My parents have given me their old broken (transport and eject refuse to work) Sony TC-WR570 dual tape deck. I'm brand new to audio circuitry but am registered in an electrical engineering degree for Sept. What pieces should I hold onto for future projects and what pieces should I expect to chuck? Is there a pre-amp section in this device that I should look to save rather than part out? Can anyone give suggestions for a newb like me? I assume many of the capacitors in there would be of good quality.
I love to part out old tape decks just as a soothing cathartic activity some evening. Something mindless to do when I am tired of chasing down complex p[roblems on the bench. VCRs are great, the older the better, because the older ones are more complex mechanically. Whether I need the parts or not, I like to tear absolutely every screw, clip, nut and whatever from the thing. I don't keep much. I have a great selection now of metric screws, I keep the AC power cord. There is usually a little low voltage power transformer that is handy for some project. Myself, I find the thin shielded cables running from the tape heads back to the circuitry useful. If I need a 6-inch hunk of shielded in a guitar amp, there, I have it.
As to circuits themselves, if I need some amp circuit, I find it easier to just board up a circuit on my breadboard. Trying to save some tape deck board just to use one small corner of it doesnt appeal to me. Products like yours often have custom ICs or at least ICs designed for VERY specific functions. Those may be of limited use elsewhere.
But I recall my starting days tearing apart old TVs for the resistors and stuff. I had tools and energy, but no money, so a little work got me free parts. SO if you are a starving college student, there are probably a couple dual op amp ICs on the board you could remove and use. And small signal transistors might be useful, but look at prices from suppliers. I can usually find small transistors for a few cents each new.
I buy the tiny tactile pushbuttons by the bag already, so I don;t need to strip them off a tape deck carcass, but you might find them useful. I just tore down a couple and saved the LED VU meter assemblies. Rows of LEDs complete with drive IC. One four pin connector, power ground and two signal inputs. I connected them to my bench power source and sure enough I could feed them signal and watch the meters. I don't know what I'll do with them, if anything, but they are now in my pile of useful junk.
SOme decks have a headphones jack, and some have it on a small board complete with little amp circuit and even a volume control. Again, a couple power connections and a couple signal input pins and you have a little ready made headphones amp. Or just save the jack. Or not.
As to circuits themselves, if I need some amp circuit, I find it easier to just board up a circuit on my breadboard. Trying to save some tape deck board just to use one small corner of it doesnt appeal to me. Products like yours often have custom ICs or at least ICs designed for VERY specific functions. Those may be of limited use elsewhere.
But I recall my starting days tearing apart old TVs for the resistors and stuff. I had tools and energy, but no money, so a little work got me free parts. SO if you are a starving college student, there are probably a couple dual op amp ICs on the board you could remove and use. And small signal transistors might be useful, but look at prices from suppliers. I can usually find small transistors for a few cents each new.
I buy the tiny tactile pushbuttons by the bag already, so I don;t need to strip them off a tape deck carcass, but you might find them useful. I just tore down a couple and saved the LED VU meter assemblies. Rows of LEDs complete with drive IC. One four pin connector, power ground and two signal inputs. I connected them to my bench power source and sure enough I could feed them signal and watch the meters. I don't know what I'll do with them, if anything, but they are now in my pile of useful junk.
SOme decks have a headphones jack, and some have it on a small board complete with little amp circuit and even a volume control. Again, a couple power connections and a couple signal input pins and you have a little ready made headphones amp. Or just save the jack. Or not.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.