Rega Planar Motor Vibrating When OFF!

[speedboy]

Hello, messing around with a Rega Planar 2 at the moment and have discovered that when the motor is switched off a noticeable vibration can be felt thru the pulley which disappears when the power is switched off at the mains. This suggests to me that the switch is being shorted out and some current is still leaking in to the motor but not enough to spin it properly. Upon investigation I have found that there is a capacitor wired in parallel in to where the on/off switch for the turntable is connected. Does anyone know if this is supposed to be there or if what I am experiencing is normal because it all seems a little odd to me???!

[wrankin]

The capacitor is necessary for the proper operation of the AC synchronous motor.

Does your plug have three prongs or two? If it has two, try flipping it over and pluggin it in the other way.

-bill

[kevinkr]

The capacitor across the switch is used to protect the contacts from arcing when the motor is turned on/off, and it may have gone leaky - or its reactance at 50Hz may be low enough to allow an appreciable current (a couple of mA) to flow in which case the vibration is normal. (All of my old AR-XA did this) Should all prove to be well and you are still concerned about this just plug it into a switched power strip.

There should be an additional capacitor for phase shift as I assume this is a pretty standard 3 or 4 wire synchronous motor.

[DRONE7]

Some years ago when I worked in retail we noticed this behaviour and checked all the Rega stock on hand (some 10 units). All exhibited a slight shuddering so we concluded it was normal.

You have already found the solution.....turn it off at the mains when not in use.