AIWA ADF220 help anyone? (it's a budget cassette deck)

[colasblue]

My original ADF220 from 1986 has developed a malfunction.

I originally assumed it was a belt so got new belts, but it seems not.

It seems to sort of work but the motor has no torque and the LED's all dim a bit when it tries to run.

If it ran on batteries I'd diagnose a flat battery but it doesn't!

Either the PS is faulty or there's something presenting it with an abnormally high load.

I don't really know a lot about cassette decks so are there any obvious places to look for an issue?

Visually the components all look OK and despite the age it's had very little use over the years.

I also have no service manual so if anybody can point me at one I'd be gratetful.

TIA

 

[Dowser]

Check the PSU rails first - the board itself may have the correct voltages written on it, but manual is available on hifiengine.com. There should be a raw 17-19v after the rectifier and before the regulator. Then 14.4v and 12v (for motor) regulated rails. Could be a faulty bridge rectifier or failed/failing smoothing caps or regulator.

 

[colasblue]

Turned out to be the smoothing cap. I assume it was open circuit since a leg fell off when I desoldered it.

The manual helps since it narrows it down to a very few components.

Much appreciated!

 

[Dowser]

I’d check the other electrolytics around the regulators too though - if one has gone, others likely on way out too.

 

[colasblue]

In fairness at the age it probably wants a complete re-cap since the caps are all from the same manufacturer, so if one has managed to corrode its legs off I'm sure there could be others. Only one big one though!

Trouble is the deck isn't used at all. It normally lives in the system at my parents house and the only reason we found out it had conked out was that the whole room had to be cleared out for a new carpet to be fitted.

They aren't particularly bothered about it coming back!

People say there's a cassette revival coming but I can't really believe it.

I don't want to invest any time or money in servicing a unit nobody really wants.

Fortunately I had a suitable cap in my bits box left over from a previous project so up to now it hasn't really cost anything apart from a couple of quid on a universal belt kit.

 

[AudioAl]

People say there's a cassette revival coming but I can't really believe it.

Same was said about vinyl and look whats happened

 

[chartz]

The cassette is too fiddly and fragile. And you need a top deck to get something that is listenable.
It never really took up as a serious medium here in France, sales of prerecordeds were marginal.

And the mechs are equally fragile and complicated to adjust properly.

I don’t believe it either.

I seldom use my decks nowadays - CR-4E, Beocord 9000 among others!

I prefer the sturdier DCC cassette which is all but extinct as a format, but which sounds really good, better than it has any right to do actually.

 

[Arkless Electronics]

The cassette is too fiddly and fragile. And you need a top deck to get something that is listenable.
It never really took up as a serious medium here in France, sales of prerecordeds were marginal.

And the mechs are equally fragile and complicated to adjust properly.

I don’t believe it either.

I seldom use my decks nowadays - CR-4E, Beocord 9000 among others!

I prefer the sturdier DCC cassette which is all but extinct as a format, but which sounds really good, better than it has any right to do actually.

Agreed! Good riddance to it I say. I also have some up market cassette decks that I don't use....

 

[colasblue]

Ha Dowser was spot on.

Worked OK for about a day and is now blowing the fuse randomly (and pretty spectacularly when it does) so some some cap somewhere going short I think. First guess is the 220uF in the regulator circuit. Seems to work OK for a bit sometimes post replacement so I can't imagine it's a failing semiconductor. Sometimes a motor switching action (like stop) triggers it.

 

[Vinny]

The cassette is too fiddly and fragile. And you need a top deck to get something that is listenable...……

I don't believe it either.

In the same way as a large thin slab of vinyl is easily damaged, arguably more easily than a cassette, and endless £50-100-150 decks are walking from every outlet? That sort of thing?