I would like to thank Mike for providing a key piece of information in re-assembling the gear section. I struggled with this part and ended up not filming my many attempts and put it down to blind luck in the end. Below is Mike's description and the document he found. "the image of the load/unload detector gear is exactly how the gear must be set. Notice the spring is resting on the hub and the larger protrusion on the hub is pointing at the 4 o'clock position. Hard to tell from the hand drawn picture but the gear teeth to the right are positioned exactly as shown. Also, there was a bit of resistance to setting cam gear 'B' to the 9 o'clock position but it too must be exactly as shown. Even though it is hand drawn, it is quite accurate!" drive.google.com/file/d/1iALyt8N_TsuhBS_y2FTb4-zE3xypc0ay/view
I have a question. On my dat it let's some extra tape out , could I use the tension arm to fix that? When I started the unit did not work, but now it somewhat will. Thank you
I was looking for exactly this info. Someone had hands on this unit I'm working on, and Sony was kind enough not to include this very essential info in the SM... shame on them. I was sure the unit has synchron issue, but without this picture it can take forever to find the right constellation... thanks!
Ok so it seems that even that guide is not precise enough. Following that will result the B gear 1 tooth out of phase. Correct position can be achieved like this: when the machine is in base condition(stop-unloaded, lid closed), there are 6 1/2 teeth between the dot on gear B and the left side of the opening lever (it must be in the "closed" position!). The dot on gear B is at about 9 o'clock position, you start counting from the tooth just under the dot.
@@janosnagyj.9540 I have taken my machine apart " again " to fix the missing pads for the break, after reading this , it did seem still out of sync. So after I fix the breaks I will use your method. To see if that helps. Thank you.
@@TunnelLeaf Well if the machine was working OK then I think you have no problem there. In my case it ended with +1 teeth position, so almost any operation finished with "CAUTION"... even a simple eject as well. But after power down - power up, you could use the machine. Moving the B gear 1 tooth solved all these issues.
I use a hypodermic needle with sewing machine oil and it frees up the capstan shaft (loosen the screw on the topside and slide the pad to one side, tiny spot of oil there) and a tiny amount of lube on the shafts of those gears and it's all good. The tape broke because you moved the cassette back and that engaged the left spool lock, d'oh! I've just fixed up a dead TCD-D3 that has a seized capstan and ate tapes, the reason it ate tapes is the frame and "shark" shaped plastic piece that opens the door fully (and retracts the hub locks) was bent and the left reel was always locked and the cassette door would break off if the lid of the machine was pushed closed. It's quite easy to work on, just have the right tools and I found a head torch to be really, really useful. Glad to see people still using DAT after 30 years! 😁
Hey. Congratulations on resuscitating your little masterpiece of Japanese electro-mechanical engineering. Must be very satisfying using it now. I bought one new around 1990 for something approaching $1000 CDN. Unfortunately it croaked a few years later (dead electronics). After lounging around my closet for a few more years I donated it to a local museum. I couldn't find the service manual on the web at the time. Now I kind of wish I'd kept it. Ah well. There'll always be other projects.
Since today i own a TCD-D3 but the blue black light was very poor. Yet is doesn't light up anymore. Searching in service manual I think it is integrated in de flex/display.
Thanks! I've got a D3 and D7 I need to repair - very helpful video as a start. I think these portable DAT machines are the pinnacle of Japanese engineering - absolutely fascinating how they are put together. /Brett
I hope your repairs go well. Be very careful if you need to take the gear section completely apart, I struggled with this for too long. I saw your video, looks good, I think you will enjoy the experience. Let me know if you need any help. Feel free to email me as well if you want.
Thanks mate, appreciate it. Had a quick look on Yahoo Japan auctions - seems to be a decent supply of the D3s (at least) in various states - thinking I might buy (or try to buy) one of the cheaper "not working" ones as a possible donor ... buying a known working one (at top dollar) just defeats the purpose ;) /Brett
Sampled with an almost new DAT Walkman. To my ears, I found the bias and equalization a little off, something not natural, slightly thin sounding. I actually prefer the analog cassette format, I find that more pleasing to the ears. For digital just go with CD etc imho.
Hello, nice and helpful video. I have the same model which had a similar issue. I cleaned the rotary encoder underneath the gear cam. Now it ejects the cassette but it does it too early, leaving about 1 inch of tape out of the cassette. It believe it's out of sync for a few gear teeth. Could you please give me some advice? Thank you.
The rotary encoder is very difficult to get working properly. There is a second service manual called 'Sony tcd-d3 technical theory' which has very detailed rotary encoder instructions. I ended up doing some trial and error until it worked ok, still have some rewinding issues but I don't want to try again for at least a while. Here is the manual www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/sony/tcd-d3.shtml
@@JanusCycle the helpful manual is "theory of operation" . I fixed caution error due bad official service repair procedure (sprayed with oil that glued the mech gears) and I unmounted and rephasing encoder gear after complete cleaning.
Thanks for sharing your experience of the faults you encountered. It must have been amazing to use these in the 90s. I really wanted one of these back then and I'm very pleased to finally have a working one now.
@@jesamani75 it's on the main board somewhere it's an electronic fuse that blows when a lower rated adaptor is used in place of original. I belive due to the high start up draw as the tape loading mechanism runs. I had them fixed by a tech so i can't help with exact location of the component. If I remember rightly the tech referd to it a a" sacrificial fuse" hope this helps
@@JanusCycle it was always amazing listening back to the recordings made with them. Quality and authenticity to original sound. Tapes recorded on one would sometimes glitch if played back on the other but that was probably due more to head alignment than anything else
@@antonfarqua I love that DAT worked so well, but was also operating close to the tolerances of the technology of the time. Thanks for reminding me of this cool machine. It's been on my shelf for a few years, I will revisit it one day. Thanks for coming back after five years to reply :)
I bought mine new in 1991, I still have it, never use it so it has low original hours. If I ever tried to repair it myself, it would end up like bad, bad Leroy Brown, "looked like a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone".
Hi good job. I have one D3 but I can not align the gear A with gear b correct. can you show one picture o explain the position of this 2 gears? thanks jesus
Perhaps you mean the rotary encoder gears? Have a look at the 'technical theory' service manual and let me know. www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/sony/tcd-d3.shtml. I found the rotary encoder was very difficult and much trial and error was needed to get them right.
All those super tiny chips are now simplified by newer music formats and streaming services .. and just a push of a button or simple whisper to google assistant away is all it takes to enjoy great music.. 😊😊😊
I forgot to say to people. Anyone thinking of buying a dat recorder.or buying one to do up. This dat player the D3 only had a head life of 600 hours. A lot of dat recorder only had head life of 600 - 2000 hours. I repair a lot of electronics and see this a lot where people want there dat repair. But I have to tell them that the head as done it’s time and that why you get drop outs or recording that are not as good as they was. The problem is you just can’t get the parts now. So be careful buying this format. It’s a great format but age as catch up with it. Don’t think your find many now that is not over its head hours now.
Mu god these are horrendously complicated to disassemble. I have a D7 that works whenever it feels like it. I feel like a disassembly clean and lubricating is in order.
I would like to thank Mike for providing a key piece of information in re-assembling the gear section. I struggled with this part and ended up not filming my many attempts and put it down to blind luck in the end. Below is Mike's description and the document he found.
"the image of the load/unload detector gear is exactly how the gear must be set. Notice the spring is resting on the hub and the larger protrusion on the hub is pointing at the 4 o'clock position. Hard to tell from the hand drawn picture but the gear teeth to the right are positioned exactly as shown. Also, there was a bit of resistance to setting cam gear 'B' to the 9 o'clock position but it too must be exactly as shown. Even though it is hand drawn, it is quite accurate!"
drive.google.com/file/d/1iALyt8N_TsuhBS_y2FTb4-zE3xypc0ay/view
I have a question. On my dat it let's some extra tape out , could I use the tension arm to fix that? When I started the unit did not work, but now it somewhat will. Thank you
I was looking for exactly this info. Someone had hands on this unit I'm working on, and Sony was kind enough not to include this very essential info in the SM... shame on them. I was sure the unit has synchron issue, but without this picture it can take forever to find the right constellation... thanks!
Ok so it seems that even that guide is not precise enough. Following that will result the B gear 1 tooth out of phase. Correct position can be achieved like this: when the machine is in base condition(stop-unloaded, lid closed), there are 6 1/2 teeth between the dot on gear B and the left side of the opening lever (it must be in the "closed" position!). The dot on gear B is at about 9 o'clock position, you start counting from the tooth just under the dot.
@@janosnagyj.9540 I have taken my machine apart " again " to fix the missing pads for the break, after reading this , it did seem still out of sync. So after I fix the breaks I will use your method. To see if that helps. Thank you.
@@TunnelLeaf Well if the machine was working OK then I think you have no problem there. In my case it ended with +1 teeth position, so almost any operation finished with "CAUTION"... even a simple eject as well. But after power down - power up, you could use the machine. Moving the B gear 1 tooth solved all these issues.
I use a hypodermic needle with sewing machine oil and it frees up the capstan shaft (loosen the screw on the topside and slide the pad to one side, tiny spot of oil there) and a tiny amount of lube on the shafts of those gears and it's all good. The tape broke because you moved the cassette back and that engaged the left spool lock, d'oh! I've just fixed up a dead TCD-D3 that has a seized capstan and ate tapes, the reason it ate tapes is the frame and "shark" shaped plastic piece that opens the door fully (and retracts the hub locks) was bent and the left reel was always locked and the cassette door would break off if the lid of the machine was pushed closed. It's quite easy to work on, just have the right tools and I found a head torch to be really, really useful. Glad to see people still using DAT after 30 years! 😁
Great tip, thank you. DAT is amazing. I really enjoy owning this fine machine.
Hey. Congratulations on resuscitating your little masterpiece of Japanese electro-mechanical engineering. Must be very satisfying using it now. I bought one new around 1990 for something approaching $1000 CDN. Unfortunately it croaked a few years later (dead electronics). After lounging around my closet for a few more years I donated it to a local museum. I couldn't find the service manual on the web at the time. Now I kind of wish I'd kept it.
Ah well. There'll always be other projects.
Thank you. I wanted one of these since the 1990s. It must have been amazing to have owned one in 1990!
One of the coolest (not shown) features is the trippy blue screen backlight you can select.
I must revisit this model and show that backlight one day.
Since today i own a TCD-D3 but the blue black light was very poor. Yet is doesn't light up anymore. Searching in service manual I think it is integrated in de flex/display.
Thanks! I've got a D3 and D7 I need to repair - very helpful video as a start. I think these portable DAT machines are the pinnacle of Japanese engineering - absolutely fascinating how they are put together. /Brett
I hope your repairs go well. Be very careful if you need to take the gear section completely apart, I struggled with this for too long. I saw your video, looks good, I think you will enjoy the experience. Let me know if you need any help. Feel free to email me as well if you want.
Thanks mate, appreciate it. Had a quick look on Yahoo Japan auctions - seems to be a decent supply of the D3s (at least) in various states - thinking I might buy (or try to buy) one of the cheaper "not working" ones as a possible donor ... buying a known working one (at top dollar) just defeats the purpose ;) /Brett
So amazing how complicated and delicate yet artisticfuly done the mediums people listen to music before....
No, woow, it's a fantastic likes a film. Superwooow.
Brilliant ! It’s a lot of hard trials to repair this guy. Thanks.
that head drum is SO CUTE!
Sampled with an almost new DAT Walkman. To my ears, I found the bias and equalization a little off, something not natural, slightly thin sounding. I actually prefer the analog cassette format, I find that more pleasing to the ears. For digital just go with CD etc imho.
Could you please digitize that audio tape and upload it to the internet archive?
Hello, nice and helpful video. I have the same model which had a similar issue. I cleaned the rotary encoder underneath the gear cam. Now it ejects the cassette but it does it too early, leaving about 1 inch of tape out of the cassette. It believe it's out of sync for a few gear teeth. Could you please give me some advice? Thank you.
The rotary encoder is very difficult to get working properly. There is a second service manual called 'Sony tcd-d3 technical theory' which has very detailed rotary encoder instructions. I ended up doing some trial and error until it worked ok, still have some rewinding issues but I don't want to try again for at least a while. Here is the manual www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/sony/tcd-d3.shtml
Have you figured out the issue? I am having the same problem with mine!
@@JanusCycle the helpful manual is "theory of operation" . I fixed caution error due bad official service repair procedure (sprayed with oil that glued the mech gears) and I unmounted and rephasing encoder gear after complete cleaning.
@@chrisnewman7828 I have pinned a new comment with a newly found description of the gear alignment for the TCD-D3.
I have pinned a new comment with a newly found description of the gear alignment for the TCD-D3.
I owned 2 of these in the 90s both had fuse troubles both needed repairs (built in fuse replacement) I did like them though. Good little unit
Thanks for sharing your experience of the faults you encountered. It must have been amazing to use these in the 90s. I really wanted one of these back then and I'm very pleased to finally have a working one now.
Hello do you know the location of the fuse?
@@jesamani75 it's on the main board somewhere it's an electronic fuse that blows when a lower rated adaptor is used in place of original. I belive due to the high start up draw as the tape loading mechanism runs. I had them fixed by a tech so i can't help with exact location of the component. If I remember rightly the tech referd to it a a" sacrificial fuse" hope this helps
@@JanusCycle it was always amazing listening back to the recordings made with them. Quality and authenticity to original sound.
Tapes recorded on one would sometimes glitch if played back on the other but that was probably due more to head alignment than anything else
@@antonfarqua I love that DAT worked so well, but was also operating close to the tolerances of the technology of the time. Thanks for reminding me of this cool machine. It's been on my shelf for a few years, I will revisit it one day.
Thanks for coming back after five years to reply :)
I bought mine new in 1991, I still have it, never use it so it has low original hours.
If I ever tried to repair it myself, it would end up like bad, bad Leroy Brown, "looked like a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone".
What is name of music, you use in intro? It's so cool.
I'm not sure it's considered music, I was messing about with an analogue synth.
Hi good job.
I have one D3 but I can not align the gear A with gear b correct.
can you show one picture o explain the position of this 2 gears?
thanks
jesus
Perhaps you mean the rotary encoder gears? Have a look at the 'technical theory' service manual and let me know. www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/sony/tcd-d3.shtml.
I found the rotary encoder was very difficult and much trial and error was needed to get them right.
I have pinned a new comment above with a newly found description of the gear alignment for the TCD-D3.
disassembly or teardown
great video! very interesting
Hi, do you fix players fore people?
I don't because I'm not a DAT expert and Australia is very far away. Maybe the tapeheads.net forum is more helpful for finding someone.
You wanna fix mine? First it didn’t open. When it did, it took a tape and made that humming noise.
Excellent work. :)
All those super tiny chips are now simplified by newer music formats and streaming services .. and just a push of a button or simple whisper to google assistant away is all it takes to enjoy great music.. 😊😊😊
And yet all the magic is gone...
@@whatsupbossanova it's hidden, but it's still there - the complexity is so high as to be invisible...
Should never put a screw driver near or on a head. Even if it does not move you don’t do it.
Thanks, I need to use a plastic tool more often.
Janus Cycle
Get yourself some of these 3 Pcs Nylon Plastic Spudger. Type it in on eBay. Your find them handle for things like this and cheap too.
I forgot to say to people. Anyone thinking of buying a dat recorder.or buying one to do up. This dat player the D3 only had a head life of 600 hours. A lot of dat recorder only had head life of 600 - 2000 hours. I repair a lot of electronics and see this a lot where people want there dat repair. But I have to tell them that the head as done it’s time and that why you get drop outs or recording that are not as good as they was. The problem is you just can’t get the parts now. So be careful buying this format. It’s a great format but age as catch up with it. Don’t think your find many now that is not over its head hours now.
@@michaelmitchell8218 I agree. I took a chance because I wanted the experience. A working unit is a fortunate bonus.
Mu god these are horrendously complicated to disassemble. I have a D7 that works whenever it feels like it. I feel like a disassembly clean and lubricating is in order.