Tape Deck Motors

[tmblack]

Looking to speed up the motor on a cassette tape deck.
Anyone know what sort of motors are used commonly?

I know the reel to reel often used AC synchronous motors and some are DC direct drive units.

[Mooly]

Well there are many types... but usually simple DC motors in most decks.

Speed control varies.

Many motors have a preset pot on the rear of the housing and achieve speed control by sensing back emf from the motor and have a small regulator pcb built in. These are the most common and fitted on anything from a cheap portable to quite expensive decks.

Similar are motors that incorporate an FG (frequency generator) and have a small control IC built in. These are physically the same size as the above type.

An older variation is a motor with a mechanical governor, again these look the same as the above. Speed control achieved by three sprung weights that when the speed is correct they move outward and break the current to the appropriate armature winding. Often seen in 80's car stereos and have tremendous torque maintaining speed under load.

Other than those there are the dedicated manufacturer specific motors seen on expensive decks. Often a direct drive capstan an an assortment of reel motors.

[tmblack]

That's interesting. The preset pot must be the simplest to change. I want to double the speed.

[Mooly]

Depends entirely on the motor. You may have to alter component values on the motor regulator PCB (assuming that type).

These things used to be 10 a penny, hard to find now. This is a typical circuit that would be built into the motor housing.
12V DC motor for Cassette tape speed control -Automotive -Electronic Circuits Diagram-Elecpod