Broken Arcam Alpha 6

[Womble76]

Hi All.

I just picked up an Arcam Alpha 6 for a couple of dollars, it was sold as faulty and I am gonna try to fix it - I like a challenge.

With the lid off its clear that the pickup head never moves and in normal operational mode the player sits there saying "disk" ie no disk detected. I have found the service manual and it describes a diagnostic mode which I have stepped though - part of which should make the read arm move when the << and >> buttons are pushed - again it doesnt move.

I would say the most likely candidate for failure on the read head would be the tiny ribbon cable connecting it to the player. I also know that data from the read head also goes to the arm controller chip to help with tracking and focus.

So .. my question is this - would a crack in the ribbon cable render the pickup arm motionless. I would think that its trying to "see" some data on the disk to know how far to jump, as it doesnt get any data the servo is never told to move the arm.

Can anyone with any knowledge of pickups explain the logic of such things?

Many thanks

David

[avr300]

Hi David

See http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showt...711#post955711

My CD53 did the same. It tried to focus but never spum the main motor.

The ribbon from the laserunit to the HF board was broken.

Repaired the ribbon, now its running smooth again.

[Womble76]

Hehe - well it was exactly what you said - although the ribbon wasnt broken, it was just totally unplugged from the monoboard. Reinserted it and voila it worked. "worked" rather than "works" as it was happily playing CDs while out of the main chassis. Put everything back into the case and now the motor just comes on flat chat 100% of the time, taken everything out of the case again and its still running hell for leather.

1 step forward, 2 steps back - onwards...

[Womble76]

Slightly more worrying is the fact that it still spins the disk like crazy when I have re- unplugged the ribbon cable. So it looks like I have introduced another fault.

That DAC board is a right royal pain the **** to get off - hope I havent damaged it.

[Womble76]

Apologies for spamming my own thread but.....

Its Fixed!!!

By removing and reinstalling the DAC 6 board I had cracked some of the joints connecting the riser pins to the monoboard - 10 mins with a soldering iron and a solder sucker and they were fully restored - and so is the system.

So an mint condition fully functional Arcam Alpha 6 for 23 quid.

[avr300]

Well, not to expensive I guess. Cool.

[colin.hepburn2]

HI All
Well just acquired an Arcam Alpha 6 CD Player
And hoping to find a serves manual for it can anyone help have you got one laying around or can you tell me where to get it
Cheers
Colin

[Womble76]

Yeh I still have the file (i think), drop me an email and I will see if I can find it, may not be until the weekend tho. What does your CD player do?

[colin.hepburn2]

Hi Womble76
The CD Working Fine just wanted a copy of service manual for general repairs and or tweaking it up Thank you for offering me copy of your manual
Sent You Email
Cheers
Colin