I have a problem with a DCC600 that I have not experienced before.
This concerns a DCC600, purchased via an online website as “the tray is difficult to open”
During the first test, the drawer was indeed difficult to open, so I thought replacing the belt would solve the problem. Unfortunately not.
Upon closer inspection I see the following.
With the player in front of you and the tray opening, you will see that it gets stuck at some point. If you then force it a little, the tray will open further.
What happened at that moment is that the tray sits slightly (higher on the right than on the left), the problem is that the tray is stuck on the “recorder head” and it forces the head to rotate. It’s does not move via the little white plastic wheels but above it.
If I guide the tray a little (push it down and to the left), it comes out fine, but the next time it gets stuck again. So the tray has, as it were, shifted slightly, probably due to rough use by the previous user.
It looks like the tray is a little bit to far to the right than normale and therefore it moves the head and can’t therefore open easily.
I hope i have explained it the right way for you to understand.
Note: Good to know that i have taken out the whole tray of the chassis, to see that the tray is misaligned and that it does not slides in between the white wheels on the right, and moves the head which is a big issue. That should never be the case ofcourse.
Unfortunately I cannot find out why this happens, maybe someone has experienced this during repairs in the forum and knows how to solve it
I have seen it multiple times on a first gen, but not that often on a second generation.
It means it has taken a serious beating. You would have to remove the entire tray from the chassis and see if there is more damage. Then mount the sliding tray back.
Thanks. I will give it a try. I hope that it doesn’t fall apart in thousand parts and therefore it is difficult to reverse engineering it back into pieces.
I did came a lot further.
The tray does now load perfectly and the tape plays but it looks like twice the speed.
Thank you fior your reply @drdcc.
What i also see is that the heads isn’t loading while i press the the player to play so it stays in the original place.
Fast Forwarding and rewinding is working.
I think that the player is really messed up and that it is something of an alignment issue.
Does this has something to do with the gear underneath the belt capstans (the red one)?
Can that be placed in the wrong order and therefore the head is not loading at all?
Or can it be that something is broken because the head was always turning around when there was an issue with the tray which was misaligned
Hopefully there is a simple solution
Nothing in the service manual is telling me that there is some alignment needed before putting everything in place.
I think i have to check this topic and maybe this will solve my issue with the alignment for the head.
He had a similair issue and documented it very good.
Thanks you @Remi
Unfortunately i still have issues with the player.
With original tapes the recorder plays well. Not all tapes but most of them.
It is not possible to record on a tape. You can record and you do see the VU meters but nothing is recorded. There is no sound (analogue tested only)
Is it possible that because of the issues with the loading mechanism the head is somewhat out of place and therefore has issues with the tape to be transported the right way along the head.
What else can i check?
I am a little bit lost and i think that this is not a common issue because this player has been treathed very rough and therefore has other issues than just belts and gear unfortunately.
I can’t find something in the service manual which tell me how to re-align the head.
If i move the head a little bit while playing a tape which is not working at all it sometimes gives sound for a fraction of a second so at least the head is not dead.
I admire your persistence, for I might have given up on this one in an earlier stage
This error is specific for this player and make it so hard for us to even guess what could be wrong. I think you are right in thinking it could be head alignment, but don’t forget tape transport and speed.
I can think of a couple things to test further:
Try to record a tape in this 600 and play it in another, 100% working DCC player, and check the tracks in service mode.
Are there many dropouts?
Is your tape damaged after playing it in the 600? Look very carefully. Tracks run close to the side of the tape.
Thank you all on the forum.
