Thermaltake's VCR rebuilds?

[Thermaltake]

I have a ton of pictures from my various fixes that I did, not just vcr's but other equipment like laptops, printers, turntables, decks...etc. But I would say this vcr was the tuffest one. It took me about 3-4 months to clean it completely. It came in working condition, but it was used in some smoking studio so it smell very bad and have so much yellow stuff from nicotin on it. That took me ages to clean all of that.
VCR have so much parts, wires, components, factory faults, bad soldering... I just uploaded some photos didn't manage to transfer all of them from phone. I keep telling myself that I need to put pictures on the forum for people to see, but I'm really limited with time, so I always delay it and it's been like that for a while, but now I've managed to do it, so I hope you enjoy it.

Here is summarized. Around 70 cap's changed, some IC's, diodes, broken wires(thanks to Alex aka mrbetabyte) for sending me spare ones because I couldn't get them anywhere except custom made.
Timings were off so whole device was stripped apart and reassemble again. Of course before reassemble I clean shell inside and out and every moving part and relubricat again. I noticed on youtube that every NV-V800 while switching the bridge from VHS-S to C got that squeeky sound just like mine, and it took me 2 weeks to find where that sound was coming from.
I also clean device from outside with magic sponge as device was made from antislipping rubber or some sort of material that also Lenovo Thinkpad T420 and T430 were made of.
And when you clean them with magic sponge they look almost new.
I could write for ages about this rebuild and problems I ran into while doing it.
But my time is limited, and by showing you this I wanted to show everyone and encourage you if have some sort of skills and you really want to do something don't give up, take your time do it easy and caution you will love what comes at the end

https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...SW?usp=sharing

[Thermaltake]

Happy new year to all!

Here are another few fixes I did. I attached some photos as I didn't have that much time to took every photo while I was fixing the things.

1. Panasonic DRM-ES10 Dvd Player with a lot of bad caps. Power supply was fully recaped. On the board it was around 20 caps that were replaced with high quality Nichicon, Nippon and Rubycon.

Display was fixed, it wasn't working at all, now it does. I tried first replacing only bad caps and testing it with non leaked factory ones, and after that I replaced them all and test again. I must say audio and picture are much better than they were with factory caps.

Pictures:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...gg?usp=sharing

2. JVC HR-S8700 - All of my VCRs were purchased from VCRShop, and every one of them had some minor “bugs” or misconfigurations - some small, some more significant. This particular unit had issues with the bridge and required bridge disassembly. Everything was cleaned, and the timing was reconfigured according to the service manual. After that, it was tested and checked on an oscilloscope. Mode switch was also dirty and oxidated, so I clean it with fiberglass pen and Kontakt 61 to protect coppoer from oxidation and to lubricate it.

Both belts were somewhat glazed and were replaced, and some of the felt pads were also falling apart.
Their technicians don’t usually check these things, simply because they don’t have as much time to spend on a single VCR as I do. I contacted them about it, and they were very fair, as always, offering a full refund and return.

For me personally, returning it would have been a waste of time. I genuinely enjoy fixing this kind of equipment and find the process very satisfying, so I decided to repair it myself. I understand that the technician(s) who cleared the tape path and marked it as checked can’t dedicate extensive time to a single unit, as they have many VCRs to service and sell.

Whenever I service a VCR, I inspect every corner and aim to perform a proper, thorough service whenever it’s needed.

Pictures:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...6C?usp=sharing

[lordsmurf]

Neat stuff. I need to grab your Google archive to mirror.

[Thermaltake]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordsmurf

Neat stuff. I need to grab your Google archive to mirror.

Thanks!


There are many more fixes I’ve done, but I just don’t have the time to write about everything I worked on with each unit, like the FS200, NV-F70, HS-1000, HR-S7960E and so on. In the end, all of them were fully serviced and fixed. Most of them sold.

Now that it’s the holiday season, I told myself I'd do nothing for a day or two - but that didn’t work out for me I ended up coming here and posting some stuff.



P.S
If you can think of a better title for the post, please rename it. I didn’t have a good idea for one

[billct97]

Great pictures, thank you for sharing!

[Thermaltake]

Quote:

Originally Posted by billct97

Great pictures, thank you for sharing!

I'll post more when I can from time to time.
Thanks!

-- merged --

Here's another one

NV-FS200 (same as AG-1980) - This one needs complete recap of power supply, a lot of leaked caps in PSU, and in other places on the board that needed changing. I only put high quality capacitors nothing less. All belts were changed too, completely clean and regrease, timings were not ok that was sorted as well. There are some modifications on luma & chroma that were modifided for better and more true colors. Here are some photos that I manage to took, while fixing.

Pictures
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...fT?usp=sharing

[lordsmurf]

According to users of both decks, NV-FS200 isn't 100% identical to AG-1980P in quality.

Are you wanting to fix decks for others?
If so, we should talk, I'd be interested in sending you a FS200.

[Thermaltake]

That's true they are not 100% identical. But most of electronics inside is same, and they both suffer from same problems over the years.


I’m kind of a multitasker, so this isn’t the only thing I do. I handle a lot of different work like electronics, laptops, PCs, networks, printers, and other. People are always bringing me things to fix or build. I also do music production, design, build and repair bicyles. On top of that, my parents need a fair bit of my time too they are old and sick.

Because of all that, I don’t really have any extra time. But thanks a lot for the offer, I really appreciate it.
If I ever decide to take repairs from outside of my country, you’ll be the first to know.

[Thermaltake]

Here is repair(recap, soldering, via fixes) + various mods on NV-HS1000

https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...gE?usp=sharing


Enjoy