Tragedy!

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Ding Dong

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This weekend I was supposed to record a band who had travelled three hours to record with me. As we were setting up, I realized (to my horror) that my tascam TSR-8 would not PLAY. it would FF and REW, no problem, but no PLAY (or record) It was horrible.

The wheel to the close right of the heads would not spin. It is the wheel that is usually always spinning, which the tape gets pushed against when you hit play. My guess is that it is the caspian motor? i couldnt find my manual, and there were way to many screws and panels to remove before i could get to that mechanism. Even if i had gotten to it, i wouldnt have known what to do. Is that the caspian (caspan or something) motor? is it easily replaceable? expensive? model specific? could i fix it myself with a soldering iron?

anyways, it was terrible. I had to record the band onto my 5 year old PC using M-audio soundcard (2 tracks at a time) and Ntrack studio. About every third take had to be redone either because lack of ram caused a skip in tempo, or because i had forgotten to change to CPUs record settings from stereo to mono or some other computer maulfuntion. Im really depresed. I dont mind computer recording on my own time, but i felt terrible recording someone else with that crap. I felt naked without my tape machine. anyone else had this happen?
 
Ding Dong said:
This weekend I was supposed to record a band who had travelled three hours to record with me. As we were setting up, I realized (to my horror) that my tascam TSR-8 would not PLAY. it would FF and REW, no problem, but no PLAY (or record) It was horrible.
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Check the belt first. You'll need to take the front panel off, and also remove the headblock too, if I remember correctly. This isn't a big deal if you have the right size of allen keys. The capstan is attached to a flywheel, which is belt-driven from the motor. If the belt has gone funny, come off or broken, the capstan isn't going to turn.

If it's not that, it might be the sensor on the right-hand tension arm. That contains a microswitch which shuts down the capstan motor if the tape tension drops. Not sure how you'd check that, a continuity test would probably help.

If it is a matter of replacing the motor itself, you'll have to get one from Teac. The TSR-8 and the BR20 share the same spool motors, so I would hazard a guess that the capstan motors are also common. IIRC, Teac motors are generally plugged in rather than soldered. The most difficult bit is likely to be removing the motor from its mounting. I think it costs around seventy pounds.

If you're not sure, it would probably be best to get a tech to look it over.

(BTW, you sound just like I would if that had happened to me.)
 
Ding Dong said:
I felt naked...anyone else had this happen?
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Usually in bad dreams.

Sorry to hear about your troubles. That would really suck.
 
damn that sucks. bad. I hate when you get put on the spot like that.

Now I am going to suggest something really simple and stupid and only because I will admit it has happened to me, so don't feel bad if this is the reason or that I am even suggesting it. but I have had the same exact thing happen to me, because the tape was threaded wrong. there, I said it.
 
FALKEN said:
damn that sucks. bad. I hate when you get put on the spot like that.

Now I am going to suggest something really simple and stupid and only because I will admit it has happened to me, so don't feel bad if this is the reason or that I am even suggesting it. but I have had the same exact thing happen to me, because the tape was threaded wrong. there, I said it.
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I've done that. I can't understand how it knows that it's been threaded wrong.. particularly if you run the tape under the large roller on the right instead of over it.
 
I have the same problem with a TSR-8. The FF and RW functions work fine, but when pressing play, the reels lurch forward slightly and then simply stop. The capstan belt is fine, but the motor isn't turning. I checked the voltage running to the capstan motor, and it reads about 28V (which from what I can find online should be correct). There's a second pair of yellow wires running to 2 terminals on the motor, and labeled FG where they connect to the board, but without the schematic, I haven't been able to figure out what they do or what it should be reading. At this point, I'm figuring:

1) capstan motor is shot (already contacted Tascam about getting a replacement part, waiting for reply). Is there any way to test the motor if removed from the TSR just to see if it's working?

2) the sensor problem previously mentioned is the culprit (though without a schematic, I have no idea where it is or how to test). or:

3) There's some external sync setting that I somehow have inadvertently set and that's stopping the tape from playing back (though if this were the case the capstan motor should still be running right?) I'm fairly sure that this isn't it.

Anyway, any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
I should add that the fuses are fine and that the cause of this mess was that a friend left the unit powered on without using it for over two days, so the capstan was running the whole time. When he came back to it, the playback had stopped working.
 
ah ... it happened to my 80-8 once as well. belt was good. took it to a tech and waited over 3 months to get it back to the tune of $350! (i wouldn't dare try to fix it myself ... not technically inclined!)
 
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