Re: [ARSCLIST] Repairing (or purchasing) a Uher

["Richard L. Hess" <arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 12:24 AM 6/18/2006, steven c wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Richard L. Hess" <arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > I wonder what it will be like in 20-30 years? We'll have to have a
> > personal machine shop!
> >
> No...you'll have to have a personal microchip manufactory (should
> such a thing exist!). Back in my youth, you went looking for
> second-hand tubes (45's were scarce...X-99's like hens' teeth!)
> because resistors and capacitors were still readily available.

The good news is that National is coming out with a very interesting 
replacement for the NE5532 but it appears to be only available in 
surface-mount (SMD), so we'll need SMD-Dual-InLine adapters.

The real thing will be when the embedded microprocessors are no 
longer repairable. At that point, the Ampex List folks will be proven 
correct in keeping their AG-350s and AG-440s running since they are 
made of all relatively common parts that are still easily 
replaceable. We just found that Ohmite still sells the big power 
resistors used to reduce torque to the reel motors as one went open 
on someone's Ampex.

BUT, the real trick will be to bring everything on the tape machine 
out to a USB port so that all the transport logic/tension logic etc 
can be recreated on a generic Windows box thus saving us from having 
to maintain obsolete embedded microprocessors.

> Atwater-Kent used to seal their power-supply components in about a
> half-ton of asphalt, either on the assumption they would never need
> replacement or else what you ACTUALLY needed was a new (Atwater-Kent)
> receiving set!

Burwen "patented" his noise-reduction filtering in the DNF-1201 
consumer device (and perhaps the pro devices as well) by grinding off 
the part numbers and using semi-obscure chips like quad opamps.


> The idea of actually FIXING something seems to have died two or
> three decades ago...no wonder we're running out of landfill space!

And even the module-level, board-swapping level of repair is so 
costly that it often makes economic sense to replace the entire unit 
rather than an assembly that's 50-60% the cost of a replacement unit.

Of course, we could look at it that we're helping raise the level of 
Michigan's land so it will less prone to flooding...

> Remember when drugstores and supermarkets all had tube testers,
> and you took all the tubes out of your TV (hoping you'd remember
> how to put them back in their sockets?) and "tested" them and
> bought replacements for the ones where the needle didn't swing
> into the green "Good" area of the meter?!

Yup, I do!

Cheers,

Richard


> ...stevenc
> http://users.interlinks.net/stevenc/

Richard L. Hess                   email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aurora, Ontario, Canada       (905) 713 6733     1-877-TAPE-FIX
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.