Hi Vince I has reverse engineer that sony laser assembly, i found out that variable resistor is use in voltage divider circuit, witch mean the lower the resistance, the lower the voltage is. So to increase the laser brightness it need to increase the resistance. I'm also found out that there is a mirror underneath the lens. If there is a dust on that mirror, the leser won't read the disk. You can try clean it by blow some air on it, you need to remove plastic bracket from that laser module in order to do it.
I just picked up this unit for 3 bucks, it kept stopping at the same point of every disc I used. Greased the tracks and cleaned the laser and now it’s good as new!
Great piece of now old tech ... I lived a few good years plugged into one of those ... I went full circle in my adulthood and went vinyl again in my music appetite
Hi Vince, regarding the laser. I remembered you put the solder blob on the ribbon cable, but I can't remember if you removed it. If not, this surely would prevent the laser from working so maybe something to check?!
Thanks Patrick, that solder blob was on the screeching PSP. I checked for the solder contacts on this laser and I couldn't see any. Maybe I gave it a static shock without realising while disassembling it the first time, or maybe it just burnt out through use????? Cheers :-)
@@Mymatevince You can see the two pads on the board where the ribon cable comes in. This must be always bridged before disconnecting the laser assembly.
Semiconductor single mode lasers are very similar to an LED but with an additional wave guide etched into the silicon to align and emit coherent laser light.
You killed the laser last time when you hooked up the motor wire and laser wire. I had mentioned this in the comments. The initial fix of the tracks was the problem. You accidentally created another. Lessons we learn. Well done.
A mistake you make once and then learn to mark/photograph where wires go before disconnecting. It's practically a rite of passage for us repair nuts. In this case though, those connections only control the motor drives, the laser is controlled through the flex ribbon connection so I doubt swapping the sled and spindle motor connections would have any effect other than just not being able to read the disc.
Great job Vince =D One thing that has surprised me watching this part - see at the end the laser unit vibrates side to side using the tracking coils I think. I've never seen that in another drive before. Normally they bob up and down and repeat the cycle after a small pause - around 3 times. I think that Sony drive is doing something clever, I think its vibrating the head crazily like that incase there's dust on it. At least thats my theory, because the crazy shake like that isn't it attempting to just track etc.
All optical disc lasers can adjust up/down and side to side using tracking coils. It does this to compensate both disc vertical wobble (since no disc is perfectly flat) and variances in the center hole position. Additionally even if the disc were perfect, these servo mechanisms allow some level of tracking against physical shocks.
Thanks for the comments. Nice to see one of my favourite UA-camrs replying to another one of my favourite UA-camrs 👍👍👍👍 If you haven't already checked each other out, then I think you will both like each others channels :-)
@@sjm4306 Thanks, yes - I am aware of how it works! What is NOT normal in this unit compared to hundreds of other drives I've looked at is the wobble from side to side before it has even detected a disc! That is the point I was trying to make, that behaviour is not common amongst other CD based systems. Normally the tracking coils actuate that way when it is reading a track and trying to compensate for wobble. Not before it has actually detected a disc.
@@GadgetUK164 I kind of doubt it's to dislodge dust, more likely it's a last ditch coarse ramping of the compensation control hitting the soft cutoffs to the tracking servos. It might have adaptive compensation to the control loops and when fine control fails it increases the gains. Something like this could potentially give an optical system greater shock protection as it would be able to respond more quickly to harder knocks. Just spitballing here though, without digging into the firmware it's difficult to tell exactly why it's doing this.
Vince - well done for your tenacity in re-visiting this one to work out exactly the issue. Have you tried tweaking that laser adjust pot to different places whilst looking at how bright the red dot goes? - stick a bit of greaseproof paper over the lens to see the laser dot without risking your eyes. You may as well try turning it to max even if it blows the laser diode just to see if you can get it to read at all. Great work.
@@Tim_3100 Thanks, I had seen that, but typically laser diodes work or are burned out. Vince said it was very faint and that he'd turned the pot to least resistance. It may need turning opposite way or something else may be wrong with driver circuit as any glow means laser isn't burned out.
When you put the bad laser into good player, do a callibration, (If laser have any light) it will work fine in both players after callibration. Now you know that both PCB's are OK.
Silly question...have you tried taking the laser sled out and reassembling the rest of the laser/motor unit and see if the motor spins continuously(because there's no laser sled) or if it stops after a set amount of time? (haven't finished this video yet)
vince didn't your mom ever tell you not to point a laser at thousands of peoples eyes? GJ on the fault finding nice to see that your repair works with the good laser.
Well that's unfortunate, but solved. I would couple the working laser and shell without scratch with the non-damaged board, so it's as original as possible. The rest are spares.
I’ve repaired many CD players years ago, Aiwa 5-6 disc players to Kenwood, Denon cd players even car multi disc players. Commonly had more mechanical failures with plastic arms and sliders breaking off, motors stuck, belts worn broken with them.. I think you should fix one of them more interesting as you like fixing watches this would be good.. No point messing with a laser if A. You cleaned it greased the slider bar then B. try turning the gain up... Also who said these have a microswitch?? Hello this is a laser Diode with a photoCell Diode... the laser is trying to find a position to read the CD with the photo cell in order to find its position by default the motherboard is moving the laser back and forth because the laser is blind......
Hi Vince I has reverse engineer that sony laser assembly, i found out that variable resistor is use in voltage divider circuit, witch mean the lower the resistance, the lower the voltage is. So to increase the laser brightness it need to increase the resistance. I'm also found out that there is a mirror underneath the lens. If there is a dust on that mirror, the leser won't read the disk. You can try clean it by blow some air on it, you need to remove plastic bracket from that laser module in order to do it.
its always satisfying to come back to faulty stuff and this time fixing it for good
I realized I love more these “trying to fix” videos than some movies 😂
The Lightbulb moment was funny!! At the time i was thinking huh did i miss something!?!? 😂
I just picked up this unit for 3 bucks, it kept stopping at the same point of every disc I used. Greased the tracks and cleaned the laser and now it’s good as new!
Vince we need merch so much.. Anything to support you and your great channel
Great piece of now old tech ... I lived a few good years plugged into one of those ...
I went full circle in my adulthood and went vinyl again in my music appetite
very nice video :-) The lazer try to read the inner part of the disk if it doesn't see the disk info it will stop trying after a few attempts
Love these discman videos, hope you have more planned from that job lot!
Hi Vince, regarding the laser. I remembered you put the solder blob on the ribbon cable, but I can't remember if you removed it. If not, this surely would prevent the laser from working so maybe something to check?!
Thanks Patrick, that solder blob was on the screeching PSP. I checked for the solder contacts on this laser and I couldn't see any. Maybe I gave it a static shock without realising while disassembling it the first time, or maybe it just burnt out through use????? Cheers :-)
@@Mymatevince You can see the two pads on the board where the ribon cable comes in. This must be always bridged before disconnecting the laser assembly.
LOVE your videos!!!!Keep them coming. I learn a lot from them.
L.a.s.e.r = light amplifier stimulating emission radiation treatments. lasers are kinda like a light bulb, they emit light and burn out.
Semiconductor single mode lasers are very similar to an LED but with an additional wave guide etched into the silicon to align and emit coherent laser light.
Put a disc upside down in the working one and it should make the same skipping sound as the one with the faulty laser.
The Jedward cd probably sounds better in the none-working unit .
I watched all your videos, you did great work, congratulations 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
You killed the laser last time when you hooked up the motor wire and laser wire.
I had mentioned this in the comments.
The initial fix of the tracks was the problem. You accidentally created another. Lessons we learn.
Well done.
A mistake you make once and then learn to mark/photograph where wires go before disconnecting. It's practically a rite of passage for us repair nuts. In this case though, those connections only control the motor drives, the laser is controlled through the flex ribbon connection so I doubt swapping the sled and spindle motor connections would have any effect other than just not being able to read the disc.
@@sjm4306 Yes. I think Vince will not make that mistake again. Phones and cameras are too handy to not take a quick snap before hand
SPOILER ALERT
5:50 Vince makes a confession: he hates Jedward, in the most passive-aggressive way possible. Hahahahahahahahahahaha
Uk people always do it this way. Understand it like five minutes later ;)
@@andersmmvfc.8376 some folks know this, like you I, but others don't know this, especially if they don't know how UK culture is
Great job Vince =D One thing that has surprised me watching this part - see at the end the laser unit vibrates side to side using the tracking coils I think. I've never seen that in another drive before. Normally they bob up and down and repeat the cycle after a small pause - around 3 times. I think that Sony drive is doing something clever, I think its vibrating the head crazily like that incase there's dust on it. At least thats my theory, because the crazy shake like that isn't it attempting to just track etc.
All optical disc lasers can adjust up/down and side to side using tracking coils. It does this to compensate both disc vertical wobble (since no disc is perfectly flat) and variances in the center hole position. Additionally even if the disc were perfect, these servo mechanisms allow some level of tracking against physical shocks.
Thanks for the comments. Nice to see one of my favourite UA-camrs replying to another one of my favourite UA-camrs 👍👍👍👍 If you haven't already checked each other out, then I think you will both like each others channels :-)
@@sjm4306 Thanks, yes - I am aware of how it works! What is NOT normal in this unit compared to hundreds of other drives I've looked at is the wobble from side to side before it has even detected a disc! That is the point I was trying to make, that behaviour is not common amongst other CD based systems. Normally the tracking coils actuate that way when it is reading a track and trying to compensate for wobble. Not before it has actually detected a disc.
@@GadgetUK164 I kind of doubt it's to dislodge dust, more likely it's a last ditch coarse ramping of the compensation control hitting the soft cutoffs to the tracking servos. It might have adaptive compensation to the control loops and when fine control fails it increases the gains. Something like this could potentially give an optical system greater shock protection as it would be able to respond more quickly to harder knocks. Just spitballing here though, without digging into the firmware it's difficult to tell exactly why it's doing this.
Love me a revisit vid... vince we need merch 👍👍
Vince I always enjoy your videos! I do not know how to feel about these short ones though! lol
Vince - well done for your tenacity in re-visiting this one to work out exactly the issue. Have you tried tweaking that laser adjust pot to different places whilst looking at how bright the red dot goes? - stick a bit of greaseproof paper over the lens to see the laser dot without risking your eyes. You may as well try turning it to max even if it blows the laser diode just to see if you can get it to read at all. Great work.
Yes he did in the first trying to fix on this
@@Tim_3100 Thanks, I had seen that, but typically laser diodes work or are burned out. Vince said it was very faint and that he'd turned the pot to least resistance. It may need turning opposite way or something else may be wrong with driver circuit as any glow means laser isn't burned out.
Hey Vince loving the content keep up the great work.
On some pick-ups you can increase the voltage to the laser. Not a long term fix but can get some more use from it
When you put the bad laser into good player, do a callibration, (If laser have any light) it will work fine in both players after callibration. Now you know that both PCB's are OK.
At 7:25 isn't that a microswitch at the end of the worm gear touching the white cog?
it looks like a metal clip thing to put a little pressure on it to keep it in the right spot (like a spring)
Laser diodes do die (or get tired) , and they are just like a plain old light emitting diodes (LED), Current dependent devices.
awesome video!
Awsome work!
Well done Vince ... tenacious fault finding! Thx for sharing!
Awesome video
My brother had CD player would not play most disks cleaned laser with nizerol anti dandruff shampoo and it working perfectly
Silly question...have you tried taking the laser sled out and reassembling the rest of the laser/motor unit and see if the motor spins continuously(because there's no laser sled) or if it stops after a set amount of time? (haven't finished this video yet)
vince didn't your mom ever tell you not to point a laser at thousands of peoples eyes? GJ on the fault finding nice to see that your repair works with the good laser.
Glad you were right, but you need to get out more :)
most of cd walkman faulty with laser controller... so .uts hard to find replacement.. i have 2 sony walkman with faulty laser controller
Much Love from Australia brother hope all are doing well in the United kingdom
Hey mate I'm from Western Australia
@@speedwaynutt hey brother how things there much love from Melbourne
Hi from the middle right part of the USA
4:23 brilliant!!!
Problem is Jedward but not the problem with the discman
theres that many of them same lasers in many of sony cd players
Well that's unfortunate, but solved. I would couple the working laser and shell without scratch with the non-damaged board, so it's as original as possible. The rest are spares.
AAAAAAAAH! You lazed my eye!
Naughty naughty copied disc 🚨😜
I’ve repaired many CD players years ago, Aiwa 5-6 disc players to Kenwood, Denon cd players even car multi disc players. Commonly had more mechanical failures with plastic arms and sliders breaking off, motors stuck, belts worn broken with them.. I think you should fix one of them more interesting as you like fixing watches this would be good.. No point messing with a laser if A. You cleaned it greased the slider bar then
B. try turning the gain up... Also who said these have a microswitch?? Hello this is a laser Diode with a photoCell Diode... the laser is trying to find a position to read the CD with the photo cell in order to find its position by default the motherboard is moving the laser back and forth because the laser is blind......
Thanks for the info 2bad :-)
As a viewer, knowing what the fault is is adequate enough.
We may now put this case to rest. 👨⚖️
Red light was feint because you blew the laser diode with incorrect voltage
Pot was only adjusted after seeing the dim laser output.
"Blown" laser diode would be completely dark
If that rod dries up it won't slide properly
i shall be first.
Lazer not laser lol 😁