[sdiy] anybody know about DAT machines?

[James Patchell]

Assuming a "cap" has died might be a bad assumption...(by the way, I am no 
expert on DAT machines...)....DAT machines use, however, a flying head, 
just like a VCR...Tape heads wear and clog...the first thing I would try is 
getting the head cleaned...just be careful...done wrong and you could end 
up being worse off...

If you have cleaned the head, you might want to find out how many hours the 
heads are rated at to see if it is close to being worn out.  The only real 
way to know for sure is to look at it with a micro scope.

Now, one thing I don't know about DAT is this: On a VCR, there is a "fixed" 
track that contains signals that are used by the machine to sync up the 
video signal...this head can also wear and clog (assuming that a DAT has 
the same head)....

When a head clogs...it can go from working to non-working pretty fast.

At 10:52 PM 9/25/2005 -0400, mark verbos wrote:
>Hi everybody,
>
>I have had this SOny DTC-A7 consumer DAT machine since 1994 and it 
>yesterday in the middle of a tape started having problems. The sample rate 
>flashes like the tape is unformatted when I play a tape. It seems to 
>record ok though. So it is not reading the sample rate off the tape. I 
>assume, blindly, that it's a cap that has dies, since it's age is about 
>right and nothing significant happened between working and not working. I 
>had not used the thing in months and it worked for about 5 minutes before 
>it had problems. I don't want to throw it away, but it would be stupid to 
>PAY someone to fix it when they go for about $100 these days. I just need 
>to read my old tapes.
>
>Any tips? I see a place on the PCB labeled "PBRF" is that Playback 
>Reference? Should I replace the electrolytic next to that?
>
>thanks for ANY help.
>
>Mark

         -Jim
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