Fixing Up a (Really) Broken Sony DAT Deck

[@megamanfan3]

This would easily get the Techmoan seal of approval.

[@marioh6220]

As a matter of fact I saw Techmoan commenting on one of the 3 repaired walkman videos. I was expecting loads of comments underneath because of that but apparently they don't know who he is

[@michaelcharach]

This channel reminds me of technoan. In fact I think he gets some of his ideas from this guy

[@thefatkid3365]

@@michaelcharach Techmoan Not Technoan

[@CDRiley]

This would easily get the Mythical Kitchen seal of approval.

[@Leahi84]

Its so hilarious that the recording industry freaked out so much and killed this format, only to have CDR/W's come along and then mp3's which were far worse piracy wise.

[@joes9954]

It was even funnier than that. Some decks simply had a switch on the board that could be flipped to disable it. I do not remember how many, but it made manufacturing a lot easier when all they had to do was flip it on for US bound devices.

[@emancaindec9731]

Don't forget the time when Napster was introduced. haha

[@fabiosemino2214]

... until lawmakers decide in Italy to beef up taxes for optical magnetic AND solid state media.

[@DFX4509B]

And then nowadays with modern lossless codecs such as FLAC or Monkey's Audio.

[@xerzy]

@@fabiosemino2214 I mean, we have that in Spain too Does anyone care? You only pay once for your device and once for every storage media you buy, and no one expects to be sued over copying songs or movies. The only thing that stops piracy in any way is streaming, and even that argument becomes weak as it gets more complex and expensive.

[@System.10]

I absolutely love the DAT format, so I especially enjoyed this repair! I'm so glad it ended with such success.

[@gato38]

These DAT players are just miniaturized VCR components with a digital side to them. Great Video!

[@6581punk]

It's the same principal, helix scan of the tape. Which is why they're not dual sided tapes.

[@maxwell9561]

I would've never guessed that the dat reading process is so similar to a vcr, i thought it would be much closer to the reading process of a CC.

[@777jones]

@@maxwell9561 Fun fact, I believe DCC, digital compact cassette, did encode in linear fashion similar to CC.

[@ZXRulezzz]

@@6581punk Amount of sides on tape doesn't strictly correlate to whether it's helical scan or linear recording. Philips V2000 video system, I believe, had double-sided video cassettes. It was helical scan, of course.

[@jakublulek3261]

VCR with digital recording came out later, same with Digital 8 tapes, so this is kinda precursor to them.

[@osval_com]

You are simply a genius, not only fixing stuff but diagnosing the problems.

[@ChrisKoehn]

Colin is the only person on the Internet that knows when music that is supposed to sound like a malfunction is playing correctly.

[@ThisDoesNotCompute]

ROFL

[@nickwallette6201]

I was totally expecting that first playback test to end in: “... and to my relief, it’s now working perfectly.”

[@ChrisKoehn]

@@nickwallette6201 me too!

[@yeliab814]

Dude this was a great repair! So glad it worked out - and great close up shots. Degree of prev owner(s) sabotage was perfect for a good repair and video, without being so completely savage so as to render a repair utterly hopeless. .

[@WilliamBurnett]

0:51 That "open letter to Japan" sounds a lot funnier when Techmoan read it in furious gammon mode.

[@LaurentValette1234]

I have the same DAT recorder and it is very decent for its price. Good job mister ! I use it now as a DAC for the digital output of my TV.... I just replace the poor opamp with LM4562 and Panasonic condensators. And also I removed the "cleaning" foam....

[@marsgizmo]

love this restoration 😌

[@jonathankleinow2073]

When I did an internship at a public radio station in college, they were using portable DAT recorders for field interviews. They worked well for that purpose, for the most part, but the tapes would eventually wear out to the point where the audio would have frustrating distortion and static at random spots. They liked to make as much use of the tapes as possible, so they would be re-recorded dozens of times. That was more than 15 years ago, but I think most stations use something like a Marantz solid state recorder for interviews now.

[@rbruce25]

My Sony DTC-690 just stopped working. I glad I found this video, I not to sure if I should share this so I just going to say I got some help from Colin, my issue was 3 items or 4 after the repair (the tracking was off), but anyway first issue was it would only play tapes for 52 minutes and just stop. I could press play again and it would start to play and then stop again, that led to no rewind, could fast forward but could not rewind. Last issue was it was problems loading, at times it just was unresponsive, holding down the eject button while power cycling would bring it back. So from the advice of the 12Volt Guy, I cleaned the mode switches and all contacts. Put it back together and now open error on the display. Could not figure out why, so I tore it all the way down, and to my surprise the little plastic holder had come off of the exit tension arm and the arm was stuck in the upper position, jamming the entire mechanism, so that were Colin comes in, with the video and a little help, I 3D printed the plastic holder, realigned the tension arms ( un-jammed ), I dropped a little glue on the top of both, so they would not fall out again, (I know bad ideal) but even if they crack now they will not fall out, and it is not so much glue, just a little heat and it will clean off, I just put a drop the size of a needle head, so. But anyway put the deck back together and bang it is now working like new. No load issues, no Open issue (which was caused by the jam not allow the load mech to travel far enough to hit the open/close switches on the left side of the load drawer), rewind works, and the tape does not stop at 52 minutes (I think that on was the mode switch) I am still fighting with the alignment, I going to put it on the scope and see if I can get it done from there, only issue is I do not have a DAT alignment tape so I will have to use old record on tapes. But Colin Thank you, anything you need just ask, and if I can do it I will

[@robertsheph8858]

Thank you so much for putting this together. I used to work on VCR's years ago. I have a DTC-A7 that is experiencing the tape guide not loading all the way. This gives me something I can at least go check.

[@mpmattson]

My DTC-A7 is having the same issue. I hope the solder reflow worked for you! KZbin is a great resource.

[@static-san]

Quite a repair journey! At least everything was straightforward to fix. Very impressed with the 3D printed part!

[@PatrickRosenbalm]

I have a DTC-670. The auto head cleaner wheel was on the white plastic arm to the right of the head cylinder. It would briefly contact the cylinder to clean the heads. It turned to goo on my unit and clogged the heads. Even after lots of cleaning I never got it to work correctly again. I used to repair consumer electronics such as VCRs and camcorders so I know what to do. That was about 6 years ago. I still have it but not sure if I'll try to fix it or not. I bought mine new May 1993 for about $800. It served me well back in the day. Glad you got yours going.

[@tamdba]

I've watched and learned so much on KZbin for vintage tape deck repairs but none as clear and precise as you, not even close. Thanks so much for the details and step by step instructions. Wished you could post some of your experience on Technics tape deck repair and calibration, particularly on how to hook up the oscilloscope and frequency counter for calibration. Hats off to your expertise and instructions.

[@RetroPC]

In case you don't hear it enough, thank you so much for these videos. My top watched KZbin Creator fluctuates, but right now, you're it. Keep it up, Colin!

[@osdelced]

Friend, I have two decks of the PCM 2700A model, and thanks to your video I was finally able to find the solution to the same problem (10:21) that I have in one of them! The other does reproduce the DAT's well, but it does not record, or it records the sound very badly. In my town (Guadalajara Jalisco) I have no option to find technical support, but I have always hoped to be able to repair these magnificent devices! I have been with them for many years, and I did not want to throw them away! Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge, and greetings from Guadalajara Jalisco, Mexico !.

[@Curtis-Randall]

Awesome video. I’ve always been fascinated with Sony’s design and I really enjoy watching you fix equipment. Cheers

[@quietusplus1221]

Dang, props to you good sir! Very nice analytic thinking and perseverance. These type of electronics aren't always an easy fix.

[@fsfs555]

There are a number of early DAT decks that didn't have SCMS (such as the DTC-1000ES) and later prosumer models from TASCAM such as the DA-302 had a menu option to disable SCMS. There also exist inline digital devices that can change certain parts of the bitstream in addition to optical/coax and/or sample rate conversion. There are many causes of cold solder joints but here the transistors probably broke their solder joints due to repeated thermal cycles rather than being dropped. It happens on tons of devices where the transistors get hot and things are unable to expand because they are bolted down to the chassis. This causes the solder joints to flex and eventually crack with greater frequency than similar components that aren't bolted down.

[@nickfatsis9607]

Yes, that’s usually how it happens, hot, cold, hot, cold.

[@shreyaskul]

7:57 This is pretty common issue with old electronics, the transistors are wave soldered and have barely enough amount of solder. When the device is turned on, the transistors heat up and the legs and the solder join expand slightly by thermal expansion. And when the device is turned off it cools back down, contracting the joins. This constant thermal cycling induces fatigue in metal joins and eventually induces cracks. This wasn't much of an issue when the early electronics were wire wrapped and hand soldered.

[@endoplasreh]

I have a DTC 700 that was well cared for. I am waiting for the first issue. When DAT works it works well. Hat off to you for all the work.

[@lincolnbrown6824]

The good old days when service manuals where readily available to everyone .

[@ronlevon4294]

exactly what I wanted to say

[@Dedubya-]

Well if you were a Sony repair centre or dealer yes they were free, otherwise repair centres had to pay or borrow... the repair workshop I was at rarely looked at products we didn't sell because getting a service manual was not easy and usually not cost effective. it's only since they've been published online that they've become easily available (and free) -

[@ronlevon4294]

@@Dedubya- still, try to find schematic for any new electronics (like a TV), even for $$ i a lot of cases it is not available.

[@teekay_1]

@@ronlevon4294 It's also highly likely the entire TV is made of a SMD mainboard, PS and display. If it's not the PS, you throw it away.

[@brendanrandle]

sony audio gear still has service manuals, finding them can be a challenge but they exist

[@ut4321]

Excellent repair! Glad you got this old gal playing again...

[@eureitz7490]

AWESOME!!! I have a DTC-690 I bought new in 1993. This vid will serious help me troubleshoot...mine hasn't been on in a few years and I'm looking to digitize some of my old recordings...thanks so much for making this!

[@ravipeiris4388]

I enjoy how you narrate service orientated videos and mesh in techno-history throughout, thank you, Ravi Peiris M.D.

[@davechupp7922]

You are an excellent technician. I admire your troubleshooting techniques. I no longer have the patience to troubleshoot. I bought a DCC deck from Radio Shack cheap, around the time DCC was going out. I didn't take long for the power supply to have issues. I think it was made by Philips(?), which is my conclusion after watching your DCC repair video. Radio Shack didn't support parts for repair for it's DCC units. I eventually threw it out. No support, no schematics. I worked for RS when I was going to school. Even then, you paid 4 prices for just about everything. There is no doubt why the company failed. Perhaps if I was a good technician, I could have saved it. Swapping PS boards was my only option, which, turned out, wasn't an option.

[@ColinJK]

Quite the rabbit-hole of problems to fix!

[@video99couk]

Hello Colin, this is Colin. I've worked on a few DAT machines too on my channel (including 24 bit ones). I also have a DTC690 and I've had the retainers fall off those gears in the past. The machine works fine now but I prefer to use other machines such as several Tascam models and also a Sony PCM-7040 professional deck. Recently I also modified a DAT machine to do something it wasn't exactly built for (digital audio signal conversion from an obsolete format). Regarding setting up the guides on your machine, I would use an oscilloscope to check the FM envelope, you don't need a very special 'scope for that, but a known good tape is important.

[@ThisDoesNotCompute]

Hello! Interesting to hear you also had the clips go missing. I don't think the 690 is necessarily a bad deck, but it was definitely built to be a consumer model (and explains why the professional DAT decks remain somewhat expensive). I do think I'll end up needing to fine-tune the guides with an oscilloscope, I got them pretty close by ear but very occasionally I'll still get a little glitch. I definitely got a lot of inspiration troubleshooting this one from watching your repair videos ;-)

[@elisasuperiordork6755]

Just pulled a Sony DTC-60ES out of the scrap metal bin at the town dump the other day... missing the door and it definitely has the look of someone having been in it before. Fingers crossed that it can maybe be fixed. This video is giving me a smidge of hope.

[@TheBasementChannel]

This is some very impressive troubleshooting Colin, well done!

[@beitie]

It's really great to see your process and it's so comforting when it finally works. Thanks for sharing with us!

[@eureitz7490]

Yeah, I needed to adjust the tape guides to stop the digital hash I've been hearing for years. Thanks so much for showing that. It's a bit tedious, a bit like tuning and intonating a Floyd Rose with different gauge strings. My open/close button is broken and I don't want to get into that. I have a remote, but the door closes immediately after opening fairly often once it opens. If I open and close several times it will typically go to normal operation, but that is undue stress on the tape. So, to adjust the tape guides, the tape must be rolling or the guides are inaccessible. I bring this up because I never before realized how much tape is pulled out of the cassette to get the tape contacting the drum. I suppose this is how VHS works as well? Thanks again for making this video, giving me plenty of confidence to work on my DTC-690 :-)

[@noelj62]

Glad you have it working at the end. Congratulations.

[@Vercus100]

Very cool video. I already bought a Minidisc deck because of you. Now I want a DAT! Thanks for making this video.

[@AndyH2k4]

Love these videos - I like troubleshooting and this kind of thing is very satisfying. I can't believe how many problems this one had!

[@6581punk]

The cable flapping in the breeze is why many things I've taken apart more recently have had hot snot glue on them to stop them coming out. This is mostly on music synths which do get transported more.

[@peterpiper0815]

This video might have been very helpful for me nearly 20 years ago, when I got a broken sony DAT recorder :) Nowadays......it's still interesting and informative so thank you!

[@ghostmouthzach56]

These videos soothe my soul, great work Colin!

[@plutoniumshore]

Very well done. A little patience and attention to detail was all it took.

[@boredwithusernames]

I applaud your persistence and your success, a very nice set of repairs ;) It's nice to see these classic decks in working order again, despite the music industry bullying to have them removed, they still make good studio reference recordings for low-budget and low-distribution media. Thanks for sharing ;)

[@mikeaaronc77]

Between you and LGR both of you are my favorite tech guys on KZbin.

[@fhaquuu]

I love your approach and documentation on this project. I’ve been eyeing some Sony ES minidisc and cassette players for repair but fear too many complications like you had. Great video!

[@Pelagon]

Great video! I actually have a hard time mustering much sympathy for DAT; I used to work in Archives, and all the DAT tapes we had were finicky and problematic, even after just ~15 years of storage. Ended up having to go back to the reel-to-reel masters on a bunch of them. I can't imagine what would have happened by now if we'd all switched our music libraries over to it.

[@nickwallette6201]

I can’t speak to the reliability of it, but it is definitely a product of its birth era. Once optical discs became mainstream, and particularly recordable discs (which, granted, were a ways off), this really had no reason to exist anymore. What’s even more confounding is DCC. Read the room, guys.

[@bobbobson4069]

First time Viewer! Brilliant video - fascinating and informative. Plus the video was really professional!

[@SuperNicktendo]

dang - I thought that was the real music at 10:20 and was going to ask where to download. Bummer. Glad you got it working - I've been striking out lately with electronic repairs. Must be missing something

[@georgeworley6927]

Back in the 1990's I used DAT for a completely different use. The Compaq Servers that I had also had a DAT drive with a 10 tape changer for back up purposes so instead of Audio they had data. It was relatively fast and once set up completely automatic for a week. Full backup on the weekend and incremental on the week days.

[@plunder1956]

A very useful video. I often used DAT in recording studios in the 90s but never at home or for our band.

[@AurumUsagi]

Thanks to this video, I solved my distortion problem! No need to recap the headamps.

[@TheResistorNetwork]

Oh hey, I have the same deck. It is a nice unit. I have a couple of videos on my channel about it, and even did a hack where I stored HD video on the tape. Quite fun.

[@MrStarbor]

WOW! What a nice man!!! Pleasure to listen!!! Hell of a JOB!!!

[@Ilanvain]

Absolutely loving these repair videos

[@akosszenasi1856]

Thank you! I have the same issue with that digital noise during the playing - I calmed down after you video and I'll fix it myself! THX! - Cheers from Budapest! :)

[@enojelly9452]

Wonderful! I repaired a Sony DAT tape myself two years ago, a PCM-R300. Like yours, it was missing a retention clip, but fortunately that was its only problem. However, I the had to realign it as well. The tracking I could do perfectly by using an oscilloscope, but the other thing to adjust was the tape tension, and to do that properly I’d have needed a special tension meter tape that I only saw once on eBay since… for over $300. So naturally I just eyeballed it, using both the oscilloscope and the bit error display that appears when pressing “Menu” a few times. It happily read 0 and payed perfectly until somewhat recently, where it started eating tapes. Guess my improvised retention clip (not 3D printed) finally gave…

[@TheTruthKiwi]

Great repair Colin! Man I love the different formats we've had over the years. Streaming music is so freakin boring!

[@CoolDudeClem]

Glad I've never had any problems like this with my DAT. The only issue I've had with mine was one of the tape threading arms sticking, but that was easy enough to fix.

[@gunnarsundman6828]

Woow, I relly like this video. Adjustment on DAT. Never done , but on a lot of VCR. Thank You so much!!!

[@cgcanada88]

I don't know why you don't have at least 10 times the views, you have amazing content. For me watching such detailed repair work - even at an amateur level (no disrespect, I am such an amateur myself) - makes it very relatable and the commentary is spot on. I do not subscribe lightly, but this was a very easy decision.

[@pablof301]

Hey thanks for the tutorial. I had the same distorsion audio issue with a DTC-77ES and may fit with the tape alignment.

[@Mike-ry4ti]

Very well spotted with the regulator ICs, I recommend doing a recap on old gear, it really wakes them up, particularly anything older than 25 years old

[@robertdavis5714]

Well done Sir, I want to buy one of these, but are a hard find CL, (no ebay) at a decent price. Appreciate the close-up resolution. Goodness gracious, that unit was thrashed and dirty, probable lived in a house with a bunch of dudes.

[@Kylefassbinderful]

Great video. Very relaxing to watch you fix stuff. I'm currently trying to fix my Sony deck w/Dolby S and it's not going great so watching your success is great.

[@JacGoudsmit]

If you'd ask me and I didn't see the eBay ad, I would think this was dropped off at a Goodwill store, thrown back and forth in the electronics department for a while, then sold for $20 to someone who tried to get it to work but didn't have a clue what they were doing. Good to see it's working now, and in the right hands.

[@LunarHermit]

Excellent repair job with some good info. Thanks for sharing!

[@EssenceofPureFlavor]

I don't know how someone confuses DAT and MiniDV when there are no video connections and it has DAT plastered all over it, and it even spells out "Digital Audio Tape."

[@Dedubya-]

I don't think that happened, I suspect the unit was dropped with a tape stuck in it, someone removed the tape and gave up putting it back together properly.

[@DFX4509B]

Not to mention MiniDV is physically wider than DAT, at 6mm vs. DAT's 4mm.

[@othertonywi1son]

IDK. Have you met people? They're pretty stupid...

[@JacGoudsmit]

Kids nowadays would have no idea how to connect a stereo system together. They just expect everything to work. So I wouldn't put it past a previous owner to do all the stupid stuff that Colin showed in the video, mess up, give up, and put it on eBay. The "MiniDV" could just be a slip of the pen or an autocorrect fail on a phone keyboard or a copy/paste bug. But I keep being stunned how people simply have no idea how anything works anymore.

[@stephendevore3902]

Awesome !!!🙂Good Video .I can do minor repairs on equipment . I learned about adjustment to get the correct playback . Never new that. The plastic part so small my big hands would have crushed it. Saved DAT from the junk pile. The one thing I learned back in 1990s. The digital copy for the digital input. The red light that you see before you plug the wire in back.For most it was always off or I thought broken or damaged. By the late 90s I learned by owning 6 different brands this was intentionaly disconected by the manufactures to give DAT a bad name. It was hated by so many CEOs that this hate led to making decks that couldn't work for the Digital input to strike another blow to DAT. Now thats hate. Im glad it works. Check the digital inputs and outputs on the back of the deck. Both red lights should be on when you power on the Deck. My guess only 1 lights up. 🤔🤔🤔

[@kevinallen9106]

Great tenacity, excellent debug and explanation! Another great piece of kit saved!

[@PreparationH67]

I love those old school Sony piano keys, I have a TC-2860SD (a version of the TC-152SD) with the same ones and the front bar.

[@avgram4192]

I like the way you explains and showing points by fantastic video capture and quality, great work! 👍

[@rickpinelli1586]

I still have my SONY DAT and Mini Disk machines! You cannot bet them!

[@beauslim]

3D printing little parts can be a bit of a learning curve, but with a little patience you can even make 2 tier gears and the like. I was kind of blown away when I printed a gear for an old bicycle bell and it worked really well (and still does a year later, according to my sister). I've only used PLA for such things so far, but if you can get the stringing under control, PETG should make durable replacements.

[@robyxrd]

Great work! I made the same with the small clips (designed and 3D printed, works perfectly) another typical issue of these Sony consumer dat Is the RF amp board (electrolitycs SMD capacitors to be replaced)

[@ralf-petermicko8935]

I am restoring my deck right now, too. Could you please share the STL printer file with me. Would be very kind from you.

[@andrewgardner8330]

Hi I have got a Sony DTC-690 it is a very tender device to use.. 1 day its OK then another time it has play/rewind /forward problems.. Good sound still!.

[@andrewpannelli8016]

Great video! Love these sort of little documentaries of how to fix 90s audio.

[@Junkman444]

Nice job on finding all the faults of this deck. well done.

[@Castaa]

Looks like you were the right person to buy this deck to pull it back from the grave. Congrats

[@chris-non-voter]

Patience of a saint, well done.

[@starbase218]

The solder joints may have broken due to stress caused by the transistors being mounted rigidly to the heatsink, and in turn, the chassis, and them heating up, causing all these metal parts to expand at different rates. You can actually buy a tool for bending the legs a bit so they can cope with this more easily. Really enjoyed watching this though. :)

[@Deses]

Collin, purchase a fine nozzle for your 3D Printer, you'll be amazed by the results. I would have printed that little piece with a 0,01 or 0,02 nozzle in order to be accurate to the model.

[@woodysgeekchannel2204]

Great video. Gives me inspiration to pull mine out and work on it again.

[@carlmorenor]

Amazing restoration video 📸

[@matthysloedolff]

Interesting video and I like the new Channel logo at the bottom of the video 👍

[@InteraxVideo]

Hi. Thank you very much for this material. I had the same defect and managed to fix it. Thank you.

[@thebrunswickan]

Better than a detective novel. Great work.

[@76matthieu]

I have this deck with the same problem ! Thanks, now I can easily fix it ! 👍

[@kelvinstokes996]

Great video, Colin! Love the methodical approach!

[@gabster85]

Your videos are always top notch.

[@AppleCold]

11:05 song name please??

[@papipas1976]

Thanks for your video. Really my Sony Dat has the same problems as yours!!!!but the screws. Have been possible fix it with your help. Greetings from Spain, and thank you very much again.

[@Max16032]

I think the biggest culprits when it comes to the reliability of these older machines are aged rubber, plastic pieces and weak solder joints. I know why they did it (to keep costs low), but it really makes these decks prone to break as soon as they pass the 20-year lifespan. Just recently my PCM-R700 broke down and turns out a very tiny plastic peg to keep the tape holder in place snapped, which detached the entire thing from the deck. I had to use superglue to put it back together, but I know it won't last long.

[@RetrogradeScene]

What a journey! Great video!

[@LoftechUK]

I would had binned it. People like you keep these electronic goods alive. I like that

[@JohnLloydDavis]

I just got my DAT machine back from my parents house. Not remembering the instructions I gave her about how it works, my mother had opened the drawer, put in a tape and the pushed it closed! The drawer mechanism doesn't operate anymore and I'm at a loss at where to start. If I lived in the US I would be calling you. Great job on the diagnosis and repair, gives me some hope for a positive result....eventually!

[@dulceb1100]

Dan Mason "Void" added to my playlist. Thanx

[@K3NnY_G]

11.5/10 on that test track choice. Great job.

[@TechStuff1]

I’ve considered getting a DAT to add to my hi-fi system, but because this format didn’t take-off like they hoped, I worry about parts availability if/when a problem arises.

[@Evercade_Effect]

Gratz! Who doesn't enjoy a happy ending.

[@thesmokingcap]

Nice work on the repair! These types of units can be unforgiving if things are out of alignment. I was think you would need to break out the oscilloscope to get it working again haha. Nice unit!

[@danboy12342]

That intro is still "Dat" good... (I'll show myself out)

[@hycron1234]

**releases the hounds**