Wow.....I think you lost me on the ZIP.......
Guess what though?
I looked at dismantling the sync cables (ACC2) to check them. The first one wouldn't come apart after removing the 2 small screws and nuts. I prised it apart using a small screwdriver and found the maker had used some hot glue I think to insulate between the pins. I removed this only to make sure that the connector would go together again and checked the pins one assembled. They seemed to correspond with everything I'd read. I checked the old
Tascam Forums on the web as I know I'd had a problem back in 2009 when syncing two 238 machines with an ATS-500.
With all that checked I decided to change the MASTER / SLAVE configuration between the two MSR16. What was originally the MASTER machine, was now the SLAVE.
I turned everything on. Remember, I'd re-striped the tapes with 25FPS timecode as opposed to 30FPS. I couldn't believe it. The Midiizer was now behaving as it should. Before, when selecting the DISPLAY to read 'DIFF' (this is the difference between the timecodes of the two machines the Midiizer is reading represented as HR-MINS-SECS-FRAMES-SUBFRAMES), the reading would keep fluctuating even when the machines were stopped. Now it behaved as it should and so did the real readings of the MASTER and the SLAVE when rewinding or FF. The only 'anomaly' in the system at present seems to be that the timecode on the MASTER machine appears to have taken up more space on the MASTER machine (ie. from start to end of a reel on the MASTER, the tape length being 2400ft), seems to be around 29mins. The SLAVE machine has tape length of 2500ft, but the timecode occupies around 32mins. Even calculating in the extra tape length of the SLAVE, it appears the running speed of the MASTER machine is faster than the SLAVE. Because I'd been unsuccessful before with striping the tapes at 30FPS, and also because I'd let the MIDIIZER control the recording speed of the striping (in the manual it says it doesn't matter leaving the ACC2 cables attached when striping both machines), this time I had let the machines stripe the tape at their own independent speeds (which logic tells me should be the better way of doing things). On the previous stripe, with the ACC2 cables attached and controlling the machines, I had noticed the SLAVE machine (now the MASTER in my new configuration) had its tension rollers fractionally bobbing about as if its speed was being controlled.
Maybe this introduced an error amount during striping that the MIDIIZER couldn't solve during syncing?
Maybe the action of unplugging ACC2 cables on MASTER, SLAVE and MIDIIZER has dislodged any oxide build-up that was interfering with syncing?
As Cory mentioned in another thread, I hate it when things seem to fix themselves. I want to know why something didn't work and the reason that now something does.
I'm going to spend today investigating further.
Al