FAQ Q) You should send it to….they’d/I’d fix it. A) It really is not worth anyone’s time. This cost me £44 - bought as 'Junk' just to use in this video. The disassembly was recorded across two days. The section at the end where I throw in the towel was shot after I’d spent the afternoon of day two stripping down the tape mechanism to get the belts in place. This involved removing multiple split washers and e-clips the size of a pinhead. Once those parts were reassembled a couple of the vital ones were no longer securely held in place. It’s likely some microscopic, important and irreplaceable components pinged off during disassembly, never to be seen again. Whatever the reason though - the mechanism is a write-off. Whenever something broken appears in a video I understand the desire to see the thing fixed but this is a heavy, compromised personal stereo cassette player that even if functional would be destined to sit unused. Given that the mechanism relied on dried up rubber friction wheels it’s unlikely it would be trustworthy. I'd rather play my cassettes using something else. If anyone wants to take on the challenge of swapping the belts on one of these - the RX-2700 appears on eBay quite frequently. I believe other early Panasonic models are equally complex internally. If you bought one of these at least you’ll be starting off with a complete unit, with all the parts intact. You don’t want to go into something like this following on from someone else’s half-finished repair - you don’t know what damage has been done or irreplaceable parts lost. Rather than start with a bag of assorted bits, probably not all the bits, you'd be better to start from scratch with an unmolested example. Good luck if you do, but there are way way better personal stereo cassette players out there far more worthy of your time. MARCH 2023 UPDATE: The disassembly was shot a couple of months back and the remainder of this video was completed weeks ago. Since then I passed the bag of bits on to someone who wanted to have a go at fixing it. He couldn’t get any further and I believe it was stripped to use for parts to repair other machines.
Some else might be able to get a video and content out of fixing it, and once a successful repair vid is out there it will help others in the future, TronicFix or StezStix Fix or one of the many others i'm sure would give it a go. It's value isn't intrinsic it what can be gleaned from it
That device easily takes the cake for the most unserviceable electronic device I've ever seen. I'm pretty sure even the M$ Surface devices would be easier to work on and those have the entire machine locked behind a glued on touchscreen.
At the end of the day it was originally put together by people like you and I. They just know what they were doing, and im pretty sure atleast someone out there knows exactly how this thing goes back together and what parts are missing from where (not me, i havent a clue and would have smashed it well before you gave up!). Im a mechanic. Occasionally someone will bring their car in having attempted the unsucessful repair themselves, and they usually sound just as defeated. And later that day when you ring them to tell them its repaired and it only took an hour, they almost dont believe it. I've been called a genius many times, to me its easy with 30 years doing the job!
I think probably the urge to see it fixed stems partly from a desire for a satisfying narrative, but also from a desire to see how well the device works
I can see the RX-2700 being one of those rare devices where the Techmoan Effect is inverted. Good on you for showing that not every repair video on RUclips results in sunshine and unicorn farts, Mat.
The ‘Techmoan Effect’ is where after something has been featured in a video on the Techmoan channel, that causes it to go up in value on the second-hand market.
Hey Mat ... I work on vintage electronics all the time (mostly recording equipment) and I have to commend you on the patience you've shown here. There were a few moments where I would have probably just tossed the thing against the wall. Clearly, Panasonic had no intention of this little thing being repaired. It makes the Sony look like a breeze to work on. Good on ya!
At least it had screws and clips you can replace. Later on they used plastic tabs they twisted to hold things. Even a short 3-5 years those tabs were brittle. Break every one of them and no way to mount the parts. That's the units that were created as landfill materials. These days they just don't sell the parts or kits to block you from repairing stuff that's relatively easy to repair.
Yes, keeping cool without profanity or having the item become "airborne", is a must when working on things like that... As you were taking it apart, i could see that is was going to be a real 'bugger'in
That has been my experience with a lot of 80s miniaturized stuff. Sony sure isn't above it! haha I've got one Sony player that I put on the shelf from the sheer number of wires that needed to be folded between case bits and PCBs and mechanisms, and I had no idea how they made it all fit the first time. I bought another one later, that I could use as a template (and parts donor), but haven't been foolish enough yet to try again.
WOW, I love those types of challenging mechanisms... my biggest adventure I had is to reassemble an early 80s Hitachi tape mechanism that dropped off my hand on the floor and I had to chase all the springs and the pieces to guess their places back in the thing. it was around 11pm and I had to get it done before the morning, so my dad won't notice!! LOL.... lots of stress but so proud I was able to put it back with the same original issue :D
My foray into the Walkman type device started just after Sony released it in the US. Toshiba released a model that was about the same size but came with a cassette radio tuner. You just popped it in and tune to a station. My dad bought it but I used it most of the time. I was in a JVC phase a bit later and I bought a mini boom box where the cassette player part would pop out and you could use it as a walkman. When I moved back to the UK, Pioneer were the sponsor of my footy team. I went down to London and bought one of their all weather sealed walkman's. I loved that thing. Ear buds, auto reverse, etc. I got back into National/Panasonic/Technics in the early 90's and bought a fantastic Panasonic walkman. Black aluminium clam shell case, wired ear buds with a remote on the wire. I played the crap out of that device. Then the cd walkman's started coming out. Memories.
It's actually surprising that Walkmans didn't appear until 1979, given that reporters and secretaries had been using similar mono dictation machines for years. I really think Sony, Panasonic and the like got distracted by the whole boombox craze around. It was all about carrying around a big, loud player that people could share rather than individuals shutting themselves off in headphones. That change has clearly pushed the industry (and society) in a different direction.
Headphone technology. Until the introduction of neodymium magnets, headphones had to be gigantic ear-muff things that clamped over your head to support their substantial weight.
@@igorszamaszow171 Sadly I'm not too young to remember it. The big ghetto blasters were certainly a thing of the '80s but mid-sized battery-powered portable stereos were around when I was in school in the 1970s. They were very expensive though and out of reach of most people. I think the big players were solely focused on making that kind of product more accessible and therefore missed the boat on walkmans, at least for a while.
@@vylbird8014 The headphones that came with the Walkman didn't have neodymium magnets but they weren't the closed ear jobs either, they were open-back with the foam earpiece covers. Sound quality was crap by today's standards but OK for back then.
I read the update that it was parted out but for anyone else (or you if you ever buy another one!) the cassette mechanism on these can be removed from the front without having to split all the boards apart to service and change the belts once the appropriate screws have been removed. It's been over 10 years since I last worked on one of these but there is no need to completely strip it unless you want to hunt down and change any capacitors etc.
My father had one of those National portable tape player/recorder in the early 70s. It was a great novelty to record and hear your own voice. And could be used with a home hifi to do 2track bounce downs as the mono head would combine both channels. And it had a level needle dial on the top so you could avoid distortion.
You're a champ for continuing past the "de-solder" stage of disassembly. If I need to de-solder anything. It just goes into the recycling or to a thrift shop if I can reassemble it, that is.
My first (and only) portable personal cassette player was the Panasonic Model RQ-J50 that I bought new in '83 I believe. I owned it for about 8 years before I passed it along to a younger cousin and it was still working fine. Listened to a lot of music on that little machine. I replaced it with a Panasonic SL-NP1 XBS (I think) portable CD player.
I have a Panasonic RQ-J11 and love it. While the sound quality is a bit muffled it still sounds pretty good, it’s super easy to service and disassemble, and it’s built like a tank. I have to replace my headphone jack since it’s worn out but all I’ve done to it is put new belts on it.
The first so called “Walkman” that I ever saw was something called a “Cybernetic” and made by a Canadian company back in the very early 1970s, probably 1972 or 73. It wasn’t very small either but would fit on a belt, but still very bulky. It was in stereo and sounded very good with it’s supplied mini headphones. It was very “substantial” in weight and played cassettes only.
As hard as it looked like it was to replace the belts. The cassette mechanism looks amazingly high quality. If I had the time, I coudl totally see taking that mech out and building a custom dedicated cassette component deck around it. To put in my Hi-Fi setup.
You have the patience of a saint. I’m not exactly sure where I got deterred. I thought taping the screws to the picture was brilliant. It wasn’t the desoldering that got me because I have a machine not as good as yours but I normally do 16 spot ribbon cables without a problem. I suppose it would’ve been the belts if I would’ve hung in that long. Thanks for the upload and the screw taping idea. We’re always learning.
Seeing your frustrations in trying to repair this reminded me of a purchase I almost made recently, and made me glad I didn't. I was at an estate sale last week and saw a Memorex Portavision CRT TV with a built in Video8 VCR. I plugged it in and the screen powered on, but the VCR wouldn't budge once I popped a tape in. I was seriously considering buying it and trying to fix it because the sale was an hour from closing and I'd hate to see something unusual like that go in the trash, but in the end I figured it'd probably be more trouble than it was worth to try fixing it. Seeing this video reminded me of it and made me feel confident in my decision.
My heart goes out to you after spending so many hours I've been there done that springs flying out clips pinging off etc.. My ending probably would have been hitting the whole lot with a hammer!
The radio to the left of the video camera seen on the brochure cover at 5:07 is the very rare *RF-9000.* There is one for sale on eBay right now for *17,000 $*
I love that you showed the fail. Please do something with Louis rossman!!!!! Maybe Ben Heck? Please. You and Louis would be hilarious. Linus sabastian would probably pay for it
Amazed how early Walkman sized cassette recorders were available! As you say though no-one knew whether there would be the market for them. I remember the inability to record was controversial; 40 years ago it was quite extravagant to have a second cassette machine!
If you want to hear what it sounds like, you can use one of those tapes that has a head in it and a headphone cord coming out of it. We used to use them to play portable CD players in cars that only had tape decks.
Well done for a brilliant video, it's not only entertaining but instructive, too many videos make everything fixable if from the by gone era, all you need is a few belts and oh yeah an incredibly high level of skill working with very small parts in a very small space. I would have given up the minute I saw I had to desolder therefore resolder ribbon cables which is always a nightmare unless lots of space and a decent amount of give in the cables.
The only portable device i did not own was a portable DCC... My first portable cassetterecorder was a Philips mono recorder. I took it everywhere, made recordings, my own "radio shows" etc. After that i got a Supertech portable cassetteplayer and then my Sony Walkman with a radio and equalizer!
Please if you ever hesitate again about whether to leave in footage of a failed repair attempt please leave it in they help me greatly on my Progress on learning how to repair vintage audio components I love watching your videos of repairing/trying to repair items P.s. It also helps me know if there are any units I should not buy that cannot be repaired like this for example lol
This was fascinating to watch! I learned a lot here: the depth of your skill set in repairing stuff, the complexity of these devices (it never occurred to me that you'd need rubber belts even for things like a counter - I'd assume it would be more similar to clockworks ie cogwheels), and of course that there are limits even for experts like you. You earned yourself another subscriber here, this was a good watch!
The problem with the Sony MDR-3 headphones was the wire, which used to split where it went into thwe 3.5mm jack plug. I used to spend many hours cutting open the plugs, re-soldering the connections, & super-glueing the plastic back together... Usually, it ended up looking good as new!
I think the idea was that there'd be 5 new models by the time the belts gave up. Pretty amazing how we've gone from 'who would want to listen to music on the go?' to Ray Bradbury's seashells.
Ten years earlier? in the 1970s, there was a product, sold in the snow skier's world. Basically a car stereo with some D cells packaged in a device that hung over your shoulder. Headphones were the standard ear muff ones.
Just came by a RQ-J36 in pristine cosmetic condition, except the Phones jack doesn't work... It seems to be just like the J6 seen in one of the catalogs on this video, but with a headphone jack instead of the RCA red/white cables.
The first guy that I saw wearing Walkman headphones was at university. I asked him if I could have a listen, to see what the quality of the audio was and he said sorry but he was only wearing the headphones, on their own, as he couldn't afford the cassette player yet.
That brings me back. Ribbon wiring! Some telephones and other AV equipment had those and yes...quite the pain to put them back on properly. But if that would be the only cassette player I would have (got none as of now) I would take on that repair challenge. Too much free time on my hands!
I was a consumer electronic service technician in my youth..servicing small tape decks like that was always a :challenge" I wish I had that nifty de-soldering tool then. Yeah the repair bill would be $$$$ for that repair..
It's weird to hear 'masking tape' referred to as 'painter's tape' - it's used in architectural drafting and other applications where ease of removal is desired as much as it's used for masking off areas that one doesn't want painted.
Aaaaarrgghh! Don't feel bad.. There was an Aiwa model and I forget the model number and can't be bothered walking upstairs to find it.. As it still sits somewhere...I did walk Aiwa TP S101. Multiply that absolutely, built to deny service, by 100 and you get the idea. I remember staring at it after taking the back off thinking it was just crazy impossible... It was quarter size of RX 2700 with a mind bogglingly paper thin circuit board, dozens of tiny through soldered connections had to be de soldered to lift the board. With many fiddly switches etc. After finally lifting the board and dismantling enough to replace the belt, the layout, which happened to look very similar to the Panasonic was a bit of a puzzle, I had no reference and couldn't find service manuals, but eventually got it all together and finally playing. Just needed a couple of screws. It had lovely metal casework and was bigger than the usual Walkman as it had a speaker and rechargeable battery slot. I had not bothered to screw back the lid as I put it through its paces . The lid was a complex piece that held the cassette and fully reversible head mechanism in it and required a convoluted twist, shift and wiggle to remove it, so it would never just detach on its own. Anyhow it magically found a way to detach itself and fall off tearing the head ribbon cable. I didn't give up. I put it down (two years ago) and went for a cup of tea to ponder on it before returning to fix it. Desperate nasty thing. DO NOT BUY ONE unless it is confirmed fully working (it won't be). They look like precision, solid devices but hide a true nightmare of an assault course to do any basic service. They didn't want this serviced - for sure. (I have repaired hundreds of Walkmans) Anyone want to buy an Aiwa? Very rare model TP-S101. Mint condition.
Excellent video, Mat! Yours is one of the few channels that when I see a new video, I always hit the thumbs up before I even watch the content. Your content is always great! I was once an electronics tech professionally, but it's been many decades since I did the work. The internals of that Panasonic are mind-boggling, and, like you said, aren't meant to ever be serviced. You gave it a good try, though. I wouldn't have even tried to tackle it. 🤥
Back then, wires were most likely soldered onto circuit boards to connect modules together when nowadays it's easy to disconnect & swap out modules in equipment. Compared to today, 70s & 80s consumer technology were built like tanks without a whiff of planned obsolescence. You can see by today, circuitry is simplified, cheapest components used, it will work until the official warranty runs out & it's not repairable or it's not worth fixing because the labour costs to repair & the replacement parts would be as much as what a new one would cost.
Good lord!! I don't think they could have made it much more difficult to replace the belts... which is typically a part that needs replaced periodically. As a fan of Matsushita, I'm pretty surprised/disappointed by that
Wow, solid as rock, and so many parts! Today, electronics companies would use it to build 20 of similar types just to cheat and economize materials for higher profits.
This has to be one of the most frustrating videos on RUclips. It reminds me of when I tried to replace the heater control slider in the dashboard of my 1978 Nissan pickup truck. It ended with an emergency trip to the mechanic with cables and wires dangling all over the steering wheel.
I know exactly how you feel. I took a go at replacing the belts on one of Panasonic's later models, one that looked more like a walkman. I went to all the trouble, replaced the belts, got it all back together, and the damn thing warbles like a bird. I tried everything to make the wow and flutter go away, but nothing worked. Eventually I tried dropping a drop of oil in the motor just like I've seen vwestlife do. Well... that completely trashed the machine. Now it eats tapes. I stand defeated.
I just purchased two of these off eBay. Both in good condition and both tape players work. The tapes play slow indicating the need for belt replacement. Going to give it a try. Side note: Anyone know the model number of the original headphones? I’d like to find a pair. I think they were unique only to the RX-2700.
That's the bane of analog: rubber belts. All my analog media is currently unplayable for the same reason. And the people who used to repair those are no more.
I have this RX-2700, missing the battery door sadly. It just needs the belts replaced, I haven't got around to it yet... I will now plan lots of time lol
The stereo belt was available around 1972/73 and one can be seen worn by the character of Quicksilver in the 2014 X-men film 'Days of future past' (which is partially set in 1973). However I remember the first Walkman I had was around 1982 and I'm sure it was a Panasonic model with a shoulder strap and a built in AM/FM radio. I'm pretty sure it used 4 AA batteries as I remember getting a proper Sony one two or three years later that was smaller, lighter and only used 2 AA batteries. Also the early Sony proto walkmans from 1968 era were used by the astronauts on the Apollo missions.
Yeah, that one definately look like a nightmare to repair and as you say are probably not ment to either. I have worked in electronics since the late 80´s and the only time i was reparing consumer electronics was in the late 90´s repairing mobile phones and some of them were way worse to deal with than others even there.
I sometimes remember I have a RUclips, and despite not wanting it to be a repair one I seem to do repair stuff on it every so often. So if you ever want to send me "I've given up, to hell with it, it's scrap now anyway" stuff.... Which I'll then happily send back either working or more broken......
I've got the RQ-J5. It's basically the same form factor as the RQ-J6 except it doesn't record. I replaced the belt in it, but not long after that it started getting terrible wow and flutter again. I remember the fast forward/reverse was rather sluggish as well. Eventually I'm going to open it back up and probably clean and relubricate the whole mechanism. Hopefully that will fix it. It was very annoying to take apart and put back together, but nowhere near as terrible as the model shown in this video.
Thank you for the awesome video~ This was a great watch, Really interesting just how close the race really was with Walkman competition, I commend you for attempting that repair, Were it not for the insane belt path it would still have been near impossible to reassemble but thank you for giving it a shot and bringing us all along for the ride Thank you for your hard work, Keep it up m(_ _)m I hope your having a lovely day, Have a wonderful rest of your week, Be safe and Take care out there wherever you are (^=W=^)7 And you too fellow viewers~
Honestly. I would love you to just do a serious teardown of a unit like this - rather than trying to put it back together or repair it, just dig in and take it apart. That way, you don’t get cheesed off by the construction, because you’re not looking for it to come out the other side in working order.
To be fair to Panasonic this was an early attempt at the walkman concept, at some point I'm sure they got their hands on the rival product and reverse engineered it. By the time the RQ series came on the market they were pretty similar in design to the Sony models, I had a late 80's RQ model (can't remember exact model) and it took all of 6 screws and 5 minutes to replace the belt.
Fun fact: Word Walkman is patented by Sony and it is allowed to be used only on Sony product. If you check any other portable player none of them will have on them written Walkman. Though people kept calling all portables Walkman but they will not find this name on any other than Sony.
I just assumed the ominous background noise was there for effect as you slowly got deeper and deeper into trouble. And then you just turned off the soldering gun and it went away. 😆
It's good that you show things don't always work out. If you only show your successes, people will assume that vintage audio repair is easy, because you keep saying you're not much of a mechanic, but even you manage to repair anything you lay your hands on. Sharing your failures as well demonstrates that things aren't always that easy, and there is a risk involved. Keeps people from overspending on broken devices in the hopes of an easy repair.
We've all taken apart something and then realized it was going to be a complete nightmare and not worth our time. Glad you didn't delete the video because it is still interesting even if it didn't get repaired.
I honestly struggled to imagine how they assembled this in the first place, especially with that short ribbon cable between the two halves. Given the nest of wires taped down on the back of the board, it really feels like this thing was kludged together to ship something as quickly as possible.
Electronics engineering has come a long way. Back then they weren't particularly repairable because they didn't have the means to do a better job (CAD and EDA software, lack of smaller integrated circuits, only batteries with low energy density). Today stuff isn't repairable on purpose.
This is just a guess, but if I were doing it, those ribbons would have extra long leads that could be poked through, then clipped off after soldering, like any other through-hole part.
It was probably put together "backwards" (if that makes sense) in a jig on an assembly line. Also remember all the boards and subassemblies would have been put together and tested separately (likely by subcontractors), before final assembly.
that my friend is sony and mostly all compact electronic pre 90's..a nest of wire that if deranged, give you a nightmare just to get it back at the right place ,and im not talking about the worry that one get pinched...
I was in college in 1979 and a friend of mine from Japan brought a Walkman back. I was blown away. I remember walking around my neighborhood at 1am listening to Allman Bros Band blaring away in my ears in full stereo with full dynamic range like my home stereo had.
As someone born in 1979 I have taken the personal stereo for granted my entire life hehe. Interesting to think about a time before that of course. I do recall having a similar moment though with mp3 making it possible to practically download high quality music over the internet for the first time
Born in 1979. Man did I love my tapes. Wasn't a cd fan, cause as a teenager I'm listening on the go, on my bike or skateboard or in a car. And all my friends with cd receivers in their car, the cd would skip if we hit a bump or the cd was dirty or scratched. Never had that problem with cassette or walkmans.... Long after cd's came out, I was still recording my favorite cd tracks to cassette. So you had the new Slipknot cd? Come over and we'll get high and I'll steal the best tracks to cassette.... I never bought one cd. I waited til cd burners were halfway affordable, I'd borrow every cd you had that I wanted and burned away. Had a huge collection of burned discs but never bought one.
Thank you for showing the attempted repair. Nice to know that we sometimes must accept that there are things made in such a way that it gets either prohibitively expensive or too difficult to repair yourself, unless one happens to run an actual advanced electronics repair shop. Good content, I like the way you share your findings. Thumbs up to this video as well as all of the others.
The advanced repair shop would probably tell you to run for the hills and listen to music from your phone. Or would put a prohibitively high price on it so that you bugger off. It only makes sense as a repair for your own entertainment, like making a ship in a bottle or a little train sculpted from the tip of a pencil. And even if you do change out the belts, the motor or the capstan bearing can be terminally worn out too. And good luck finding those for your specific Walkman, especially if it isn't one of the few iconic and thus overpriced ones. It will have speed and motor noise issues forever then. I'd now, after multiple such exercises in futility, get one with some form of servo speed control, or a brushless motor at least, for this specific reason.
Wow, I LOVE your idea to print out a photo of the back of the unit and then tape the screws to the appropriate locations! I’m starting to think they really didn’t want anyone to take one of these apart.
I used to fix things like that in a repair shop and even then the real labor time had to be reduced because then the customer wouldn't want to pay for the hours spent . Now it just wouldn't make sense to fix it even if you could. Good for you Techmoan for giving it your best effort and also for telling the true story 👍
This sort of video is exactly why I have a membership to your Patreon. Albeit the entire universe might not be so pleased, but if you just constantly did old tech repairs/repair fails, I'd be a happy guy forever.
This video is amazing. Rather than focusing on how difficult something is to repair, my mind kept thinking how staggering it would have been to have an efficient assembly line for this kind of thing in the 80’s. These obviously sold and sold well, but putting it together with such tight tolerances always blows my mind.
If nothing else, this video demonstrates that making difficult to repair electronics is a long standing tradition that continues to this day. I can only imagine the nightmare of a time the people who originally assembled this thing must have had. Thanks for sharing your failures, it helps others.
Those people were likely Japanese women sitting on an assembly line, doing the same operations day after day. The assembly would, as with cars or washing machines, be broken down into much simpler procedures than are apparent from this video.
Not really. Try to realign VCR mechanism. They are pretty complex. That's how they are. Repair technicians were more qualified in this analog/mechanical domain back then. At the time Matsushita manufactured player from this video, they probably still didn't manage to simplify the design - reducing cost and complexity. You don't get that sophistication in current mechanisms of Blu-ray players. Sony did similar things like showed in the video. I've repaired early 90' portable dictation machine from Sony, and to replace belts you need to desolder wires and take out PCB. For the counter belt, i didn't even tried to put new one in - it was deeply buried in mechanism. Also Sony tend to use very thin belts in their portable tape players, and they are harder to find.
@@musicandfilms9956 Additionally, they knew all the steps and in which order to take these steps. (At least the one who put the assembly line with the women together knew, what had to be done in which order). If you repair this device, it would be only sucessfull, if you would 100% reverse this order - this is impossible and with the problem of loosing parts somewhere in your workshop it is basically impossible. This Thing is the opposite Definition of service-friendly...
It is also, likely, much easier to put together the first time, with components, wires, and ribbon cables having long leads that are clipped off after soldering.
I was working in the Middle East in the early 1980s, and one of the great pleasures was to wander around the tax free 'electric souk', have a look at all the new gizmos, and even buy a few. I do recall walkmen of all makes becoming increasingly sophisticated and thinner with all sorts of new features, such as a cassette you inserted that was actually a radio plug in. (Panasonic or JVC?) 'Peak walkman' seemed to be about 1984 or 5, a few years later CD versions came along. Cassette walkmans then went into a fast decline, but somehow a few cheap designs, often with integral radios, lingered on into the noughties, a sad shadow of their former selves. But thanks for an interesting episode - a reminder how frustrating fixing stuff can be. I'd certainly love to see more stuff on how sophisticated walkmans got!
The one with a "radio cassette" was a Toshiba KT-AS10 and AS15. I had one, its main attraction was that the player was actually smaller than a cassette (the cassette would stick out). Its audio quality was excellent. It broke down eventually in the 2000s, after lying around unused for years anyway. A couple of years ago I sold it on ebay as" parts only" Someone from Hongkong payed 100 euros for it even though I made it clear that it didn't work.
They can't all be winners but I certainly enjoy the journey. Thank you for sharing. I've definitely been down the rabbit hole of trying to repair something beyond my skill and I can relate to your frustration.
FAQ
Q) You should send it to….they’d/I’d fix it.
A) It really is not worth anyone’s time. This cost me £44 - bought as 'Junk' just to use in this video.
The disassembly was recorded across two days. The section at the end where I throw in the towel was shot after I’d spent the afternoon of day two stripping down the tape mechanism to get the belts in place. This involved removing multiple split washers and e-clips the size of a pinhead. Once those parts were reassembled a couple of the vital ones were no longer securely held in place. It’s likely some microscopic, important and irreplaceable components pinged off during disassembly, never to be seen again. Whatever the reason though - the mechanism is a write-off.
Whenever something broken appears in a video I understand the desire to see the thing fixed but this is a heavy, compromised personal stereo cassette player that even if functional would be destined to sit unused. Given that the mechanism relied on dried up rubber friction wheels it’s unlikely it would be trustworthy. I'd rather play my cassettes using something else.
If anyone wants to take on the challenge of swapping the belts on one of these - the RX-2700 appears on eBay quite frequently. I believe other early Panasonic models are equally complex internally. If you bought one of these at least you’ll be starting off with a complete unit, with all the parts intact. You don’t want to go into something like this following on from someone else’s half-finished repair - you don’t know what damage has been done or irreplaceable parts lost.
Rather than start with a bag of assorted bits, probably not all the bits, you'd be better to start from scratch with an unmolested example. Good luck if you do, but there are way way better personal stereo cassette players out there far more worthy of your time.
MARCH 2023 UPDATE:
The disassembly was shot a couple of months back and the remainder of this video was completed weeks ago. Since then I passed the bag of bits on to someone who wanted to have a go at fixing it. He couldn’t get any further and I believe it was stripped to use for parts to repair other machines.
Thanks for the video
Some else might be able to get a video and content out of fixing it, and once a successful repair vid is out there it will help others in the future, TronicFix or StezStix Fix or one of the many others i'm sure would give it a go.
It's value isn't intrinsic it what can be gleaned from it
That device easily takes the cake for the most unserviceable electronic device I've ever seen. I'm pretty sure even the M$ Surface devices would be easier to work on and those have the entire machine locked behind a glued on touchscreen.
At the end of the day it was originally put together by people like you and I. They just know what they were doing, and im pretty sure atleast someone out there knows exactly how this thing goes back together and what parts are missing from where (not me, i havent a clue and would have smashed it well before you gave up!). Im a mechanic. Occasionally someone will bring their car in having attempted the unsucessful repair themselves, and they usually sound just as defeated. And later that day when you ring them to tell them its repaired and it only took an hour, they almost dont believe it. I've been called a genius many times, to me its easy with 30 years doing the job!
I think probably the urge to see it fixed stems partly from a desire for a satisfying narrative, but also from a desire to see how well the device works
I can see the RX-2700 being one of those rare devices where the Techmoan Effect is inverted. Good on you for showing that not every repair video on RUclips results in sunshine and unicorn farts, Mat.
The ‘Techmoan Effect’ is where after something has been featured in a video on the Techmoan channel, that causes it to go up in value on the second-hand market.
@@joshbacon8241 I wonder if the Patreon community could be considered insider trading with their advanced knowledge 😛
@@StevieCooper the patreon makes profit!
Note to self: ditch unicorn fart effects
I admit I often run to the local Hard Off after watching Techmoan. Sometimes I even find a working device!
Hey Mat ... I work on vintage electronics all the time (mostly recording equipment) and I have to commend you on the patience you've shown here. There were a few moments where I would have probably just tossed the thing against the wall. Clearly, Panasonic had no intention of this little thing being repaired. It makes the Sony look like a breeze to work on. Good on ya!
Yep. Even just watching the repair had me thinking about my lump hammer...
At least it had screws and clips you can replace. Later on they used plastic tabs they twisted to hold things. Even a short 3-5 years those tabs were brittle. Break every one of them and no way to mount the parts. That's the units that were created as landfill materials. These days they just don't sell the parts or kits to block you from repairing stuff that's relatively easy to repair.
Yes, keeping cool without profanity or having the item become "airborne", is a must when working on things like that... As you were taking it apart, i could see that is was going to be a real 'bugger'in
That has been my experience with a lot of 80s miniaturized stuff. Sony sure isn't above it! haha I've got one Sony player that I put on the shelf from the sheer number of wires that needed to be folded between case bits and PCBs and mechanisms, and I had no idea how they made it all fit the first time. I bought another one later, that I could use as a template (and parts donor), but haven't been foolish enough yet to try again.
Amount of glue on plate looks like even Panasonic engineers at some point just give up)
WOW, I love those types of challenging mechanisms... my biggest adventure I had is to reassemble an early 80s Hitachi tape mechanism that dropped off my hand on the floor and I had to chase all the springs and the pieces to guess their places back in the thing. it was around 11pm and I had to get it done before the morning, so my dad won't notice!! LOL.... lots of stress but so proud I was able to put it back with the same original issue :D
Smart hat prices in eBay are skyrocketing. That techmoan effect...
I have my SmartHat® patent pending.
Have enjoyed this video immensely dear Techmoan, glad you hadn't deleted it.
My foray into the Walkman type device started just after Sony released it in the US. Toshiba released a model that was about the same size but came with a cassette radio tuner. You just popped it in and tune to a station. My dad bought it but I used it most of the time.
I was in a JVC phase a bit later and I bought a mini boom box where the cassette player part would pop out and you could use it as a walkman.
When I moved back to the UK, Pioneer were the sponsor of my footy team. I went down to London and bought one of their all weather sealed walkman's. I loved that thing. Ear buds, auto reverse, etc.
I got back into National/Panasonic/Technics in the early 90's and bought a fantastic Panasonic walkman. Black aluminium clam shell case, wired ear buds with a remote on the wire. I played the crap out of that device.
Then the cd walkman's started coming out. Memories.
It's actually surprising that Walkmans didn't appear until 1979, given that reporters and secretaries had been using similar mono dictation machines for years. I really think Sony, Panasonic and the like got distracted by the whole boombox craze around. It was all about carrying around a big, loud player that people could share rather than individuals shutting themselves off in headphones. That change has clearly pushed the industry (and society) in a different direction.
Headphone technology. Until the introduction of neodymium magnets, headphones had to be gigantic ear-muff things that clamped over your head to support their substantial weight.
I'm too young to remember this, but I'm pretty sure that boomboxes became popular after the walkmen
@@igorszamaszow171 Sadly I'm not too young to remember it. The big ghetto blasters were certainly a thing of the '80s but mid-sized battery-powered portable stereos were around when I was in school in the 1970s. They were very expensive though and out of reach of most people. I think the big players were solely focused on making that kind of product more accessible and therefore missed the boat on walkmans, at least for a while.
@@vylbird8014 The headphones that came with the Walkman didn't have neodymium magnets but they weren't the closed ear jobs either, they were open-back with the foam earpiece covers. Sound quality was crap by today's standards but OK for back then.
I read the update that it was parted out but for anyone else (or you if you ever buy another one!) the cassette mechanism on these can be removed from the front without having to split all the boards apart to service and change the belts once the appropriate screws have been removed. It's been over 10 years since I last worked on one of these but there is no need to completely strip it unless you want to hunt down and change any capacitors etc.
My father had one of those National portable tape player/recorder in the early 70s. It was a great novelty to record and hear your own voice. And could be used with a home hifi to do 2track bounce downs as the mono head would combine both channels. And it had a level needle dial on the top so you could avoid distortion.
You're a champ for continuing past the "de-solder" stage of disassembly. If I need to de-solder anything. It just goes into the recycling or to a thrift shop if I can reassemble it, that is.
My first (and only) portable personal cassette player was the Panasonic Model RQ-J50 that I bought new in '83 I believe. I owned it for about 8 years before I passed it along to a younger cousin and it was still working fine. Listened to a lot of music on that little machine. I replaced it with a Panasonic SL-NP1 XBS (I think) portable CD player.
Respect for trying. It takes a lot of patience and time do fix something like that.
I have a Panasonic RQ-J11 and love it. While the sound quality is a bit muffled it still sounds pretty good, it’s super easy to service and disassemble, and it’s built like a tank. I have to replace my headphone jack since it’s worn out but all I’ve done to it is put new belts on it.
The first so called “Walkman” that I ever saw was something called a “Cybernetic” and made by a Canadian company back in the very early 1970s, probably 1972 or 73. It wasn’t very small either but would fit on a belt, but still very bulky. It was in stereo and sounded very good with it’s supplied mini headphones. It was very “substantial” in weight and played cassettes only.
As hard as it looked like it was to replace the belts. The cassette mechanism looks amazingly high quality. If I had the time, I coudl totally see taking that mech out and building a custom dedicated cassette component deck around it. To put in my Hi-Fi setup.
12:02 That haunting noise in the background really sells the devastating existential dread of this task.
The Sony Walkman was my favourite device of the 80s, I used it daily and never left home without it, a spare pack of batteries was a must.
You have the patience of a saint. I’m not exactly sure where I got deterred. I thought taping the screws to the picture was brilliant. It wasn’t the desoldering that got me because I have a machine not as good as yours but I normally do 16 spot ribbon cables without a problem. I suppose it would’ve been the belts if I would’ve hung in that long. Thanks for the upload and the screw taping idea. We’re always learning.
Seeing your frustrations in trying to repair this reminded me of a purchase I almost made recently, and made me glad I didn't. I was at an estate sale last week and saw a Memorex Portavision CRT TV with a built in Video8 VCR. I plugged it in and the screen powered on, but the VCR wouldn't budge once I popped a tape in. I was seriously considering buying it and trying to fix it because the sale was an hour from closing and I'd hate to see something unusual like that go in the trash, but in the end I figured it'd probably be more trouble than it was worth to try fixing it. Seeing this video reminded me of it and made me feel confident in my decision.
My heart goes out to you after spending so many hours I've been there done that springs flying out clips pinging off etc.. My ending probably would have been hitting the whole lot with a hammer!
The desoldering gun added an ominous drone sound to the disassembling section. I highly appreciate it.
The radio to the left of the video camera seen on the brochure cover at 5:07 is the very rare *RF-9000.*
There is one for sale on eBay right now for *17,000 $*
Love these videos…clever, nostalgic and informative. 😎
I love that you showed the fail. Please do something with Louis rossman!!!!! Maybe Ben Heck? Please. You and Louis would be hilarious. Linus sabastian would probably pay for it
Amazed how early Walkman sized cassette recorders were available! As you say though no-one knew whether there would be the market for them. I remember the inability to record was controversial; 40 years ago it was quite extravagant to have a second cassette machine!
If you want to hear what it sounds like, you can use one of those tapes that has a head in it and a headphone cord coming out of it. We used to use them to play portable CD players in cars that only had tape decks.
I couldn't imagine putting one of these together, much less taking them apart. :) You've got the patience of Job. :)
Well done for a brilliant video, it's not only entertaining but instructive, too many videos make everything fixable if from the by gone era, all you need is a few belts and oh yeah an incredibly high level of skill working with very small parts in a very small space. I would have given up the minute I saw I had to desolder therefore resolder ribbon cables which is always a nightmare unless lots of space and a decent amount of give in the cables.
The only portable device i did not own was a portable DCC...
My first portable cassetterecorder was a Philips mono recorder. I took it everywhere, made recordings, my own "radio shows" etc. After that i got a Supertech portable cassetteplayer and then my Sony Walkman with a radio and equalizer!
Say what you want about modern technology but I love the fact that techmoan's latest video gets more views than the 9o'clock news
Please if you ever hesitate again about whether to leave in footage of a failed repair attempt please leave it in they help me greatly on my Progress on learning how to repair vintage audio components I love watching your videos of repairing/trying to repair items
P.s. It also helps me know if there are any units I should not buy that cannot be repaired like this for example lol
Great video as usual !!!!! it looks like you were very close to getting it fixed. if you use a clamping tweezer you can get ribbon cable back in place
This was fascinating to watch! I learned a lot here: the depth of your skill set in repairing stuff, the complexity of these devices (it never occurred to me that you'd need rubber belts even for things like a counter - I'd assume it would be more similar to clockworks ie cogwheels), and of course that there are limits even for experts like you. You earned yourself another subscriber here, this was a good watch!
Edit: turns out I was already subscribed. 😂
I love your reviews on all this old tech, especially the Sony stuff. More please 😊
The problem with the Sony MDR-3 headphones was the wire, which used to split where it went into thwe 3.5mm jack plug. I used to spend many hours cutting open the plugs, re-soldering the connections, & super-glueing the plastic back together... Usually, it ended up looking good as new!
Failures or more instructive than successes, so thank you for showing us.
I think the idea was that there'd be 5 new models by the time the belts gave up.
Pretty amazing how we've gone from 'who would want to listen to music on the go?' to Ray Bradbury's seashells.
I've been watching from start to end. You're a HERO just by trying imho ;-)
Keep up the good work !
Ten years earlier? in the 1970s, there was a product, sold in the snow skier's world. Basically a car stereo with some D cells packaged in a device that hung over your shoulder. Headphones were the standard ear muff ones.
Just came by a RQ-J36 in pristine cosmetic condition, except the Phones jack doesn't work... It seems to be just like the J6 seen in one of the catalogs on this video, but with a headphone jack instead of the RCA red/white cables.
The first guy that I saw wearing Walkman headphones was at university. I asked him if I could have a listen, to see what the quality of the audio was and he said sorry but he was only wearing the headphones, on their own, as he couldn't afford the cassette player yet.
That brings me back. Ribbon wiring! Some telephones and other AV equipment had those and yes...quite the pain to put them back on properly. But if that would be the only cassette player I would have (got none as of now) I would take on that repair challenge. Too much free time on my hands!
I was a consumer electronic service technician in my youth..servicing small tape decks like that was always a :challenge" I wish I had that nifty de-soldering tool then. Yeah the repair bill would be $$$$ for that repair..
It's weird to hear 'masking tape' referred to as 'painter's tape' - it's used in architectural drafting and other applications where ease of removal is desired as much as it's used for masking off areas that one doesn't want painted.
Aaaaarrgghh! Don't feel bad.. There was an Aiwa model and I forget the model number and can't be bothered walking upstairs to find it.. As it still sits somewhere...I did walk Aiwa TP S101. Multiply that absolutely, built to deny service, by 100 and you get the idea. I remember staring at it after taking the back off thinking it was just crazy impossible... It was quarter size of RX 2700 with a mind bogglingly paper thin circuit board, dozens of tiny through soldered connections had to be de soldered to lift the board. With many fiddly switches etc. After finally lifting the board and dismantling enough to replace the belt, the layout, which happened to look very similar to the Panasonic was a bit of a puzzle, I had no reference and couldn't find service manuals, but eventually got it all together and finally playing. Just needed a couple of screws. It had lovely metal casework and was bigger than the usual Walkman as it had a speaker and rechargeable battery slot. I had not bothered to screw back the lid as I put it through its paces . The lid was a complex piece that held the cassette and fully reversible head mechanism in it and required a convoluted twist, shift and wiggle to remove it, so it would never just detach on its own. Anyhow it magically found a way to detach itself and fall off tearing the head ribbon cable. I didn't give up. I put it down (two years ago) and went for a cup of tea to ponder on it before returning to fix it. Desperate nasty thing. DO NOT BUY ONE unless it is confirmed fully working (it won't be). They look like precision, solid devices but hide a true nightmare of an assault course to do any basic service. They didn't want this serviced - for sure. (I have repaired hundreds of Walkmans)
Anyone want to buy an Aiwa? Very rare model TP-S101. Mint condition.
Excellent video, Mat! Yours is one of the few channels that when I see a new video, I always hit the thumbs up before I even watch the content. Your content is always great! I was once an electronics tech professionally, but it's been many decades since I did the work. The internals of that Panasonic are mind-boggling, and, like you said, aren't meant to ever be serviced. You gave it a good try, though. I wouldn't have even tried to tackle it. 🤥
Back then, wires were most likely soldered onto circuit boards to connect modules together when nowadays it's easy to disconnect & swap out modules in equipment. Compared to today, 70s & 80s consumer technology were built like tanks without a whiff of planned obsolescence.
You can see by today, circuitry is simplified, cheapest components used, it will work until the official warranty runs out & it's not repairable or it's not worth fixing because the labour costs to repair & the replacement parts would be as much as what a new one would cost.
Dang! You’ve got the patience of Job!
Shout out to the one Japanese / Chinese / Taiwanese bloke who still remembers how to do this.
Good lord!! I don't think they could have made it much more difficult to replace the belts... which is typically a part that needs replaced periodically. As a fan of Matsushita, I'm pretty surprised/disappointed by that
Still glad you didn't delete the video!! 😀
This is when I get to point of getting the dustpan out and brush !
Wow, solid as rock, and so many parts! Today, electronics companies would use it to build 20 of similar types just to cheat and economize materials for higher profits.
This has to be one of the most frustrating videos on RUclips. It reminds me of when I tried to replace the heater control slider in the dashboard of my 1978 Nissan pickup truck. It ended with an emergency trip to the mechanic with cables and wires dangling all over the steering wheel.
Watching you fuss over that despicable assembly was hilarious!
I know exactly how you feel. I took a go at replacing the belts on one of Panasonic's later models, one that looked more like a walkman.
I went to all the trouble, replaced the belts, got it all back together, and the damn thing warbles like a bird. I tried everything to make the wow and flutter go away, but nothing worked. Eventually I tried dropping a drop of oil in the motor just like I've seen vwestlife do. Well... that completely trashed the machine. Now it eats tapes.
I stand defeated.
I just purchased two of these off eBay. Both in good condition and both tape players work. The tapes play slow indicating the need for belt replacement. Going to give it a try. Side note: Anyone know the model number of the original headphones? I’d like to find a pair. I think they were unique only to the RX-2700.
Sticking the screws to the photo. Great idea.
That's the bane of analog: rubber belts. All my analog media is currently unplayable for the same reason. And the people who used to repair those are no more.
I have this RX-2700, missing the battery door sadly. It just needs the belts replaced, I haven't got around to it yet... I will now plan lots of time lol
Great. Now I want a SmartHat. Thanks.
The stereo belt was available around 1972/73 and one can be seen worn by the character of Quicksilver in the 2014 X-men film 'Days of future past' (which is partially set in 1973). However I remember the first Walkman I had was around 1982 and I'm sure it was a Panasonic model with a shoulder strap and a built in AM/FM radio. I'm pretty sure it used 4 AA batteries as I remember getting a proper Sony one two or three years later that was smaller, lighter and only used 2 AA batteries. Also the early Sony proto walkmans from 1968 era were used by the astronauts on the Apollo missions.
That looked like a NIGHTMARE to try & fix :-/ What a shame. Excellent video as always ;)
thx for showing this. like a scientific experiment that didn't have the outcome that was hypothesized
I'd buy the Smart-Hat !
Yeah, that one definately look like a nightmare to repair and as you say are probably not ment to either. I have worked in electronics since the late 80´s and the only time i was reparing consumer electronics was in the late 90´s repairing mobile phones and some of them were way worse to deal with than others even there.
Sometimes you got to know when to hold em. And this Panasonic is one of them.
I sometimes remember I have a RUclips, and despite not wanting it to be a repair one I seem to do repair stuff on it every so often.
So if you ever want to send me "I've given up, to hell with it, it's scrap now anyway" stuff.... Which I'll then happily send back either working or more broken......
Somehow I like watching Techmoan repairing old stuff. 😁👍
It's Relaxing. 🥱
I've got the RQ-J5. It's basically the same form factor as the RQ-J6 except it doesn't record. I replaced the belt in it, but not long after that it started getting terrible wow and flutter again. I remember the fast forward/reverse was rather sluggish as well. Eventually I'm going to open it back up and probably clean and relubricate the whole mechanism. Hopefully that will fix it. It was very annoying to take apart and put back together, but nowhere near as terrible as the model shown in this video.
Love this vid. Top 10 on this channel.
Thank you for the awesome video~
This was a great watch, Really interesting just how close the race really was with Walkman competition, I commend you for attempting that repair, Were it not for the insane belt path it would still have been near impossible to reassemble but thank you for giving it a shot and bringing us all along for the ride
Thank you for your hard work, Keep it up m(_ _)m
I hope your having a lovely day, Have a wonderful rest of your week, Be safe and Take care out there wherever you are (^=W=^)7
And you too fellow viewers~
The irony, none of the walkmans in my colledtion is a Panasonic. Oh man such a hell to disassemble it.
Honestly. I would love you to just do a serious teardown of a unit like this - rather than trying to put it back together or repair it, just dig in and take it apart. That way, you don’t get cheesed off by the construction, because you’re not looking for it to come out the other side in working order.
Cassette player and LP must come back those are thee best
To be fair to Panasonic this was an early attempt at the walkman concept, at some point I'm sure they got their hands on the rival product and reverse engineered it. By the time the RQ series came on the market they were pretty similar in design to the Sony models, I had a late 80's RQ model (can't remember exact model) and it took all of 6 screws and 5 minutes to replace the belt.
Great one. Thanks!
Great vid. valiant effort
Fun fact: Word Walkman is patented by Sony and it is allowed to be used only on Sony product. If you check any other portable player none of them will have on them written Walkman. Though people kept calling all portables Walkman but they will not find this name on any other than Sony.
wow these almost 2 weeks between videos for the last few months have been killing me.
best cassette tool ever the pencil
I put one of those mp3 tape adapters in my Sony Walkman and that didn't need working belts to work iirc.
oh what it could have been, Olympus had it almost there with their micro cassette, they just needed to go stereo audio with stereo headset.
I just assumed the ominous background noise was there for effect as you slowly got deeper and deeper into trouble. And then you just turned off the soldering gun and it went away. 😆
Talk about why didn't they think of that...taking a picture and taping the screws to it. Can't believe I didn't think of that.
I've often thought if I time traveled to the 1980s with simply the design for corded earbuds.... Instant multi-millionaire
It's good that you show things don't always work out. If you only show your successes, people will assume that vintage audio repair is easy, because you keep saying you're not much of a mechanic, but even you manage to repair anything you lay your hands on. Sharing your failures as well demonstrates that things aren't always that easy, and there is a risk involved. Keeps people from overspending on broken devices in the hopes of an easy repair.
The thing just makes Me think Starlord.
Exactly and folks generally have no idea of how much time is sometimes involved... A labour of love, not of economics...
We've all taken apart something and then realized it was going to be a complete nightmare and not worth our time. Glad you didn't delete the video because it is still interesting even if it didn't get repaired.
I honestly struggled to imagine how they assembled this in the first place, especially with that short ribbon cable between the two halves. Given the nest of wires taped down on the back of the board, it really feels like this thing was kludged together to ship something as quickly as possible.
Electronics engineering has come a long way. Back then they weren't particularly repairable because they didn't have the means to do a better job (CAD and EDA software, lack of smaller integrated circuits, only batteries with low energy density). Today stuff isn't repairable on purpose.
This is just a guess, but if I were doing it, those ribbons would have extra long leads that could be poked through, then clipped off after soldering, like any other through-hole part.
It was probably put together "backwards" (if that makes sense) in a jig on an assembly line. Also remember all the boards and subassemblies would have been put together and tested separately (likely by subcontractors), before final assembly.
that my friend is sony and mostly all compact electronic pre 90's..a nest of wire that if deranged, give you a nightmare just to get it back at the right place ,and im not talking about the worry that one get pinched...
I think this Sony commercial explains it: ruclips.net/video/96iJsdGkl44/видео.html
I was in college in 1979 and a friend of mine from Japan brought a Walkman back. I was blown away. I remember walking around my neighborhood at 1am listening to Allman Bros Band blaring away in my ears in full stereo with full dynamic range like my home stereo had.
As someone born in 1979 I have taken the personal stereo for granted my entire life hehe. Interesting to think about a time before that of course. I do recall having a similar moment though with mp3 making it possible to practically download high quality music over the internet for the first time
Same experience, and I worked at Panasonic for ten years after that. How they have fallen
Born in 1979. Man did I love my tapes. Wasn't a cd fan, cause as a teenager I'm listening on the go, on my bike or skateboard or in a car. And all my friends with cd receivers in their car, the cd would skip if we hit a bump or the cd was dirty or scratched. Never had that problem with cassette or walkmans.... Long after cd's came out, I was still recording my favorite cd tracks to cassette. So you had the new Slipknot cd? Come over and we'll get high and I'll steal the best tracks to cassette.... I never bought one cd. I waited til cd burners were halfway affordable, I'd borrow every cd you had that I wanted and burned away. Had a huge collection of burned discs but never bought one.
Thank you for showing the attempted repair. Nice to know that we sometimes must accept that there are things made in such a way that it gets either prohibitively expensive or too difficult to repair yourself, unless one happens to run an actual advanced electronics repair shop. Good content, I like the way you share your findings. Thumbs up to this video as well as all of the others.
The advanced repair shop would probably tell you to run for the hills and listen to music from your phone. Or would put a prohibitively high price on it so that you bugger off. It only makes sense as a repair for your own entertainment, like making a ship in a bottle or a little train sculpted from the tip of a pencil. And even if you do change out the belts, the motor or the capstan bearing can be terminally worn out too. And good luck finding those for your specific Walkman, especially if it isn't one of the few iconic and thus overpriced ones. It will have speed and motor noise issues forever then. I'd now, after multiple such exercises in futility, get one with some form of servo speed control, or a brushless motor at least, for this specific reason.
Wow, I LOVE your idea to print out a photo of the back of the unit and then tape the screws to the appropriate locations!
I’m starting to think they really didn’t want anyone to take one of these apart.
It’s simple genius. Also include serial number etc. I reckon I’m going to have a photo session with all my things and bung it all in a folder.
Totally agree, that is a brilliant idea
I agree! For larger bolts I've pushed them though cardboard in the proper pattern but this is genius because you see exactly where the screws go!
I just draw the layout of the thing and tape the screws to that.
I had the same response internally (:
I used to fix things like that in a repair shop and even then the real labor time had to be reduced because then the customer wouldn't want to pay for the hours spent . Now it just wouldn't make sense to fix it even if you could.
Good for you Techmoan for giving it your best effort and also for telling the true story 👍
This sort of video is exactly why I have a membership to your Patreon. Albeit the entire universe might not be so pleased, but if you just constantly did old tech repairs/repair fails, I'd be a happy guy forever.
This video is amazing. Rather than focusing on how difficult something is to repair, my mind kept thinking how staggering it would have been to have an efficient assembly line for this kind of thing in the 80’s. These obviously sold and sold well, but putting it together with such tight tolerances always blows my mind.
Well the hand drawn traces probably slowed them down a bit
If nothing else, this video demonstrates that making difficult to repair electronics is a long standing tradition that continues to this day. I can only imagine the nightmare of a time the people who originally assembled this thing must have had. Thanks for sharing your failures, it helps others.
Those people were likely Japanese women sitting on an assembly line, doing the same operations day after day. The assembly would, as with cars or washing machines, be broken down into much simpler procedures than are apparent from this video.
Not really. Try to realign VCR mechanism. They are pretty complex. That's how they are. Repair technicians were more qualified in this analog/mechanical domain back then. At the time Matsushita manufactured player from this video, they probably still didn't manage to simplify the design - reducing cost and complexity. You don't get that sophistication in current mechanisms of Blu-ray players. Sony did similar things like showed in the video. I've repaired early 90' portable dictation machine from Sony, and to replace belts you need to desolder wires and take out PCB. For the counter belt, i didn't even tried to put new one in - it was deeply buried in mechanism. Also Sony tend to use very thin belts in their portable tape players, and they are harder to find.
@@musicandfilms9956 Additionally, they knew all the steps and in which order to take these steps. (At least the one who put the assembly line with the women together knew, what had to be done in which order). If you repair this device, it would be only sucessfull, if you would 100% reverse this order - this is impossible and with the problem of loosing parts somewhere in your workshop it is basically impossible. This Thing is the opposite Definition of service-friendly...
It is also, likely, much easier to put together the first time, with components, wires, and ribbon cables having long leads that are clipped off after soldering.
The leads are something people forget about
I was working in the Middle East in the early 1980s, and one of the great pleasures was to wander around the tax free 'electric souk', have a look at all the new gizmos, and even buy a few. I do recall walkmen of all makes becoming increasingly sophisticated and thinner with all sorts of new features, such as a cassette you inserted that was actually a radio plug in. (Panasonic or JVC?) 'Peak walkman' seemed to be about 1984 or 5, a few years later CD versions came along. Cassette walkmans then went into a fast decline, but somehow a few cheap designs, often with integral radios, lingered on into the noughties, a sad shadow of their former selves.
But thanks for an interesting episode - a reminder how frustrating fixing stuff can be. I'd certainly love to see more stuff on how sophisticated walkmans got!
The one with a "radio cassette" was a Toshiba KT-AS10 and AS15. I had one, its main attraction was that the player was actually smaller than a cassette (the cassette would stick out). Its audio quality was excellent. It broke down eventually in the 2000s, after lying around unused for years anyway. A couple of years ago I sold it on ebay as" parts only" Someone from Hongkong payed 100 euros for it even though I made it clear that it didn't work.
They can't all be winners but I certainly enjoy the journey. Thank you for sharing. I've definitely been down the rabbit hole of trying to repair something beyond my skill and I can relate to your frustration.
It even feels frustrating watching this. 😔
I never get fed up of Techmoan. I'll watch all the way through thanks and will love every minute whilst doing so 😃 no skipping for me.