My Career in Electronics

I'm sure I was a good student because I didn't mind sitting at a desk all day. I did it again today.  However, there was a lot of physical movement, mainly from the shoulders down, but at times I almost had to stand on my head in order to get a view of things.

 Today's "electronic" project was undertaken in the spirit of recycling.  Well, actually, the motive was economic. No, I'll admit it, it was purely commercial.  I've been wanting to transfer my old tapes onto CD and, while I have a lot of gear - including a digital recorder which will accept a "line in" from a stereo tape recorder - I do not, at present,  have a functioning stereo tape recorder. I was shown one last week in one of the larger stores in town.  It had twin decks so that dubbing from one tape to another was easy; but I want to 'dub' from tape to CD. They wanted $549 for that twin deck doozy. The young bloke said he could do me a good deal.  I told him that at half the price I wouldn't want it, and said that it reminded me of one I bought in London in 1980. It was the only stand alone tape deck the store had.  Cassette decks are passé and are becoming harder to find. Sometimes I think the big stores dump stuff which won't sell in the cities on we yokels here in the bush, hoping that we are mug enough to buy. 

I used to have two separate functioning stereo tape decks. They were in two Sanyo Micro Component Shelf Stereo Units complete with CD, Radio and Remocon. [That's Japanese for Remote Control.] The models were slightly different, as they were bought about 5 years apart.  I bought one for the office and later, one for home.  I'll call the office machine, A. It was about 13 years old and I found recently, when beginning this enterprise, that both the CD, and tape deck, had given up the ghost.  The other machine, B, was about 8 years old. B recently failed its Cassette deck exam.

With deep regret I decided to sacrifice the near lifeless A.  The radio still worked, but I have lost count of the number of radios I now own.

Thinking back, all I wanted for Christmas when I was ten was a Crystal Set! That Christmas my Dad set me up with one. I have fond memories of my very first radio, and the long wire loop antenna we built in the backyard. Marconi would have been jealous, or proud! After that I went on to build my own crystal sets and even found a ready market for them among my school friends.  While I had no real understanding of radio theory, I continued to build radio receivers from kits, into my early twenties.  A hiatus followed until I was forty, when I began studying electronic theory seriously in order to obtain my Amateur Radio Novice Licence.

But back to the problem at hand.  The technique of opening A was not immediately obvious; although I have had some experience in these things.  I know for a fact that I have pulled more things apart than I have put back together.  I ended up using brute force to learn the anatomy of the exoskeleton of A. Poor A - I've really done a job on it - but there are lots of bits on the circuit boards which will find their way into my 'junk' box for future electronic projects. 

When it came to opening B, I found a difference between the two cases.  In the past I’ve found that Japanese gear usually has a small triangular indicator, or an arrow, which points to the screws one needs to undo in order to take something apart. On A, I found 6 little triangles beside 6 Phillips head screws. On B, I found 8 triangles.  After I undid all 8 screws there was no brute force required on B. Someone in the Plastics Division of Sanyo must have forgotten to emboss two little triangles on the rear of the cabinet of the A model.

With the still useful B machine working, except for the tape deck, I thought, after my study of A, that I ought to be able to change the rubber bands myself on tape deck B, for a broken band was the most likely cause of the trouble. Examination of the A deck revealed that two bands were required, but only one remained. I could find no trace of the broken band. There are slots in the floor of the casing [seen on the right] and the band could easily have fallen through one of those, either recently or years ago, for I had not attempted to use the tape for years.

However, I decided to use the band from the A machine to try my hand at developing my technique for installing new bands if and when I am able to find a replacement set.

In the cross-hair middle of the photo on the left you may be able to see a small pulley wheel on the spindle of the drive motor. I won’t blame you if you can’t see it, though you could try clicking on the photo so that it pops out and is enlarged a little.  I couldn’t see that wheel  for about two hours  while I tried to get the rubber band onto it.  My fading vision was not the only problem.  I was using magnifying glasses and kilowatts of light power.   The real problem is that space is at a premium under the motor. There are only 10 millimetres in which to work. The pulley wheel sits on the ceiling of that space making an approach with a rubber band from underneath very difficult.

When I first opened machine B, I couldn't find the remains of the broken band, and assumed it too had slipped through the floor of the case. However, after I dropped the 'practice' band into the innards of the machine for the umpteenth time, I suddenly saw the old broken band caught up on a plastic projection on the rear wall of the case. Bingo – I had a suspect who could be measured up, so that I could try to find the correct sized replacement. It turns out that the two bands are of different circumference, but each band is square in shape, measuring one millimetre on each side.

There being nothing more to do without replacement bands, I slid the B machine casing back into place. I didn’t put the 8 screws back in place as I'm hoping I'll soon be inserting two replacement bands, and so get on with transferring tape to CD. 

With a twinge of anxiety that I might have ruined something I gingerly put a CD on to play. It worked, as did the radio.

The next job is to Google a source of replacement bands. If I find some I am going to have to visit a friend of mine. He is a dental technician who makes gold teeth and crowns. He has a lot of tools which just might allow me to get into the small space under the motor when replacement time comes.

Thinking of things dental just now caused me to recollect the time my father asked me if I would like to study Dentistry.  I had just completed 12th Grade, and was wondering about courses to enrol in at University. Dad asked me if I would like to do "dentistry or something like that."

I think I would like to do Philosophy, I replied, and he let me. 

It was the time of the Vietnam War and I had completely forgotten about things electronic.  The draft loomed.  Philosophy called.  I often wonder what would have happened if I wandered down a different career path, and had studied Electronics, or something like it. To be honest, I think the mathematics associated with a university course in electronics would have slaughtered me, and I would have ended up having to do something like Dentistry or Medicine.

Comments

[fran]

i thought you DID end up studying medicine:)

[Tjilpi]

fran, that is one of the rumours going around. it is possible that I did end up studying something *like* medicine; but you must know about small towns and gossip mongering. however, i am sure you will be pleased to know that yesterday, I ordered two sets of rubber bands for my upcoming tape recorder fix. i'm actually a tape recorder doctor; but i watch episodes of HOUSE to learn how to talk that medical doctor lingo.