RCA VLP-950HFT....save it or finnish it off?

[StarquestMan]

Originally Posted by rca2000

Been there....>DONE that.

Over 20 years ago...I had a fisher CD changer....it had a load problem...it would just KEEP going from bottom to top...NOTHING seemed to help. After HOURS messing with it...I SMASHED my fist down on the deck !! Needless to say...it did NOT do it anymore !!

I have almost the EXACT RCA VCR you have...mine lost tuning and display a while back...I never "played with it" so far...this has been a REAL up-and-down year for me.. maybe 2016 will be BETTER..

I re-belted mine a few years back...and it WAS working... I sought out a VLP convertible unit, like you did...since that was the ONLY one they had with front load..and the LAST year RCA made one...after THAT...they ONLY had camcorders...no video "cameras"..

how do you like your vcr? if yours is almost exactly like mine but not identical i guess you have the VLP-970HF or something similar? AFAIK the only other model in the later convertable vcr line is the 970? im guessing it must be better than the 950 if i was to go by the model number although i cant guess what other features they would add since my 950 has 7 heads (i think),Hi-Fi, and lots of other bells and whistles.

[rca2000]

Mine IS a VLP-970 HF. I DID like the way it worked...a few years back. But it has NOT been powered on i a while...since the tuner...then display...died. Likely...caps bad, or if it uses that DC converter module to provide tuner/display power, maybe it died.

From what I have learned our VCR's were the "cat's meow" for 1986...at WELL over 1K new !!

I got mine cheap...maybe - or so years back...just needed the load belt....THEN.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by rca2000

Been there....>DONE that.

Over 20 years ago...I had a fisher CD changer....it had a load problem...it would just KEEP going from bottom to top...NOTHING seemed to help. After HOURS messing with it...I SMASHED my fist down on the deck !! Needless to say...it did NOT do it anymore !!

I have almost the EXACT RCA VCR you have...mine lost tuning and display a while back...I never "played with it" so far...this has been a REAL up-and-down year for me.. maybe 2016 will be BETTER..

I re-belted mine a few years back...and it WAS working... I sought out a VLP convertible unit, like you did...since that was the ONLY one they had with front load..and the LAST year RCA made one...after THAT...they ONLY had camcorders...no video "cameras"..

Same here...Though most of it was in my teen years.

I had Sansui SS amp that would intermittently loose sound, and got so sick of not being able to localize it that while it was on I grabbed a convenient bottle of Windex and and sprayed the thing till it popped and smoked....

Another time I had something go wrong (IIRC Mom distracted me while I was fixing a break in a fine coil wire in a TV and caused me to rip out the only TINY sub I had to work with), and I threw a screwdriver in a random direction chipping a big chunk out of the trim on my Recordio radio/phono/78 cutter....Which made me even more angry.

Most decisions to kill equipment now are cold, calculated, clinical executions rather than firey primal beatings....

[StarquestMan]

Originally Posted by rca2000

Mine IS a VLP-970 HF. I DID like the way it worked...a few years back. But it has NOT been powered on i a while...since the tuner...then display...died. Likely...caps bad, or if it uses that DC converter module to provide tuner/display power, maybe it died.

From what I have learned our VCR's were the "cat's meow" for 1986...at WELL over 1K new !!

I got mine cheap...maybe - or so years back...just needed the load belt....THEN.

im glad to hear that you liked yours it sounds like yours may have the same problem mine has, im thinking the part that helped bring it back was taking apart the little press fit ribbon cable sockets that connect the two logic/clock boards and scuffing the internal contacts with a scotch pad and a flat head jewelers screwdriver. they look like regular 2 part plug and sockets where the cable is crimped into a plug but they are not! i almost broke mine by prying it apart, just press down both sides of the socket and the cable will come out without bending the wires. mine looked like the contacts were made out of copper but plated with solder but it was flaking off and causing a bad connection. i also found a short and stubby blue matsushita cap below the giant hitachi ic that had leaked and somehow started eating the traces on the back side of the board i think it may have been a filter cap supplying power to that main ic i will have to post pictures for anyone else who runs into this issue that wants to fix it

[StarquestMan]

this should help you fix your vlp970hf if its like my 950. first is the board with TIM printed on top i found a matsushita 330uF 10v electrolytic at C110 on the board that i replaced. im not sure how but when it leaked it darkened the solder mask directly behind the capacitor and started eating into the copper so after i replaced it i scraped off the corrosion and tinned it with solder. my only guess would be that since the cap was near the bottom edge of the board that when it leaked the fluid must have wicked up the back side behind it

[StarquestMan]

this shows the two press fit connectors that might have flaky platting on them. i almost broke mine the first time by pulling so hard that the hook side slid past the back plate and so i had to go back and re seat each one. i think it actualy helped the cleaning process a bit though by exposing the part that bites into the wire to hold it in place if all that makes sense

[StarquestMan]

i should also point out that all through out the case i keep finding these sort of smoke marks. they seem to come from transistors and resistors that run hot but i also wonder if it is from the electrolyte in capacitors. the area pictured is by far the biggest area and its above the power supply. its not the regular burn marks i see in other gear but a fine dust like residue that wipes right off.

[rca2000]

I DO recall a burning smell...fro mine...when it died...i did NOT know where it was coming from...till the VCR went dead...

it is VERY likely mine is the same as yours... Not sure what is different about mine. it has HI-Fi and 7 heads I think...and OSD set up...not a common feature at the time it was made (yet)

Maybe I will look at mine soon. like I said..015 was a ROUGH year for me...especially the last couple of months...I PRAY 016 will be better.

[StarquestMan]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Same here...Though most of it was in my teen years.

I had Sansui SS amp that would intermittently loose sound, and got so sick of not being able to localize it that while it was on I grabbed a convenient bottle of Windex and and sprayed the thing till it popped and smoked....

Another time I had something go wrong (IIRC Mom distracted me while I was fixing a break in a fine coil wire in a TV and caused me to rip out the only TINY sub I had to work with), and I threw a screwdriver in a random direction chipping a big chunk out of the trim on my Recordio radio/phono/78 cutter....Which made me even more angry.

Most decisions to kill equipment now are cold, calculated, clinical executions rather than firey primal beatings....

i think thats the same situation i had, most of my angry outbursts that resulted in bits of plastic flying around the room was when i was in junior high/high school. since ive mellowed out after school i cant remember getting very mad at anything project related, maybe i had one of my last electronic/machinery beat downs since ill be turning 22 later this month, that would be great now to find a job i like....and a girlfreind

[StarquestMan]

Originally Posted by rca2000

I DO recall a burning smell...fro mine...when it died...i did NOT know where it was coming from...till the VCR went dead...

it is VERY likely mine is the same as yours... Not sure what is different about mine. it has HI-Fi and 7 heads I think...and OSD set up...not a common feature at the time it was made (yet)

Maybe I will look at mine soon. like I said..015 was a ROUGH year for me...especially the last couple of months...I PRAY 016 will be better.

same here! i think i liked 2013 better 2014 was like meh and 2015 was kinda. I HATED 2012 WORST YEAR EVER lol. best of luck to you by the way

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by rca2000

...Likely...caps bad, or if it uses that DC converter module to provide tuner/display power, maybe it died.

That module probably has an electrolytic cap associated with it. If it goes bad it would take the module out as well, so when replacing the module replace that cap too. Had an RCA VCR where I had to do that

[Gunslinger]

Originally Posted by rca2000

Been there....>DONE that.

Over 20 years ago...I had a fisher CD changer....it had a load problem...it would just KEEP going from bottom to top...NOTHING seemed to help. After HOURS messing with it...I SMASHED my fist down on the deck !! Needless to say...it did NOT do it anymore !!

I have almost the EXACT RCA VCR you have...mine lost tuning and display a while back...I never "played with it" so far...this has been a REAL up-and-down year for me.. maybe 2016 will be BETTER..

I re-belted mine a few years back...and it WAS working... I sought out a VLP convertible unit, like you did...since that was the ONLY one they had with front load..and the LAST year RCA made one...after THAT...they ONLY had camcorders...no video "cameras"..

Those were made by Hitachi

[Gunslinger]

Adam,

Package went out this date.

[StarquestMan]

well i got some more time to work on this vcr so i dug around my capacitor stock (if you could even call it that) but i couldn't find anything to replace the pair of crappy old .22uf sanyo's. the closest thing i found were some .33uf matsushita electrolytics from the oem radio out of my 94' Tercel, would these be close enough to use to replace the old sanyo's i tested them with my ESR meter and they are 12ohms compared to the sanyo caps at 16 ohm. i know it sounds really high but these are very small capacitance electrolytics. should i just replace these things with some sort of non-electrolytic capacitors? if so what type would be best suited?

[StarquestMan]

well i swapped out all the visibly leaky capacitors and i think this thing is doing a lot better although i was only able to try it out on my little 5" color portable magnavox for now so it may not be as good as it seems but im sure it has made at least some improvement. one thing i will point out is that the metal shield on the board above the head drum doesn't have much clearance between the metal and the tips of the leads so if anything presses up against it or bends it in it will cause all kinds of problems with the picture even when not playing a tape! like the OSD for the tuner. im still amazed at how many of these Panasonic/matsushita caps have completely failed and leaked out, ive got gear thats much older than this with these caps in them and although they probably should be replaced they haven't caused issues let alone leaking and taking out traces with it! i guess 1986 wasn't a good year for Panasonic caps