Power cable for Tascam M 520?

  • Thread starter Thread starter rito25
  • Start date Start date
I opened it up. Thing is super clean. Found what looks like a blown capacitor on channel 3 on the VU. I also tried the mic jack and no go. I'm tempted to disassemble the head phone area and see if I can find anything.

Anyone have any ideas what could cause some of the issues I'm having?


Update: Oh man. Borrowed a friends XLR cable. Plugging that into the mic then doing the send out to an external mixer lets the mic be picked up crystal clear for most channels. With a few being fuzzy for either bad settings or maybe there is lots of oxidation. Still no noise from the internal headphone jack. Maybe I just need lots of stuff hooked up to get sound?
 
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I got out put to the tape deck by using the direct out. how would I hook up it so those twenty inputs would be down mixed to 8? Also how would I monitor my tape playback?
 
I haven't posted because I'm a little scared. No offense.

I could easily give you a step by step directive on how to set the mixer to monitor inputs but it sounds like you have more than just user error going on. It sounds like both; equipment issues and lack of understanding. Again, I mean no offense, but I jsut want you to understand why I was chiming in and then I stopped. The questions you are asking indicate to me that you don't understand how to operate the board. I'd like to help but I'm not sure how. I feel like you need to slow down and take it one step at a time. If you don't take it in a step-wise fashion then you risk compounding errors and pretty soon there's no way for somebody to help via forum messaging.
 
Yeah. I don't blame you. I think I've narrowed down the issue though. It appears that the internal amp is bad. I can get sound using another mixer to take the output from a channels using SEND or Direct out. None of the bussing or monitor or VU's or oscillators work; however, however, I do get a whine if I press a solo button on a channel or occasionally I'll heard the mic but the volume is super low and highly distorted.


UPDATE: I read in your thread how the amp is powered by 15V. I measured pins 1 and 14 using my multimeter and got a reading of 15V. Pins 2 and 15 I got nothing. I believe this is what is causing all my issues.

Also If i turn on EQ the direct out stops working. Which rail is responsible for the EQ?
 
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Hello -Sorry to jump here but Sweetbeats, you seem like the neighborhood M-520 expert. I have been asked by a friend to build a PS for his M520. Do yo have any info that might help me build or reftofit a PS for his board? Or if you can point me in the right direction for a complete PS, that would be great. -We're also planning to liquidate a ton of old altec, western electric & other cool old stuff, most of which has not been seen for 25 years or more. If anybody has a PS, migh be aqble to work a trade>???
Thanks a lot! Dan Weddle - DX Sound Co.
 
It’s 2025, anyone got a power cable for one of these they wanna sell?
 
rito25 said:
I actually didn't make a cable. I just went and unscrewed the plug from the mixer and put it into jack of the power supply. One of my friends works in a recording studio. I'm going to see what he can do.
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Ok the PSU has a bit of give and if you take the latch off, you can plug it directly into the console. At least it's good to know mine all works. Might look at hard wiring it in if I can't find a power lead
 
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You beat me to it. I was going to draw your attention to historic posts about this method. It’s not elegant but it works.

Hardwire direct connect can work too for a longer term kludge, but if you’re going to go to that length, like to find the 20-conductor cable, you may as well build the cable. Mouser still has stock of all the connector parts…hoods, latching brackets…the whole thing. Just search Mouser for “Hirose 1620” and you’ll get a list of all the Hirose Sumicon 1600 series 20-pin parts. The cable is the more challenging thing…you need 20-conductor 20-22AWG stranded non-twisted-pair cable without overall shield. You don’t actually need 20 conductors, but Teac did it that way because they decided on the Hirose Sumicon connectors…for some of the rails they needed to double up on the pins to support the current spec. It would have been more elegant to go with higher current capacity pins and less of them IMO. I think you can get away with 12-conductor 18AWG cable, but it’s a pain to have to bridge the pins on the connector and weld the cable strands to the bridges. It can be done but there’s not a lot of room in there.
 
sweetbeats said:
You beat me to it. I was going to draw your attention to historic posts about this method. It’s not elegant but it works.

Hardwire direct connect can work too for a longer term kludge, but if you’re going to go to that length, like to find the 20-conductor cable, you may as well build the cable. Mouser still has stock of all the connector parts…hoods, latching brackets…the whole thing. Just search Mouser for “Hirose 1620” and you’ll get a list of all the Hirose Sumicon 1600 series 20-pin parts. The cable is the more challenging thing…you need 20-conductor 20-22AWG stranded non-twisted-pair cable without overall shield. You don’t actually need 20 conductors, but Teac did it that way because they decided on the Hirose Sumicon connectors…for some of the rails they needed to double up on the pins to support the current spec. It would have been more elegant to go with higher current capacity pins and less of them IMO. I think you can get away with 12-conductor 18AWG cable, but it’s a pain to have to bridge the pins on the connector and weld the cable strands to the bridges. It can be done but there’s not a lot of room in there.
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Thank you! I think I’ll get on the cable making path for sure. Will grab a bunch of those mouser parts and dig around for a suitable cable. Might check in with you again before ordering.

Otherwise I guess I could just extend the wires to this connector for the hardwired version.
 
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