Technics 1210 repair VLOG #1 - Pitch wobble problem that was a main board fault.

#technics #1210-turntable #service
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This is going to be an series of basic videos of me working on a few Technics 1200 and 1210 currently in my workshop. A lot of them are waiting for replacement silver tubes and I now have a new batch. One will be a complete swap over from a very bad deck to a new recon top and platter.
#1 had an issue when the platter was rubbing on something and it was sent to me from a customer I do a lot of work with. While testing I found when the pitched was moved the platter wobbled and I go through the steps I take to diagnose. It's not the best way, but it's just how I decided to do it. I later find the fault was on the main board and that the screws that hold the platter bearing down have no threads and so the platter was not held down correctly and would be the reason it would catch on something as it turned.
We can see this deck has been painted and looks nice, but I find these mods are made by people who do not always know how the decks work and look good, but do not always work correctly. I have another example to show very soon.

[@DJlegionuk]

I am adding a new rule. No help or questions answered unless it's related to the video and you are subscribed to the channel. It takes up to much time to reply and I am not free tech support.

[@soundviewbx2550]

Had same issue on a 1200 some years ago..thought it was the pitch,but tested fine turned out to be an over heating issue on main board, simple replacement of the part and deck brand new again.price was 15 or 17 pounds for part (cant remember) and 40 for the engineers labour a grand total of under £60 he also gave the deck a service aswell..happy days

[@djluminol]

I'm about to restore an MK2 so I'm sure these videos will be of great help. The top 25% of my pitch is a tad sticky so this cleaning and lube job will be helpful for sure. I think I need new caps and some VAT adjustment clean and lube. Other than that my deck seems ok so far. There may be more, who knows. I'll see when I dig into it for sure one way or the other. Anyway thanks for recording these. I'm sure I'll be step by stepping these video's very soon.

[@jasabasenara8124]

What a brilliant video. Really enjoyed it.

[@MDMediaTV]

Also have this problem few years ago pitch going crazy. I found out that 1 transistor soldered was loose. I just soldered it back firmly again. Fixed.

[@AmbientWanderer]

thanks mate

[@jettsettaswagg3400]

Do you recall which Transistor had the fault/loose solder?

[@kadirovich]

Thanks, learned quite a lot. Also what to look for when testing one out....skipping at the beginning, needle jumping at the end, makes a difference to know.

[@DJlegionuk]

Hi All, I have this deck back and after a few weeks it has damaged this board too. So it is either the PSU that is bad or the Blue LED are using too much current for the board to supply. They are very very bright ! When I have time I will take another look and let you all know.

[@paulmccann6009]

I have a problem with the technic 1210 tone arm the right side chanel works but the left goes on then it goes out again

[@agentblue52]

@@paulmccann6009 clean the headshell connections with an eraser

[@lemondo2010]

Did you ever find out what was causing the problem? Sorry if I've missed the answer to this somehow.

[@veronikagwendolynblauwen2596]

When I get weird speed issues or start/stop being wonky, I go right to Q201 #2SC1846 and Q1 #2SD1265. If they check out ok, which is rare in those cases, I replace Q2, Q3 #2SD357R and D3 #MA1951M and that should do the trick. I find this issue mainly on decks that have travelled a lot or decks that have been questionably refurbished. Hope this helps, keep up the good work.

[@DJlegionuk]

I have other videos when I look at these things in more detail. I did check q201 off camera

[@daft9097]

more technics videos please I subscribed ! 😂😂

[@jackwsmiller3772]

4 or 5 years ago I had a problem on my 1210 mk2 where when the pitch slider was out of lock there would be speed fluctuations. The way I 'fixed' this at the time was to disconnect the pitch slider and jump the middle two pins on CN102. Only recently has any other problem emerged, runaway as soon as the player is turned on. A bit of searching around points towards it likely being Q201 or IC102... What worries me more is that I believe this issue has been caused by dirty voltage at my new residence (I've had two computers fail, as well as now my record player within 6 months and am struggling to see it as coincidence). I have a new multimeter on it's way to me and will begin more thorough testing when I'm able to visit a friend with more reliable house electrics!

[@aarondavidson6060]

helo legion good work nice to see ya keep going do this,and yep be good and healthy

[@DJlegionuk]

HI, I never stopped, but the repairs are all the same so thought it would be boring to show the same thing over and over. From the no of views this has compared the retro computer stuff it obviously is not.

[@aarondavidson6060]

@@DJlegionuk true but for as a small community is a gold

[@scuttle69]

i had the same issue and i changed the Q2 & Q3 to new ones and this solved the problem !!!

[@DJlegionuk]

in this case I replaced the PSU because it came back a few weeks later with another power related problem.

[@scuttle69]

@@DJlegionuk hi mate i see one of your vids for a bearing replacement in the gimble if you could make one how much would you charge for one of your jigs you put the gimble in you done on the 3d printer ?

[@DJlegionuk]

@@scuttle69 HI, email me you can find it on the about page.

[@MrStout14]

i love this

[@OrionGarcia]

i read some where that the pitch wobble problem comes from the resistor at r307. it was originally a 2.7k ohm resistor. if you replace it with a 10k ohm one it should fix it. this is what i found working on a 1210 mk5

[@kevinatkab5219]

it is actually the 5V zener diode. This drifts with age and temperature and if it gets past 5.2V pitch on, there is risk that the speed will become unstable. it is better to use a 4.7V zener here. Changing R307 gets a little more voltage swing from IC201, but won't always solve the time/temperature issue.

[@OrionGarcia]

@@kevinatkab5219 yo this is very helpful. Much appreciated 🙏🏽🙏🏽

[@silverflux7698]

Hey Kev, I've tried 2x new pitch sliders, and 2x 10k resistors at R307 , pitch still drifts, you reckon the diode will sort it? At D3R or something like that 🤔

[@jimbojet8728]

I’m a new subber, as I am enjoying watching you repair these turntables. I’m about to purchase Technics TT a SL1200 GR. just waiting for Covid restrictions to be relaxed enough for me to listen to one and some other stuff at a nearby hifi store. Seems a good TT though?

[@DJlegionuk]

that would be a great turntable for you.

[@rezaq1]

I have an issue with my Stanton t120. It won’t hold 0 pitch manually, soon as you get to it (which is massively off the 0 mark) the platter jumps the other direction!!! The pitch zero light also only comes on when I hit the lock button! Any idea? Can’t get a single part for these which is utterly ridiculous

[@philmalone7930]

Did you find out what was actually wrong with the board you took out as my sl1200 is doing exactly the same, it started after a short with the target light, thanks and great videos.

[@markking392]

I think that paint job is alful. I would never do that to my technics and I have 3 of them

[@fiftyshades7189]

Hi. Great video. Where can I get the vice/clamp you are using? I can't find anything like it anywhere apart from the old workshop types

[@DJlegionuk]

I brought this from ebay, it's made by Clarke and is just a drill press vice

[@eklektikTechno]

This isn’t related to your issue, but I own a pair of MK2’s and one of them the platter won’t it spin it’s literally in a locked position no free spinning even when powered off. I removed the platter and inner cover for an examination, then I returned the parts to their original install. Plugged it in and now it’s spinning, any ideas ??

[@umbertogiannini]

2 questions please, can you recommend a cleaning fluid for the pitch and that vici multimeter you use for the frequency counter what's the exact model number please?

[@DJlegionuk]

i have a video showing how to clean the pitch and also how to calibrate using that multimeter. vici VC99 it's a cheap fluke clone.

[@josemartin7655]

Hi Lee and thanks a lot for all the helpful content you publish! : ) I've been having severe pitch wobbling issues on one of my SL-1200 MK2 ( getting triggered on approx. -4% and getting fixed after +6% ), and after a lot of tries ( pitch fader, platter, D301, R307 to 10K, electrolytic capacitors, etc. ) I finally ordered a new mainboard that I hope will make my turntable spin properly again... And I have a question regarding installing the new one: when I removed the old mainboard, I unattached the blue and yellow cables by untwisting them from the pins, do you think I should try to twist them again as they come from fabrics or should I solder them instead? Cheers! P.S.: Sum one more that would love to know what was the faulty piece on the motherboard!

[@DJlegionuk]

HI, So that deck is coming back to me. It developed another issue and I think the fault goes back to the PSU as it's now doing strange things on the leds. So I think that board was damaged from the PSU. I did notice one of the power transistors was damaged. WIth regards to your question I normally twist back on and then solder as well to be 100% safe.

[@josemartin7655]

What a fast response mate! Thanks! : ) Now that you wrote that, I'm also concerned about having issues in the PSU that could potentially damage the new motherboard... Spare parts are becoming pretty expensive and hard to find... This is so that I was considering saving the money for a new MK7 turntable instead of fixing this one, but I'm too attached to them for letting them go...

[@josemartin7655]

Hi again @@DJlegionuk! My package with the mainboard got lost by the carrier company so I need to find an alternative : \ One further question: do you know if the mainboard of a SL-1200 MK3 would work in a MK2? They look quite similar, but I can't find any info on Internet... Thanks in advance! : )

[@DJlegionuk]

@@josemartin7655 this link says they are the same, but you need to match the connections, some are black and some are white. 1200s.com/products/technics-sl-1200-1210-turntable-main-board-pcb-with-motor-a-fully-tested-mk2

[@paulmccann6009]

@@DJlegionuk I was wondering if you could lete know how to fix the problem on my technics tone arm the left channel goes on but the right channel goes off the it goes off again. I don't know if its the RCA audio cable or the tone arm wires

[@aortiz1105]

What would you say is a better overall the m5G or the mk5. Don’t see many that you work on so just curious (m5g)

[@DJlegionuk]

I can't answer that as I only saw a few and mainly work on mk2

[@jeremymurphy6095]

No ever tunes down the brightness with a colour Thats 7 times brighter than red, orange, pink

[@QoraxAudio]

Diode D1.

[@richardnorman1158]

who did that spray job to that poor 1210

[@ictrepairs6963]

What should be the good news to the customer that you had to swap his faulty mainboard with a working one? I honestly didn’t get this sorry ;-) my customer will not be happy at all ! Just kidding. By the way, do you have any idea of what was the real fault or you still have to digging little more deep into the issue?

[@DJlegionuk]

Good old British sarcasm lol. He already knew everything as I was talking to him as I found the faults. It was only supposed to have the noise from the platter touching something so I spoke to him as soon as I found the wobble when moving the pitch. I will take a closer look at some point, but my time is limited at the workshop so have to get on with some other parts.

[@FlyHighWavesSounds]

@@DJlegionuk I would like to know as well what is the issue. At east where to search. I just got a turntable and it does the same. On the center is stable and when moved up and down you can hear also the in the sound the jitter can be seen on the strobe light. Another issue before this was that the tonearm is bent a bit downwards. Is that fixable by just bending it up back? Maybe to heat it up a bit. I should keep it and get a partial refund or is better not. I'm a ninja with the soldering iron but on deep electronics not really. I'm confident replacing parts no matter what they are. What do you think? Laurentiu

[@DJlegionuk]

@@FlyHighWavesSounds hi, I would check the pitch as that is the most common reason for wobble. In my case I have the deck back and it has blown another board so the PSU is bad. On the new board it has no 5v and old the old board I can see some damage to Q3. If your tonearm is bent you can never get it back to normal because the metal tube will have a kink, if this is not correct it will not make good contact with the stylus. I have another video showing tone arm problems so take a look at that, Yes it is fixable but it will need a new silver tube and you will have to check the other parts of the tonearm for damage as bent tube = something heavy was on top and the other parts can be damaged. You could also replace the arm, but this would be £100 and more just for the part.

[@marvingladney6125]

How much you charge for the service

[@DJlegionuk]

unless you are local to Nottingham,uk I do not take work in, the risk of damage in transit is too much and no one will insure them.

[@marvingladney6125]

@@DJlegionuk thanks for letting me know

[@philsep7939]

Calibrate your pitch!!!

[@forwardsdrawkcab]

I just saw this video solving the pitch wobble problem like this TT had: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iIG1lIptacasbdk He changed R307 to 10k and solved the problem.

[@forwardsdrawkcab]

I see this option was already mentioned in several comments.

[@shedteknisk7910]

Disappointed you didn't find the board fault. You neither found the fault or the root cause.