I would like to replicate these fantastic mods myself. However, is there Any possibility of obtaining parts numbers like relays/front pushbuttons etc? It would cut down on the guesswork and frustration. Just saying...

@toasTr0n

2 жыл бұрын

Ask and ye shall receive: www.evernote.com/l/Afnkx0hJaVVDnq9_q30vBIgLzQTWK9uLuhc/ I made some notes while I was working on this project. Part numbers and links are included. But I started planning this in 2017 and obtained some of the parts as early as then, and there have been some manufacturing and supply chain changes since then. I updated links in 11/2020, but you may need to shop around again. I hope you can still get the dual X10 appliance modules, as they're really the crux of all my mods. I also depended heavily on the colors of wires in my notes. These RCA units were mostly hand-wired and I don't know if the wire colors were set in stone, so they could vary among units. But this should at least get you started.

Thanks for the video. It's great watch people get things working properly.

I had one. Loved it. I bought it at a former drug store known as Oscos. Thanks for the ELO music

I really like this machine. All the mods made are awesome. Really nice to be able to swap out tapes while one plays.

+1 for the music selection

Very interesting--and useful--modifications. Since I came here after seeing Techmoan's video on his similar machine, I thought he had a good idea using an empty magazine as a sort of speculum to make it easier to see the tape heads etc. Anyway, enjoyed watching this one.

@toasTr0n

2 жыл бұрын

Ha, speculum -- use of that word seems almost inappropriate, and yet... completely appropriate. Yes, I failed to consider how having fewer than three hands in that situation would lead to poor cinematic aesthetic. Glad you enjoyed nonetheless!

Dude, im totally speechless on your modifications. Fuckin epic is what this is. I love it!

Thank you and all the best for 21!

I own the version of this player that has the built in tuner and amplifier and I absolutely love it! 🤗 The build and sound quality is top notch over any other 8 track player that I've ever owned previously to this one. If anyone ever come across one of these players out in the wild, I definitely recommend picking one up. 👍

@toasTr0n

4 жыл бұрын

Cool! I think I'm happy to have the line output-only model since I can easily use it with any amplifier I want, but I'm curious about the specs of the amp in yours.

@rwj777

4 жыл бұрын

The model that I have is the RCA Mark 8 Stereo Automatic Changer / FM-AM- MPX ( Model VYC 950 W ) It has AUX OUT jacks and PHONO IN jacks... plus separate 8 ohm SPEAKER jacks. I'm not exactly sure how much power the built in amp has though. I just use the line out jacks, so I can play it through my Onkyo receiver and it sounds great! 👍

@toasTr0n

4 жыл бұрын

@@rwj777 Wow! Obviously I've never seen that model up close, but I didn't expect a small bookshelf-type system like that to have the extra inputs and outputs. Do the AUX OUT jacks give you line level output from the tuner too? (I'm sure your Onkyo's tuner does a better job, but I'm just curious.)

@rwj777

4 жыл бұрын

Yes, the AUX line out jacks work with the built in tuner as well. 👍

Very good job on the whole video and the mods are great!

I have one of these and have to agree the sound is superb. (I have a separate Dolby decoder, for some tapes. I also have a Telex changer which takes 20+ cartridges but I am yet to dare run / fix it. It is very cheaply built, from brittle plastic.) I will try your “track change without advancing cartridge” mod as, you are 100% right, why did they do it that way? Remote is also cool but I need to operate it from a cell phone via the (glitchy) Harmony Hub, like all my other gadgets. The track changer timer is also a brilliant improvement. I will read your notes studiously!

Just freshened mine up and going. Payed a little bit for it but it looks like it had very little used as the heads are pristine and had an intact original belt. Has a bit of trouble playing the tapes where the capstain is not perfectly centered on the roller. No fault of the player just the variablily of tape manufacturers. Need to figure out how to resurface the capstain would probably help with slippage. Heard of sandblasting or etching with acid. Nice mods should lessen wear and tear not cycling through the mechanism when you don't want to. Just sent the belt specs to westcoastresale on ebay if you wind up needing a belt, seems it's a bit of a rare player that no one had a belt for. Looks like you might be getting a little bit of hangup on your 4 to 1 track change. I had to clean up and degrease the track change mechanism to get it to constantly lift the whole head assembly on the switch back to 1. Mine has the same number on the transformer but is marked 0100N on the back with a serial no of 30940038 if that helps. Nice x10 integration, I used to use that stuff back in the day, kind of got back into doing stuff manually, simplifies my life. 😂 pretty good video for someone that doesn't make videos 👍

Clever Mod!

Interesting video. Really nice ! :-D

Love the mods, make sense, its far to believe that RCA skipped them bak in the day. The pause thing , the only thing that coul be a bit concerning is it can put a spot on the roller if this is it left there for a long period of time. Same in some record players, as soon as you shut them off, the rubber iddler is put away from the motor and plate to avoid spots. Well, in the 8 tracks roller are in the cratridge so probably are easy to change if needed.

@toasTr0n

3 жыл бұрын

I actually thought of that! I have the 8-track player set up in my office with my PC controlling it. When I lock my PC, the player pauses. If it remains paused and there is no motion in the room for 2 hours, it moves to the LOAD position and powers off, relieving the pressure from the pinch roller. 😁

@toasTr0n

3 жыл бұрын

Great name, BTW. Love the C64 reference. 🙂

@JaredConnell

3 жыл бұрын

@@toasTr0n someone should invent a way to play 8track tapes on a pc so that you could just listen to music on your computer directly. Or maybe record music onto floppy disks. I dunno, but somehow playing music on a pc would be pretty sweet. How amazing would that be?

@toasTr0n

3 жыл бұрын

@@JaredConnell I'm basically already playing 8-tracks with my PC. I can control all the player's functions from the PC, and the audio output plays through the sound card in my PC so my PC audio gets mixed in with the final audio going to the speakers. Regarding floppy disks, you could downsample and compress the crap out of an MP3 until it fits on a 3 1/2" floppy. But that's probably not what you mean. There have been some experiments with recording and playing back analog audio directly with floppy drives, but the floppy heads are not well suited to analog signals and there is not much space available for storing a decent recording. But the concept is very similar to that of analog dictation machines that used a proprietary magnetic disc, and those were a real thing!

If you really wanted to get a full deluxe player you could add fast forward and automatic music search which is used on some Sharp 8track players.

@toasTr0n

4 жыл бұрын

Cool idea! But it has an AC synchronous motor, which means its rotational speed is locked to the alternating frequency of the AC power. So I'd either need to replace the motor with a dual-servo DC one that somehow has enough torque, maybe through reduction pulleys, or come up with some fancy solenoid-clutched transmission. Interesting challenge. But I think what I'd end up with would no longer be a true 8-track player, because the seek control would make sense! Nah, I can't go ruining that!

@stvlu733

4 жыл бұрын

@@toasTr0n My Akai has an AC motor and it has a super fast FF feature. You could fabricate a motor mounting adapter bracket to mount any other motor as long as it fits in the area. Maybe there is a 2 speed motor that would fit with the same RPM's that you could use or just print or lathe cut a pulley to fit the correct RPM's.

@toasTr0n

4 жыл бұрын

@@stvlu733 Does the AC motor in your Akai have separate windings for the different speeds? Again, it's an interesting challenge but not one I'm likely to do. The limitation that one can only jump to one of 4 already-defined points in the album at any given time is one of the quirks that makes the 8-track format so charming. And I'm of the opinion that the inertial effects of abrupt speed-ups and slow-downs on a loosely packed freewheeling hub of tape is just asking for trouble.

@stvlu733

4 жыл бұрын

@@toasTr0n This model Akai does have separate winding's for the FF and play mode. I do use the FF button a lot on my Sony and Akai and have never lost a tape weather it be a long double album tape or a short one. That's what the huge flywheel is for. It's to gradually slow down the tape and leave no slack. DJ carts used in radio stations used to play at this high speed like it was in FF and abruptly stop after the tone stopped the unit and removed the pinch roller. I sometimes use the Sony to reset a tape while playing another with the Akai. These tapes are tougher than you think. Just don't play them upside down or transport them that way in a car. Now that's asking for trouble. I was always curious on how good the APSS worked on the Sharp recorder model to stop between songs. I don't know the model. This would be handy on those long play tapes since there is a 5 second gap between songs for most. I do have the patience of letting a tape play though it's cycle to hear what I want. It's not too bad. I find that to be the charm of the format as well. It almost forces you to listen to the other songs as you get used to them to further appreciate them.

does Techmoan know about this thing?

@toasTr0n

3 жыл бұрын

Haha, I'm in Techmoan's Patreon circle and probably could have asked him directly, but didn't think to. This is exactly the sort of thing that would be on his channel, but I'm pretty sure he hasn't covered it. Part of the reason I made the video is because I hadn't seen a good demo of this player elsewhere and felt it needed to be better documented. Making videos is not something I'm particularly good at nor motivated to do and he'd no doubt do a much better job.

I just picked up the JCPenny version of this unit. Works like a champ, and surprised at the audio quality. Would you be willing to share the details of the mod that allows continuous play? Not asking you to do it, just how you did it. 😊 Thanks.

@toasTr0n

4 жыл бұрын

Before I changed any of the wiring, I had a "discovery" phase in which I traced the existing circuits and made notes on what to change. This is my note for continuous play (repeat all): "Facing front of unit, on right side behind front panel, lowest switch on the chassis: short orange and green together for repeat all. Mechanism will not stay in LOAD position but cartridges can still be individually added and removed." You could add something as simple as a single-pole latching switch that shorts these 2 terminals together, which will keep continuous play on. But it will also keep the changer from stopping in the LOAD position; when you switch the power off, it will cycle continuously until you open your new switch, then it will power off as normal when it gets to LOAD. If you're okay with that, that is all you need do. Mine does not have the latter problem because I'm using an X10 appliance micro module (effectively a relay) to short across those terminals, and I wired the micro module so it's powered by the output of the power switch on the front panel, hence the relay opens when the power switch opens.

@noelleonard2498

3 жыл бұрын

I'm loving my rca, the only issue is it has trouble playing the carts with the smaller diameter pinch rollers. With the smaller pinch rollers the capstain dosen't line up in the center, it rides to the inside more and i get some slippage.

En Chile fabricamos el modelo STA 22 reproductor de cartridge 8 pistas

@rotcehaidereh3976

2 жыл бұрын

Durante los años 60. Procedencia Matsunaga Japan. Busco el cartridge demo que traía música de bossa nova. Que sabes al respecto.

@toasTr0n

2 жыл бұрын

@@rotcehaidereh3976 Sorry, I know nothing about either. Best of luck on your quest.

Nice I love this 8 track 😃 Super sexy

I want one just like yours

I bet you still don't have the rewind working... :-)

@toasTr0n

3 жыл бұрын

Sadly, it's true. I'm a failure!

@ScottGrammer

3 жыл бұрын

Nah, you're not a failure. You're only a failure if you have not been able to get it to play Beta tapes. :-)

@toasTr0n

3 жыл бұрын

@@ScottGrammer Oh don't be silly; of course it plays Beta tapes. And with the high speed dubbing, it makes 4 copies of a 3 hour movie in 9 seconds while upconverting to 8K and adding 3D with AI. And if I don't have a TV connected, it projects a hologram. But that's simple stuff. Rewinding an 8-track requires bending the laws of physics. Perhaps someday in the distant future, we will have the technology.

A microwave for only coffee cups lol

If I find one could I send it to you to mod it without the computer controlled