Finally, an affordable CD Transport: the Shigaclone story

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Hey Okapi, Count me in for one of those clamps. (still) :D

My RCEZ32 is sounding really nice now.. I have figured out what I need power supply-wise in order to elminate the audio board. Quite simple really.. I need a 6V supply that is always available, a 12V and 8V supply which are controlled by the micro-controller and I will do this via relay.

The only thing now running on the 8V supply is the mechanism and board..

I'm keeping the electronic power switching, and I am debating having a separate winding for the 12V and 6V supplies, but probably won't.. :D
 
clamp

at this point i think i have enough material for 4 clamps - leftover from another project.

the first is going to peter and i hope to have it done before the end of the week. i will take one of the three remaining clamps but it does not have to be the next one made.

construction of the remaining 3 clamps (mine included) will have to wait until may as i will be heading out of town until then. the "extra" clamps will go to those who requested first - can't really think of a better way.

this batch of clamps will be given free of charge (not including shipping). after the first run i will need some sort of compensation for a clamp as i will be bored with the project by then. please keep in mind that getting these done professionally would likely double the cost of the project - a price i don't think anyone should or would be willing to pay because it defeats the spirit/goal of this project - a low cost, great sounding cd transport.
 
shigaclone

Hi Peter ,just a question regard transformer-would 2X9V dual secondaries be OK?
in regard to wiring-from your power supply board-is there any advantage of going full bridge rectifier. Iam still confused and unsure regard the CT transformer and dual secondaries wiring- Do i need four diodes then instead of two?. Sorry a Noob question.:confused:
 
After following this excellent thread for a week and struggling to get in on the act, I finally managed to procure a RCEZ31A. I’m still in the early stages of modding and haven’t built the power supply yet. I’m using the original psu but with a larger 10V transformer.

Johnm, you can use a XF with a single 10V secondary, but you’ll need a 4 diode bridge rectifier, similar to the original psu.

I’ve also found the BYV26C fast, soft recovery diodes to perform very well, better than the Schottky xDQxx series (tried the 11DQ04 and 31DQ04). It’s not easy to get the MUR860 diodes here.

Regarding caps I agree with Oneyedk, the Rybycon ZL & ZA series are great, cheaper than Black Gates and available from RS. I had good success with these caps in Philips swingarm player mods.

As for performance I didn’t think it would match my Philips CDM 2/10 transport which has managed to embarrass several high end units (including CD Pro based ones), but I’m surprised how close the 31A comes in its current state.

The Philips still has the edge detail retrieval, low bass, tone and image placement. But the soundstage and highs initially appear better with the EZ31. I’ll do the cap mods and have another listen on the weekend and report back.

Cheers,

Richard
 

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Here is a pic of my Philips CDM 2/10 based transport, it’s still work in progress.

I have used a hard wood & MDF base as I have found that ‘wood is good’ as a mass loaded platform in vibration reduction and it’s also cheaper than brass and copper. A hagclock is just visible in the top right.

It can be a bit temperamental at times. Overall it’s not as good as my beloved CDM1 but better than the CDM 1 Mk II....

Richard
 

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shigaclone

Hi Richard, will you be using rubycon ZA/ZL entirely for Shigaclone?
The only source for BG from Oz is Soundlabsgroup and they are twice the cost from US!!!
I may order the rubycon and give it a go-still not deciding.
I don't want to destroy the board from changing components several times.
Where do you buy your transformer from OZ? :confused:
 
Quan,

I have some ZL & ZA I got from rs that I’ll be using in the transport and a combination of Panasonic FC and ZL’s in the PSU. Black gates in Oz are far too expensive.

As for transformers, try at the local surplus electronics shops in your state, you should be able to pick up some Australian made Ferguson or Arlec ones. If all else fails try Jaycar or Altronics. As Peter suggested get an EI core, they reject a lot of the mains has a torroid would let in.


Oneyek,
Thank you for the ZLG recommendation I’ll try them next. It seems that Farnell stocks them here in Oz.
 
Otapi - thanks for agreeing to do a run of these clamps - I'm sure they'll push the JVC mechanism even further into the 'mega performance' catagory! Can't wait to see a pic of the first one fitted :)

I'm curious though how the top of the puck will be able to be screwed onto the base without the CD turning around and around... I take it the fitting between the screw thread and the top of the puck is quite a loose one?

I know this must be time consuming so I don't mind paying for the puck itself, as well as the shipping to UK.

Cheers,

- John
 
Re: clamp

okapi said:

this batch of clamps will be given free of charge (not including shipping). after the first run i will need some sort of compensation for a clamp as i will be bored with the project by then. please keep in mind that getting these done professionally would likely double the cost of the project - a price i don't think anyone should or would be willing to pay because it defeats the spirit/goal of this project - a low cost, great sounding cd transport.


Okapi

Please put me down for one, happy to compensate you !

For anyone else in the UK, I've just ordered an EZ31BE from EmpireDirect (don'tknow what BE means put I assume the innards are the same) for £33 inc delivery. What's to lose? If it turns out as well as expected, I buy John Westlakes new Da Capo DAC, sell my Sugden Masterclass CDP and come out £ahead
:)
 
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Major Setback with RCEZ32

Hi All,
I've had a fairly serious malfunction in the controller board of my RCEZ32 based project. I successfully (I thought) built a new supply and added the required functionality for power control, etc., and had it working.

I then decided to clip the board ends off of the display board (no traces) and immediately after that the display became very flaky, and very shortly after retouching some solder joints on the controller board the whole thing died. Note that I was quite cautious and my mods do not necessarily seem to be the cause of the difficulty. It might also be minor - I will spend some time tomorrow evening trying to figure this out. Hopefully the uP is not trashed and as it is a masked part the code should still be intact. It's just not waking up from standby mode.. :(

Scope shots of the spdif output indicated that ground bounce and noise on the spdif output was substantially improved, unfortunately I did not get to listen to it. The last time I listened which was earlier last night it sounded better than it had.

Peter, are you going to orchestrate a group buy of RCEZ31, and if so I will forward you the funds. I just need the electronics inside and would appreciate some disassembly. (Don't want to ship a whole boom box.)

Others have asked me to share what I am doing, and I will, just bear in mind that I might have experimented mine to death. Also note the earlier posts about the chip set both mine, and Peter's.
 
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Re: RCEZ32

ymwong said:
Hi Kevin,

Can you share some more details of your mods? Do you have the service manual/schematic?

Looks like the RCEZ32 is more available in the US.

ym


Hi ymwong,

I have not been able to find either schematics or a service manual for this model so far. I've also hit anything from a minor hiccup to a total into the circular file malfunction. I'm not sure what is going on yet, but worst case last night I managed somehow to kill the micro-controller - without that it is deader than a door nail. I could learn to program a micro-controller to do it as I know the cd mech and board are fine.

I've got the data sheet for the LC587008 micro-controller, but nothing else as it was discontinued at least a year ago.
 
Peter Daniel said:
luvdunhill, who contacting me earlier about orchestrating things, didn't do any follow up, so at the moment I'm still open to suggestions on such group buy.

I'm just waiting to make sure they have the right units. I'll post once my contact receives the item in Canada and we can go forward. I'm not sure how confident I would be in disassembling other peoples boxes. I should know today or tomorrow and will keep people posted.
 
Re: 4 hrs in

okapi said:
i had a go at the cd clamp today. as usual i underestimated the time investment by a factor of 4 - it will probably take me 8 hours to finish the first one. by the second or third clamp i should be able to half the time involved. working on a non metric lathe slows things down a little.

here is a pic with about 2/3 of the difficult cuts done on the bottom half of the clamp.

getting a nice cut that maintains the transparency is not always easy (as can be seen with the 47 labs cd clamp). so far i seem to be able to do it. getting the threads perfectly transparent will be another story - in other words it won't happen.


I will be interested in the cd clamp. Please count me in. I still see some EZ31A here, willing to help to those who need one. I can take the transport out of the boombox and send with display and the remote.