Hipac - Fixes, fails and a flash of inspiration
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ต.ค. 2021
- I've been playing around with getting my 'Hipac' BGM player to work at the right speed. Can swapping a capacitor really change the speed of a motor? I put that to the test and learn a couple of things along the way.
LINKS:
My first video about the Hipac format: • Hipac - The lost tape...
The Crown A-800 changer: • An unusual player for ...
Sparky Projects video regarding the cap change: • Tape Deck Motor Speed
-------------- SUBSCRIBE -----------------
th-cam.com/users/Techmoan?...
------------ Merchandise ----------------
teespring.com/stores/techmoan...
------------ SUPPORT --------------
This channel can be supported through Patreon
/ techmoan
******Patrons usually have early access to videos******
--------- Outro Music ----------
Over Time - Vibe Tracks • Over Time - Vibe Track...
----- Outro Sound Effect -----
ThatSFXGuy - • Six Million Dollar man...
----- AFFILIATED LINKS/ADVERTISING NOTICE ------
All links are Affiliated where possible.
When you click on links to various merchants posted here and make a purchase, this can result in me earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network & Amazon.
I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to AMAZON Sites (including, but not limited to Amazon US/UK/DE/ES/FR/NL/IT/CAN)
Regularly asked question
Q) Why are there comments from days ago when this video has just gone live today?
A) Patrons / techmoan usually have early access to videos. I'll show the first version of a video on Patreon and often the feedback I get results in a video going through further revisions to improve it. e.g. Fix audio issues, clarify points, add extra footage or cut extraneous things out. The video that goes live on youtube is the final version. - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
"Just f'ing stream music" Looks like the whole point of the channel shot right over some dude's head. Legendary.
He would probably shout "just use a gun!" at a fencing contest.
🤣
Probably thinks TM always reviews new soundbars.
Some musical genres AREN'T on any streaming service. Spotify is a lot better than, say, Napster, but I could come across a music streaming service that didn't play "my music of the moment." Gabby Pahinui? Who's that? Taimane Gardner? Never heard of him. I expect that even Spotify might not have any Bill Kaiwa and the Maile Serenaders.;) "Kama'aina Songs" was an LP, but it never made it to music CD, as far as I know. (The perform a "hymn speed" version of "Hawai'i Aloha" that's out of fashion, these days.;)
Yeah.. that guy is obviously jelly and a troll, shitty personality to call someone who provides so mutch joy a "loser" (my bet is that he saw his reflection in the screen and wrote what he saw) :D
It's a lot nicer to see things like this rather than "look at me and how I successfully fixed this thing!" in 60 second TikTok format. So many "repair" types are more encouraged to beat their chests and check those boxes just so they can declare how good at thing they are, even though they only ever show the highlights. It's incredible to see someone try to fix something and go through the little foibles and pitfalls involved, succeed or fail, and thus give a more immersive experience. That way it feels like a video worth making time for, rather than just having it in the background.
not only that, but we get to see it done by Matt, with his considerable frankness and charm :)
Ah...such memories! You took me back to when I was just a young tyke of about 5 years old (circa 1970) and my father's retrofitted 8-track player that had a habit of ingesting some of his favourite tapes. As he slowly extracted the curled and twisted brown ribbon-type substance, I would learn a lot of new words that my kindergarten teacher seemed to find rather distressing.
Hahaha! Great comment!
I have very similar memories in the same era, with the added bonus that my father was trying to be a country music star. At show and tell in kindergarten, singing your father's latest cover "Don't Make Love to Mary with Mabel on Your Mind" will get a note sent home...
“You’re a grown adult, you know what to do” - best video ending and should win you the Internet for a week.
Mat has so much integrity that he doesn't even need to say he shows us the mistakes because he has integrity.
I read that in Randy Marsh's voice.
@@uK8cvPAq ’tegridy!
Should have a “previously on Techmoan” dramatic voice intro with black and white recap when you do sequel videos lol
Yes, please. Do this.
With dramatic music too.
@@bvs56 Played at the wrong speed of course :D
@@johnsrabe Reminds me it's been quite a while since I've seen his "time machine" he used on some videos, specially of brand new old stock unboxings.
with puppets, of course
I've been watching the movies nominated for Best Movie this year lately and I have to say these 2 Techmoan videos about an obscure HiPac player are far more entertaining and engaging than those will ever be.
For a "failure" this was maybe the most fun I ever had with a Techmoan episode! That female voice revelation alone... :D
I love the fact that you did a definite test to make sure who was right 😂. To be honest, most of the times, debates on TH-cam are so ridiculously tough.
No they're not!
@@carlhartwell7978 don’t start.
@Here's the Scoop ! The comment wasn’t suppose to start something but to acknowledge the fact that he worked on fact! 😂
Especially this one. Even if replacing the cap didn't work, there was no harm in trying as you are replacing it with one of the same value as the original had back when it was new.
Now he just needs to track down each and every person that said it wouldn't change the speed, and rub their nose in it.
Ask the internet for their opinion and they will give you an answer, any answer, regardless of whether they know what they're talking about or not.
Is that true?
But tell the internet the an incorrect fact and they'll find the correct fact for you
How strongly someone believes that they are right about something has little to do with the likelihood that they actually are. In fact, the inverse is often true. That's why I trust people who have good questions more than people who claim to have answers.
Sometimes you ask two different people and get three different answers. On a yes/no question.
If they're men.
From a data recovery standpoint - this has been informative. In all seriousness, there are decades of various media that are now "the only copy" left for many a project, let alone "pop music". Too many fools/sages have failed to realize that issue.
"It's a bit of a weird video.." LOL they all are and that's why we love 'em. Saturday isn't Saturday without Techmoan. :)
This is EXACTLY why I like TechMoan, honest journey of discovery where you have learned something along the way. Thanks Mat for not doing an Insta or Tik Tok style video, I feel those types of videos are not about discovery or learning but about increasing the significance of the creator. Cheers :)
It's the way old TH-cam worked. Everybody showed everything, not only the good bits. Now everyone aims for perfection and never show their failures. Only a handful of creators show you everything, which can educate you the most.
Nice to watch you tinker with audio equipment. Which is imo what you do. A dedicated ameteur enthusiast sharing his hobby. Thanks @Techmoan.
The sad thing is, people are doing that because sometimes they have to. The TH-cam algorithm just seems to like it for some reason, so people do it to make the algorithm recommend their videos, TH-cam will hopefully change that soon
Came down here to say the same.
Couldn't agree more
Looking forward to four years from now when someone in Japan connects some dots and sends you some niche cassettes which turn out to be for this machine.
And they in turn will turn out to be yet another music format that happens to use the same cartridges but only in South Korea.
@@marijnl Better yet, Kim Jon Il's secret collection of Japanese Enya
for background music / distributed audio, another great reason for Mono is since you cant just set up a right and left channel speaker, you need many speakers to fill a store, you'd want every speaker playing the same audio. It would be annoying to walk through a store and sometimes hear the right channel or sometimes only the left. So in this way, mono simplifies the system.
He already made that conclusion in the first video.
Yes, I have a restaurant near me that hasn't figured this out, so depending on where you are (inside, outside, bathroom) you generally only hear one channel.
The Sherlock Holmes of obsolete audio!
One other chap mentioned this trick way down below in the comments, but it's worthy of repeating. When you're opening up a system for repair it's good practice to unplug it, turn the power switch back to ON and let it sit for awhile. Then you can bridge the power plug with a resistor or even an insulated screwdriver. Either way you're reducing the likelihood of getting a surprise while poking around inside.
Excellent work as always sir!
Love the "do what you want" outro! Up there with The Critical Drinker's "Go away, now" 😀
Completely agree! 👍
I read that in a Scottish accent!
Tied with Scott Manley's intro.^^
I appreciate that when you went to the 'past' it had a slight sepia tone to it.
Because as you all know, the past is always browned with age.
My personal favorite example of that was when Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare showed sepia-toned flashbacks to the old-timey year of 1986. We not only had very nice, stable color in the 80s, we even had some HD video!
if you're having trouble with browning, try cutting your time with a plastic knife, works for lettuce!
@@TheRealColBosch True, but on the other hand a lot more people smoked back then. 😉
Not every repair works out, but it’s often well worth trying. Great content Mat!
That little bit at the end about me choosing what buttons to push made my day!
Thanks for the mention, hopefully it will help others.
You could add a capacitor in parallel with that one to increase the speed further, maybe a 0.25 or 0.5, but you'll have to keep an eye on the temperature of the motor, not sure how far it can be pushed ;)
I would try to go at it with math. The speed of the motor and size of the capacitor have to be in some relation.
@@HappyBeezerStudios the text on the circuit board was clear, 0.6uF for 60Hz and 1uF for 50Hz. Matt's taken a .6uF capacitor out and put a 1uF in, so that was clearly the solution for converting from 60 to 50Hz.
The best advice would have been to add a 0.4µF cap in parallel and keep the original in place. Greetings from a physicist.
@@mojoblues66 It's a ~45 year old capacitor in a coroded case, I'd change it anyway.
@@mojoblues66 Why is this the 'BEST" solution ? Are physicists famous for overcomplicated and redundant solutions of dubious reliability?
Sir, please allow me to congratulate you. What you are doing here ist invaluable, precious work. In academic circles it is called "media archeology"!
The fact that they printed the information on the circuit board was all the validation that was needed. Glad it's working properly.
Heck, I enjoy * all * the content on this channel, even the video of sorting through the millions of broken minidisc players. :)
What a trip.
It's always nice to see the full journey than just magical repairs, and coupled with your sense of humor along your style of review is why we watch the videos you make!
I actually have quite a big stream behind my house, but it runs dry on hotter days and freezes over in the winter, so I don’t think this “streaming music” is for me. Guess I’ll be sticking with Hipac…
Your videos are amazing! Thank you for even keeping some of your struggles in the final videos, as they are also informative. Before the years of ubiquitous ICs, capacitors were absolutely used in timing circuits. They are also one of the most failure prone components in vintage electronics. Particularly electrolytic capacitors. There are two main types of capacitors: ceramic capacitors that often look like cute little beige or red-ish disks and electrolytic capacitors that look like cute little blue, silver or brown barrels or cans. They look like cans because they actually have electrolytic goo inside. They are an electrochemical component. As electrolytic capacitors age they dry out inside (like the rest of us) and no longer work to spec. Unfortunately, they also tend to rupture and leak highly corrosive electrolytic deliciousness all over your circuit board. So for vintage gear that is not going to a museum, I tend to replace all the caps even if they are not bulging (which is a good indicator they are going to leak). This is part of the joy of through-hole electronic components. New surface mount components are not immune to failure as they tend to separate from boards over heat cycles and then work intermittently making troubleshooting a bit of a nightmare.
What a rollercoaster. I would never have twigged the machine uses a different speed tape, I would have just come to the conclusion the speed fix hadn't worked. Impressive stuff that you managed to work out the true story. I don't think I'd have the patience for everything you had to do in this video, but glad you did. Cheers.
For me, I particularly like this style of video. Knowing the weird issues and the journey to get to the understanding is part of the joy of old tech for me.
I listened to 8-tracks in my cars for years back in the day. The degraded pressure pads, twisting tape, foil failures, tape eating capstans all brought back fond memories. And then as the format aged, pinch rollers turning into black goo and constant head cleaning due to degraded oxide on the tape. Good times!
Had a friend who had a 1978 Cadillac El Dorado (in 1994) and it had an 8-track in the dashboard. That played everything just a little too fast. It was wild. At the time, I was running a home system that actually had an 8-track tape recorder in it, and so I’d tape some things so we could have modern sounds. My favorite was Sepultura (Brazilian metal band) because they were already fast enough! OR SO WE THOUGHT!! 🤣
I still think the eight track is the perfect car stereo medium, because add a cassette tape adaptor (with a cassette adaptor inside of that) and you’ve got iPods and CD players and others at your disposal!
@@deralfenderson I had a 68 Plymouth with a factory 8-track. On that Eldorado, I wonder if a little bit of tape got wound around the capstan making it a little larger and speeding the tape up? Only reason I mention this is because it happened to me once. I also had a home deck that I recorded vinyl onto 8-tracks with for the car!
@@deralfenderson I don't care what formats are included in cars, what I'm upset about is how many cars now have totally non-replacable stereos. What is going to be the resale value of a 2018 car when it only uses an outdated Bluetooth standard and discontinued Apple CarPlay in 2028?
Meanwhile, a 2008 car can get brand new head units today from a variety of manufacturers
@@polygondwanaland8390 not speaking for all cars, but you can replace them in SOME cars... There are some chinese shops making android head units for modern cars, shaped to the modern dash and everything.
If i felt like it i could replace the screen in my 18 f150 with a big tesla style screen.
But, some are simply too integrated (software climate controls and whatnot) and i doubt those will ever be replaceable.
I still miss the 1din and 2din radio days though, that was so easy...
My old 70s 8-track player works just fine, and the only maintenance is did was use a cleaning cassette one a while ago
"You're a grown adult" i mean i am NOW, but ive been watching since i was 15 or 16, always love the old neat stuff you find :3
I now live in US but watching you reminds me of the days I would buy all sorts of car boot stuff and taking it apart to get it working (sometimes). Now I can sit back and relax watching you do it. Thoroughly enjoyable content as usual, love your presentation style and honesty.
As someone who had trouble building Lego models by closing following the instructions, I fully understand how you felt when the capacitor turned out to be in the way of the speaker!
I'll never thumb down a techmoan video ever, this channel is brilliant and even if I don't gain anything from some of the content sometimes I still enjoy everything Matt shows us. I very much appreciated the detail and effort Matt puts into every video he makes.
I hit the thumb up before the video starts! Agree 100 percent.
Mat, you sir are an inspiration and a true historian/tinkerer…
As a child of the ‘80s, I’m still fascinated by the tech that brought us to today. The “bridge the gap” if you will.
Thank you for keeping this, and all of the past tech, alive.
For such an intelligent and thoughtful channel, it's amazing how low-quality some of the commenters are. I guess they're just jealous. Imagine thinking you were the first person to learn about streaming music and being so proud that you thought it was worth a sarcastic TH-cam comment.
Ha! That ending reveal. One you put it in the portable machine I had a eureka moment and thought back to another video you did before about another BGM Player and was like "I know where this is going!". Great as always :)
I had a really good laugh at that reveal : )
"Just stream music dude" is the most modern generation thing I heard, and it's such a pain in the rear, I can't stress that enough XD
I hope he was trolling ;p
Bet it was Max Gobshite
Bloke who doesn't understand what this channel is about. What good would it be if Techmoan would just make a video about how to use Spotify? Nobody needs to see that.
I am not sure if he just wanted to get his 10 seconds of fame by gettig his comment shown on video, or if he is really stupid enough to not understand that it is not about just listening to music but about exploring formats that were never really known in this part of the world (like this one) or formats that just disappeared from our everyday life.
No matter which one it is, it's pathetic anyway. I'd bet my ***** that Mat knows about Spotify and similar services. I just don't want to see him rambling on about boring streaming audio services of today when we can have videos like this. Maybe in 50 years someone (likely not Mat) will present 3D holographic videos to people (likely not including me) about Spotify, but this is not the time and channel for such.
I receive that comment often enough that back *in 2017* I made a puppet video addressing it th-cam.com/video/b6Xe8qLY7cw/w-d-xo.html
About 4 years back I thought Mat is going to run out of obsolete/discontinued formats to demonstrate very soon. Hasn't happened yet though.
Mr. Mat, it's always a pleasure to watch your videos. Thanks.
OMG that piece of garbage who said just stream music!
We love you, Mat. You inspired me to become a TH-cam creator, and I’m sure there are others. Your work in documenting these old machines is so appreciated and necessary. Your frustration is shared with all of us who have ever been in any of these old machines. And your sense of humor is greatly appreciated. If I wasn’t across the pond, pints would be on me this weekend. Thank you for everything you do.
Another great video with your usual honest and entertaining style of delivery. I could watch you 'tinker' with 'old tech' for hours (and sometimes do, lol).
My only reservation about your content is there's not enough of it. The wait between your videos sometimes seems like that agonising wait between my monthly computing magazines being published in the eighties!
that was hands down the best outro i've seen all year lol
way to make us feel like independent adults, instead of like slapping yesman!
but that playback issue gave me such a giggle after you figured it out. so worth it!
I cant see you standing in the rain for hours to document a particular steam-train. I expect you will be onboard, enjoying the experience. This is why I like watching you. You enjoy the "being there" part of your interest and you share this very well without falling into the rabbit hole....
I don't think I'll ever listen to a hi-pac cartridge in person, but I still appreciate seeing the lengths required to fix this machine and unravel the mystery.
On an unrelated note, I gotta say I sure do miss the definitely hilarious puppets.
I’m just a weirdo. I thought that first tape sounded better in “slow” mode. Like some crazy old-school Japanese sludge music.
I liked the effect to the point of imagining some alien dive bar where the singer and band just have slower metabolisms or something. :D And Techmoan could voice a silly puppet show with the sped-up version.
Vaporwave
It sounded very much like Tahitian traditional music and should be released.
The guy who clicked on one of your videos "telling you" about streaming audio made me laugh. He must be new here.
The world outside his little bubble must be so confusing.
I don't understand why he even clicked on the video. It obviously isn't his scene. Not to mention a lot of the songs on those carts are probably hard to find to even stream. He probably thought he was being clever. Seems a bit of a jackass.
If he was American that was a genuine comment, if he was British it was sarcasm.
@@solidamber hey now, I'm American.......okay, point taken. Lol.
Yes, streaming music. Where you own nothing and are subject to the whims of the stream provider. Sounds like a disappointing life. No wonder they came here to throw ignorant shade.
That bit at the end about Like/Dislike and Bells made me smile 😄
I'm quite surprised the capacitor change actually changed the speed! But then I suppose I'm accustomed to working with three-phase industrial motors; apparently single-phase capacitor-run motors can change speeds by changing capacitors. I've learned a thing today!
One of the rare channels that treats me like an adult. Appreciate those comments at the end.
Great video, great channel. 👍
I have to say, these videos really are a highlight of my week. Thank you Matt for taking us along on your quirky journeys through various interesting ideas you've explored. So glad this channel exists and keeps going strong!
I have to say I do love the way you do your videos.. They kind of have a narrative, complete with opening, the ideal goal, the battles of working out the issues, call backs to older episodes, (occasionally) needing back up & often a Victory at the end... or a TBC/Part 2
You really do make learning fun!! Thank you!!
I really enjoy you letting us learn along with you, from your mistakes as well as your successes and discoveries! Keep up the good work!
Love this channel - part of my Saturday routine - I just love seeing old formats and seeing what they can do.Thanks
I do love watching your channel, I get to see so many weird and wonderful machines I never knew existed. Putting that capacitor where the speaker lives, priceless, I can't tell you how many times something like that has happened to me.
Just in case anyone was wondering, the song at 7:34 is Matteiru Onna (待っている女 Woman waiting) by Hiroshi Itsuki. If you change the speed of the original song to 0.75x it will sound almost like it does here.
You my friend are a legend. I really appreciate the work and effort and time that goes into each and every one of your videos which is so easily overlooked i mean i just hit the play button and watch and job done! Nothing really in comparison. I've even watched those videos with titles that mean nothing and been absolutely been fascinated by the end and learned something new. Long may it continue, you have my total respect. Thank you!
Another very interesting video. I always enjoy your presentations Matt, and this one was great. I am, as always, impressed by your perseverance, dedication and honesty. Thanks.
I love watching you Mat. I love the fact that you don't shill to sponsors like "Protect your data with this" or "shave beter with that" - basically any "sponsor" you've had is relevent to your channel. I also love that you don't end with "smash that like button" or other such nonsense. A true king amoung men and - if I didn't live across the pond - I wuld love to have met you in person some day.
You, my friend have the patience of a Saint. I would have chucked the whole bit into the rubbush. Stay well.
I really enjoyed this video for both the ‘cap speed up to 60 Hz’ section and the ‘epiphany’ of intentional slowing of tape speed per application to background music. For the first half I was on the edge of my seat: will it work? For the second half, I was like, ‘Wow, what a canny guy to realize and share his new insight.’ I can imagine you finishing the first half, doing a comparison with the mobile unit, pausing to say, “Wait a minute, something isn’t right, this doesn’t add up correctly- the one doesn’t sound like the other-what’s going on here?” Then the epiphany. Anyway, very entertaining and a tribute, not only to your integrity (as others have mentioned) but to your thoroughness, curiosity, persistence, and genuine original intelligence. You managed to put 2 and 2 together with no one to guide you. You inspire the rest of us to work hard and think independently. 👍👍👍👍 Good (be Great) Job!
"You can't tell me what to do!!!"
(Hits the like button just to spite you)
Likewise
I did the same and even commented to drive slightly more engagement for a little extra spite.
Indeed. It's the only appropriate response
I always think it's funny when youtubers say stuff like "if you like my videos, click subscribe to stay up to date". Yes, thanks, I know how TH-cam works.
@@ironcito1101 Thing is. They know it's patronising but the data doesn't lie. It works.
I thought I saw a curl on the leading edge of that hunk of tape when you pot it in the cart. Ah well, it happens.
Strong suggestion: please find yourself a 1/8" "Gibson Girl" splicing block, or if you already have one, please use it. Back in the 1970s I spent many a very long day splicing tape on carts and reel to reel, and a splicing block with built-in hold-down pads makes things SO much easier than a razor blade and a flat surface. I could make 1/4" splices in about 10 seconds that were always straight and would not pull apart under considerable abuse. 1/8" tape was fiddly and took more like 40 seconds for a good splice, but it was still easy to do. Foil splice tape is more of a challenge than mylar, and a Gibson Girl splice block saves the world here.
Wow, that thing looks pretty neat.
That is so nifty! Here in Germany I worked with a crappy cutting track, razor blade and adhesive strips which always stuck to the tips of my fingers and not to the tape! 40 years later and I am seriously envious :-D (oh, and btw, I saw the curl too and thought... oopsie...)
What I like about this channel is it makes me feel I'm not the only one that bad things happen to. Thank you so much.
These cartridges remind me of the PlayTape system we had here in the USA back in the late 60's. I got one for my 6th birthday in 1967. I could play them over and over again and they didn't sound scratchy like my records did. To a 6 year old kid, it was portable audio heaven LOL!
23:42 I tell you what: there are indeed some songs for real which sound better when played at a slower speed than their actual speed!
That was a really good episode Matt, very interesting!
Excellent videos, Techmoan! I thought I'd heard every commercial audio system, but this was completely new to me! You may well have established yourself as THE global authority on this system! Thanks for staying with it and posting, both videos!
You're a good guy and I'm thankfull that you show your mistakes also. Even when I don't have a clue what you've could make better in the special case with the tin foil but it gives me a better feeling seeing that I'm not the only one who's making things worse from time to time when I'm trying to repair. I really appreciate your work. Thanks a lot. 😊👍🏼
You release these videos at the most bizarre hours. I swear, it's like you're on the other side of the planet or something.
He is, lol
Ik. And he has some strange accent or something, very bizzare indeed
When working with tape media, whether splicing or adding foil strips, you need to make sure you have no exposed adhesive showing when you're done. Otherwise, the adhesive will cause the tape to stick to either the capstan or pinch roller and an awful mess will result. I've also learned this through experience.
your channel has quickly risen to the top of my most watched & favorite channels out there.🍻
Am thankful you've effected some change towards a proposed goal without having to go to earths' end. It seems fanciful that the later units would bother changing recording rate, but it would force folks to use only their dedicated Hipac tapes for Commercial Settings. Thank you for the updates on your findings.
12:22 мам, я в телевизоре! :D
This is actually a really great video. I mean all of your videos are interesting and informative, but this one, with all the twists, tape eating, and slow speed, was actually even more so than usual. I'm actually very curious about the Crown A-800 changer and the exact tape carts it plays. Hopefully, Mat, you can find those tapes, learn more about the system, and come back for a part 4 in the HiPac series!
Also, I don't blame you for being somewhat annoyed at the loss of some of the tape from that cart. It's always upsetting when a portion of a tape is ruined and has to be cut and spliced to save the rest. Many people under the age of 30 will never know what that's like. Also, given how old these carts are, it's unlikely that you'd even find this recording nowadays in another media format, so that lost minute or so of tape is an irreplaceable bit of history there.
That one comment is annoying too, but I liked the way you handled it. You made a fun little joke out of someone deciding to insult you, which is awesome! :) After all, not everything is available to stream. Anyone who's been following the whole Aaliyah music rights thing for a while knows that her music was withheld for a long time, unavailable for streaming or even purchase on digital platforms or even physical media for nearly 2 decades since her death.
That has changed now, of course, but before someone posts a comment saying "just stream music", they should consider that with not every song ever recorded being available to stream or purchase in some format nowadays, one would have to go to an older media format to get hold of certain music. Without you and others like you getting into these old formats and systems, getting them to work, and keeping them in working order once you learn how they work, so much history would just be lost because they've been forgotten over the years.
Matt and owning the mistakes is why I come back, because those mistakes lead to realisations about the machines he is displaying/working on. So keep it up, show us more and hopefully you can soon show the "nothipac" with correct BM tapes for this machine.
Another entertaining dive into some unique equipment. I have to say your videos inspired me to fix an old slide projector a few years ago just by inspecting the mechanics of it and doing some fabrication. You helped make for a nice presentation of old slides my family got to see which they might never had been able to otherwise.
The thing the streaming music guy doesn't understand, is that lots of us prefer to listen to our music on a format that is more expensive and less convenient. Hipac seems like a very expensive and inconvenient option, so, short of hiring a troop of wandering minstrels, it's probably the way to go.
I love that you 'served' the so called experts by fitting the different capacitor. I remember when I bought my first record player I was told the speed was synced to the Hz of the supply, it always played a tad fast, I had ideas of fitting a home grown speed controller but a capacitor would have been an elegant solution and infinitely easier.
If that would work for your deck. I don't see any reason any decks that weren't made for use in Japan would have this kind of design.
I can picture walking into Techmoan’s house…the Hipac mounted in a closet somewhere playing Japanese shopping mall soundtracks, piped throughout the house, life is good
Your perseverance and patience is incredible, Mat! Nice work.
Love your videos. My experience with these motor caps has been entirely in the USA, where the frequency is 60Hz. Still, knowing how these work, I'd bet that the old cap had gone leaky and was way below its correct value. Generally, the value is not TOO important, as log as you're in the ballpark. +100%, -50% is usually close enough. The cap's purpose is to produce a 90 degree phase shift for the second pair of windings on the motor. The motor will run slow if the cap value is too small because it cannot pass enough current to power the second winding. In some cases, a bad cap results in the motor not running at all.
1.0 µF for 50 Hz mains, 0.6 µF for 60 Hz mains. That means there is some overlap if we go by -50% to +100%, the 1.0 µF can be 0.5 - 2.0 µF and the 0.6 µF can be 0.3 - 1.2 µF. So the 0.6 µF for 60 Hz is within the -50% of the 1.0 µF for 50 Hz and the 1.0 µF is within the +100% of the 0.6µF for 60 Hz. What happens if the cap is inbetween the values of 0.5 - 1.2 µF? I assume it has to be more precise in this case.
And no mention of mains voltage, which in Japan is 100V with both 50 Hz and 60 Hz (unlike North America with 120V/60Hz or Europe with 230V/50Hz), that might have some additional impact.
Most air conditioners have a capacitor on the second winding. I know from experience, if you don’t get the value right the fan motor runs slow or fast. In fact, the replacement capacitor looked like an A/C capacitor.
I appreciate you treating your audience as adults :)
Techmoan - I appreciate your integrity in showing your failures. You may not be a trained engineer, but that's thinking like a good engineer.
I respect your tenacity Matthew !
The only TH-camr to encourage given a thumbs down! Brilliant
Well that comment from the so called 'electrical engineer' stating changing the capacitor makes no difference makes him look like a right twonk! Lol. Good for you Matt for not taking no for an answer and getting it running.
Probably some kid midway through his EE degree.
Quite sad they apparently never built a resonator with a capacitor to generate PWM
Ahahahahahha.....bunch of Twonks! 😂
That Supposed electical Engineer apparently has no idea about RLC circuits.
f = 1 over 2 pi multiplied by square root of LC anyone?
i think most of us were just stuck on how insane the idea of using a cap to regulate speed in a tape device instead of using a synchronous motor was.
like it was certainly possible to change the speed with a cap but just seemed like it would be very inaccurate and the cap in there looked like a polarized electrolytic.
never once occurred to me that they wouldn't care about the speed as long as it didn't vary and was kinda close.
Thank you for all your efforts to share the Hipac with us!
So, while fixing a machine and cartridge for one obscure, forgotten media, we've inadvertently stumbled on to yet another, _even more,_ obscure and forgotten media.
That has to be the most Techmoan thing ever.
What an utter jerk that guy who made the streaming comment is. What you do, Matt, is wonderful. It makes Saturday evenings something to look forward to.
The guy that posted about streaming music, obviously came to the wrong channel.
Just to counter some of the negativity you get, I want to tell you that your videos are amazing, love what you do, love watching you experiment and learning with you, keep doing what you do.
Interesting stuff! I'm glad you got the system working at the 50 HZ frequency for your country. When I used to repair power supplies, the capacitors and transformer windings were already in place, and to change frequencies was a matter of jumping a different pin or switching a small jumper.
The foil tape is exactly the same I used for the BOT (beginning of tape) marker for the 2540 bpi backup tapes used on the DEC TU78 and other tape backup systems. It appears these small Hi-Pac and 8-track tapes suffered from the same ills of the tape drying out and falling off. The biggest difference is the BOT strip prevented the tape from loading and didn't cause the media from being eaten by the drive.
When trying to fix old, sketchy 70's electronics, sometimes Bob's definitely not your uncle.
Hey Mat! What a journey, man! My goodness, back in the day, the few times a cassette tape was mangled like this I always wanted to cry (a couple of times, with my favourite tapes, I actually did). I loved the capacitor test. BUT, the high point is your reversed psychology making people subscribe and hit the bell 😜 Cheers!
Thanks for sharing. I never cease to be amazed at the weird stuff you come up with. The audio format rabbit hole is a deep one. ;)
I have yet to see a video by the Techmoan that I did not enjoy. Always a pleasure!
We've still got a Clas Ohlson in Reading's Broad Street shopping area.
Was gonna say the same thing! Hello Neighbour lol. However, I believe they have closed all their other stores and now only operating online via Amazon. The Reading store is the warehouse to support the online orders.
I never knew they were active in the UK. When I lived in Norway the frequent trips to CO to buy things like screwdrivers was part of my Saturday routine
Seriously hard core Enka, Matt!
Haha, half of Reading seems to be Techmoan fans, was just thinking that we still have one here. 🤓
Perhaps a "solution" would be to rig up two or more capacitors with a switch to select tape speed.
I'm glad you put this video up. Follow up are important. They show you care not just for your equipment, but also for us the viewers. Keep it up and we'll keep watching.
Thanks for summarising all the pro and con arguments at the beginning. That was educational!