You CAN'T judge the condition of the "holes" by meter measurement alone. If you see discoloration in the hole, compared to a hole far away from the killer capacitor, you MUST wire through the hole as I described earlier in this thread. I have worked on LOTS of 555RW/19RW's & the Fostex/HHB pro versions, CR300/CDR850, and know what I am talking about. Also, I have never once had to move a single trimpot on these. It's ALWAYS circuit trace or hole corrosion from the cap that causes the problems, but for the extremely rare bad laser, or simple slipping of the platter down the motor shaft(only from rough shipping). If it's not working, go back & examine for corrosion you missed. Further, it has NEVER been the case in the dozens of units I've done that there was damage on bottom & not on top. You must examine carefully with optical magnification.
As for the killer cap, I have not yet seen any problems caused by not putting in a new cap. Never.
As for the killer cap, I have not yet seen any problems caused by not putting in a new cap. Never.
Just wanted to add my thanks again for this thread! After over eight years, this thread has probably just rescued another CD recorder from the scrap heap!
My HHB CDR-850 is showing the classic symptoms of this capacitor failure - it still functions perfectly as a player, but any attempt at recording results in either a "CHECK DISC" or "CHECK" display. The disc tray loading is also erratic.
Looking at the top of the board, the capacitor in question actually looked OK, and there didn't seem to be much damage. However, on removal of the PCB, I found the story on the underside of the board to be very different! Almost an inch diameter of board around the offending capacity is badly discoloured, and many of the solder pads are corroded.
I have removed the culprit itself, but will wait until I'm back in my workshop with proper tools before attempting a cleanup and repair operation, but my hopes are quite high for resurrecting this deck.
The value of the capacitor in my deck is actually 1.0F, not 0.1F as one earlier post mentioned - I might actually replace this if I do manage to restore the machine to full health.
My HHB CDR-850 is showing the classic symptoms of this capacitor failure - it still functions perfectly as a player, but any attempt at recording results in either a "CHECK DISC" or "CHECK" display. The disc tray loading is also erratic.
Looking at the top of the board, the capacitor in question actually looked OK, and there didn't seem to be much damage. However, on removal of the PCB, I found the story on the underside of the board to be very different! Almost an inch diameter of board around the offending capacity is badly discoloured, and many of the solder pads are corroded.
I have removed the culprit itself, but will wait until I'm back in my workshop with proper tools before attempting a cleanup and repair operation, but my hopes are quite high for resurrecting this deck.
The value of the capacitor in my deck is actually 1.0F, not 0.1F as one earlier post mentioned - I might actually replace this if I do manage to restore the machine to full health.
Pioneer PDR-555RW
To confirm the correct value of the supercap is 1 Farad, both as per my sample and the service manual. I'm certain that Stephensank would emphasise 'don't replace that capacitor, you don't need it!' Having said that, I do still have a capacitor connected for 'test' purposes but it is conventional electrolytic and remote from the panel on flyleads. I'm sure his other good advice is not to twiddle the laser power pots. I only put up the photo of mine to assist those with a second-hand machine and unknown history to try to gauge if they had been twiddled in the past. I did in fact shift a couple of mine by small degree early on, but they have now been returned to original position, both physically and by slider measurement.
With my machine, owned from new, there was slight trace of leaked substance around a 1 inch radius of the capacitor on top, but none on the underside, even microscopically! I have about 4 wire links fitted, mostly to do with the backup capacitor circuitry and ground tracks. My machine will no longer write a disc or even reliably read them; some yes, some no. At the time of the fault gradually showing up (the sled would suddenly run off-track in the middle of recording and race to the end with a rata-tat-tat as it hit the end stop, and also weak overwriting of a rewritable CD, the previous recording sometimes breaking through - is mine a weak laser, and the exception that proves the rule amongst all this supercap talk?), I, though well-versed in electronics generally, knew nothing of CD reproduction, let alone recording. I have since embarked on months of interesting study and my target now is to understand the circuit detail and find the fault(s) technically. As a consequence I'm in no hurry to repair but am greatly enjoying the sleuthing.
To confirm the correct value of the supercap is 1 Farad, both as per my sample and the service manual. I'm certain that Stephensank would emphasise 'don't replace that capacitor, you don't need it!' Having said that, I do still have a capacitor connected for 'test' purposes but it is conventional electrolytic and remote from the panel on flyleads. I'm sure his other good advice is not to twiddle the laser power pots. I only put up the photo of mine to assist those with a second-hand machine and unknown history to try to gauge if they had been twiddled in the past. I did in fact shift a couple of mine by small degree early on, but they have now been returned to original position, both physically and by slider measurement.
With my machine, owned from new, there was slight trace of leaked substance around a 1 inch radius of the capacitor on top, but none on the underside, even microscopically! I have about 4 wire links fitted, mostly to do with the backup capacitor circuitry and ground tracks. My machine will no longer write a disc or even reliably read them; some yes, some no. At the time of the fault gradually showing up (the sled would suddenly run off-track in the middle of recording and race to the end with a rata-tat-tat as it hit the end stop, and also weak overwriting of a rewritable CD, the previous recording sometimes breaking through - is mine a weak laser, and the exception that proves the rule amongst all this supercap talk?), I, though well-versed in electronics generally, knew nothing of CD reproduction, let alone recording. I have since embarked on months of interesting study and my target now is to understand the circuit detail and find the fault(s) technically. As a consequence I'm in no hurry to repair but am greatly enjoying the sleuthing.
She's baaaaaaacccckkkk.....
My PDR555RW worked flawlessly for about a year. It's dead again and I think it is the laser assembly. Remember the crud that built up on it? I live near the volcano in Hawaii.
Anyway, first it would go through all the motions of recording and never record a single bit. The only failure messages would be at the very end of the recording process. Each CD was as new when the recording was done as when it was started.
I pulled the laser assembly to look at it and it appears that the tiny ribbon cable that wraps around the assembly to several tiny circuit boards has a tiny crack in one corner. That crack looks like it breaks one of the tiny circuit traces in the ribbon. No matter what kind of disk I put in the machine it now thinks there is no disc at all. I do not get a check disk or error messages. It acts just like the tray was closed with no CD in it.
I've tried searching on the internet for a laser pickup to no avail. The assembly is KRS-200A. Does anyone know where to get one of these? Does anyone have one they are willing to part with from an otherwise dead deck?
Any help appreciated.
My PDR555RW worked flawlessly for about a year. It's dead again and I think it is the laser assembly. Remember the crud that built up on it? I live near the volcano in Hawaii.
Anyway, first it would go through all the motions of recording and never record a single bit. The only failure messages would be at the very end of the recording process. Each CD was as new when the recording was done as when it was started.
I pulled the laser assembly to look at it and it appears that the tiny ribbon cable that wraps around the assembly to several tiny circuit boards has a tiny crack in one corner. That crack looks like it breaks one of the tiny circuit traces in the ribbon. No matter what kind of disk I put in the machine it now thinks there is no disc at all. I do not get a check disk or error messages. It acts just like the tray was closed with no CD in it.
I've tried searching on the internet for a laser pickup to no avail. The assembly is KRS-200A. Does anyone know where to get one of these? Does anyone have one they are willing to part with from an otherwise dead deck?
Any help appreciated.
Maybe the number has changed to PEA1351
Parts list for PDR555RW
Picture of PEA1351
since it looks a lot like the only KRS-200A I've found
Picture of the KRS-200A
Just found & read this thread. Gonna start the investigation as to why I get *check disk*, for all the different types I try. I had gotten about 20 disks recorded before unit went awol ! now does not record or play (even store bought prerecordeds)
if I cant do anything it can become a boat anchor or cheap donor unit.
Later
if I cant do anything it can become a boat anchor or cheap donor unit.
Later
It is probably the notorious Elna capacitor. There are good instructions in this thread for removing the cap and repairing the damage to the mainboard from the leaking cap.
My recent troubles are something different and rather unusual. I live in Hawaii by the Kilauea Volcano. The high humidity combined with the sulfur in the air does weird stuff to electronics and metals. But I too have gone through the check disc problem and it was the capacitor and resulting mainboard damage. Once I fixed that the check disk problems went away.
My recent troubles are something different and rather unusual. I live in Hawaii by the Kilauea Volcano. The high humidity combined with the sulfur in the air does weird stuff to electronics and metals. But I too have gone through the check disc problem and it was the capacitor and resulting mainboard damage. Once I fixed that the check disk problems went away.
It's not that hard -- mostly just a royal pain. You do not solder the wires to the traces, you solder the wires through the little "through holes" that go from one side of the board to the other side. I wore my jeweler's visor and wore my reading glasses under them (I'm old and have a hard time with close vision). The problem in getting another board is that it will probably have the same problem.
Hello Cheryl,
Received a routine email from the moderator to say you were baaaaack!, but I wasn't in a position to study the posts since then as I was on the other side of the world on a ship (Oz and NZ area). Wondering what your current state, did you obtain another (ex-unit) laser assembly?
My machine has been untouched this last month or so due vacation, but I did take service manual photocopies with me to keep my worry levels up. My machine does not record but it does still play discs, albeit the disc recognition not 100 percent reliable. I understand yours, and one or two others, do not now even read them. Have you put the machine into test mode, moved the sled out from under the turntable and looked at a SAFE DISTANCE at the laser to see if you can the see the familiar cherry-red glow in a darkend room? If not, I'm wondering if your VRDC (read power-level voltage) might be missing? Anyway, do bring us up to date, and will try to help whilst helping myself (albeit slowly as still recovering from the jet-lag - location here Buckinghamshire, England). I've taken many voltage readings over the months, something of which may give you and others a clue. Colin
Received a routine email from the moderator to say you were baaaaack!, but I wasn't in a position to study the posts since then as I was on the other side of the world on a ship (Oz and NZ area). Wondering what your current state, did you obtain another (ex-unit) laser assembly?
My machine has been untouched this last month or so due vacation, but I did take service manual photocopies with me to keep my worry levels up. My machine does not record but it does still play discs, albeit the disc recognition not 100 percent reliable. I understand yours, and one or two others, do not now even read them. Have you put the machine into test mode, moved the sled out from under the turntable and looked at a SAFE DISTANCE at the laser to see if you can the see the familiar cherry-red glow in a darkend room? If not, I'm wondering if your VRDC (read power-level voltage) might be missing? Anyway, do bring us up to date, and will try to help whilst helping myself (albeit slowly as still recovering from the jet-lag - location here Buckinghamshire, England). I've taken many voltage readings over the months, something of which may give you and others a clue. Colin
ColinD, I was able to send cheryl a working laser assembly out of my "parts" machine, plus a photo of how the pots on that main board were set, and she installed it and that did the trick. (I'm sure she'll fill us in with more details.) Her post had said that there was visible damage to a cable and board in the laser assembly...
Hello afecu, Thanks so much for your update, and pleased to know Cheryl is up and running again. One thing about these machines I never asked to have confirmed was the very hot running of the RF Amp chip, IC103. I was initially concerned about this but later came to conclusion it was normal in a properly working machine, as it cools again very quickly. It is really the only hot-to-the-touch chip in the whole machine. Any comment / confirmation please, from anyone.
I registered here because I can't find any helpful information regarding the "check disc" error for the pdr-509. I do not have any experience in fixing electronics. It went bad, over time. At first unpluging did the trick, then when that stopped working I would unplug the ribbon cables and that worked for a while. Now it completely stopped recognizing anything. When I turn on the power, the door opens but the "check disc" flashes through everything. I just need it to play, not record. I am hoping someone might know things to check for the pdr-509, perhaps similar to the 8 years of discussion this thread has! Thanks for any help. I did get the error code, if that helps - 82 19 00 00.
Hi johnfm,
The PDR-509 isn't prone to the same backup capacitor problem as it uses as different type than the 555RW, and it seems to be generally a reliable unit. (I have one too.)
I couldn't decode the error code, but you can download the service manuals yourself - at Index of /pioneer/tricomp/Audio/PDR, RRV2055 is the service guide for the 555rw/509/v500, and has detailed error code information, and RRV2167 is the service manual for the 509.
And FYI, you can get an audible improvement in the sound by replacing the NJM4558DX op amps at IC404 and IC801 in the D/A and A/D circuits on the audio board with NJM4565D's (or DD's). The 555RW uses the 4565D's there. It's an easy mod - these are big old DIP-packaged IC's.
Hope this helps!
The PDR-509 isn't prone to the same backup capacitor problem as it uses as different type than the 555RW, and it seems to be generally a reliable unit. (I have one too.)
I couldn't decode the error code, but you can download the service manuals yourself - at Index of /pioneer/tricomp/Audio/PDR, RRV2055 is the service guide for the 555rw/509/v500, and has detailed error code information, and RRV2167 is the service manual for the 509.
And FYI, you can get an audible improvement in the sound by replacing the NJM4558DX op amps at IC404 and IC801 in the D/A and A/D circuits on the audio board with NJM4565D's (or DD's). The 555RW uses the 4565D's there. It's an easy mod - these are big old DIP-packaged IC's.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for all that detailed information. It is almost too bad that it doesn't have the same problem. Mine died over time, I did put a lot of hours on it, mainly recording all of my vinyl collection. I do have a working pdr-509 as well. I have a rare cdr that won't play on my computer (due to an alarming amount of C1 and C2 errors), or on my blu-ray. The only things that can play it are an old boombox, and the 509. I really wanted to make a digital copy, from 509 to 509. It isn't the end of the world if I can't
.