Quasar VR-1000

[starbond]

Originally Posted by WCV82

I'm amazed you had enough blank tapes to make recordings on that thing way into the mid 80s (Super Bowl XX being January 1986), from what I've heard the product was discontinued by 1979 or 1980, and I assume blank tapes and other accessories would have been gone from retail shelves by 1981.

Replacement parts will be hard to find I'd assume, I check regularly and there are usually only 1 or 2 Quasar VR-1000s up on Ebay at one time, if at all, and those are usually the same ones that were relisted 5-10x because the seller wants $400 for it.

As for tape mold, I've cleaned VHS tapes by some of the methods used on Youtube, aka running the tape in FF and take the top off the player and lightly press down on the reels with a Q tip dabbed in rubbing alcohol. It usually takes 2 or 3 passes and the tape is clean. However, some tapes are so mold laden that the reels won't move and will just snap off.

My dad has a tendency re-record over previous tapes, and I think the Superbowl tape was one he has bought years before and re-used. I'm willing to bet most tapes with 80s content were ones he bought originally in the 70s- alot of blue V100 and orange boxes V120 (strangely never a single V60 black box tape) And a fun fact, I came across his receipts for the machine that he kept in his records, I cant remember exactly but i think a blank tape then cost about $50..in 1970s dollars. pretty crazy.

Funny you mention that, there is a BRAND NEW Vr-1000 on ebay right now for over $700 bucks. Pretty neat however I would never pay that much to relive some of my dad's tape memories haha. As for the old tapes, if i need FFD to do it, this machine will not fast forward atm, (or rewind, or do anything other than play at normal speed). I have taken apart a tape once and done the tedious task of manually spooling the tape from one side to the other to loosen up a section of tape (gave up after 10 minutes, too much tape)

However some good news, my new caps and transistors arrived from digi-key last night, going to give it a shot, I think ultimately my issue that the solenoids are not engaging across any level, which is ever a 12v line issue or a component along the way is faulty. Time will tell.

[starbond]

Some GREAT updates. After poking around with the transistors and finding a few ones that were failed, I'm now happy to say the solenoids are working as normal and I was able to play a tape for the first time in almost 30 years! if my dad were still around i'm sure he'd be happy.
However I still cant rewind or ffd with a tape in, i think the motor cant get enough strengh to move the tape (or the belts are just too old)
There's some weird rainbow banding going on in color mode, not sure what's going on there, I don't have a scope yet but i've considered it as long as it doesnt break my bank. Any initial thoughts of where to start?

[Electronic M]

Is the capstan/head drum direct or belt drive, and is the pinch roller in good shape or slick and glazed/cracked? If the rubber is bad it might be moving to too slow for the color subcarrier to be on frequency....I've seen this in early CED players with bad platter drive belts.

There may be brakes on the tape drive pegs or in the tape preventing rewind.

One dirty trick for getting a bit more life out of your belts is to work them with CRC automotive belt dressing...It won't.work forever but if it helps you know to source new belts.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Is the capstan/head drum direct or belt drive, and is the pinch roller in good shape or slick and glazed/cracked? If the rubber is bad it might be moving to too slow for the color subcarrier to be on frequency....I've seen this in early CED players with bad platter drive belts.

There may be brakes on the tape drive pegs or in the tape preventing rewind.

One dirty trick for getting a bit more life out of your belts is to work them with CRC automotive belt dressing...It won't.work forever but if it helps you know to source new belts.

I've used it on idler wheels at times.

[starbond]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Is the capstan/head drum direct or belt drive, and is the pinch roller in good shape or slick and glazed/cracked? If the rubber is bad it might be moving to too slow for the color subcarrier to be on frequency....I've seen this in early CED players with bad platter drive belts.

There may be brakes on the tape drive pegs or in the tape preventing rewind.

One dirty trick for getting a bit more life out of your belts is to work them with CRC automotive belt dressing...It won't.work forever but if it helps you know to source new belts.

Both motors are belt drive, the larger drive motor in the back for the video head and the 7V in front for the tape turning. Will get you some pics later after work. Here's an older one for now. Pinch roller is mostly okay, has some dirt on it that im not sure how to clean without ruining the rubber, its still pretty flat with some grip.

The issue I was having was the the individual solenoids (rewind brake, pinch brake, take up reel brake etc) were not activating but they all should be now. I'll have to examine the schematic and check the transistors and components on the rwd/ff area.

I'll look into that belt dressing. I know the tape counter belt is cracking (not a big deal just the TC) I just have to figure out the best way to measure these belts.

[Electronic M]

You should be able to cl an the capstan with rubbing alcohol, if that don't work goofoff will clean it...it can also dissolve the outer layer of the pinch roller and some plastics...I use goofoff when the outer layer of rubber is either extremely dirty or dried and glazed...it will remove the glazed layer and get back to good rubber (I usually follow up with belt dressing on glazed idlers and pinch rollers).

If a belt has dissolved into black gunk from age (a LOT of 8-track decks have this happen) before installing a replacement alcohol and if needed goofoff are good for cleaning the gunk off.

[starbond]

A little update. I've gotten the rest of my dad's tapes out of storage, about 20 in total. Unfortunately most of the never recovered from a basement flood in the early 2000s, mold has stayed on the box covers and gotten into the casing of the tapes. Some are still relatively intact.
All tapes play the AUDIO just fine, but the picture is all static. This is happening on 90% of his tapes. On a tape I bought off ebay, that picture plays better but still a bit fuzzy, so I'm wondering what happened to his tapes, did the video portion of the magnetic tape get nuked somehow?

-RWD and FF still do not work, but I have new belts coming in tomorrow to see if that makes any difference.

-When I switch to color mode, I get rainbow banding, which makes me think it's a board issue and not a tape issue. I'm not really sure where to start here, I tested a few transistors and they checked out okay.

https://www.mediafire.com/view/r8i7c...lorEV.png/file

[old_tv_nut]

Those horizontal bands of noise seem to indicate that the tape or head is running the wrong speed, so the heads are skipping across tracks - the color board may be fine. I think you should get it tracking properly first, and then see if you still have color issues.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

Those horizontal bands of noise seem to indicate that the tape or head is running the wrong speed, so the heads are skipping across tracks - the color board may be fine. I think you should get it tracking properly first, and then see if you still have color issues.

+1

Also video heads clog with dirt substantially easier than linear audio so you really want to clean those moldy tapes before you run them over the video heads...

[Eric H]

I had one given to me a few years ago, it was in great shape and even worked to a degree, the issue was the tape, I had a couple tapes and they would play for a short while then clog the head, coupled with the fact the machine would not rewind due to bad rubber parts and I got frustrated and gave up, donated it to a Thrift Store so it could find a new home.

I have video I was able to transfer from the tape that came with it of some 1970's TV shows and commercials, it looked pretty decent when it wasn't dropping out, VHS quality at least.

[starbond]

Originally Posted by Eric H

I had one given to me a few years ago, it was in great shape and even worked to a degree, the issue was the tape, I had a couple tapes and they would play for a short while then clog the head, coupled with the fact the machine would not rewind due to bad rubber parts and I got frustrated and gave up, donated it to a Thrift Store so it could find a new home.

I have video I was able to transfer from the tape that came with it of some 1970's TV shows and commercials, it looked pretty decent when it wasn't dropping out, VHS quality at least.

Eric, could you go into a little more detail about the rubber parts? Mine is also having an issue rewinding, just wondering how far into it you investigated before giving up

[Eric H]

Originally Posted by starbond

just wondering how far into it you investigated before giving up

Not far at all, I just assumed it was dried up rubber keeping it from rewinding, probably had dried up grease as well, it looked like a project to take it apart, and with the tape issues, and the space it took up, I just didn't want to mess with it.

VHS can at least be rewound on a rewinder, the way these tapes are made it's impossible to rewind one without an operable machine.

[starbond]

Ah ok, thanks Eric. It got me thinking though. Made two very important discoveries last night
First, is that there's only ONE roller that pretty much works the RR/FF mechanism. I popped off the C-clip and took a look, sure enough it was pretty stiff and dry...not good. Also why does it have foam in the center?
so I popped off the ring, and flipped it inside out. the inside edge is a little softer and matte, so its better than nothing. Looks like I need a new idler tire...

Second...the way the spools sit in the VX cartridge are right on top of each other, they basically scrape along during play back = high friction.So I rubbed a bit of lubrication across the tops of the spools where they touch each other, and suddently, BOOM, FFD and RWD work much much better now. Leave it to Panasonic to design a cassette that if dried out, doesnt work well at all.

So now my next steps is to open every tape and rub some lubrication across it. and THEN...try to fix the color board. I bought a cheap NTSC signal generator on ebay. But I suppose it wont be much help without a scope..

[Electronic M]

The felt may be for a braking or to maintain tape tension.

You may be able to restore grip to the roller by cleaning the hard outer film off with goofoff and then following up with automotive belt treatment.

If you can find a belt or washer that meets it's dimensions that should work. Another option might be to make a mold of it and cast a new one out of silicone.

[starbond]

Contacted Electronic supply corp for some new belts. Somehow they found the original belt #s but no crossref, so I sent my belts (and idler tire) off to them so the unit will be sitting for a week or two in the meantime.

https://www.ued.net/ued/searchResult...el&listParts=Y

Also have an NTSC signal generator coming in so I can work on getting the colors and imputs corrected since right now the unit does not show any color during playback of videos, nor does it show any video display when switched into MONITOR mode.