space echo hell

joninc · Post by **joninc** » Sat Apr 20, 2013 5:44 pm

before this thing started dying it;s slow death the repeats were pristine and glassy - no pitch bending whatsoever..

echotonecd · Post by **echotonecd** » Sun Apr 21, 2013 3:25 am

Yeah I gotta start servicing mine. Did you contact darlington to service it for you? Might be worth it

Darlington Pair · Post by **Darlington Pair** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 10:14 am

Did you clean the heads before you switched tape? I've seen the binder from old tape gum up new tape before.

How's the humidity? I forgot to turn on the humidifier in my basement and it's been raining a lot lately, went to use my 101 to do a little 4 track dub song on saturday for fun and my tape was sticky and wrapped around my pinch roller so I used my 501 (I've been using two different tape formulations to see if one went sticky faster than the other, I got my answer)

Clean the capstan REALLY well and make sure the pinch roller is not slipping. If it is, rough the roller up a little with some fine grit sandpaper, not enough to really remove any rubber, just make sure it isn't shiny and clean it really well. Sometimes the lubricant from the tape gets all over the roller and it doesn't grab the capstan well enough.

Wow and flutter is almost certainly mechanical in nature.

Take a cotton swab and feel the tension before the heads and after the heads, often if you have sticky residue or your lubricant has gone bad or your tape has just gone sticky you can feel the tape sticking and releasing, sometimes it even makes an excessive squealing or dragging noise.

echotonecd · Post by **echotonecd** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 10:40 am

Het darlington my question is what's the proper adjustment for the tape heads or where can I get the information on that. I'm nervous about running the tape uneven and losing the fidelity in the heads. Does that happen?

Darlington Pair · Post by **Darlington Pair** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 11:08 am

echotonecd wrote:Het darlington my question is what's the proper adjustment for the tape heads or where can I get the information on that. I'm nervous about running the tape uneven and losing the fidelity in the heads. Does that happen?

Everything you need to know right here... http://manuals.fdiskc.com/flat/Roland%2 ... Manual.pdf

joninc · Post by **joninc** » Tue Apr 23, 2013 12:50 pm

yep - cleaned heads and captsan - zero residue.

pinch roller is new and seems very rubbery -shouldn't be a problem.

Take a cotton swab and feel the tension before the heads and after the heads, often if you have sticky residue or your lubricant has gone bad or your tape has just gone sticky you can feel the tape sticking and releasing, sometimes it even makes an excessive squealing or dragging noise.

what do you mean "feel the tension with a cotton swab"?

i am starting to wonder if it's the felt tensioner.... i keep tweaking but still sounding bad.

joninc · Post by **joninc** » Tue Apr 23, 2013 1:06 pm

i did try pressing against the tape a bit with a q tip and it seems kind of tight - loosening the felt tensioner completely still gives strange warbles tho.

echotonecd · Post by **echotonecd** » Tue Apr 23, 2013 4:04 pm

You gotta get someone to play while you adjust the tensioner(push gently until right) and when it sounds clearest tighten the screw. At least that's what worked for me.

Darlington Pair · Post by **Darlington Pair** » Fri Apr 26, 2013 12:36 pm

Have you checked to see how freely the bearing moves? It's the one that the felt tension spring presses against.

echotonecd · Post by **echotonecd** » Tue May 07, 2013 11:39 am

darlington how do you know if your tape heads have worn. my unit was left on for like a week... it definitely lost a lot of that sparkle. but i think its primarily the tape. what do you think some damages could be and how i could rejuvenate my unit?

Darlington Pair · Post by **Darlington Pair** » Tue May 07, 2013 12:18 pm

echotonecd wrote:darlington how do you know if your tape heads have worn. my unit was left on for like a week... it definitely lost a lot of that sparkle. but i think its primarily the tape. what do you think some damages could be and how i could rejuvenate my unit?

I would try a good head cleaning and demagnetizing before I did anything else. You should be able to get 300 hours out of the tape, but I'm not sure that I ever have due to my abuse of dub style speed changes.

The heads are like any other, check and see if they have grooves in them.

echotonecd · Post by **echotonecd** » Tue May 07, 2013 12:37 pm

i feel like it just lost some sparkle or some depth since. it still works. as far as the motor should i be worried about it running too long?

Darlington Pair · Post by **Darlington Pair** » Tue May 07, 2013 1:14 pm

echotonecd wrote:i feel like it just lost some sparkle or some depth since. it still works. as far as the motor should i be worried about it running too long?

It's a brushless motor so the only thing that can wear out is the bearings and they're replaceable. There's some electronics in there, but I think $10 could replace everything on the pcb if that happened.

twiitala · Post by **twiitala** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 7:50 pm

Hello everyone,

I thought I should resurrect this thread rather than start a new one, since I'm in space echo hell and need some help.

I have a 201 that has no delay. I recently replaced the electrolytics without testing my space echo first (dumb, I know). So I have no way of knowing if something happened when I replaced the caps or not. The unit was working fine the last time I tried it (2 years ago). I figured replacing the electrolytics would take care of some of the excess hiss the space echo had. I also cleaned the pots and the mode selector switch with contact cleaner and fader lube spray.

So after I realized I had no delay I cleaned and demagnetized the heads. I should mention that the old tape runs smoothly with only a little shedding around the capstan. I bought some nos fidelipac broadcast cartridges and made a new loop which also seems to run well. Still no delay.

My next step is to spend some time with the schematic and check the voltages again. I tried the other night but weird things were happening. I wasn't consistently getting the correct voltage in the places I was checking.

Anyhow, I'm kind of in over my head since I obviously know just enough to get my self in trouble. I'd appreciate it if anyone has any ideas on what components I should look into before I throw this thing into Lake Michigan. Thanks for your time!

Trevor

Darlington Pair · Post by **Darlington Pair** » Thu Jan 29, 2015 10:57 am

If you crank the intensity all the way up does the meter move from self oscillation and you just aren't hearing it at the output?

I hate to say this, but grab the parts placement diagram and make sure you didn't accidentally put a wrong value cap on a transistor gain stage because it could seriously effect the gain. Hopefully there isn't something that didn't accidentally get disconnected or a solder bridge when you changed the caps, but we've all done it.

Also, just in case, did you check all of the inputs including the from PA? The Echo/Normal switch could be an issue. I also hate to say this, but make sure the magnetic side of the tape is facing the right way, I've seen them where someone got turned around while splicing and spliced the wrong side.

Do you have a scope or an audio probe? You're going to need one of either if we get to the finding where audio disappears.

Am I right in assuming that you have a dry signal? Maybe your problem is around Q7 or Q8. If you have a scope you can look for signal at the record head to see if your problem is pre or post tape.

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