Tascam 238 going south

K

kiira

New member
hi hi... been trying to get my old studio set up in my new house after storing everything for two years while I was back in Finland and one of my Tascam 238s seems to have gotten sick... it is making a whining noise kind of like a tiny jet engine when it comes on. yikes.

Does anyone know what this is caused by and where a good place to get it fixed might be. I remember before I left there was aplace in New Jersey that fixed Tascam but I can't remember who they are.

kiitso.. um I mean thanks.
 
Sorry Tim!!

The 238 is Direct Drive, and if the capstan motor is going warp-speed, it will probably just need to be replaced. This user needs Tascam Service, because the DD capstan motor is more tech-intense than most DIY'ers can handle.

No belt, sorry!

(Thanx for your input, though!!)

;)
 
A Reel Person said:
The 238 is Direct Drive, and if the capstan motor is going warp-speed, it will probably just need to be replaced. This user needs Tascam Service, because the DD capstan motor is more tech-intense than most DIY'ers can handle.

No belt, sorry!

(Thanx for your input, though!!)

;)
Click to expand...

Thanks Reel.

I must confess, the 238 is one machine I've never worked with. Gee, a tape machine with no belt? That's like a horseless carriage with no crank -- Damn these new fangled machines! :o
 
Beck said:
Thanks Reel.

I must confess, the 238 is one machine I've never worked with. Gee, a tape machine with no belt? That's like a horseless carriage with no crank -- Damn these new fangled machines! :o
Click to expand...

yeah thanks for the suggestion. I wish all it were was a belt because that I could fix myself. Now I am wondering if it would just be cheaper to look for a good deal on ebay instead.
 
Kiira,...

I recently had my 238 repaired by Tascam Factory Service, in Montebello, CA.

It was doing the exact same thing as yours,... winding up and whining like a 747. The tape speed was going full-speed-ahead, with no speed control whatsoever. WARP SPEED.

It cost $239 to get it fixed. The motor was replaced. The price included the motor, labor, and the "shuttle" knob was replaced, as it was missing, so deduct a small amount for that, in your case.

That was, if I can remember correctly, $125 for an hour of Tascam labor, and the rest of the amount was the MOTOR and the knob. It was not cheap, but it was very much worth it.

MY analysis of it, is that it was better to get the 238 fixed, as the used price for a 238 on Ebay is minimum of $200 + shipping, or even higher for the mint or v-clean 238 unit, up to $350, or more, depending on the day. AND, you never really know what kind of unit you'll be getting off Ebay. F/I, the 238 I got, was "supposed to be working fine, but untested", and I thought I got a great deal for $200,... however, it didn't work & had this motor problem, right out of the box, & in the end cost me the above mentioned $239 to fix.

Word to the wise,... is not necessary. Heh.

For the rest of us common folk,... I'd say by my experience, of REAL WORLD EBAY "DEALS" and REAL WORLD REPAIR BILLS, it is more worthwhile sending your 238 off to Tascam for authentic Tascam Factory Service. You'll at least be knowing what you're getting, the history of the unit, and getting the utmost in quality repair, by Tascam itself.

That's my take on it. You may get a different opinion, for however many people you ask. Take my advice, if you want. ;)
 
I come to just accept that when I buy a machine or any thing for that matter off of ebay its not going to work or have something wrong with it.
especialy the sales that say not tested or I know nothing about this item so sold as is. Its just a way for them to sell a piece of junk most of the time but once in a while I will be suprised and get something that is in pretty good shape and works.
 
I do wonder though if it's not a simple component that fails and not the motor per se. I don't know what the motor assembly looks like, but I would guess the usual cold solder joint, dried out cap or burnt resistor in a regulation circuit of some kind.

As you know, service departments don't fool around at the board level these days. They just chuck the whole assembly, sometimes throwing the baby out with the bath water.

It might be worth poking around and replacing a few things with like values after tracing from the motor.

Case in point -- I bought a nearly mint Fostex CR300 CD recorder sometime ago for a song. It played nicely but wouldn't record. The previous owner had already sent it to Fostex and they wanted over $350.00 to replace one of the PC boards. After some troubleshooting I fixed the problem by replacing 4 capacitors on that board.

As you can imagine I was feel'n pretty smug knowing that it had been to Fostex and they couldn't/wouldn't fix it without yanking one of the boards.

What do you think Reel, any hope for a 238 outside of major surgery by Dr. Tascam?

:cool:
 
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A Reel Person said:
I recently had my 238 repaired by Tascam Factory Service, in Montebello, CA.

It was doing the exact same thing as yours,... winding up and whining like a 747. The tape speed was going full-speed-ahead, with no speed control whatsoever. WARP SPEED.
.....

That's my take on it. You may get a different opinion, for however many people you ask. Take my advice, if you want. ;)
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hi hi... thanks for the advice you guys. I was burned on one 238 already when I was buying a second one from ebay. The first one I got for 175 from a friend who was getting a MSR-16 and it is still working perfectly. So I think I will send the broken one in to be repaired. I would give a try myself but it's kind of a complicated piece of equipment and I have only repaired tube equipment.

It is too bad about Tascam though. I have a lot of Tascam stuff, all made in the 80s I think, my 238s, a 38, an mts-1000, a 133 deck and an mm1 line mixer. I would love to find an M520 board close enough to buy, but I guess Tascam isn't the company it used to be.

tra,

Kiira
 
Capstan motor issues, BA6303F chip on motor board

Hi guys/gals, I have another 238 I picked up for parts. I was looking at the transport assembly, and looking at the circuit board on the back of the capstan motor, I see 3 different chips that I wrote the numbers down, looked them up on the web. There's a 4016B (Flip flop, counter chip), BA6411 (switch for forward/reverse), and the BA6303F (the culprit, capstan motor F/G servo speed control chip). Looking at the motor itself, there is not much that I can see that should go bad. A magnet/flywheel assembly which is part of the capstan needle itself, and 4-field coils on the back side of the circuit board (brushless motor assembly with switch circuit, hub count chip, and F/G servo speed control chip BA6303F, which I think might be what goes bad on these. The reason I think this, is because the "takes off like a jet engine" syndrone, that people experience when this motor issue happens is interesting. When I turn on my 238S power switch, I hear for a split second a slight whine, just long enough for the motor to get up to speed. While the bad motor assembly on the 238 does that but keeps on whinning out of control and may burn up, I don't know I haven't run long enough to see other than tape speed is too fast, varible speed is no longer an option and the capstan winds tape around itself and locks up! Well what I read on the BA6303F, is that it has a fast on circuit which gets the motor's speed up quickly and then regulates the speed. Maybe over time the grease, which somebody posted that it dries up like a glue, putting a load on the parts, making them work harder, possibly taxing the capstan speed chip, or it just goes bad. The bad motor assemble just runs wild and loses torque at the came time... I am looking for the BA6303F or better repalcement from ROHM who makes the chip, and try to get some as samples to see if repalcing one of these fixes the motor problem. I have seen from working on VCR's in the old days, chips like these go bad from stressed mechanical assemblies, loading the chips hard, causing chip meltdown. Maybe there is hope for the high cost of motor replacements on these. The 238, is a sweet deal that sells cheap these days especially when the motors go bad and everyone is selling them before they go bad. I love the sound of my 238S with the M-30 mixer, I'm having a ball! I just got some TDK SM60's and the sound is amazing! I am thinking about picking up a used TC Finalizer at some point after I get a better handle on mixing for mixdown to the Alesis ML9600. ;)

If anyone has any ideas on this or knows about the chips or other related fixes/updates etc, please let me know. I know that Reel Person has mentioned the replacement motor from Tascam.

thanks
Ed
 
Yeah, that capstan motor problem on 238's is a drag.

I've seen lots of 238's on Ebay with this problem. I inadvertently got one, myself. If you can work a chip level repair of this problem, then more power to you! You'll save big bucks, and maybe help others in the process. Sounds like you're on the right track! The 238 is an awesome machine! ;)
 
Ditto on the chip idea! My 238 plays a little fast at first, then settles down to normal speed, so I don't think the motor is bad, just being fed false information.
 
While data on the chip is readily available, the chip itself is not...at least not here in the US. While there are a couple dealers in the UK an Europe that will sell it in small quantities, I have only been able to find the larger DIP package around here. A company called Techsonic (www.techsonicusa.com) will sell you the larger package chip, but they have a mimum order of $50, or they charge you a $15 handling fee. I went ahead and got a couple (so I'd have a spare) and installed one "dead bug" style by using a little RTV to attach it to the board on it's back and #30 (wirewrap wire) to connect the pins to the traces. Not elegant, but it works. If you are going to interchange tapes with other 238s, you will need to re-calibrate the speed.

Steve
 
So the chip replacement worked for you, are you saying? There are data reading chip, speed control chip and something else I posted at an earlier time. I have a 238S that works fine at this time, but I picked up a 238 w/dbx that has the 747 syndrone... Looking at the motor assembly, I can not see any reason the motor itself would be bad, other than the chips, so if its getting a minimum order on chips I would think about getting all 3 types in the $50 min qty. (I think that was the qty of chips on the motor pcb), so in case one of the other chips were bad, we would be covered. In that case, it wou be pretty cheap if I or someone was going to repair these. The servo control chip was used in some VCR's during that time, and that chip was used quite a bit then. Now that DVD's are more popular and uh... digital recording, those chips are not in production, unfortunately, thats progress for ya! When I can, I might order some, and try it on the unconsious 238 here... I have hoped to find a better performing replacement, but nothing yet.
Edge :(
 
Tascam 238 and the tiny jet engine syndrome

Did anybody ever find out whether the BA6303F chip failure is the cause of this problem? I've just acquired two 238 dbx and want to be ahaead of the game if this is a likely occurence, as I head back to analogue.

Cheers
Al
 
Good question,...

but we may never know! Another choice might be to inquire with Tascam Service. There's a guy named Jimmy who specializes in repair of the old analog units. He answers technical questions. Peace.:eek:;)
 
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