Otari Mx 80 Remote Error 90

Nakatira

Nakatira

That Norwegian Bastard
Got a Err-90 on the remote display today after start up, tried reconnecting the cables and rebooting the machine but it stayed the same.
Anyone else ecounter this?
 
Yup, I get it occasionally along with Error 91 and 94...though 90 is a complete lack of communication, so you can't do anything until it clears.

The cable length/wiring from the deck to the remote can mess with the voltages. Clean the cable contact pins with deoxit.
Also, pull the serial card and reseat it. Avoid coiling up the remote cable, and of course, check for good connections if the cable is old/worn. A shorter cable would help, but that's not always possible.
 
Thanks for your help Miro, got it up and running today, pulled the serial card and spray cleaned the connections, and it was up rocking again.
 
I may have found a more permanent solution to the remote "Error" problem....it would require a mod to the serial card and the remote. As soon as I know it's a 100% workable solution, I will post back.....I'm just waiting to hear back from the technician who can do it.
He told me it's mostly the voltages and the cable. Even a slight momentary drop during power-up can be enough for the remote not to get the proper juice, and it kickc out an error. The mod adds a buffer to the circuit that keeps the voltages steady on power-up.

I hate having to power-cycle the whole deck to clear the error codes, not a good thing.
Next time it happens, try just popping the serial card with the deck still on, and then reseat it, just do that quickly/deliberatly for the card contacts, rather than slowly....a quick pop out and then pop in....
...sometimes it works to clear it other times no.
I've heard some people say they just leave the deck on for awhile and it clears....but I've never seen that work on my deck.
 
Tech is recommending a cap on the power rail, yes? Sounds like a good idea.

Man, re-seating cards hot scares me.
 
miroslav said:
I may have found a more permanent solution to the remote "Error" problem....it would require a mod to the serial card and the remote. As soon as I know it's a 100% workable solution, I will post back.....I'm just waiting to hear back from the technician who can do it.
He told me it's mostly the voltages and the cable. Even a slight momentary drop during power-up can be enough for the remote not to get the proper juice, and it kickc out an error. The mod adds a buffer to the circuit that keeps the voltages steady on power-up.

I hate having to power-cycle the whole deck to clear the error codes, not a good thing.
Next time it happens, try just popping the serial card with the deck still on, and then reseat it, just do that quickly/deliberatly for the card contacts, rather than slowly....a quick pop out and then pop in....
...sometimes it works to clear it other times no.
I've heard some people say they just leave the deck on for awhile and it clears....but I've never seen that work on my deck.
Click to expand...


Yeah let please let me know if that, mod.
We're gonna go over the whole machine and clean it with electric spray, quite a few recommended that on diverse forums.
We already ordered a brand new d-sub cable as well, just to leave the cable out of eventual future hickups.

I agree on it being bad for equipment with frequent on and off hitting, but I might be a bit scared messing with the cards when it's on :D
 
I've popped them many times with the power on.
When you to a calibration, you have to pop each card and insert the extender, etc....and you don't need to power-cycle the deck for each card, that would be nuts.

Yeah, it's not a bad thing to pull every connector on every PCB and all the cards, and clean the contacts.
Don't be lazy and just use the spray. You don't want deoxit all over the plastic and other stuff. Take the long road, and use a Q-tip or wipe, spray the deoxit on them and then brush-clean the contacts. You want to leave as little of the deoxit on the contacts.
If you are using the Caig D5 Deoxit....that stuff is NOT safe on everything because of the solvent, it's only 5% actual cleaner.
I use the D100, which is pure cleaner, no solvent...but it's more expensive.

A tech told me that Home Depot has a great contact cleaner that is safe on all plastics...for like $7.
I don't remember the name, but it's probably the only contact cleaner they stock.
 
miroslav said:
I've popped them many times with the power on.
When you to a calibration, you have to pop each card and insert the extender, etc....and you don't need to power-cycle the deck for each card, that would be nuts.

Yeah, it's not a bad thing to pull every connector on every PCB and all the cards, and clean the contacts.
Don't be lazy and just use the spray. You don't want deoxit all over the plastic and other stuff. Take the long road, and use a Q-tip or wipe, spray the deoxit on them and then brush-clean the contacts. You want to leave as little of the deoxit on the contacts.
If you are using the Caig D5 Deoxit....that stuff is NOT safe on everything because of the solvent, it's only 5% actual cleaner.
I use the D100, which is pure cleaner, no solvent...but it's more expensive.

A tech told me that Home Depot has a great contact cleaner that is safe on all plastics...for like $7.
I don't remember the name, but it's probably the only contact cleaner they stock.
Click to expand...

Cool man, I'll definitely take head to this advice.
I'll check up on the spray we're using, don't mind shelling out the extra cash on something proper, the Otari is well worth it.
 
How long have you had your MX-80?

I just got mine back in March 2012....you might have seen some of my threads about it here in the Analog forum.
I was lucky that the guy I got it from already put some time into bringing it up to spec, getting heads relapped and getting the main PS reworked and the remote too.

If yours is new to you, and you have some questions/issues, let me know...I've spent a LOT of time in the last year getting deep into my MX-80, and I've taken much of it appart and back together again...so maybe I can help with something.
 
miroslav said:
How long have you had your MX-80?

I just got mine back in March 2012....you might have seen some of my threads about it here in the Analog forum.
I was lucky that the guy I got it from already put some time into bringing it up to spec, getting heads relapped and getting the main PS reworked and the remote too.

If yours is new to you, and you have some questions/issues, let me know...I've spent a LOT of time in the last year getting deep into my MX-80, and I've taken much of it appart and back together again...so maybe I can help with something.
Click to expand...

Had it for a couple of months, just recently got it up and running with a proper console and all.
I really appreciate the help you have provided so far and I'm very glad to meet a fellow MX80 user with experience.
We'll go over it now with the q-tips as you tipped me about, I certainly will PM you if I have more questions.
Again thank you very much.
 
I think there are at least a couple of other guys here who have MX-80 machines....though they don't post often.
 
Hello again Miro.

The error problem continues to occur, usually the day after we've had it operational, popping the card inn and out sets it straight, we do however get a brief error message on the the tapedeck on every start up (err-70) but the remote works fine after the serial card has been popped in and out.
We had a look at the Serial card connection and it looked very clean so havent clensed it.

But we were thinking about doing it anyways, just wondered as we don't have the same brands of sprays and cleaning materials over here in Norway, if you think this spray could do the job for cleaning?
CRC 2-26
 
The error on the deck is nothing....just hit the blue button on the display and it will clear and go back to normal.
As long as the remote is talking to the deck, you are good to go.

Just make sure the cleaner is safe on plastics.
 
I agree, it clears on it's own within a second, I think the voltage startup thing you mentioned seems quite likely as it seems to be ok every time we reseat the serial card.

miroslav said:
The error on the deck is nothing....just hit the blue button on the display and it will clear and go back to normal.
As long as the remote is talking to the deck, you are good to go.

Just make sure the cleaner is safe on plastics.
Click to expand...
 
miroslav said:
I may have found a more permanent solution to the remote "Error" problem....it would require a mod to the serial card and the remote. As soon as I know it's a 100% workable solution, I will post back.....I'm just waiting to hear back from the technician who can do it.
He told me it's mostly the voltages and the cable. Even a slight momentary drop during power-up can be enough for the remote not to get the proper juice, and it kickc out an error. The mod adds a buffer to the circuit that keeps the voltages steady on power-up.

I hate having to power-cycle the whole deck to clear the error codes, not a good thing.
Next time it happens, try just popping the serial card with the deck still on, and then reseat it, just do that quickly/deliberatly for the card contacts, rather than slowly....a quick pop out and then pop in....
...sometimes it works to clear it other times no.
I've heard some people say they just leave the deck on for awhile and it clears....but I've never seen that work on my deck.
Click to expand...
I know this is a very old thread but did you ever come up with a permanent solution? Popping the card in and out has worked for me (thanks!) but would prefer a more permanent solution.
 
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