Finally, an affordable CD Transport: the Shigaclone story

[johnm]

Might be of interest to some:

Found a source of Sanyo 16-pin SF-P101N mechs on Ebay, that use the 3xball bearing method of keeping a CD secured to the hub. Might be of interest to those who fancy side-stepping the whole puck-paranoia subject

Should be simple to desolder the motor and install in into the JVC board/mech of my Shigaclone. I'll report back on any audible changes. I was using Woodturner Fran's superb Ebony puck, but to be honest after a while I found it a bit of a hassle changing CDs quickly, so went back to the original JVC magnetic puck. This should hopefully be a good solution, at least for me.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SANYO-LASE...item3cb7f660a8

- J

[DaveM]

If you are not going to use the ebony puck, I would be intersted.

[johnm]

Sorry I'm keeping it for potential future Shiga-tweaking

[DaveM]

Understood. It was worth asking.

[gueri]

Hello

Look at this :






It's a 8V Class A external power supply designed by Audio-gd.
I would like to use it for my Shigaclone project.
Do you tkink it's a good choice ?

Best Regards,
eric

[johnm]

Originally Posted by johnm

Might be of interest to some:

Found a source of Sanyo 16-pin SF-P101N mechs on Ebay, that use the 3xball bearing method of keeping a CD secured to the hub. Might be of interest to those who fancy side-stepping the whole puck-paranoia subject

Should be simple to desolder the motor and install in into the JVC board/mech of my Shigaclone. I'll report back on any audible changes. I was using Woodturner Fran's superb Ebony puck, but to be honest after a while I found it a bit of a hassle changing CDs quickly, so went back to the original JVC magnetic puck. This should hopefully be a good solution, at least for me.

SANYO LASER LENS SF-P101N DA11B3VF (16P) W/MECHANISM | eBay

- J

Just a quick update to those interested - received the mechanism this morning and am pleased to report it's the first one I've received via Ebay that actually has Sanyo embossed into the front of the laser mechanism 'box'. Which isn't to say the others are fakes, but then again one never knows. I'll hopefully get that installed sometime next week and see what difference - if any - it has on the sound. At the very least it'll look better. I prefer the puckless look. So if anyone is looking for a genuine Sanyo spare laser the one's at the above link are well worth it (and cheap!).

- J

[johnm]

Was wondering if anyone had ever given any thought to making a simplified version of the JVC control board? The boomboxes are now difficult for many to find, and yet the spare Sanyo laser mechanisms are cheap and very easy to get...

A 'DIY Audio.com Shigaclone control board' using the same chips as the JVC might be a useful way to extend the longevity of this project? The board could be simplified (i.e. do away with the sections of the original JVC board we wouldn't need like the DAC etc) for the Shigaclone needs only. It could also have easily accessable solder points for those that want to use a seperate PSU for each section, and so forth, or wish to use bigger caps for C906.

I don't have any layout experience otherwise I'd give it a shot, but I thought this idea might appeal to someone out there who can do this. I'm sure with the combined talents of many in this thread this would be possible. I guess the first step would be to check if the chips on the JVC control board are available individually?

- John

[uncle_leon]

I fully support your motion John, and would gladly offer my help if I had more experience with these circuits... But this is really going to be difficult, unless we develop our bespoke laser and motor controls, demodulator etc. The JVC ones are highly (too?) developed, and re-engineering them might take more effort than designing something simple from scratch.
The boombox DAC is built into one of the main chips, so it can't really be disabled if we use the same components.

I hope I don't sound too negative, because I would really love it if this idea worked, so that more people could build this fantastic transport. I have been helping as much as I could, sending the "boombox guts" and other component to our forum colleagues, but obviously it would be a lot better if everyone could build their Shiga on their own as they please.

[johnm]

That's a good point about the DAC being built-in - I'd forgotten that!

Perhaps a 'clone' of the main PCB would be in order then? I'm sure those in the know would be able to delete any superfluous components from the layout (i.e the choke, the ceramic bypasses and so forth), but leave the essentials in place for those 3 JVC (?) chips to do their thing. It works so well it shouldn't be changed too much. From what I have read those chips in tandem with the transport are the key to the 'magic' of this system, so really we'd need to locate a source for those chips first. It would be great to have a high quality PCB which was a bit more resilient to experimenting with different components, not to mention the fact it would look cool in a custom colour

These are the chips (according to the EZ-31 service manual):

LC 78601RE (DSP)

LA 9242M (ASP)

LA 6541

[zjaakco]

Hi Johnm
The motor drive ic on the jvc pcb is CSC1469XH.
the service manual of the rc-ez31/51 is not correct.
Your idea is a good one, the problem is that the lc78601R
and the LA9242 no longer availeble.(look on sanyo electronics).
So. maybe one can find a replacement boombox, with a right
service manual, then to build a cd transport become easier.
There are many ic sellers for low quantity.

zjaakco