i picked one of these up for $5. at the local thrift . missing one battery door . not sure if it works yet but will try it out when i find a cassette .
In 2014 sony manufactered a cassette tape wich could store an whopping 250 GB of data on it,so maybe we will see the old cassette tape coming back. Either way,you should be really proud to own this camera because it's a worthfull piece of history it paved the way for the phone camera wich we do have builtin our smartphones.
Any camera with a 'rangefinder' type view finder has a parallax error. It works much like a rifle with a telescopic sight. There will be only one place where the view is correct. With experience you can compensate for the error. It gets crazy when there is a zoom involved... That's why an SLR type camera is the preferred type. WYSIWYG...
teeheesamson Formerly the artist team known as Blotch which were actually two artists, Blackteagan and Kenket. They have now split up and went separate ways.
Couldn't find the 4.5" TV included with the big package? That's okay. Turns-out that model also sold under the Sonic brand-marque back in the day... for $55.00! How do I know? My dad bought one [Sonic unit] at our local pharmacy's camera & electronics counter back when, after I mentioned how we had just covered "Shane" in 8th-grade reading-class! And because it was on that afternoon, and we had to go somewhere, he bought it so I could watch the movie on the road... and I didn't even want to see it!
I can remember wanting one of these things so badly! I remember that the catalog, yes kids back in the day you actually got a great big sick catalog book like thing with pictures and things in it that you could pick stuff out of… Well the one at our house eventually automatically opened to the very page this thing was on. But just like the teddy Rexbon… This camera thing never made it into our house… Oh the bitter bitter disappointment LOL
the video position is most likely because the CCD cluster is off its mark. Probably only by a millimeter. Is it cutting the picture off on the edge at all? Or is the entire image present but off center?
Even if Ben Heck mod the PXL-2000 toy camcorder to Raspberry Pi version with a 32GB storage card, it is worth the kind of suggestion without buying cassette tapes. On the other hand, I will stick to real high definition memory card camcorders instead.
An idea struck me while watching this video. The tape mechanism that this camera uses is the cursed piece of junk Tanashin type that is used in all modern junk cassette players. How about getting the signal before the record amplifier and record the signal to a digital recorder and.... looking online after a few minutes I already see that someone already bypassed the mechanism and got RCA connectors on the camera :)
I'd ask you to send it to +EEVBlog but he's in Australia so I'm guessing postage would be prohibitive. I just really really really want to see a teardown of that thing.
did you ever do it? I just got one but get constant beeping. My story is in another reply to someone who is also experiencing the "only beeping , doesn't do anything else" problem
I never really got round to it but I still have 'em. If nothing detrimental to the camera is causing the beeping, it's fine just to remove the board completely - it's a little separate board. I have two cameras, and one didn't come with the beeper board at all.
I think it means low battery. I just got one and know nothing about them. batteries were in mine and it looked like they had been in there for 20 years.I suppose I could attempt to find some kind of date on the batteries. I think there were 4 or 5 different brands of batteries in mine and not all were alkaline. They all leaked terribly. A couple of energizers pretty much exploded inside the battery compartment. I tried to clean up the battery terminals the best I could and then just put in batteries that were laying around and I get the beeping with the flashing red light in the view finder. I also get the constant red light in the viewfinder which means there isn't enough light. I then put 6 brand new batteries in the unit and I still get the beeping and nothing happens. I also tried an ac adapter but it was only rated 300 ma and the camera has 500 ma requirement and I again got the beeping , which I assume is "not enough power/low battery" but you have to be very careful with that because almost all adapters the center portion is "+" and the outside of the connector is "-" but the adapter this camera uses is the opposite. This camera needs the inside of the plug to be "-" and the outside is "+". I see items like that on old stuff but I think at some point it was standardized for the center to be "+" and the outside be "-". I'm going to open mine up and try to inspect all the wiring to the battery terminals. I'm guessing things are so corroded it's just not getting the power that it should be. If you ever have figured yours out please reply. Thanks in advance.
strike low battery. I now think it means the tape isn't moving. Mine does it if I press play or rewind or press the red trigger to start recording after I've pressed the record button on the tape player portion. mine does it both on battery power and ac adapter power. Mine is putting out the a/v to a television, but the tape won't move so I can't record,rewind,or play a tape. Mine had the pxl2000 cassette in it.
I got mine working. It takes 2 belts which I replaced and I replaced the pinch roller. The motor I lubed and let run without a load for about 10 minutes. I also checked it's speed and it was running about 2550 r.p.m. I think a problem with all of these is in a normal cassette player the capstan is about the size of a pencil lead. In theses devices it's about the size of a pencil and I think the tape tends to get hung up slightly when loading the tape. When you then press record or play the tape gets "pinched" against the capstan before it's in the natural tape path. It's hard to know for sure because you can't see it. I would reccomend with a new tape or fully rewound tape manually wind some tape onto the empty side (or put it in a regular tape player and fast forward it for 1 or 2 seconds). Then take the slack out of the tape and load it into the camera. Rewind it in the camera. That way the tape will hopefully get into it's proper tape path. Then press your record or play button. I recorded a couple of minutes to tape and played it without a problem. I'm going to post that video eventually and also going to sell the camera soon. They're a pretty neat toy but I can see why they didn't become popular as such. My tape that was in the unit was only recorded on about half of one side. I'm guessing who ever owned it only used it that one time. The tape at that point had been rewound into the "shell" of the cassette and not very well because it was twisted around every which way. As if it had been "eaten" and someone just manually wound it to get the tape back into the shell and then never used it again. There was no wear on the heads and they were very clean.
heya ben great vid was wondering if youd be interested in some ced's I found locally if so id gladly pick em up an ship em for a small fee just needs to be a time when it fits into budget but please do let me know if ur interested i'll try and get pics of them as well they are some decent ones
I got into CED's about a year ago. I've got 4 players torn apart right now servicing them. I just had their stylus cartridges rebuilt/repaired/cleaned. I happened to pick up 500 discs and a mono player for $100 and the girls boyfriend helped me load the discs into my van. It was kind of a bitch because their apartment was in the back of the building (fortunately on the ground floor though, so no stairs were involved) but it was a fairly long walk when you're carrying a stack of the discs. With out that guys help I think it would have gave me a heart attack. I offered him an extra $20 for helping me (I've picked up items and have been constantly reminded by the seller (I'm not going to do any lifting0 so I was very appreciative for his assistance, but he wouldn't take it. Their apartment was really small and the player and discs pretty much filled the normally open area of the "living room". So they were happy to just get rid of them and get the cash. She inherited them and said that was the only thing her grandma watched was stuff on discs, until the player quit working. "She died not too long after that". Made me think maybe her heart was broken because her CED player quit working.
i picked one of these up for $5. at the local thrift . missing one battery door . not sure if it works yet but will try it out when i find a cassette .
Excellent material. Always on point.
I would have wanted that thing back in the day when it was being sold.
In 2014 sony manufactered a cassette tape wich could store an whopping 250 GB of data on it,so maybe we will see the old cassette tape coming back.
Either way,you should be really proud to own this camera because it's a worthfull piece of history it paved the way for the phone camera wich we do have builtin our smartphones.
When u use this with its video out to an ext tv and vcr, it's gorgeously lo fi :-)
I always wanted one of these when I was a kid maybe I will buy one on eBay lol
Any camera with a 'rangefinder' type view finder has a parallax error. It works much like a rifle with a telescopic sight. There will be only one place where the view is correct. With experience you can compensate for the error. It gets crazy when there is a zoom involved... That's why an SLR type camera is the preferred type. WYSIWYG...
Fixing it is worth it, because these sell for $80 to $125
+MrWolfSnack Hey, on an unrelated note, who did your icon? Looks familiar.
teeheesamson
Formerly the artist team known as Blotch which were actually two artists, Blackteagan and Kenket. They have now split up and went separate ways.
MrWolfSnack Oh, okay! That's who I thought it was.
Couldn't find the 4.5" TV included with the big package? That's okay. Turns-out that model also sold under the Sonic brand-marque back in the day... for $55.00!
How do I know? My dad bought one [Sonic unit] at our local pharmacy's camera & electronics counter back when, after I mentioned how we had just covered "Shane" in 8th-grade reading-class! And because it was on that afternoon, and we had to go somewhere, he bought it so I could watch the movie on the road... and I didn't even want to see it!
I can remember wanting one of these things so badly! I remember that the catalog, yes kids back in the day you actually got a great big sick catalog book like thing with pictures and things in it that you could pick stuff out of… Well the one at our house eventually automatically opened to the very page this thing was on. But just like the teddy Rexbon… This camera thing never made it into our house… Oh the bitter bitter disappointment LOL
Love this channel!
Never did get one and I think I begged my parents to buy it for Christmas at Toys R Us or Zayre back in 1987
the video position is most likely because the CCD cluster is off its mark. Probably only by a millimeter. Is it cutting the picture off on the edge at all? Or is the entire image present but off center?
I notice you didn't address the fact that it is a video camera.....that records on audio cassettes.
+MrWolfSnack Episode 86 deals with the unit and he talks about the cassettes there.
he does in the halloween special
Prishe price is for kids with technology.
Even if Ben Heck mod the PXL-2000 toy camcorder to Raspberry Pi version with a 32GB storage card, it is worth the kind of suggestion without buying cassette tapes. On the other hand, I will stick to real high definition memory card camcorders instead.
An idea struck me while watching this video. The tape mechanism that this camera uses is the cursed piece of junk Tanashin type that is used in all modern junk cassette players. How about getting the signal before the record amplifier and record the signal to a digital recorder and.... looking online after a few minutes I already see that someone already bypassed the mechanism and got RCA connectors on the camera :)
I had one of those,it would blow tbrough tapes in like 5 minutes and had terrible quality.
I'd ask you to send it to +EEVBlog but he's in Australia so I'm guessing postage would be prohibitive.
I just really really really want to see a teardown of that thing.
+GeoNeilUK very tempted to do a video of a broken one I have, to point out a few internals and mod points
did you ever do it? I just got one but get constant beeping. My story is in another reply to someone who is also experiencing the "only beeping , doesn't do anything else" problem
I never really got round to it but I still have 'em. If nothing detrimental to the camera is causing the beeping, it's fine just to remove the board completely - it's a little separate board. I have two cameras, and one didn't come with the beeper board at all.
I had fun with mines it was great for a first video cam , but it is a TOY
Oh god I remember having one these as a kid. lol
any component cable will work
Is it marketed as a toy? It's the only thing I associate with that brand.
Funny, it reminds me of repairing and servicing walkman's
it was marketed as a kid's camera, yes.
mine just beeps no movement at all, you know why?
I think it means low battery. I just got one and know nothing about them. batteries were in mine and it looked like they had been in there for 20 years.I suppose I could attempt to find some kind of date on the batteries. I think there were 4 or 5 different brands of batteries in mine and not all were alkaline. They all leaked terribly. A couple of energizers pretty much exploded inside the battery compartment. I tried to clean up the battery terminals the best I could and then just put in batteries that were laying around and I get the beeping with the flashing red light in the view finder. I also get the constant red light in the viewfinder which means there isn't enough light. I then put 6 brand new batteries in the unit and I still get the beeping and nothing happens. I also tried an ac adapter but it was only rated 300 ma and the camera has 500 ma requirement and I again got the beeping , which I assume is "not enough power/low battery" but you have to be very careful with that because almost all adapters the center portion is "+" and the outside of the connector is "-" but the adapter this camera uses is the opposite. This camera needs the inside of the plug to be "-" and the outside is "+". I see items like that on old stuff but I think at some point it was standardized for the center to be "+" and the outside be "-". I'm going to open mine up and try to inspect all the wiring to the battery terminals. I'm guessing things are so corroded it's just not getting the power that it should be. If you ever have figured yours out please reply. Thanks in advance.
strike low battery. I now think it means the tape isn't moving. Mine does it if I press play or rewind or press the red trigger to start recording after I've pressed the record button on the tape player portion. mine does it both on battery power and ac adapter power. Mine is putting out the a/v to a television, but the tape won't move so I can't record,rewind,or play a tape. Mine had the pxl2000 cassette in it.
Its cool a guy just bought it from me who knows how to fix them.
I got mine working. It takes 2 belts which I replaced and I replaced the pinch roller. The motor I lubed and let run without a load for about 10 minutes. I also checked it's speed and it was running about 2550 r.p.m. I think a problem with all of these is in a normal cassette player the capstan is about the size of a pencil lead. In theses devices it's about the size of a pencil and I think the tape tends to get hung up slightly when loading the tape. When you then press record or play the tape gets "pinched" against the capstan before it's in the natural tape path. It's hard to know for sure because you can't see it. I would reccomend with a new tape or fully rewound tape manually wind some tape onto the empty side (or put it in a regular tape player and fast forward it for 1 or 2 seconds). Then take the slack out of the tape and load it into the camera. Rewind it in the camera. That way the tape will hopefully get into it's proper tape path. Then press your record or play button. I recorded a couple of minutes to tape and played it without a problem. I'm going to post that video eventually and also going to sell the camera soon. They're a pretty neat toy but I can see why they didn't become popular as such. My tape that was in the unit was only recorded on about half of one side. I'm guessing who ever owned it only used it that one time. The tape at that point had been rewound into the "shell" of the cassette and not very well because it was twisted around every which way. As if it had been "eaten" and someone just manually wound it to get the tape back into the shell and then never used it again. There was no wear on the heads and they were very clean.
put a Commodore 64 data cassette tape in the pxl2000
I think you are the only person on the internet as weird as me.
u are aware the pxl 2000 is a toy?
And?
2mhz bandwidth oooooh
i have 1
heya ben great vid was wondering if youd be interested in some ced's I found locally if so id gladly pick em up an ship em for a small fee just needs to be a time when it fits into budget but please do let me know if ur interested i'll try and get pics of them as well they are some decent ones
I got into CED's about a year ago. I've got 4 players torn apart right now servicing them. I just had their stylus cartridges rebuilt/repaired/cleaned. I happened to pick up 500 discs and a mono player for $100 and the girls boyfriend helped me load the discs into my van. It was kind of a bitch because their apartment was in the back of the building (fortunately on the ground floor though, so no stairs were involved) but it was a fairly long walk when you're carrying a stack of the discs. With out that guys help I think it would have gave me a heart attack. I offered him an extra $20 for helping me (I've picked up items and have been constantly reminded by the seller (I'm not going to do any lifting0 so I was very appreciative for his assistance, but he wouldn't take it. Their apartment was really small and the player and discs pretty much filled the normally open area of the "living room". So they were happy to just get rid of them and get the cash. She inherited them and said that was the only thing her grandma watched was stuff on discs, until the player quit working. "She died not too long after that". Made me think maybe her heart was broken because her CED player quit working.
Pero no explica cómo funciona