added a 3rd Studer A-820 Mk2 with both 1/4" and 1/2" heads, guides and hubs

[Tango]

sry have to ask....sure you threaded the tape correctly?

Hahaha. I thought that as well. Yes the tape was threaded properly. It happened after I finished listening the second reel this morning.

I will send it to repair tomorrow. I asked just to see what could be the problem.

 

[Tango]

Leif. You should welcome your new hip with a new FM head.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

if you have 2 A820s you can swap logics cards to locate faulty one...
one of the reasons why I have several A80s
buy some spare cards as backup

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

Leif. You should welcome your new hip with a new FM head.

I have spare complete headblock I can ship to FM to replace 4T head, but first I´ll get the Telefunken M15 up and playing again...located and replaced the Rifa x-caps that caused the smoke....just received new power supply electrolytics this morning, so will solder in later today

 

[dminches]

Have any of you ever experience your studer cannot both rewinding or fastforwarding the reel? And the stop button keeps blinking. I hit rewind or forward the machine seemed to respond a fraction of a second. Then stopped and not tensioning the tape. Stop button started blinking after. Seem like sensor was sensing something.

I experience that situation when the tape is not tightly wound on the reel.

When you spin the empty reel by hand does the tape pull and does the other reel spin as well?

 

[Tango]

I experience that situation when the tape is not tightly wound on the reel.

When you spin the empty reel by hand does the tape pull and does the other reel spin as well?

It was weird. I tried maybe a dozen times. Turned on and off and on too. Tape was tightly hand wound on the reel. I just remember right before this happened. I stopped playing in the middle of the reel to do some work. And I heard it played by itself for a quick second and stopped. Five minutes after I went to the machine to hit play. It didn't go and the tape lost tension. So I took both reel out and tried by starting to rewind a new reel. It did not spin. The stop button kept blinking. Never happened before.

 

[dminches]

It was weird. I tried maybe a dozen times. Turned on and off and on too. Tape was tightly hand wound on the reel. I just remember right before this happened. I stopped playing in the middle of the reel to do some work. And I heard it played by itself for a quick second and stopped. Five minutes after I went to the machine to hit play. It didn't go and the tape lost tension. So I took both reel out and tried by starting to rewind a new reel. It did not spin. The stop button kept blinking. Never happened before.

It does seem like something is amiss. When I have had odd things happen I have turned the deck off, as you have. That always seems to correct things.

 

[andromedaaudio]

The life long recording engineer i bought my M 15 A of said ,
I loved recording live concerts with studers , but i always had my telefunken running as a back up machine just in case

 

[Foxbat]

The life long recording engineer i bought my M 15 A of said ,
I loved recording live concerts with studers , but i always had my telefunken running as a back up machine just in case

He should have tried the REAL thing: the Ampex!

 

[andromedaaudio]

He should have tried the REAL thing: the Ampex!

Are they in general reliable?

 

[Foxbat]

Incredibly... like tanks.

The later series, such as ATR-102, are more complicated and hence can have more issues, but the earlier machines are very simple and robust.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

It was weird. I tried maybe a dozen times. Turned on and off and on too. Tape was tightly hand wound on the reel. I just remember right before this happened. I stopped playing in the middle of the reel to do some work. And I heard it played by itself for a quick second and stopped. Five minutes after I went to the machine to hit play. It didn't go and the tape lost tension. So I took both reel out and tried by starting to rewind a new reel. It did not spin. The stop button kept blinking. Never happened before.

i've had that happen. Ki Choi fixed it, but i don't recall what he did. i reached out to Ki to comment.

 

[Tango]

He should have tried the REAL thing: the Ampex!

I did try. But it was the 102 that you said not yet the real thing. I did not think it was any better than the Studer I have. Specifically which model you said a tank? Maybe it could be my back up.

 

[Tango]

i've had that happen. Ki Choi fixed it, but i don't recall what he did. i reached out to Ki to comment.

Thank you Mike. I responded to you by PM.

 

[Foxbat]

I did try. But it was the 102 that you said not yet the real thing. I did not think it was any better than the Studer I have. Specifically which model you said a tank? Maybe it could be my back up.

I was part joking, of course, but personally I like the older series, such as the 350. They might not satisfy someone's taste for modern technology, but I love their simplicity and robustness. Primitive, by modern standards, but get the job done.

 

[Ki Choi]

It was weird. I tried maybe a dozen times. Turned on and off and on too. Tape was tightly hand wound on the reel. I just remember right before this happened. I stopped playing in the middle of the reel to do some work. And I heard it played by itself for a quick second and stopped. Five minutes after I went to the machine to hit play. It didn't go and the tape lost tension. So I took both reel out and tried by starting to rewind a new reel. It did not spin. The stop button kept blinking. Never happened before.

Hi Tango,

Mike alerted me about your A820 issue. One of the first thing to do when the machine goes into Stop mode by itself is to check the LCD status display for any error messages. The message will help point to where the fault originated. Then also look under the machine for the row of green LEDs from the Fuse/Power Supply fault detect board and see if any of the LEDs are off. It is common to lose one of the supply voltages or one or more voltages are out of spec and it will cause the machine to go into Stop mode.

When both of the above checks are good, then I would suspect one of the feedback pulses from the reel motors and/or move and tacho sensor is missing the pulse during Play mode. In addition, there are three pluses generated by the Capstan motor. If one of these pulses are missing, it could start playing but when the capstan motor comes to stop at the missing pulse, then machine won't go into Play again until you move the capstan by hand and make it land on good pulse. Since you can't go into winding mode, it may be pointing to missing reel motor feedback signal either from the Supply Motor or the Take up motor. For the capstan motor and roller pules, you would need an extender board and an oscilloscope ideally to check.

I've also had one of the tape move sensor or tacho sensor ribbon cables to get undone and cause the similar problem. So check all cable connectors are securely in place.

Ki

 

[Tango]

Hi Tango,

Mike alerted me about your A820 issue. One of the first thing to do when the machine goes into Stop mode by itself is to check the LCD status display for any error messages. The message will help point to where the fault originated. Then also look under the machine for the row of green LEDs from the Fuse/Power Supply fault detect board and see if any of the LEDs are off. It is common to lose one of the supply voltages or one or more voltages are out of spec and it will cause the machine to go into Stop mode.

When both of the above checks are good, then I would suspect one of the feedback pulses from the reel motors and/or move and tacho sensor is missing the pulse during Play mode. In addition, there are three pluses generated by the Capstan motor. If one of these pulses are missing, it could start playing but when the capstan motor comes to stop at the missing pulse, then machine won't go into Play again until you move the capstan by hand and make it land on good pulse. Since you can't go into winding mode, it may be pointing to missing reel motor feedback signal either from the Supply Motor or the Take up motor. For the capstan motor and roller pules, you would need an extender board and an oscilloscope ideally to check.

I've also had one of the tape move sensor or tacho sensor ribbon cables to get undone and cause the similar problem. So check all cable connectors are securely in place.

Ki

You are so very nice Ki. Tremendous help. I thank you very very much for technical support and more for just being so nice.

And for MikeL who was so kind directing my problem to Ki for me, nice person like you guys really are ones making this community a place I come to everyday. Again sincere thank you for just being a nice person. I will pass this message to my tech.

 

[Solypsa]

yes WBF is richer because of an abundance of knowledge that is shared easily and in simple language! Hope the tape is back on track ( pun intended ) asap

 

[srs148]

It was weird. I tried maybe a dozen times. Turned on and off and on too. Tape was tightly hand wound on the reel. I just remember right before this happened. I stopped playing in the middle of the reel to do some work. And I heard it played by itself for a quick second and stopped. Five minutes after I went to the machine to hit play. It didn't go and the tape lost tension. So I took both reel out and tried by starting to rewind a new reel. It did not spin. The stop button kept blinking. Never happened before.

hi Tango, I recently had this almost identical issue on one of my A820s. It would not play and at one point it started playing by itself without input from me. As Ki suggested, I checked the green row of LEDs and several were not illuminated. I pulled several control cards from my other machine and ultimately narrowed it down to my Spooling motor control card (1.820.760.xx).

As soon as I swapped in the card from my other machine, all issues were resolved and all LED lights illuminated. I have not yet sent off the card to be repaired because I don't know a tech with an A820 his shop to troubleshoot it on. Too bad your tech is a bit far for me to send out .

 

[Tango]

hi Tango, I recently had this almost identical issue on one of my A820s. It would not play and at one point it started playing by itself without input from me. As Ki suggested, I checked the green row of LEDs and several were not illuminated. I pulled several control cards from my other machine and ultimately narrowed it down to my Spooling motor control card (1.820.760.xx).

As soon as I swapped in the card from my other machine, all issues were resolved and all LED lights illuminated. I have not yet sent off the card to be repaired because I don't know a tech with an A820 his shop to troubleshoot it on. Too bad your tech is a bit far for me to send out .

Your wishful thinking is much appreciated. Great crowd in this thread.
All LEDs are on. I will have my tech run through the list Ki suggested. I have all backups I ever need on my vinyl front but not on tape. Now I have to think of backups on tape front.