don’t know how to have fun dictate what you put in your videos.
I’ve had a CD with a small notch cut out of the spine for years and I never would have imagined what it was for. That is such a simple yet mind blowing technique.
It's actually to stop the retail store from returning discounted inventory at full price. It's not for the customer at all, although it's easy to understand why this would be assumed.
A caddy of 5 carts of country music in a machine that can play them continuously..
I'm imagining a man strapped to a chair screaming "OK, OK, I'll tell you everything!!!"
You mean like this?: th-cam.com/video/fowuazq-140/w-d-xo.html
I used to buy records in a record shop in Liverpool. They only sold "reject/obsolete" LP's. The only way you could tell was by the massive hole drilled through the label! There was generally nothing wrong with them and I was able to build a quite respectable collection at half the price of buying "new"!
I'm currently looking for an 8-track recorder so I can make some mix tapes (I have a couple of sealed blanks). Personally, I never cared for any type of machine that requires you to put the media into a cassette (the reason I've never owned a CD changer and why I sold my cassette player where you could load 5 or 6 tapes), but the tech is very interesting. I've really wanted to get back into 8-tracks though...when I was growing up, my Mom had a huge collection, including all of the Kiss albums released in the 70s (Mom was in the Kiss Army in the 70s), and since she passed 6 months ago, I like finding things that remind me of her when I was a kid.
Techmoan once agains shows us something we probably didn't know existed.
The beauty of what you are doing is of such greatness. As a tech inclined one, i, of course like it. But even a no-tech-person would love this, I think. Thank you.
I have no idea what you do or have done professionally but you might have made a great teacher.
I have watched a fair amount of your content and can't ever tell whether you are actually figuring something out as I/we watch and we (the fly on the wall) are seeing your discovery or, if you already know and you are encouraging us to figure it out.
Either way, thank you.
Your videos are my favorite part of Saturday morning.
Hi, My dad (around 1970) had a tool similar to the one you used at 25:45, but he used it to fix the TV.
😂
Just shows how good this gear was made. I have a 1983 sharp vz2000 which still works perfectly. Will definitely outlast most modern rubbish
One of the first blogs I read was about a guy who collected and sold 8-track tapes and players. He did an entry on a higher end 8-track player from the early 80's with a black faceplate, it wouldn't look out of place at all in a modern audio rig.
Cheering me up while in hospital Matt so thanks for sharing another great show
Hope you escape the hospital soon and feel better!
The strength of the solenoid pulling the wheel that raises the tape selection arm is entirely dependent upon the spring returning the solenoid to rest, so why not look for a slightly stronger spring? Seems like a part that can definitely weaken over time.
I once used multiple coatings of clear nail polish to increase the diameter of a pulley on a turntable. Worked nicely.
You've said several times that you aren't a technician. I was consumer electronics technician for 30+ years and you do a better job than a lot of people I've worked with in those years! Love the videos and especially the older tech!
I love your fixing old equipment projects. Very inspiring. It turns out that a lot can be repaired without even having special skills.
My first thought was 3D Printing a new pulley on my resin Printer, i guess if all you have is a hammer every job looks like a Nail :)
My thoughts exactly, easy repair for both parts 3D printed. Resin or probably better FDM in Nylon.
slapping it about to get stereo isn't a bug, it's a feature
In TP (sadly no longer exists) here in Denmark, the CDs (sorry, I'm not old enough for tape) with holes chopped in the case were all leftover stock from somewhere else. The record labels often printed far too many discs of some artists and sent them off to the high profile stores. But as the discs then didn't sell and the stores needed shelf space for new releases, excess stock was returned, the holes got chopped in them, and they were sold off to stores that were willing to sell them at a discounted price. They did the same thing with LPs (which really ruined the cover) and probably tapes too, but only ever seen it on disc formats.
Your tape method is a great way of getting a correct diameter dimension that can then be used to design a new part. Being a machinist I thought how easily one can make such a part but then I remembered my sons 3D printer. Something as simple as that pully can be drawn up in CAD quite quickly and printed for relatively little cost.
18:08: Alternatively: the circumference of a circle, or the distance traveled by the tape for one revolution of the motor, scales linearly with the diameter. Need to travel faster? => Increase the diameter. By how much? Well, you're driving that shaft slow at a ratio of 50/60, so to cancel that out, your diameter should increase by a factor of 60/50, or 1.2.
Not that it would've saved you from pulling out the wow & flutter meter, as there may be other factors impacting the speed. But it would've saved you from listening, adding more tape, listening, adding more tape, until it "sounded about right". That's assuming you own a caliper, of course, as measuring the diameter of that pulley would otherwise be quite difficult.
Thanks for another great video! I love the look inside and walkthrough of the troubleshooting of the mechanisms. It makes me appreciate the inginuity and creativity of those engineers needed to produce quality audio with analog media before the days of IC's and desktop computers. I'm picturing a room full of people with drafting tables, pencils, and paper everywhere. Not sure I could manage without some sort of CAD software.
I’m sure there is a local machinist ( or hobbyist ) that would absolutely LOVE to turn you a new pulley at the correct OD ! You would probably only have to cover the cost of labor ( labour ? ) as most shops have got a lump or two of brass just lying about. Figure on it taking about a half an hour to do, and figure the cost from the shops regular rates. Great video ( as always!) and truly a blast from the past, lol. Cheers!
I can't tell you how excited I was to see Lionel Richie's "Dancing on the Ceiling" - it's a pretty good album.
4:11 - Oooh, Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler." My mom has that on vinyl. I'm pretty sure she wore out "I Wish That I Could Hurt That Way Again."
25:51 - "Se La" - man, I gotta listen to that song once this video's done. It's got a great message of worldwide peace, which shouldn't be surprising since Lionel also brought us "We Are the World."
Your repair technique is improving as you go. Experience is the greatest teacher, and as you learn, so do we.
I had a combo turntable, radio,and 8-Track from Panasonic. I was kid when my parents bought it. The 8-Track also recorded and I would record off the radio. I was always frustrated that you could only fast forward and not rewind and being young not realizing that's how it worked. I was used to my cassette boom box. Always loved that big clunk noise when selecting the tracks. My parents bought quite a few artists on 8-Track and some blank ones for recording. I think it had a microphone input also. It's cool to see stuff from the past show up here.
I wondered why some of the CDs I purchased had those cuts through the cases. You learn something everyday.
Ingenious solution to the speed issue! The tapes are still running a teeny bit slow to the correct speed, so I think your recording machine's speed must have been a bit off, as you suggested it could be, but it's still closer than I'd expect considering the format anyway. :D
What a fantastic player. They have all the best vintage audio in America, it's just a pitty it costs an arm and a leg to import anything from there. Looking forward to next weeks video.
I love it when it's 5am and there's a new techmoan video!
There's something strangely appealing about the small PCB that contains the play head wires at 27:57
From my experience 8 tracks can be pretty reliable IF the tape loop has the right amount of slack, which (probably) was their main drawback when new because the loop had to be hand-assembled on the spool, and I suppose it was sometimes too expensive to have a decent quality control to check this on every cartridge that was produced. If the loop is too loose it will have alignment and tape eating issues.
If you've got the patience to open your cartridges and correct this when necessary they will almost never fail you. I made a small "Loop slack" chart if you're interested. I can send it to you via message or anything if you want.
BTW I love watching your channel as I'm much of an audio geek :D
I had to replace all the splices on my tapes. The glue would dry out after a few decades and the splice would break. Then I had to open the cartridge and scotch tape the two ends of the tape back together. Then I'd use a glue stick to reattach the original foil tape so that the head would switch to the next track.
Hope you're keeping well Matt. Thanks for the awesome video 😊
I wonder how much of the stickiness in changing tracks was due to the springs being a bit worn out. I've got a desk lamp of similar vintage and it tended to sink down when in certain positions until I replaced one of the springs.
When you switched to AC-DC... man, that was nice.
Indeed it was! A thunderstrike on my ears.
I currently have the same RCA 8 track changer like this one, but I have the model with the built-in am and fm tuner and amplifier. RCA ( Mark 8 MPX VYC 950 W) l also own a Mitsubishi MGA triple 8 track tape changer. Yes I still listen to this underdog format in 2022...lol Myself having well over a hundred 8 track tapes to listen to, these 8 track changers are nice to have. 👌🏾🤗
Five heads all lined up ready to play, imagine what kind of surround sound they could have gotten out of this had they worked out how to line up all the carts' tracks up perfectly so they all played at the same time, could have been mind-blowing at the time I'm sure, the Atmos of its' day... :P
They did have quadraphonic 8-tracks that had 2 programs with 4 tracks apiece for left, right, front, and rear.
@@thomaswilliams2273 I would guess Pink Floyd - The dark side of the Moon should be one example, as it was released on vinyl in Quadro as well.
@@mrnmrn1 I have several but unfortunately not that one.
We had one of those at a college radio station I worked at. We never used it in the 90's when I was at the college. However, the professor and other staff had said it had been previously used to play campus guest speakers for rebroadcast. Roughly gave an hour or so of break time to the switchboard operator in the station at that time. While we had CD carts and mini-disc machines, we still used high end cassettes and spent a lot of time cutting off the cassette leaders, so it sounded mostly seamless over the air when the auto reverse kicked in on the tape deck. My classmates would always groan at this because the master recording was always kept on mini-disc.
1:58 It looks like the head azimuths could use a bit of fine fettling, tune for maximum treble on known good tapes. Not sure where the azimuth adjustments are, but they should be easy enough to find.
The background music you played while removing the head switching board instantly transported me to the last time I took a flight. Pretty sure that's what was playing in the airplane as we took our seats and waited for the safety briefing...
This is absolute forensics of some sort! Man this is fascinating....
The facrt it's working is the most important thing, but if the cartridge select gives out I'd give a shaper look at the spring that pulls the actuator back after the solenoid is triggered. I'm not sure if it's just the angle or what, but it looks unevenly worn. (that could just be the video angle, or I'm an idiot, so take it for what its' worth). Thanks for the vddeo. Love seeing your videos.
Matt I was getting very nervous when you had the power on and your hands were flapping around the insides of the machine!! Loved this. Wish I had your practical head on stuff like this.
It’s OK, any shocks probably won’t travel over the internet, but just to be safe, wear shoes with rubber soles.
@@Techmoan That’s OK then hehe 😱🤗
@@Techmoan We were told in College to only use ONE hand at a time. in fact, put the other hand in your pocket. Do not touch anything with the other hand. Also, remove watches and rings. That was 1974 but the electricity is just as bad, if more expensive.
I was just thrifting last week and wondered about those cassette notches. What perfect timing.
Wow, I never saw a blank 8 track tape before... pretty neat.
I think the lack of endless repeats was deliberate. With 8-tracks you would kill the unit if a store employee left the machine running overnight a few times. I'm of an age, (and a yank) where the 8-track tape was my break-through media technology. I received for Christmas in the late 60s a Panasonic stereo with record player and 8-track. I thought it was the coolest technology! It was a sort of like Star Trek: You shoved this cartridge into a slot and, presto, you would hear music. What a concept!
This isn't for commercial background music. It's a consumer-market item - the 8-track version of an automatic record changer.
How do I know? It doesn't use a proprietary format, and it's stereo.
Commercial BGM machines rely on proprietary formats for licensing purposes (there are some exceptions, of course). Also, BGM typically does not have a need for stereo.
And I suspect the reason it does not automatically cycle back to cartridge one is specifically to discourage its use in a commercial environment.
My week is now complete! 👍
I'm a long time channel fan
But I have to let you know I've never seen a single ad on any of your videos .. Pre roll or mid roll
You need support and ads are the only way we can do it for you
Coming from a small time video creator
Where I bought my 8-tracks in the 1970s the ones at the department store seemed to have been melted with the tip of a soldering iron. There was a little round hole melted through the cellophane wrapper and into the plastic cartridge. I always wondered why they did that.
The mechanism with the nylon gear and solenoid is very similar to a stepper unit in an electromechanical pinball machine, they often need to be torn down and cleaned due to the old lubrication gumming up.
In the mid to late 70s I was in my teens and got my first job washing dishes at a greasy spoon. Once I discovered Rock music I was Hooked. I began buying a couple of 8-tracks every time I would get paid. In the end I had accumulated over 100 tapes. I had a low end Sound design player I received for Christmas and thought it was the greatest thing. At the time if I would have had this player I would have thought it was the greatest thing ever!
Love the 8 track videos
Brings me back to the early 70s as a kid with our quadraphonic unit that had an 8 track player
There is a certain universal language between engineers .. I can send a drawing to India .. and someone will understand what I'm saying despite the language barrier.
It's a bit more difficult with the spoken or written word - I know because I've done it, and am frankly quite proud of how concise I can be. Harder still when trying to instruct the layman.
Perhaps some bias, as I am familiar with the technology - but I think you do an awesome job of describing the working of the kit, what you're doing, and why.
Feynman was quite good at this as well.
It's an art. You sir, are an artist.
By the way, that New York album by Lou Reed is in my opinion one of his very best. It is recorded wonderfully but also simply, and is a proper 'adult' look at New York and it's infamous milieu.
2.5% error by ear alone? Absolutely commendable! Well done.
I really burst out laughing when I realized what you did with "Don't stop me now" :D And an amazing video overall as always!
Really good fix (bodge) job. I would say you fix them and I'd be more than happy with the results if I was to do the same job. There is no better feeling than taking something from 30% working to 100%. Excellent video
WOW - It's been 40 years since I gave it the Ole "Smack to Fix". Great demonstration of a Lost Art!
For what it's worth, if my math is correct, you need to increase the diameter of the drive pulley by 20%. That is, if it's originally 10mm, it needs to be 12mm to bring the speed up appropriately. And that means adding a band of half the difference of those thicknesses, since the band's thickness will add to the radius twice.
It may seem a bit agressive but I have a reel to reel recorder that had really bad incrusted tape oxidation that wouldn't come off with alcohol and sounded really muffled on the left channel, since I didn't have anything to lose I just went ahead and polished the head with Brasso Metal Polish and boy did it make it shine! That R2R sounds like new!
growing up in this time I love to see that people are preserving this old tech.
To young people this stuff looks so "rube gold-berg" like you can put 1000 songs on one usb stick
so it make all this stuff look so silly now
Im 30, i own a 8 track, used to own one of these.
It's "Heath Robinson" in the UK. He also predated Rube Goldberg by more than a decade. I think just using the term "clockwork" is probably more accurate.
I have no particular interest in getting an 8-track working, though I did end up with a tossed quadraphonic 8-track player and can't say that I won't feel an urge to tinker with it someday. But I will take the occasional cartridge if it's interesting. The other day I found three Walter/Wendy Carlos tapes, and one of them even used a different kind of foam that hadn't self-destructed.
In the 1980s growing up I had access to a hand me down 8track player. I prolly had access to maybe 40-50
8 tracks… Saturday mornings listening to the Rolling Stones was some fond memories
hello Techmoan, I remember seeing a carousel-shaped cartridge player work that was capable of reproducing 24 Hs. contents of the programming of Radio Municipal of the city of Buenos Aires, I wish you could get one of those and tell us how it works. great job.
Techmoan reviewed a compact cassette carousel player a while back. Search "Fascinating Vintage 20 cassette Carousal" on you tube.
You can cut tape at angle so it forms triange to avoid sudden step for belt
Ah memories. We used to have one of those console stereos that looked like a piece of furniture where the lid lifted up to reveal a record player, am/fm radio, cassette player/recorder and an 8-track player/recorder as well. Going to Thrifty's and buying records and blank 8 tracks to make mixes on 8 track so we could listen to them on our quadrasonic 8 track player in the car. Sounded great at the time!
@3:15 In the CD-era they drilled a 1mm hole right thru both the case AND the CD. The CD error correction could handle that. (Others just made a slot in the case, like on your cassette.)
😂 the “don’t stop me noooow” -moment was hilarious 🎶
Watching these repair videos chronologically allows you to view Techmaon's slow descent into becoming a hardware repair technician.
Bit of a tip for you - if you want to check the speed of the song and don’t want have a wow and flutter meter, playing the same song along on Spotify will give you a great reference point on timing. If the songs on the 8 track (or other piece of kit) are slightly out you can easily tell and adjust. Spotify allows you to easily restart the song again and again until you’ve got it bob on.
Or you could just cue up the CD version and play that, no internet required.
Or just play the 8-track cart in a working machine.
@@8bitwiz_ Harder to skip through to the next song on the album and line it up. Spotify (or TH-cam but that has some dodgy song speeds) allows you to skip around way more precisely.
Increase the spring tension on the track changing arm. The solenoid works against the spring and then when the solenoid releases the spring does the work of changing the tracks by rotating the white plastic cog wheel. You can see at the base of the spring, the first few coils are pulled apart. I don't know it that is because the spring is stretched to the arm or if the spring is really stretched when removed from the arm.
Our Price definitely cut notches in tape cases in the early 90s - I have a few cut price tapes from back then (with the receipts tucked inside) with the cut outs
Great ingenuity on the speed adjustment! Several years ago I adjusted the speed of a Realistic 3-cartridge changer using the internal screws of its 13.2 volt DC motor, should have tried something like this instead!
Thanks for the great video. PTFE tape (Plumbers Teflon tape) wound in the same direction of the rotation could also make a good substitute for the sellotape. Keep it up! Cheers
PTFE tape seems like what you don't want. You're going to cause the belt to slip.
PTFE is very slippery, not a good idea.
Your own test tapes were a great selection of nostalgic tracks, thanks for the free shivers :D
8 tracks are so cool, like a clunky, analog CD. Man this thing wouldn't be 70's tech if you didn't have to smack it occasionally to make it work... I'm having vertical hold flashbacks from the old TV sets I grew up with...
That was amazingly lucky that you got so close to the right speed. Nice job!
Love it when you take things apart! The mechanics and contacts at 27:50? That is a thing of beauty!