Thank you Michael for a great video that took me back to a time long, long ago. I remember as a 19 year old apprentice, in 1976 ish, being sent to the Grundig training school in London, Newlands Park near Crystal Palace if my memory recalls correctly, for a weeks training course on their first video recorder. On the Friday we had to sit an exam and only if I passed would the small retailer, R.J, Taylor TV in Great Yarmouth, whom I was working for, be allowed to stock the product, a big responsibility at 19. Your videos really interest me and I always look forward to seeing a new one pop up, thanks again.
I have loads more vintage stuff to film yet , I cant say I have been a great fan of Grundig stuff but back in the 80 s I did have Grundig sending me free service manuals but I did virtually nothing with the awful grundig VHS players .
I remember buying packs of idler tyres for those machines. Lots of happy memories brought back by this video. I can also smugly report that I was shouting look at the capstan while you were checking the takeup torque!
Forgot all about the capstan at the time but it did come back to me ! I use to fit genuine sharp idlers but I do remember later on some company selling just the rubber tyre with the slogan why replace the plastic when its only the rubber that wears out.
Very nice vcr did hundreds of them, in fact I've still got a spare reel idler motor pulley that glued onto the shaft, looking back now at those machines they were incredibly well made, not designed to just last beyond the warranty period, and those designers really thought about us who had to repair them with that detailed service manual and thoughtful layout, very good and happy days.
Not seen one of those for years. The build quality of these early 80s Sharp VCRs was probably at it's peak and the idler was an easy fix courtesy of Willowvale.
some of the VCA series that preceded these were also an excellent machine but by the earley 90s sharp went the same as everyone else producing cheaper stuff that was rubbish .
You know, as soon as you loaded a cassette and pressed play, I instantly remembered the accompanying sounds. This has to be one of the most memorable sequence of notes/sounds from a VCR, (alongside the likes of early dial-up modem handshakes etc) that exist. I'm sure I could identify that deck from just listening whilst being blindfolded. Great machines. I was really impressed with mine - fantastic picture. Thank you for revitalising my memories Michael.
Probably one of the best range of video recorders of the time , we sold them on piece buying them from Michael Blacks in Newcastle and Zed Electronics from Leeds and spares were readily available from Willow Vale and some from Charles Hyde . That one looks in very good condition Michael and good addition to your collection I also remember the Dv1600 tv with the integral remote ...Nice memories
I'm sure you could buy spares from Sharp themselves before Willow Vale had the "exclusive" right to the Sharp genuine spares however we used to get some from Charles Hyde in Pocklington however there was some friction between the 2 companies about this as I recall at a Sharp trade show .
Loving all the historical photos from your past Michael you are one talented repair engineer and know your way around like your back of your hand 👍👍👍👍👍👍
Not as good as I use to be , no service manuals for new sets, board only replacement, the industry is ruined now , all we have to look back on is memories.
OK a mere 8 minute & forty nine seconds in I had to stop the Video and comment!, Back in my day (don't laugh kids !!! , but yeah I hear it !!! LOL! ), in my youth as a Tv/Video Service Man , I used to repair these Sharp VCR's, and as you said they are / were an absolute pleasure !!!, I have such fond memories of these units, they were so well built & so reliable , oh the irony of the excellent manuals that i had access too as we were warranty agents for Sharp, Panasonic (National Panasonic they were back then!), JVC , Sony , & AWA ( Thorn EMI Australia ), with Mitsubishi internals, ETC , anyway as you said there were a few common issues like the end sensor lamp, Reel idler Tyre, sometimes the reel motor, which just before you said it, I said to my self they upgraded it with a knurled brass sleeve instead of the original plastic one, & the odd pinch roller here & there, other than that it was customer misuse & abuse, like kids feeding them with all kinds of stuff , & damage to the tape carriage Assy, & cleaning dirty heads and worn out drive belts of coarse , I have fond memories of that time that you just brought back to me like it was yesterday, Thank you Sir I think you are a lucky duck indeed to have one of these units to work on, or am I just a crazy old man ???? , anyway cheers & thanks , Paul from Australia :).
I make these videos because it is a trip down memory lane for me also and Im a person who lives in the past , these were my happiest days in the trade and I want to re live them again, which is actually quite popular with the youtube community .
@@michaeldranfield7140 Thank you for the Videos & channel & the trip down memory lane, I'm glad to see & read that I'm not crazy, or if I am?, at least I'm in good company :), cheers n Thanx & best regards , Paul from Australia.
Most Excellent! Thanks for sharing! As you say, these were bread and butter repair jobs, back in the days. The Brass Pulleys, with the Knurled outer surface were available as a seperate part from Sharp, back in the days. The old worn out plastic one could be removed by slipping a pair of long nose pliers under it and pushing them through between the motor faceplate and pulley, and the taper of the pliers would gently slip it off. With the new brass one came with an interference fit large plastice shim / washer, so the exact height of the new slip-fit brass pulley could be set exact ly before bonding to the motor spindle. I then use super glue gell (not liquid super glue) to bond it to the spindle. Liquid super glue would bond instantly as soon as the pulley was pushed down and before reaching the exact position, sat on the plastic shim. Many thanks again.
Wow brings back good memories, especially those pics of you, I can remember buying the tv mag when you used to do the blog, with mr bullock and co, all I remember is talk of snubber circuits and chopper circuits,could never get my head round it, and still can't 😅
Must be over 10 years now when Television magazine closed, I had an advert in the very last issue, they couldn't afford to pay me so I asked for a free advert
i used to love VCR's years ago, i miss those days. i actually collect Old Boomboxes now from the 80s, i have a Sharp GF777, the Tape decks used to work, then one day they just stopped working, i downloaded the Service manual but i find them hard to read, and i can't think of where to look. i have a GF8989 and the deck failed on that, i found it to be a transistor not far from the plug on the main board.. Oh by the way, i used to fiddle with electronics in the 80s and 90s, but i was only ever an amateur, i used go to Willow Vale for my parts, and those parts catalogues used to be sat on the counter when you walked in the door..
Unfortunately the Sharp company no longer exists , they closed down and sold the brand name off , in later years when the internet became more popular Sharp published all there service manuals on there technical website for dealers to download but when they sold the name to UMC they closed the technical website down and all the manuals disappeared ,
Oh, the nostalgia! Thank you! I still have several VHS-players stored together with many boxes of recordings. Now I just have to get the time to digitize then. So much material no longer available.
I am not surprised you found a belt kit for a 386. I had many more 386 models in for repair than the 9xxx series. It's a shame we live in this throw-away world now. I don't think Willow Vale, HRS, Seme, CHS are around anymore. So sad really.
@@manolisgledsodakis873 I left the trade in 2003 and only maintain my own equipment now. I am amazed that after a search I found Wiltsgrove in Digbeth is still going, though I only ever used them now and then.
@@manolisgledsodakis873 Telepart were traditionally very expensive compared to all the other suppliers, I only ever used tele part for semiconductors no one else had.
Lost count how many I repaired and yes indeed the idlers were comon as was the lamp, not convinced the brass pulley on the reel motor did solve the problem totally. I seem to remember an E to E fault which was a transistor on the top board. Loading belt was fairly common and I had one or two where the felt pad parted company from the back tension band.
Excellent Service and repair Micheal. This Machine was really special to us in the 1980s and was very reliable. I still have mine and it works perfectly. There also was some NTSC versions of the Sharp VC-9300 which were available in japan only model Sharp VC-110ED which was exactly the same apart from the VHS logo was replaced with the logo My-Video and the clock display was lit up in blue instead of green. There was also another model which i am trying to find, Sharp VC-488X which is very difficult to find. I am ready to buy the Sharp VC-488X if any one would have it. Thank you Sir...
I do have a few other sharp videos but I don't recognise the 488X model , I'm guessing your in a different country and the 488X may be specific to where you live ?
Hi, Micheal. I am in the U.K. I have seen the Sharp VC-488X in the U.K which was a slime line silver color Hi-Fi machine. This machine is similar looking to the Sharp VC-496N (Not Hi-Fi) and has a reel led rotation indicator on the cassette housing flap along with Hi-Fi led indicators near the clock display. Maybe you have not come across it. I am not sure if this machine was PAL or NTSC but it is a really nice looking VCR...
I remember that Model , Hifi with an led tape transport indicator on the cassette door ? if I remember correctly ? and I seem to recall that unit had a wired remote control as well ???, sorry I don't have one !, wish i did !!!! Sigh :((( , anyway good luck with your search, if you find a PAL one & don't want it ? hint hint ! :)
@@pwrrpw319Hi. Yes, This machine (Sharp VC488X) was exactly as you described. It was a really nice looking VCR and its very difficult to find it. I have remembered that this was a PAL machine. You had many models similar in design to it but this one stood out separately, hence the reason why it has become extremely rare nowadays. Sharp VC488X is totally forgotten these days but I'm glad that you still remember it...
@@Televid4 Hi Televid4, yes I still remember , almost like it was yesterday, I so enjoyed repairing these machines, they were an absolute pleasure to work with, and engineered so well, it's such a shame as you said that so much tech from back in the day has been discarded & forgotten, I would love to set up a museum of this old tech, but that would be so much of a mission today, it reminds me of driving past peoples houses , & seeing National Panasonic TV sets etc put out on the verge for collection, to take to the rubbish dump !, TV sets I recognized that I used to repair back in the day, almost made me cry !, oh well ! , sigh !, cheers& thanks & regards Paul.
I remember their ad here "Sharp products for sharp minds". I still have a supply of various idler tires & belts for VCR's and Beta;,(we used to buy them by size in bulk). and the upgraded motor pully made of brass to replace the Mitsubishi plastic ones that were always cracking. I remember one brand that excess light when the cover was off caused the cass. mech to malf. I love your mech cross ref. We never had one of those here. I hated it when the belts for VCR's and cass. decks turned to sticky "glue" that you had a miserable time getting off your hands. When VCR's fell out of favor, some of the dist. had clearance sales on belt kits. I remember in one shop we loaded up on any kits they had left , as many sets used the same size belts. and I remember even some of the belts fit cass. decks.
I wouldn't have thought there would be much demand now for video spares as it must be 20 odd years no since they fell out of fashion but I still managed to find a set of belts on the internet ! Here Argos were selling video recorders off for £39 just to get rid of them , its a far cry from the £700 one would have cost you in 1972 .
As usual a very interesting video. I get a little nostalgic when I hear the sound of a video cassette being loaded into a VCR. Another reflection I made at the end of your video, was how interesting it was to see pictures and hear you talk about your career.
Next year will be my 40th anniversary in business, its hard to believe I have lasted that long , no other repair shops here now ,in fact no shops at all only Argos.
If I remember correctly, the 9100 & 9300 were the first SKD (semi knock-down) products assembled at the factory in Wrexham. Basically a kit of parts was shipped from Japan and assembled in the UK. Once the PCBs were produced in Wrexham, they became the first CKD (complete knock down) products. Mechanisms were shipped almost complete from Japan, until the early 90s when the entire mechanism (including the drum) was manufactured in Wrexham.
Wasn't this because there were limits on the numbers of complete machines that could be imported but if a part of it was British assembled they could sell as many as they wanted ?
@@michaeldranfield7140 To be honest, I'm not exactly sure Michael. I wasn't at Sharp UK at the very beginning. I suspect it was because the UK factory wasn't ready to manufacture all variants of PCBs, and simultaneously, keep up with demand. In the early days it was a single production line, and having a constant supply of PCBs was essential. Auto Insert and PCB departments would have been learning how to ramp up production (whilst maintaining quality), so having that kit of parts coming in would have been part of the plan. We did stick a Union flag on the front of the kit versions, which could be seen as a little bit naughty, depending on your point of view. Is there a legal difference between "Assembled in the UK" and "Made in the UK"? When I left, there were 3 production lines, with one complete VCR making it to the end of each line every 28 seconds or so. So roughly 6 machines a minute, every minute of the working day! Typical outputs were between 3000 and 4000 VCRs a day, if we weren't changing models a lot. Sticking with the same model (for a single country) made things a lot easier, so we had good weeks where the finished goods warehouse was bursting at the seams. In retrospect, it was one of the most interesting and demanding jobs I ever had.
Just watched this, fascinating. Love old technology and the way it was built to be serviced and repaired. Used to use a keyboard style vcr for years, weighed a ton! Took the cover off one day and was amazed at the mechanics and all the circuit boards. Couldn't bring myself to bin it when it became obsolete so still have it in the loft..
22:05 The capstan and pinch roller don't seem to be rotating! My first VCR was a Sharp VC-7300H in 1981, followed by a Sony SL-F1UB Portable Betamax in 1984. I still have the Sony portable, and it still works.
@@michaeldranfield7140 I remember the VC-7300H head drum is belt driven. My machine was very noisy when lacing. I still remember the excitement of being able to record TV! I still have a home video movie recorded on the Sharp. Unlike VHS, these days, HD recordings on HDD are indistinguishable from the original broadcast! Technically better maybe, but not as much fun!
Years since I worked on one of these, pretty sure I have got the same machine in storage, I guess it will need the same work you have just done to yours. Bought back many memories of working on these, I certainly remember the idler being a problem, as a quick fix, I used to turn the rubber tyre inside out to get it working 🤣🤣
I remember Sharp VHS VCRs well & I remember Sharp when thay stopped selling parts direct or repairs. Then willow vale took over part's & repairs thay were just up Oldham road from Sharp UK.
These were very common in Australia along with the similar 300 series. I used to buy dozens of them faulty, put in a lamp and belt kit and sell them working again. The loading gear was common for breaking as well where the high tension spring breaks a plastic post off it. Dont think I ever saw a faulty reel motor in them. The National NV300 that sold at the same time was much more reliable as it had an LED rather than lamp and didnt eat idlers like the Sharps. Sharp kept the repair industry in work though.
the NV300 was slightly harder to work on the bottom panel but having said that Panasonic did some really comprehensive deck service kits for not a lot of money back then .
Fascinating machine. The Japanese are so clever. These things were so advanced back in their day. They are so complicated, it’s no wonder they needed repair every so often! One bugbear of some of the earlier machines like this is that the play LED is red and not green. It used to confuse me sometimes especially with no remote or OSD!
my favourite video at the time was the Ferguson video Star 3v30 a quick service recently and still using it and got sitting next to it a 3v29 both going great😊
I'm sure you right but cant remember, I do remember though some Panasonic machines with incorrect back tension and the head drum lost its shine and wouldn't do a reverse search due to friction .
I'm yelling at the computer the capstan isn't driving the hole time as there was no tape spooling up inside the vcr as it would have been if it was only the take up not working lol. i guess 40yrs of being a repair tech will do that to you.I love these vcr and tv repair videos they bring back great memory's of back in the day.I remember working on this model i always liked the Sharp and Panasonic vcr's.
My videos are not edited so you get to see all my mistakes as well but I did remember in the end its the pinch roller that turns the tape and the take up reel just takes up the slack and winds the tape back onto the spool .
This was our first VCR. Unfortunately it didn't last very long - ours had problems with speed stability from new and it was impossible to get a stable picture without noise bars moving up the screen. It went away for repair twice, was never repaired properly and on the third occasion my dad lost his rag with the shop and demanded a Ferguson (which was the one he'd wanted in the first place) as a replacement. Regrettably, we never had any Sharp equipment after this growing up, although I've bought plenty since.
I found sharp generally very reliable so you must have just had a bad one , unfortunately by the mid 90 s sharp were producing lower cost machines and build quality took a dive .
@@michaeldranfield7140 Oh I absolutely agree that it was just a bad one, but it demonstrates how easy it is to lose customers - my dad never bought Sharp again. I thought he was daft, bought a couple of Sharp items in the early 1990s and stuck with them, and still buy Sharp stuff now.
@@michaeldranfield7140 These machines were very reliable electronicaly I love vintage Sharp they gave you your moneys worth and more I own a Sharp VZ3000 music centre and it still works like new
I am from Karachi Pakistan, and I am running electronic repairing shop since 1980 till now, I have repaired almost all brand's of VCR'S . SHARP VCR are to good but we have mostly 1 common problem that's cassette front loading mechanism down switch there are too many micro switches and other common problem was cassette down WARM gear but these all problem use to come after 10 to 15 years. This is what I experience.
I dont remember the down switch been a problem here but it would not be too difficult to fit something else, if a gear was faulty then the machine would be scrap , nice to hear that after 40 odd years your still in business but then in Pakistan you probley value stuff more than we do in the UK , everything here is now disposable and hardly worth repairing .
Willow vale, i used to go there on the bus when i needed parts because i only lived a couple of miles away, sometimes i would even walk there, their address was Reliance Street, off Oldham Rd, in Newton Heath, and if you come out of Reliance Street and turn right, just down the road from there was Sharp House, actually on the junction of Oldham Rd and Thorp Rd, that was the Main Sharp Uk Factory. damn i miss them days..
I also loved those video recorders...mind you I loved the 7700 previous (huge) model too. I did one have to change a capacitor or two in the PSU on a high hours one. Then they brought out one with a smitch-mode power supply & reliability went in a downward spiral. On the VC7700 there was an NE555 timer IC that went down. Richard, G0OJF, UK
@@michaeldranfield7140 I've two here I want to do. one has a PSU, the other doesn't. I have a couple of Sharp colour cameras already. Lovely transportable machines. Richard
@@ukfmcbradioservicingTango21From memory I think the camera was a XC30 and the portable video was VC-2300 ! By the way Jeremy from Peak electronics now has your samsung plasma TV .
another great video Michael thanks again remember the cheats I used to do with these videos the idler tyre i used to reverse it the brake lining for the back tensioner used to glue it back on used to do all the cheap for some customers😊😊
I want to sincerely thank you for posting this overview. I have a VC-7400 with multiple mechanical issues. The unit is two years older than the 9300 but the drawer assembly is identical (except that the "flap" is a manually triggered plastic door). I replaced the belt on the door but it still struggles to load cassettes. Is there a gear or a spring that I need to look out for? Is this a common problem with this series?
Im guessing your in a different country as in the UK we had a model VC-7300 in the UK , your issue could be the loading motor itself but at this sort of age hardened grease is a very common problem , it would be a good idea to clean off any old grease and apply some new .
@@michaeldranfield7140 I am going to scour the assembly for dried grease as I replaced the loading belt and the motor seems to function as normal. It was actually an issue that was becoming progressively worse, even before I replaced the belt. There are times "when it works, it works." I am from the United States. The 7400 is the US version of the 7300. Very rare unit.
Good morning Michael I watched you repair the Sharp 9300 and you mentioned you had a tb you used to watch it on when are you repairing the TV? Sandy in Glasgow I'm not an engineer I just love watching electronics being repaired.
great video mate, im in my mid 20s and i have really gotten into vcr repairs, first is was cassette decks but i do both now, i have a teac mv550 in my hifi stack of black Teac components that i use to record music onto, its a 4 head with hifi stereo and has all three tape speeds. i have fixed about 20 vcrs so far. i also go a sharp vc-793 which is built like a tank, even got the remote for it, needed the idler reconditioned but other than that its fully working.
@@michaeldranfield7140 in austrailia we have a parts supplier of nos vcr parts and very resonable prices, i just got a sharp vc383 in a bulk lot of 4 machines and the cassette lamp is blown
The capstan belt degraded and stuck. They were good quality belts originally. Many belts from this era turn into black sticky mush which take ages to clean off with iso. Nice video
Wow, such a well built beast of a machine, designed to be serviced. Quality! Those were the days when you had pride in something you owned. What would that machine have cost in it's day?
1st thing i noticed from a very young age, sharp gear always had a unique and distinctive dotty silk screen that was a mirror of the underside copper traces so you didnt even need schematics it was like an electronics road map right on the pcb, and in hind sight it indicated nothing was out sourced vcrs,tvs,video cameras, ghetto blasters even alarm clocks it was all really made by sharp
A Trick with the idler tires in these machines is that you can turn them inside out and extend their life , if you can't get one to replace the old one, or at a pinch you can clean them vigorously with metho and or your preferred cleaning solvent with a chamois head cleaner stick , & it will get a tire going again at least for a while anyway :) .
i had a slightly different one, vc9500 i think, dark metallic grey case, not silvery, for a few years in the 90s, had major mechanical damage in the cassette lift, a dealer managed to get me a load of plastic parts for me and i was able to fix that section, but it had weird other problems with the tape drive, such as erratic high tape tension, and braking issues, and head drum seemed to 'scrape' when turned manually and was causing problems when playing so i eventually gave up and scrapped it
I ran my own servicing business from 1992 to 1996 doing TV, VCR, microwave ovens and audio. I was also selling those same units which I got cheap, repaired or refurbished then put out in the showroom. I was making a really good income. I also used to do house-calls which brought in extra money as I was the only person in the area who did them so I was very busy. These were times when there were no cheap chinese appliances, so people were prepared to pay hundreds of dollars to have their equipment repaired because a replacement was usually over a thousand. Once the china imports started to flood into the country, that was pretty much the end of the servicing game. You could buy a new TV for a couple of hundred dollars so people chose to do that rather than have theirs repaired.
Back in the late 80 I was making a clear profit of £75 on a video recorder and £30 on a 0.9 Cubic feet microwave oven , doesn't sound a lot of money now but it was back then , repairs brought in a very good living because everyone had stuff repaired , we didn't live in a disposable society like we do now .
It's the lamp for the tape end sensors. When a cassette is inserted, there's a hole on the underside of it which is lowered over the lamp. The light shines through a small hole in each end of the cassette and operates sensors which detect the clear leader sections at each end of the tape. As technology changed, the lamps were replaced by infra-red LED.
@@stopthebus Thank you Michael - Looking at the video of your old shop in the high street I tried to find it on streetview but was unable to - it's probably changed beyond recognition now! so not being a local (Southampton) I couldn't find it. regards Nick
@@Doggonewest My old shop is all flats now so as you say its unrecognisable but the alarm box I fitted in the 80s is still on the wall . 62 Fairfield Road Buxton , Derbyshire
Not a VCR I ever encountered. I can't remember the model number of the one my grandfather had - and as it had a press button tuner, not very versatile. We briefly had another, actually a VC386, Rediffusion-badged, on loan from Granada while they repaired the Hitachi we were renting.
@@michaeldranfield7140 I don't know if ours was faulty but I seem to recall being able to change the channel on it while recording... of course, the press button tuner type did that anyway, but the VC386 was capable of multiple recordings on timer, so had electronic switching on the tuner.
The days when electronics were built to a quality and not a price unlike the end when the final Philips model has a deck made of cooking foil it was that thin and flimsy.
cpc farnell still sell av flat and square belts you just have to size them all up and go for the closest size/thickness, they list them on the website but not in the newer catalogs wasnt hitasol for hitachi vcrs ,your going to give it a personality conflict lol
The reality is: if you're rich and famous, your luxrul bags are seen as a sign of success. If you are just an ordinary worker working a 9-to-5 job, your real bag is likely to be considered the fruit of your efforts.
Thank you Michael for a great video that took me back to a time long, long ago. I remember as a 19 year old apprentice, in 1976 ish, being sent to the Grundig training school in London, Newlands Park near Crystal Palace if my memory recalls correctly, for a weeks training course on their first video recorder. On the Friday we had to sit an exam and only if I passed would the small retailer, R.J, Taylor TV in Great Yarmouth, whom I was working for, be allowed to stock the product, a big responsibility at 19. Your videos really interest me and I always look forward to seeing a new one pop up, thanks again.
I have loads more vintage stuff to film yet , I cant say I have been a great fan of Grundig stuff but back in the 80 s I did have Grundig sending me free service manuals but I did virtually nothing with the awful grundig VHS players .
I remember buying packs of idler tyres for those machines. Lots of happy memories brought back by this video. I can also smugly report that I was shouting look at the capstan while you were checking the takeup torque!
Forgot all about the capstan at the time but it did come back to me !
I use to fit genuine sharp idlers but I do remember later on some company selling just the rubber tyre with the slogan why replace the plastic when its only the rubber that wears out.
A very good fix as always!
Thankyou for that , more vintage stuff to come .
@@michaeldranfield7140 Most welcome sir
Very nice vcr did hundreds of them, in fact I've still got a spare reel idler motor pulley that glued onto the shaft, looking back now at those machines they were incredibly well made, not designed to just last beyond the warranty period, and those designers really thought about us who had to repair them with that detailed service manual and thoughtful layout, very good and happy days.
So true, now most stuff only just gets beyond the warranty period and the manufacture's wipe there hands of it .
Not seen one of those for years. The build quality of these early 80s Sharp VCRs was probably at it's peak and the idler was an easy fix courtesy of Willowvale.
some of the VCA series that preceded these were also an excellent machine but by the earley 90s sharp went the same as everyone else producing cheaper stuff that was rubbish .
You know, as soon as you loaded a cassette and pressed play, I instantly remembered the accompanying sounds. This has to be one of the most memorable sequence of notes/sounds from a VCR, (alongside the likes of early dial-up modem handshakes etc) that exist. I'm sure I could identify that deck from just listening whilst being blindfolded. Great machines. I was really impressed with mine - fantastic picture. Thank you for revitalising my memories Michael.
YES! I thought exactly the same thing, the loading sound transported me back 25+ years !
Glad you liked the video, I have a few other sharp machines in my possession for a later video .
I think some Sharp machines automatically played a tape if it was write protected. The sound did remind me of the VC386, and Grandad's machine.
Probably one of the best range of video recorders of the time , we sold them on piece buying them from Michael Blacks in Newcastle and Zed Electronics from Leeds and spares were readily available from Willow Vale and some from Charles Hyde . That one looks in very good condition Michael and good addition to your collection I also remember the Dv1600 tv with the integral remote ...Nice memories
Use to drive to willowvale in Manchester on Wednesdays before I had an account with them , wonder whatever happened to them ?
I'm sure you could buy spares from Sharp themselves before Willow Vale had the "exclusive" right to the Sharp genuine spares however we used to get some from Charles Hyde in Pocklington however there was some friction between the 2 companies about this as I recall at a Sharp trade show .
Loving all the historical photos from your past Michael you are one talented repair engineer and know your way around like your back of your hand 👍👍👍👍👍👍
Not as good as I use to be , no service manuals for new sets, board only replacement, the industry is ruined now , all we have to look back on is memories.
OK a mere 8 minute & forty nine seconds in I had to stop the Video and comment!, Back in my day (don't laugh kids !!! , but yeah I hear it !!! LOL! ), in my youth as a Tv/Video Service Man , I used to repair these Sharp VCR's, and as you said they are / were an absolute pleasure !!!, I have such fond memories of these units, they were so well built & so reliable , oh the irony of the excellent manuals that i had access too as we were warranty agents for Sharp, Panasonic (National Panasonic they were back then!), JVC , Sony , & AWA ( Thorn EMI Australia ), with Mitsubishi internals, ETC , anyway as you said there were a few common issues like the end sensor lamp, Reel idler Tyre, sometimes the reel motor, which just before you said it, I said to my self they upgraded it with a knurled brass sleeve instead of the original plastic one, & the odd pinch roller here & there, other than that it was customer misuse & abuse, like kids feeding them with all kinds of stuff , & damage to the tape carriage Assy, & cleaning dirty heads and worn out drive belts of coarse , I have fond memories of that time that you just brought back to me like it was yesterday, Thank you Sir I think you are a lucky duck indeed to have one of these units to work on, or am I just a crazy old man ???? , anyway cheers & thanks , Paul from Australia :).
I make these videos because it is a trip down memory lane for me also and Im a person who lives in the past , these were my happiest days in the trade and I want to re live them again, which is actually quite popular with the youtube community .
@@michaeldranfield7140 Thank you for the Videos & channel & the trip down memory lane, I'm glad to see & read that I'm not crazy, or if I am?, at least I'm in good company :), cheers n Thanx & best regards , Paul from Australia.
Most Excellent! Thanks for sharing! As you say, these were bread and butter repair jobs, back in the days. The Brass Pulleys, with the Knurled outer surface were available as a seperate part from Sharp, back in the days. The old worn out plastic one could be removed by slipping a pair of long nose pliers under it and pushing them through between the motor faceplate and pulley, and the taper of the pliers would gently slip it off. With the new brass one came with an interference fit large plastice shim / washer, so the exact height of the new slip-fit brass pulley could be set exact ly before bonding to the motor spindle. I then use super glue gell (not liquid super glue) to bond it to the spindle. Liquid super glue would bond instantly as soon as the pulley was pushed down and before reaching the exact position, sat on the plastic shim. Many thanks again.
Ah , right I didn't remember this , my memory was replacing the reel motor with the brass shaft already fitted , its a long time ago now .
Perfect viewing for a rainy Sunday. Thanks Michael!
Thankyou , got something even more exciting next !
Wow brings back good memories, especially those pics of you, I can remember buying the tv mag when you used to do the blog, with mr bullock and co, all I remember is talk of snubber circuits and chopper circuits,could never get my head round it, and still can't 😅
Must be over 10 years now when Television magazine closed, I had an advert in the very last issue, they couldn't afford to pay me so I asked for a free advert
Did you ever keep in touch with the other guys I.e mr bullock,was he the one who lived abroad micheal.
@@neilbirkett835 No , but I did speak with Steve Beeching about a year ago .
i used to love VCR's years ago, i miss those days. i actually collect Old Boomboxes now from the 80s, i have a Sharp GF777, the Tape decks used to work, then one day they just stopped working, i downloaded the Service manual but i find them hard to read, and i can't think of where to look. i have a GF8989 and the deck failed on that, i found it to be a transistor not far from the plug on the main board.. Oh by the way, i used to fiddle with electronics in the 80s and 90s, but i was only ever an amateur, i used go to Willow Vale for my parts, and those parts catalogues used to be sat on the counter when you walked in the door..
Unfortunately the Sharp company no longer exists , they closed down and sold the brand name off , in later years when the internet became more popular Sharp published all there service manuals on there technical website for dealers to download but when they sold the name to UMC they closed the technical website down and all the manuals disappeared ,
Oh, the nostalgia! Thank you! I still have several VHS-players stored together with many boxes of recordings. Now I just have to get the time to digitize then. So much material no longer available.
I am not surprised you found a belt kit for a 386. I had many more 386 models in for repair than the 9xxx series. It's a shame we live in this throw-away world now. I don't think Willow Vale, HRS, Seme, CHS are around anymore. So sad really.
But they outlasted Telepart in Wolverhampton.
@@manolisgledsodakis873 I left the trade in 2003 and only maintain my own equipment now. I am amazed that after a search I found Wiltsgrove in Digbeth is still going, though I only ever used them now and then.
hard to believe all these big companies with huge turnovers have just disappeared from the face of the earth .
@@manolisgledsodakis873 Telepart were traditionally very expensive compared to all the other suppliers, I only ever used tele part for semiconductors no one else had.
Amazing machines, well designed and manufactured. Nice to show it on a Sharp TV and Pokemon is the perfect test tape!!
One of my sons old VHS tapes !
Lost count how many I repaired and yes indeed the idlers were comon as was the lamp, not convinced the brass pulley on the reel motor did solve the problem totally.
I seem to remember an E to E fault which was a transistor on the top board.
Loading belt was fairly common and I had one or two where the felt pad parted company from the back tension band.
Happy memories of these machines, a good bred and butter repair and I only used genuine sharp idler.
@@michaeldranfield7140 Always best to use genuine parts but on some occasions I did use Koenig parts especially video heads.
@@JonTheComputerDoctor I think I convinced myself that Koenig heads were better than some of the originals.
Certainly cheaper and never had any issues.@@video99couk
Excellent Service and repair Micheal. This Machine was really special to us in the 1980s and was very reliable. I still have mine and it works perfectly. There also was some NTSC versions of the Sharp VC-9300 which were available in japan only model Sharp VC-110ED which was exactly the same apart from the VHS logo was replaced with the logo My-Video and the clock display was lit up in blue instead of green. There was also another model which i am trying to find, Sharp VC-488X which is very difficult to find. I am ready to buy the Sharp VC-488X if any one would have it. Thank you Sir...
I do have a few other sharp videos but I don't recognise the 488X model , I'm guessing your in a different country and the 488X may be specific to where you live ?
Hi, Micheal. I am in the U.K. I have seen the Sharp VC-488X in the U.K which was a slime line silver color Hi-Fi machine. This machine is similar looking to the Sharp VC-496N (Not Hi-Fi) and has a reel led rotation indicator on the cassette housing flap along with Hi-Fi led indicators near the clock display. Maybe you have not come across it. I am not sure if this machine was PAL or NTSC but it is a really nice looking VCR...
I remember that Model , Hifi with an led tape transport indicator on the cassette door ? if I remember correctly ? and I seem to recall that unit had a wired remote control as well ???, sorry I don't have one !, wish i did !!!! Sigh :((( , anyway good luck with your search, if you find a PAL one & don't want it ? hint hint ! :)
@@pwrrpw319Hi. Yes, This machine (Sharp VC488X) was exactly as you described. It was a really nice looking VCR and its very difficult to find it. I have remembered that this was a PAL machine. You had many models similar in design to it but this one stood out separately, hence the reason why it has become extremely rare nowadays. Sharp VC488X is totally forgotten these days but I'm glad that you still remember it...
@@Televid4 Hi Televid4, yes I still remember , almost like it was yesterday, I so enjoyed repairing these machines, they were an absolute pleasure to work with, and engineered so well, it's such a shame as you said that so much tech from back in the day has been discarded & forgotten, I would love to set up a museum of this old tech, but that would be so much of a mission today, it reminds me of driving past peoples houses , & seeing National Panasonic TV sets etc put out on the verge for collection, to take to the rubbish dump !, TV sets I recognized that I used to repair back in the day, almost made me cry !, oh well ! , sigh !, cheers& thanks & regards Paul.
Thank you again for a wonderful , well put together and presented video. I always enjoy your videos Michael .
Got something even more exciting for the next video !
I remember their ad here "Sharp products for sharp minds". I still have a supply of various idler tires & belts for VCR's and Beta;,(we used to buy them by size in bulk). and the upgraded motor pully made of brass to replace the Mitsubishi plastic ones that were always cracking. I remember one brand that excess light when the cover was off caused the cass. mech to malf. I love your mech cross ref. We never had one of those here. I hated it when the belts for VCR's and cass. decks turned to sticky "glue" that you had a miserable time getting off your hands. When VCR's fell out of favor, some of the dist. had clearance sales on belt kits. I remember in one shop we loaded up on any kits they had left , as many sets used the same size belts. and I remember even some of the belts fit cass. decks.
I wouldn't have thought there would be much demand now for video spares as it must be 20 odd years no since they fell out of fashion but I still managed to find a set of belts on the internet !
Here Argos were selling video recorders off for £39 just to get rid of them , its a far cry from the £700 one would have cost you in 1972 .
As usual a very interesting video.
I get a little nostalgic when I hear the sound of a video cassette being loaded into a VCR.
Another reflection I made at the end of your video, was how interesting it was to see pictures and hear you talk about your career.
Next year will be my 40th anniversary in business, its hard to believe I have lasted that long , no other repair shops here now ,in fact no shops at all only Argos.
Great video as always Michael. Very interesting. That looks like one well built machine.
most stuff was well built back then but just some easier to work on than others.
If I remember correctly, the 9100 & 9300 were the first SKD (semi knock-down) products assembled at the factory in Wrexham.
Basically a kit of parts was shipped from Japan and assembled in the UK.
Once the PCBs were produced in Wrexham, they became the first CKD (complete knock down) products.
Mechanisms were shipped almost complete from Japan, until the early 90s when the entire mechanism (including the drum) was manufactured in Wrexham.
Wasn't this because there were limits on the numbers of complete machines that could be imported but if a part of it was British assembled they could sell as many as they wanted ?
@@michaeldranfield7140 To be honest, I'm not exactly sure Michael. I wasn't at Sharp UK at the very beginning. I suspect it was because the UK factory wasn't ready to manufacture all variants of PCBs, and simultaneously, keep up with demand. In the early days it was a single production line, and having a constant supply of PCBs was essential. Auto Insert and PCB departments would have been learning how to ramp up production (whilst maintaining quality), so having that kit of parts coming in would have been part of the plan.
We did stick a Union flag on the front of the kit versions, which could be seen as a little bit naughty, depending on your point of view. Is there a legal difference between "Assembled in the UK" and "Made in the UK"?
When I left, there were 3 production lines, with one complete VCR making it to the end of each line every 28 seconds or so. So roughly 6 machines a minute, every minute of the working day! Typical outputs were between 3000 and 4000 VCRs a day, if we weren't changing models a lot. Sticking with the same model (for a single country) made things a lot easier, so we had good weeks where the finished goods warehouse was bursting at the seams.
In retrospect, it was one of the most interesting and demanding jobs I ever had.
Just watched this, fascinating. Love old technology and the way it was built to be serviced and repaired. Used to use a keyboard style vcr for years, weighed a ton! Took the cover off one day and was amazed at the mechanics and all the circuit boards. Couldn't bring myself to bin it when it became obsolete so still have it in the loft..
22:05 The capstan and pinch roller don't seem to be rotating!
My first VCR was a Sharp VC-7300H in 1981, followed by a Sony SL-F1UB Portable Betamax in 1984. I still have the Sony portable, and it still works.
Yes , I didn't notice at first , got my eye on a VC-7300H but its collection only due to weight, these were a big machine .
@@michaeldranfield7140 I remember the VC-7300H head drum is belt driven. My machine was very noisy when lacing. I still remember the excitement of being able to record TV! I still have a home video movie recorded on the Sharp. Unlike VHS, these days, HD recordings on HDD are indistinguishable from the original broadcast! Technically better maybe, but not as much fun!
Years since I worked on one of these, pretty sure I have got the same machine in storage, I guess it will need the same work you have just done to yours.
Bought back many memories of working on these, I certainly remember the idler being a problem, as a quick fix, I used to turn the rubber tyre inside out to get it working 🤣🤣
I never turned them inside out but emery cloth would provide a quick fix, think in television magazine they use to boil them in hot water !!
I remember Sharp VHS VCRs well & I remember Sharp when thay stopped selling parts direct or repairs. Then willow vale took over part's & repairs thay were just up Oldham road from Sharp UK.
I use to drive to Sharp at newton heath on a Wednesday when I first opened shop and didn't have any accounts with anyone .
You make awesome TH-cam videos Mike, thankyou for taking the time to do these for us retro nuts, best wishes
Thankyou for that .
These were very common in Australia along with the similar 300 series. I used to buy dozens of them faulty, put in a lamp and belt kit and sell them working again. The loading gear was common for breaking as well where the high tension spring breaks a plastic post off it. Dont think I ever saw a faulty reel motor in them. The National NV300 that sold at the same time was much more reliable as it had an LED rather than lamp and didnt eat idlers like the Sharps. Sharp kept the repair industry in work though.
the NV300 was slightly harder to work on the bottom panel but having said that Panasonic did some really comprehensive deck service kits for not a lot of money back then .
Fascinating machine. The Japanese are so clever. These things were so advanced back in their day. They are so complicated, it’s no wonder they needed repair every so often! One bugbear of some of the earlier machines like this is that the play LED is red and not green. It used to confuse me sometimes especially with no remote or OSD!
the days of seeing quality like this are long gone , everything was so well thought out and made to be repairable not just disposable .
They were tanks alright. Very reliable overall. I still love to hear the loading motor as it runs the guides up.
my favourite video at the time was the Ferguson video Star 3v30 a quick service recently and still using it and got sitting next to it a 3v29 both going great😊
3V29 was a good solid performer with little electrical faults and of course the famous loading belt issue .
worked on loads of these . good times along with the sony c6 and c9 and the old 3v00
got the odd beta still and a few of the early JVC ones you mention but the sharp was my favourite .
I have it in my head (pun intended) that earlier Sharp machines suffered from terrible head wear. Mainly the brass head drums but not exclusively.
I'm sure you right but cant remember, I do remember though some Panasonic machines with incorrect back tension and the head drum lost its shine and wouldn't do a reverse search due to friction .
I have a number of vintage Ferguson machines 3v48 and 3v43. JVC HRD530 . Think these are probably some of the most stylish machines around
Only thing I have for the models you mention is the service manuals and distant memories !
Great VCR and TV well done 👍
Thankyou for that , TV will be in another video when I manage to get a replacement part .
I'm yelling at the computer the capstan isn't driving the hole time as there was no tape spooling up inside the vcr as it would have been if it was only the take up not working lol. i guess 40yrs of being a repair tech will do that to you.I love these vcr and tv repair videos they bring back great memory's of back in the day.I remember working on this model i always liked the Sharp and Panasonic vcr's.
My videos are not edited so you get to see all my mistakes as well but I did remember in the end its the pinch roller that turns the tape and the take up reel just takes up the slack and winds the tape back onto the spool .
@@michaeldranfield7140 We all have those days Michael i have had a many over the years.
This was our first VCR. Unfortunately it didn't last very long - ours had problems with speed stability from new and it was impossible to get a stable picture without noise bars moving up the screen.
It went away for repair twice, was never repaired properly and on the third occasion my dad lost his rag with the shop and demanded a Ferguson (which was the one he'd wanted in the first place) as a replacement.
Regrettably, we never had any Sharp equipment after this growing up, although I've bought plenty since.
I found sharp generally very reliable so you must have just had a bad one , unfortunately by the mid 90 s sharp were producing lower cost machines and build quality took a dive .
@@michaeldranfield7140 Oh I absolutely agree that it was just a bad one, but it demonstrates how easy it is to lose customers - my dad never bought Sharp again.
I thought he was daft, bought a couple of Sharp items in the early 1990s and stuck with them, and still buy Sharp stuff now.
These were great machines I once replaced the microcontroller on the main board
I can't remember many electrical faults apart from reel motor tourqe problems caused by a black hybrid chip, most faults were mechanical.
I noticed the pinch roller was'nt moving
@@michaeldranfield7140 That's true mate they were electronically reliable
@@michaeldranfield7140 These machines were very reliable electronicaly I love vintage Sharp they gave you your moneys worth and more I own a Sharp VZ3000 music centre and it still works like new
@@andymann1231 I didn't at first .
I am from Karachi Pakistan, and I am running electronic repairing shop since 1980 till now, I have repaired almost all brand's of VCR'S . SHARP VCR are to good but we have mostly 1 common problem that's cassette front loading mechanism down switch there are too many micro switches and other common problem was cassette down WARM gear but these all problem use to come after 10 to 15 years. This is what I experience.
I dont remember the down switch been a problem here but it would not be too difficult to fit something else, if a gear was faulty then the machine would be scrap , nice to hear that after 40 odd years your still in business but then in Pakistan you probley value stuff more than we do in the UK , everything here is now disposable and hardly worth repairing .
Willow vale, i used to go there on the bus when i needed parts because i only lived a couple of miles away, sometimes i would even walk there, their address was Reliance Street, off Oldham Rd, in Newton Heath, and if you come out of Reliance Street and turn right, just down the road from there was Sharp House, actually on the junction of Oldham Rd and Thorp Rd, that was the Main Sharp Uk Factory. damn i miss them days..
I also loved those video recorders...mind you I loved the 7700 previous (huge) model too. I did one have to change a capacitor or two in the PSU on a high hours one. Then they brought out one with a smitch-mode power supply & reliability went in a downward spiral. On the VC7700 there was an NE555 timer IC that went down.
Richard, G0OJF, UK
Got my eye on a VC7300 and it's cheap but due to weight seller won't post, he may do if he finds out it won't sell so fingers crossed.
@@michaeldranfield7140 I've two here I want to do. one has a PSU, the other doesn't. I have a couple of Sharp colour cameras already. Lovely transportable machines.
Richard
@@ukfmcbradioservicingTango21From memory I think the camera was a XC30 and the portable video was VC-2300 !
By the way Jeremy from Peak electronics now has your samsung plasma TV .
@@michaeldranfield7140 Great. Thank you.
another great video Michael thanks again remember the cheats I used to do with these videos the idler tyre i used to reverse it the brake lining for the back tensioner used to glue it back on used to do all the cheap for some customers😊😊
Only time I glued the back tension felt was when the glue dried out and it fell off.
I want to sincerely thank you for posting this overview. I have a VC-7400 with multiple mechanical issues. The unit is two years older than the 9300 but the drawer assembly is identical (except that the "flap" is a manually triggered plastic door). I replaced the belt on the door but it still struggles to load cassettes. Is there a gear or a spring that I need to look out for? Is this a common problem with this series?
Im guessing your in a different country as in the UK we had a model VC-7300 in the UK , your issue could be the loading motor itself but at this sort of age hardened grease is a very common problem , it would be a good idea to clean off any old grease and apply some new .
@@michaeldranfield7140 I am going to scour the assembly for dried grease as I replaced the loading belt and the motor seems to function as normal. It was actually an issue that was becoming progressively worse, even before I replaced the belt. There are times "when it works, it works." I am from the United States. The 7400 is the US version of the 7300. Very rare unit.
Good morning Michael I watched you repair the Sharp 9300 and you mentioned you had a tb you used to watch it on when are you repairing the TV? Sandy in Glasgow I'm not an engineer I just love watching electronics being repaired.
My old TV will feature in another youtube video in the future , its been in the family a long time now and it was working when last used .
@@michaeldranfield7140
Hi Michael thank you for your message I look forward to seeing your next TH-cam video. Take care Sandy
great video mate, im in my mid 20s and i have really gotten into vcr repairs, first is was cassette decks but i do both now, i have a teac mv550 in my hifi stack of black Teac components that i use to record music onto, its a 4 head with hifi stereo and has all three tape speeds. i have fixed about 20 vcrs so far. i also go a sharp vc-793 which is built like a tank, even got the remote for it, needed the idler reconditioned but other than that its fully working.
Biggest problem with video recorders is getting parts, a lot of faults in the day were mechanical so not as easy to substitute parts .
@@michaeldranfield7140 in austrailia we have a parts supplier of nos vcr parts and very resonable prices, i just got a sharp vc383 in a bulk lot of 4 machines and the cassette lamp is blown
The capstan belt degraded and stuck. They were good quality belts originally. Many belts from this era turn into black sticky mush which take ages to clean off with iso. Nice video
Wow, such a well built beast of a machine, designed to be serviced. Quality! Those were the days when you had pride in something you owned. What would that machine have cost in it's day?
I cant remember as I didn't start selling videos until the late 80s but I would have imagined around £400 ish .
1st thing i noticed from a very young age, sharp gear always had a unique and distinctive dotty silk screen that was a mirror of the underside copper traces so you didnt even need schematics it was like an electronics road map right on the pcb, and in hind sight it indicated nothing was out sourced vcrs,tvs,video cameras, ghetto blasters even alarm clocks it was all really made by sharp
No need to count the buttons, the functions are printed on the button PCB ;)
But then I would have had to look with my headband on to correct for the lack of close up vision due to wearing contact lenses .
Bravo. Excellent video. Thanks.
Thankyou for that .
A Trick with the idler tires in these machines is that you can turn them inside out and extend their life , if you can't get one to replace the old one, or at a pinch you can clean them vigorously with metho and or your preferred cleaning solvent with a chamois head cleaner stick , & it will get a tire going again at least for a while anyway :) .
My first SHARP (and the last) was the VC-7300 with the belt driven Gold Upper Drum. Gave great pictures but head life was poor.
cool a long video , have a nice weekend Michael 😉
Thankyou for that .
Thank you Mr. Mike
No problem , thankyou for watching .
@@michaeldranfield7140 you are welcome
Only sold one of these and returned it to sharp for a warranty repair. Really nice machine though
I didn't sell VCR s until later in the 80s and by then they were all black and much thinner.
Nicely explained 👍👍
Thankyou for that .
i had a slightly different one, vc9500 i think, dark metallic grey case, not silvery, for a few years in the 90s, had major mechanical damage in the cassette lift, a dealer managed to get me a load of plastic parts for me and i was able to fix that section, but it had weird other problems with the tape drive, such as erratic high tape tension, and braking issues, and head drum seemed to 'scrape' when turned manually and was causing problems when playing so i eventually gave up and scrapped it
What sort of profit would you have made when selling TVs videos microwaves etc back in the day? And did repairs of equipment bring in a lot of money?
I ran my own servicing business from 1992 to 1996 doing TV, VCR, microwave ovens and audio. I was also selling those same units which I got cheap, repaired or refurbished then put out in the showroom. I was making a really good income. I also used to do house-calls which brought in extra money as I was the only person in the area who did them so I was very busy.
These were times when there were no cheap chinese appliances, so people were prepared to pay hundreds of dollars to have their equipment repaired because a replacement was usually over a thousand.
Once the china imports started to flood into the country, that was pretty much the end of the servicing game. You could buy a new TV for a couple of hundred dollars so people chose to do that rather than have theirs repaired.
Back in the late 80 I was making a clear profit of £75 on a video recorder and £30 on a 0.9 Cubic feet microwave oven , doesn't sound a lot of money now but it was back then , repairs brought in a very good living because everyone had stuff repaired , we didn't live in a disposable society like we do now .
Did quite a few idler and reel motors on these! And that stupid TV/VCR button…
Been tidying up a bit and found a brand new idler ! no reel motors though and I think I need one for another machine .
Michael - what was the purpose of the cassette lamp inside the sharp vcr?
Regards nick
It's the lamp for the tape end sensors. When a cassette is inserted, there's a hole on the underside of it which is lowered over the lamp. The light shines through a small hole in each end of the cassette and operates sensors which detect the clear leader sections at each end of the tape. As technology changed, the lamps were replaced by infra-red LED.
@@stopthebus Thank you Michael - Looking at the video of your old shop in the high street I tried to find it on streetview but was unable to - it's probably changed beyond recognition now! so not being a local (Southampton) I couldn't find it. regards Nick
@@Doggonewest I'm not Michael but appreciate your comments.
@@Doggonewest My old shop is all flats now so as you say its unrecognisable but the alarm box I fitted in the 80s is still on the wall .
62 Fairfield Road Buxton , Derbyshire
Cassette tape end sensor , in later modes the incandescent bulb was dropped in favour of an Infa red lamp with no visible light.
Enjoyed that thanks!
Not a VCR I ever encountered. I can't remember the model number of the one my grandfather had - and as it had a press button tuner, not very versatile. We briefly had another, actually a VC386, Rediffusion-badged, on loan from Granada while they repaired the Hitachi we were renting.
Think I might have a VC 386 but sharp branded
@@michaeldranfield7140 I don't know if ours was faulty but I seem to recall being able to change the channel on it while recording... of course, the press button tuner type did that anyway, but the VC386 was capable of multiple recordings on timer, so had electronic switching on the tuner.
The days when electronics were built to a quality and not a price unlike the end when the final Philips model has a deck made of cooking foil it was that thin and flimsy.
The last videos ever sold were dreadful , paper thin steel as you say and the deck was soldered to the main pcb so virtually un repairable.
cpc farnell still sell av flat and square belts you just have to size them all up and go for the closest size/thickness, they list them on the website but not in the newer catalogs
wasnt hitasol for hitachi vcrs ,your going to give it a personality conflict lol
That's a lovely photo of your wife at 48:14 Michael. 😉
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