The camera doesn't eject. I've been using it the last week mainly for rewinding tapes and it worked fine. Today when I had a tape inside it showed a triangle in the viewfinder and it didn't rewind anymore. I removed the batteri and managed to eject the tape. Now, withou a tapes inside, there is no longer a triangle but the cassette compartment doesn't open anymore when pressing eject. It makes some noise and something is moving a bit in the bottom (the blue one).
Couldn't put the roller back. However, I managed to open the compartment when I pressed a roll to the right of the black roller.
Then I was really stupid, Instead of poking the white roller to it's place, I put in a tape to test. Now I can't get the tape out and can't get to the place I have to poke to force open.
You need to remove the entire mechanism to get that pin back, you can't just push it in, It has a press fit fastener that gets loose over time, This is not an average person repair unfortunately, that's what technicians were for back in the day, unfortunately not a lot of them are around anymore.
Thanks, latreche24, I understand.
I would like to save the tape. Do you know how I can force the camera to eject? At this stage I don't mind using violence.
See if you can grab that piece you inserted and get it out and hopefully you will be able to get the camcorder to spit out the tape, It should also be a procedure to extract the tape manually off power but I can't tell since I don't have the camcorder in front of me.
I never put that piece back. i was stupid and wanted to see what happened when I put in a tape. It winds for 10 sek and then stops. No ejection.
How can I extract the tape manually off power?
There are quite a few videos on YouTube about forcing a tape to eject, but it mainly consists of taking the case off and applying 5VDC to the loading motor directly. In taking all of that apart, there's some risk of damaging things, but that might be your only option here.
Since you seem to be OK with “violence” it would seem that trying to disassemble the camcorder is well within scope. Getting your hands on the correct very small screwdriver ought be the hardest part. It takes a quite small cross blade driver. The best would be a “JCIS” #0. You might be able to use a small driver from a cheap “jewelers” screwdriver set. Armed with that and some viewing of appropriate videos, I think trial and error should get the job done.
If things don’t want to come apart you may have missed a screw, check again. But as is evident from the first video, it does take a bit of force to disassemble some of the covers and subassemblies. Take your time and don’t force things, especially don’t force or bend any of the metal mechanism parts. If you break some plastic cover pieces that’s probably OK.
Once you get access to the motor contacts, you’ll need a 3 to 5 volt source and some leads. 2 or 3 1.5V batteries in series should work for the source. Some misc. wire and tape could probably do the rest.
Of course if you have a more hands on electronics friend who would help, that could make it much easier.
Thanks NW37. I think Ive seen those videos before. I actually tried to disassembly the camcorder. My screwdriver worked for the front panel, then I got stuck with some other screws as I don't use JIS screwdrivers. In my country, Sweden, it seems impossible to find JIS screwdrivers.
As I most propably won't get this camcorder to work properly I rather save the tape instead of the camera.
I thought I would find a way to manually eject the tape without needing to power the motor...
This is the exact screwdriver I just tried out on one of my similar vintage Sony camcorders. It is a very good fit.
It's a WERA brand which I believe is made in Germany. Nice stuff.
I know the link is to the US Amazon site, but maybe you can find it somehow online from Sweden. At $4 - $7US it's not too expensive.
This would be the kind of cheap jeweler's set that would probably have a usable "Phillips" cross blade driver.
The problem with phillips screw drivers is that they "cam" out of the cross slot very easily, especially on fine JIS like screws. This often damages both the screw head and the blade. But for a "single use" case, you could probably make it work. Just make sure you apply enough downward pressure to keep it from camming out (slipping).
I really think it would be easier to disassemble your camcorder and directly power the motor to get the tape out rather than trying to bend and break things to do so. I knowingly (very cheap and hopefully for some usable parts) bought a camcorder that the owner had removed the tape by brute force. It was a real mess and it had still required a lot of disassembly for him to get the tape out.
I will try to disassemble the camera when I find a working screwdriver. My precision screwdrivers don't work with the Sony screws.
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Regarding Philips screwdrivers, I've read that Philips screwdrivers doesn't work with Sony JIS screws, but JIS screwdrivers work with both JIS and Philips screws.
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EDIT I found a screwdriver that seems to work.
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This far I've removed 8 screws. Unfortunately there is one screw I can't take out. I've tried using WD-40 and also put a rubber band in between. It's stuck.
g10
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I used a drill.
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OK, I opened the camera. Which are the motor contacts?
g11
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I found the motor contacts. I try to put 6V.
Battery: Plus to minus on motor to open and vice verse.
The motor makes some noise but doesn't eject. The metal in front makes it hard to reach.
I'v seen a video where they unplugged the loading motor before putting 6V but I found nothing to unplug.
I’m not sure what you’re referring to as looking weird, maybe a geartooth damaged?
I’m anycase, I think the problem you’re having is that you have to manually press the “basket” down into the camera case BEFORE you touch the wires to the connections to retract the mechanism. It the same thing you had to do to get the tape to load and thread when it was working. Watch the videos again and you will notice that both guys manually press down on the basket before retracting the mechanism.
So try to extend the mechanism (as to remove the tape) and then press down on the basket and while holding it down, reconnect the wires (reversed) and the mechanism should retract with the basket retained on the “pressed in” position so everything can then be reassembled.
If the geartooth is broken, that might cause a problem, but I can’t say for sure.
Here’s another video that appears to be your exact mechanism. Note how he has to hold down the basket before retracting to get it to stay down.
Problem solved (partly).
Tape is out, The camera is put together again. I don't care to fix the ejection as one pin roller seems to be broken.
BW37, thanks a lot for being so helpful!
