Hello, I'm curious if this project got back on the right track. I've done this conversion to optical sensors and it is well worth the effort! Really a great upgrade. Much smoother behavior with the carriage movement and the motor noise is reduced since its not fully on like it was in original configuration. Ray is right, don't give up on it!
It look like a fantastic mods for these arms. I will surely apply it when I will get some spare time. Thank you diyrayk and the others for your contribution!
My first time posting on this site prompted by my recent acquisition of a SL8E. Not much of a DIY'er, though I have often tinkered with my Thoren's 124 and 126 TT's. My hope was to mount this as a 2nd arm on my 126, but it didn't seem to be functioning properly. I was getting lift, but the arm was not moving. Did a lot of reading up and watching a video on repairing/restoring this and decided to find a repair shop to do the work since I'm not the most technically adept and figured I'd leave it to professionals. Finally tracked down a shop about 45 minutes from home who told me they'd never worked on one before but he had a really good technician who could figure it out.
When I brought the Rabco to them I also forwarded them a video showing the problem with these tonearms with the wearing out of the rubber pad that the chain moves along. He had it for a few weeks and then told me that his technician spent 3 hours pulling this arm apart and determined that the motor that is driving the chain that is broken and needed to be rebuilt or replaced. He told me it would take him 10 hours to do so. I told him to forget it, that I would come and pick it up. He charged me $150 for 3 hours of labor.
When I got home I decided to try pulling it apart myself since I had nothing to loose. It took me 10 minutes to pull this completely apart. When I had the tonearm carriage motor exposed, I inserted the battery. The gear that drives the chain moved perfectly when the tonearm pole engaged the cat whisker contacts - there was nothing wrong with this motor! I then slid the carriage off the bracket to inspect the rubber pad that I told them right up front was the likely culprit and, sure enough the pad had significant groove wear stopping the chain from pulling the carriage.
Shame on me for not trying this myself before wasting $150 (I sent the shop an email with a video of the motor working and the worn out pad and have yet to receive a satisfactory repsonse.)
I am awaiting delivery of some new pad material and hope to have this up and running soon. But this photoelectric servo control sounds like a great modification! My soldering skills are poor, and I want to see how the arm works as is, but seems like an almost necessary mod. Thanks for getting this online!
When I brought the Rabco to them I also forwarded them a video showing the problem with these tonearms with the wearing out of the rubber pad that the chain moves along. He had it for a few weeks and then told me that his technician spent 3 hours pulling this arm apart and determined that the motor that is driving the chain that is broken and needed to be rebuilt or replaced. He told me it would take him 10 hours to do so. I told him to forget it, that I would come and pick it up. He charged me $150 for 3 hours of labor.
When I got home I decided to try pulling it apart myself since I had nothing to loose. It took me 10 minutes to pull this completely apart. When I had the tonearm carriage motor exposed, I inserted the battery. The gear that drives the chain moved perfectly when the tonearm pole engaged the cat whisker contacts - there was nothing wrong with this motor! I then slid the carriage off the bracket to inspect the rubber pad that I told them right up front was the likely culprit and, sure enough the pad had significant groove wear stopping the chain from pulling the carriage.
Shame on me for not trying this myself before wasting $150 (I sent the shop an email with a video of the motor working and the worn out pad and have yet to receive a satisfactory repsonse.)
I am awaiting delivery of some new pad material and hope to have this up and running soon. But this photoelectric servo control sounds like a great modification! My soldering skills are poor, and I want to see how the arm works as is, but seems like an almost necessary mod. Thanks for getting this online!
A close friend's 100% diy effort . Has successfully completed all trials. Shall share more after some final touches are completed.
Regards,
Regards,
Awesome!
More pictures please.
What kind of motors did you use and where did you get them?
Ray K
More pictures please.
What kind of motors did you use and where did you get them?
Ray K
