I have the training and service manuals for the VP-1000, and the predecessor commercial player PR7820, an alignment disc, but no jigs. Yours uses the old Helium-Neon tube laser. I have an optical laser block out of one, and a laser from one set up with some tracking mirrors X-Y for horizontal and vertical, driven with a small stereo amplifier, had this set up in the den years ago to draw Lissajous patterns on the wall!

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...ser-he-ne1.jpg



Laserdiscs can get noisy when the aluminum reflective layer starts to break down. Some much worse than others that still play remarkably well. But even new discs would have a speck here and there, or an occasional crawling dot as a minor defect passed by.

I think my friend has a CX box if you ever decide you need one.

Those pro machines were probably designed to ignore the macrovision garbage, and some may have manually adjustable video rec level controls so that also makes the copyguard signal ineffective since that messes with the recorder's video record automatic gain control to disrupt the picture.

You have a nice project getting all that to interface and work together.

Without looking as I no longer have access to any of the JVC service manuals at the old shop, if the heads seem OK might be a failed electrolytic on the head amp board, or on the cylinder stator board if it has a similar setup I am thinking about as many JVCs had in the late 80s-early 90s which caused the phase of the head-switching signal to be all out of whack from where it's supposed to be. I've also seen heads that were clogged with something that would not clean off no matter what, and I would have to use a head lapping tape to polish off the crud. What happens if you record on that one with no playback and play that tape on a good machine?

Hi Ed,

These machines do have adjustable video record level as an option, along with seemingly hundreds of menu-driven adjustments I dare not mess with for lack of knowledge of what they do! I hadn't considered recording on the bad one and seeing how it plays on another machine, thanks very much for the tip. I'll also study the service manual for more clues - too bad I can't twirl my hand fast and accurately enough to inject a head signal into that large SMT chip on the spinning board. I have one of those cheap handheld video head testers, but of course they won't identify a clogged head. Well, maybe I can look for a dramatic change in inductance between the heads just for fun. I also haven't tried a dry type cleaning tape, and I might just have one around.

A machine of that age could definitely have bad electrolytics pretty much anywhere; in fact I stole the audio output board from the bad machine over this. I stock hundreds (or thousands) of all standard values up to 1000 uF, but generally don't keep many NP's around which were the culprits in this case. I could get really intense and try measuring in-circuit capacitance of the SMT caps, but I'm more likely to just replace them once I determine the values. I'll try to shoot you a protrusion measurement in microns on these heads if I can find time over the weekend, but a quick and gentle finger-rub feels like well over 20 microns on all of them. I had pretty much written the machine off as a parts unit, but here's my chance to really make sure it's the heads, and learn a lot besides.

Considering the way these machines performed after routine mechanism removal, cleaning and lube, looks like the previous owner(s) kept up the maintenance and alignments very diligently. Almost a disappointment for a curious technician, but at least I have some Beta machines to mechanically align and keep any hair from accumulating on my head!

Thanks again for the tips, I'll keep you posted. Cheers!

P.S. - If I keep getting older, I may need to project scope waves on my wall too! My wife is an old California hippie, so the process is sort of pre-approved if I play some Iron Butterfly while I troubleshoot.

I am catching up on movies that i missed by buying them real cheap at thrift stores. My local Goodwill store sells VCR tapes for a buck a pop. That's less than a Netflix rental. Most play beautifully. No it is not DVD quality but those of us who grew up on analogue it doesn't matter. Even if I only watch them once they pay for themselves. I was never much of a recording enthusiast however.
My VCR is nothing special, a 90s era Sylvania.

Do you have an in-circuit ESR meter in your arsenal of testing tools? I've had pretty much 100% positive results testing surface-mounted electrolytics with my ESR meter equipped with sharp tipped probes.

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...-testing-1.jpg

(Hi-fi audio board out of a 20 year old JVC HR-S5800.)

Hi Ed,

An ESR meter is one of very pew pieces of gear I haven't acquired yet, and thanks for the tip. I'll try to get one as soon as budget permits. Looking at the service manual for my BR-S822U, there are 4 SMD electrolytics (.47 uF) that appear to deal with the headswitching on the flying PRE/REC board. I'm tempted to temporarily swap standard electros (all I have in stock) just to see what happens. These 4 electros appear to be in identical circuits, looks like they all supply DC control voltages to op amps inside the UPC2320GS chip on the flying board - but this is strictly a half-educated guess.

There's also a control signal that comes from the slip ring, but I admit that I've traditionally been a "belt and tire" guy and haven't studied the deeper areas of VCR electronics to know what this control signal should be or where it comes from. I should have all the equipment I need to troubleshoot - just need a bit more knowledge which I will study as time permits. But since the 4 electros in question are in identical circuits, maybe I can do a quick-and-dirty comparison of capacitance before pulling anything up. Here's a schematic of the flying preamp board:

www.barrys8trackrepair.com/PreBoard.html

Sorry it's not the clearest. Have a great Sunday!

You NEED an ESR meter. Has saved me countless hours of time and trouble. Where a cap might test good on a Sencor capacitance meter, would be bad with the ESR meter. I rarely if ever measure capacitance now, I just check ESR. I can go through a board checking ESR of all the electrolytics and mark any that don't test good with a felt-tip marker, then go back and replace those.

I see now what you are dealing with. This is where I need the rest of the manual to follow the schematic. The pinout of the cylinder assy to the boards it connects to might help. Not the motor but the signal part. I would look at the +5V, the PB head-switching signal, the amp mode signal, the slip ring condition, and if there's any PB FM signal coming out while it trys to play a tape.

Hi Ed,

Thanks to your tips, it looks like I've found the video heads to be okay. I recorded color bars on the bad machine, and I do get a constant video signal when played back on a good machine. The color flickered in and out, so I tried a monochrome crosshatch pattern. It played back with constant video again, and was very jittery both up-and-down and left-to-right, but at least it appears that the heads are recording, so they should be capable of playback also? The head switching point was near the top of the screen which doesn't seem right. I checked the menu settings on the bad machine (and also reset everything per the manual) which didn't seem to fix anything. I took care to make sure the switching point is properly adjusted at 6.5H for recording and 4.5H for playback in the menu adjustments - but I know the software controls can only do so much if the circuit itself is faulty.

So now it's starting to look like an electrical alignment issue. I don't know if anything on the flying REC/PRE board would continue to be suspect now, but I did check those 4 electros with a cheap cap meter - all read around .56 uF though I'm sure the ESR could still be bad. My control signal (30 Hz?) is making it to the slip ring, and the ring and brushes appear okay visually. I do have about +2 volts of DC offset in the control signal, not sure if that would throw off any bias stuff in that preamp chip - and it might be normal anyway. I think it's time I spent several evenings learning some basic VCR theory, studied the manual intently, then set up the bench for a full check of the alignment. I haven't checked the servos yet with the VC93, but the head switching point pretty much stays in the same place and the video playback is consistant on the good machine, albeit jittery. My limited knowledge at this point suggests a problem somewhere in the head switching circuitry and probably more (sheepish grin).

Sounds like an ESR meter is great for in-circuit cap checking? Which one would you recommend? I'll quit for today and let my brain soak up what I've learned so far, then maybe hit it again next weekend. This VCR is more a fun project rather than anything urgent - my chance to learn something about electronics which I somehow manage to do for a living :-)

Are you looking at the head switching signal in one channel and the video in the other channel on an o'scope? I figure you are. PB sw-pt should obviously not be at the top of the picture. Sounds like the old symptom of a surface mount electrolytic in the head drum PG circuit, not producing a good PG pulse so the servo knows where the heads are, the FG is working since it's running at the right speed. A lot of those combined the FG and PG on the drum stator board into a single signal the servo IC could sort out. The cap that would fail on those was on the drum motor stator board.

About a year ago I bought my 2nd ESR meter in kit form:

http://www.anatekcorp.com/blueesr.htm

If you shop around for this one, you can find a deal that might still include the optional stand for it, free.

I also still have my original Dick Smith Electronics from Australia ESR meter, from about 10 years ago. It was also a kit, but it's been discontinued for a few years.

http://www.electronicrepairguide.com...or-tester.html

I'm not sure what's available these days, but I think there are some lower cost already assembled ESR meters. Others I see are now combining ESR and capacitance test in one meter.

Well, this is interesting. My control signal is reading 15 Hz during playback of any tape, even a brand new blank tape. It reads the usual 30 Hz until it loads a tape, then reads 15 Hz thereafter. When I eject the tape, it goes back to 30 Hz. So there's a good starting point - surely a 15 Hz control signal can have something to do with this. I'll see what happens when I force it to 30 Hz with the VC93.

New developments: On the bad machine, the control signal's duration is much longer on the positive half-cycle than on the negative half-cycle with the machine in PLAY mode. About 2 and a half times as long. Eject the tape, and it goes back to the correct symmetrical 30 Hz signal. Also, it looks like my service manual was written before this serial number, as the FM PRE board near the head drum is completely missing, with the wiring going instead to the Audio 3 board - which only contains about 30% of the circuitry as the Audio 3 board on the good machine. Looks like they replaced a lot of discrete circuits with some kind of microprocessor - somewhere.

So now I'm not sure if the same check/alignment procedures would apply. Both my good 822's have the optional Time Code boards installed. Time to check the manual supplement for more clues.

Please forgive the excessive individual posts; for some reason my edits won't take when I try to update. I'm going to recap the CTL/Servo board before I go taking the drum assembly apart to work on the stator board, which looks fairly involved on this machine. My PG pulse is clean and strong, just has that strange duty cycle problem. Since the pulse goes through so much junk on the CTL/Servo board, I figure it can't hurt to replace thoese caps before going much further.

I see now that the pulse is still effectively 30 Hz, but that long duration of the positive half-cycle is what the counter is triggering on. There are some electronic switches (IC's) on that board also which explains why the pulse would abrubtly change when in PLAY mode. I think a few bad caps could wreak this kind of havoc, so you know what I'll be doing after work this evening.

Incidentally, I did replace the .47 uF caps on the flying preamp board, with no change.

Love VHS here, i prefer it over dvd. i like to have a full screen, and moreso like not having to worry about it skipping 3/4 through a movie

My Decks National NV850A x3 (3 head HiFi) 1st HiFi vcr on the domestic scene.
National NV-870A (4 head HiFi)
Panasonic NV-HD100 (4 head HiFi / 6 rotary heads)
National NV-F70A (4 head HiFi / 7 rotary heads)
Panasonic AG-MD835 x4 (HiFi Stereo 8 rotary heads)

- Baily :)

You got it, Baily. I got so frustrated at the "disc error" messages, the digital checkerboards and the freeze frame, I now only play a DVD if it's not available on other formats - and I immediately transfer any DVD's to VHS, a format that actually works every time. Plus I love working on VCR's, pretty much a requirement if one does a lot of VCR'ing.

of vhs and dvd
 

I have a three current VHS units ..

a Sony from 1996
an RCA from around 1999
a JVC SVHS from 2002
and a combo DVD/VCR unit by Samsung 2009

All are 6 head stereo units and the Sony, JVC and RCA are multi-standard PAL/NTSC capable of recording in PAL, SECAM and NTSC and NTSC4.53
(the Samsung will play NTSC but not record it..well it sort of does ..it outputs PAL at 625/30)

We still use VHS for recording long programming eg. football or special events where either the DVD or PVR are unsuitable or unavailable.

And my partner has some hundreds of programmes recorded from German television...I have similar number of VHS and Beta tapes of material from as far back as 1978.

I specifically bought the Samsung unit to supplement the other VCRs because of VHS is gradually disappearing from the shelves..so it is grab 'em while you can!

Thanks Ed!
 

Ed,

If you're out there, thanks a million for the shortcut on my JVC BR-S822U. I injected a 30 Hz pulse from my VC93 to TP7 on the D/C Servo board, and the picture popped in clear as a bell. The only thing before TP7 is the head drum, so I think we got it licked. The picture comes and goes at regular intervals of course, since there's no sync between the VC93 and the rest of the VCR, but I got what I was looking for - a steady picture for a few seconds to tell me the heads are definitely good.

Being me, I started off getting too complicated again and recapped the D/C Servo board before I did some simple scoping around. Where I should have gotten a PG pulse, I was getting nothing but square wave harmonics and noise, probably leakage from nearby circuitry. Well, now I'll know I have a healthy servo board ~ ~ ~

Over the weekend I'll pull the mechanism for a good cleaning and lube, at which time I'll replace those caps on the stator board. With any luck, I'll have (3) good 822's which will complete the video portion of my makeshift studio. $100 to get a used BRC for the time code translation to the ADAT's, and I'm in like Flint and can start some serious band recording. I sure didn't expect it to be this easy, since VCO's and PLL's drive me crazy at work - these PG feedback circuits don't seem too dissimilar. At any rate, you pretty much fixed it for me.

Thanks again Ed !!!

Darn - now I don't have a parts unit anymore :-)

Well I hope I was right, and you will end up with a good spare machine. :thmbsp: You will probably need to realign the PB switching point when you put it back together. There's usually enough play in the mounting to change the relation of the PG pickup to the head position.

I know what you mean though about losing your parts unit. I bought a spare turntable back in Feb after looking for one for over a year, intending for it to be a parts unit should my main TT fail, like a DD motor or somesuch failure of a non-available part. Got this "parts unit" going so well now, I've been using it for my daily player since. Retired the original one I bought new in 1979 for a while, give it a rest!

Hi Ed,

You were right indeed. I lifted the mechanism and was able to stand it on its side without disconnecting ALL the cabling, and saw a single 3.3 uF, 50v electro on the stator board. Replaced it with a standard one, put 'er back together - the picture came in beautifully. Recorded a signal and played it back on another machine - again, wonderful!

I would have likely found it eventually depending on how persistent I felt, but I may have never even considered caps on the drum assembly - especially since this tiny board is not to be found in the manual. I may have written it off as a weak magnet in the upper drum - so I say again:

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Hi Barry Glad to help! Good to know that's what it was.

I have a top of the line Zenith Stereo VCR from the early to mid 80's. My wife bought it for me new when we were dating for over $500. I used it every day until about 1995 because of the stereo option and I still use it quite often. Here are the problems I've had with the machine and the maintenance and repairs I've done:


:D I spose I should clean it some day. This thing is better than a Timex. Probably keep it until I die, I use it now for my older sets. I will follow up with a model number tommorrow.

A post-Beta Mid-'80s Zenith VHS? Probably one of the JVC-made machines. JVC originally manufactured Zenith VHS VCRs, until Goldstar bought out Zenith.

Its a Zenith HI-FI HQ Model VR2225. Heavy too! It's made in Japan but still has the Glenview IL. address. Most likely JVC.

I'm in, I still have many vcr's, including one I bought a few months ago that is more of a prosumer machine to play tapes that have tracking issues.

I'm just an analog girl living in a digital world:thmbsp:

Welcome to VK stacyellenk! If you say you're an analog girl, then you found the right website:yes:
What other analog goodies do you have? Any old tube tv's?

Nope, just my Sony Wega that I still have from the pre-flat screen/HD era that I bought in 2002:D I do also however have a Beta machine that I bought on Craigslist a few years ago and had restored so that I can access some of those tapes that I have as well.

VHS is my analog passion for video, but other than that it's all about music for me - i actually make my way over here from Audiokarma, where thanks to the help over there I'm now the owner of a 70's analog stereo setup.

I have hundreds and hundreds - and hundreds - of videotapes, so I've made sure that I have enough vcr's to support them. And thankfully I am in L.A. so there is a VCR repair shop down the road from where i live.

I appreciate computers and the technology, and being able to carry around video and music on my ipod etc. but I will never give up my analog media.

I use VHS HiFi for audio...

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4077/...9fb9dd75_b.jpg

My main audio machine is a Mitsubishi built Eletrohome model......sounds fantastic !!

I still use a VCR but I don't watch too many movies. I don't like the DVD format at all. In fact, I am still PO about the whole digital TV transition and plan on picking up some more VCRs and a couple of agile modulators because I am going to stay analog.
Rod

Yep - just last night the wife and I were watching a DVD player I purchased brand new about a year ago, and cleaned the lens about a month ago. Started hanging up, stuttering and broke into that wonderful digital checkerboard pattern. Looked at the wife and said, "That's why I went back to VCR's".

Hi-Fi VCR's come in handy for recording long periods of time off the radio, like if you play in bands and need tons of songs to learn and add to your song list.

VCRs are the way to go my friend :)

I, personally, do not trust those DVD recorder things as far as I could throw one! I own a DVD recorder as does a friend of mine but hardly use it. I always use my machines (Panasonic) to record from digital satellite and a separate FREEVIEW digital terrestrial box.

The main advantage of a VCR over a DVD recorder is, when a DVD recorder comes across a bad disc....it just gives up therefore losing the programme you want to record. A VCR does not give a hoot about a bad bit of tape and just carries on regardless.:yes:

I have a stockpile of machines (about 22 last count) and even though we will be the last area to switch to digital full-time here in the UK, September 2012, I will continue to use VHS as long as I can. :thmbsp:

That is so true. I've had a particular machine, a Funai-built DVD recorder, throw its hands up in the air (by way of an error message on the screen) after 10 seconds of recording a disc it didn't like--in this case, some Memorex DVD-Rs... though it certainly loved the Verbatims I regularly use. OTOH, that recorder has clocked at least a thousand hours of recording since it is used for tape transfer of old education videos for the department I work for, so they can abuse the discs instead of the tapes that are approaching 25 years of age.

The 1999 Sony SLV-M11HF I use for the transfers is a dream to use for this task because of the insanely fast wind/rewind and its picture quality. The 2000 Panasonic NV-SJ200 is also used for the few mono PAL tapes in the collection. :D

I have an 8-year-old Panasonic Omnivision VCR that still works every bit as well as the day I bought it. Also have VHS videos I recorded from TV (old TV series and movies from the '50s through the '80s, plus a few professionally-recorded movies and travelogues) that still play well today, most of them (except the professionally-recorded ones) now at or approaching 25 years old. I do not own a DVD recorder, although I do have a Memorex DVD player I bought some 2.5 years ago that still works very well (despite a warning I read on one of the TV repair websites that recent-vintage Memorex DVDs have a capacitor that will swell and split open within nine months of initial purchase; the one in mine hasn't yet, knock on wood :yes:).

It's good to see others have the same mind-set when it comes to VHS. Surprising enough the vast bulk of my VCR's have come from the local dump or "tip" as we call them in the UK. Many people are now buying those PVR machines with HDD units in them and that includes SKY Plus satellite units as folks just throw their VHS machines.

Another thing I love about VHS is that you don't have to tell the machine how many hours recording you want on a disc as there are only 2 speeds SP/LP (or on Panasonic VHS machines EP) never used it myself but I understand that it slows the tape to a THIRD of normal speed enabling 9 hours recording on an E-180 cassette. No finalising needed either.

Some people I know have actually laughed at me for still having VHS in use, but I like to see it this way. All those with the fancy DVD recorders will probably cry their eyes out when the laser dies and all they can do is throw it away. :tears:

Whereas my VHS recorders will still be running like a dream. :D

By the way, has anyone noticed the rising prices of blank VHS tapes - a conspiracy I think!

VHS Camcorders
 

Does anyone here still uses a VHS camcorder to record home movies (either full size or compact)?

The battered, beaten and bruised yet still working JVC BR1500U. Found upside down in a pile of dirt, I took it home expecting it to be fried, however this machine refuses to die. And it has possibly the niftiest remote I've ever seen.

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/2756/dsc00363p.jpg

Click here fore some other pictures

I've got three other cheap VCR's but I love the old JVC. I've got no clue to the age but from what I can figure from the dates on back it's about 25+ years old.

Yes, I use a couple VHS camcorders, except that I installed BNC jacks and standard DC power jacks so that I can use them as cameras only. Then I run the cables to my VCR's. I do this because I need to record time code in order to sync the video to my ADAT machines for multitrack (24 track) audio capability. Poor man's production studio.

They knew how to make VCR's back then - built like a tank:D:D:D

Yup!!

The VCRs made in the 80s WERE THE BEST!!!!!!

Beautfiul picture The Doctor :)

I had a Panasonic-built GE top-loading VCR in 1984. I'd probably still have it today if the heads had not worn out after six years. Today, 26 years and several VCRs of various makes later, I have another Panny VCR, model PV-4022, which hasn't given me five minutes' worth of trouble and still works amazingly well for its age (eight years), except that it makes a loud screeching noise in rewind or fast forward -- but not in forward or reverse search mode. :scratch2: I also had a Panny VCR with VCR Plus (my current VCR's predecessor), but I had to trash that one when it ate a cassette. I nearly had to wreck the VCR to get the tape out. :no:

BTW, speaking of VCR Plus, whatever happened to it? I think that was one of the best things to happen to VCRs since the machines first came on the market. :yes: :thmbsp: I think as well that this feature would be useful with today's DVRs, as it would allow viewers to set the machines for recording simply by entering a three- to five-digit code, as VCR Plus for VHS worked. Some local newspapers, such as the Cleveland Plain Dealer, had VCR Plus codes in their TV listings as late as the 1990s.