Phonoland

Yes I agree, I ordered new mounts, different manufacturer this time.
Because of the difference in size we will need to make an adapter ring. But thats the least of the problems

I'll get back with the results once the parts are in.

Thanks soo much so far

ps. I got your new CPU and it works wonderfully. I added some more blue filters to tone down the blue light and added some yellow and green to make the middle ones nicely green. Really looking sweet now!

Hi William,
Glad you like the new MCU --thanks again for the purchase--
BTW,display intensity is adjustable--just read the "owners manual".
Ron Rich

Hi Ron,

The mech was still giving me headaches and earpain. Stil bad sound.

Yesterday I bought a different SMC-1 Mech and connected it.
It sounded better allready with the old hardened rubbers still in it. So I cleaned the new Mech, Switched rubber parts from old one to the new one and now I have a brilliant sound. So the problem is indeed somewhere in the Mech. I still think there is too much play on the driveshaft. But thats to be fixed at a later date.

One thing was different though. The old mech had 2 wires on the limit switches and this one has 3. I saw your advise on making the iner switch of the 179 limit switch to be always open. I do not understand why this is better?
Also, I now have 2 mech bases. Each one has different limit switch ramps. Is there any preference in these? So just so I will choose the best one to take. One ramp has the mounting screws under or above the ramp and the other had the mounting screws to the left or right of the ramps.

Cheers and thanks again!

Hi William,
Actually, SMC-1's were produced with three different types of "limit switches". The first ones were magnetic, and a utter failure, the second type, had two blades, the third had three blades. The last blade was added to the switches because SOME mechanisms tended to "coast" after power was removed. When coasting, IF, it stopped with the detent switch JUST touching, it tended to add to the up/down count. When this happened, and the next customer happened to play something that did not require the MCU count to be re-set, a wrong selection resulted. The third blade was added to insure that motor power stayed on till it reached an end of the rack (at which point the count was re-set). When we designed the Gen 2 MCU, we did away with the "selection space memory". The Gen 2 shuts down motor power and clears memory after two closures of the detent switch, if no other selections have been made. Opening the inner blade ( I insulate it with heat shrink) as the instructions say to do prevents the motor from slamming down to an end of the rack.
-- Ramps--either type works--early ones looked like a "T", later ones like a "little finger". On the real early "T" type, the flange of the T, was pushed in too far to get a good adjustment--one needs to "re-form" it out, so that in effect, it's a little longer. Once done, it's much easier to adjust the limit switches as per spec. Ron Rich

Okay, thank you for explaining this to me. Nice hearing these design stories

Would it be possible for you to post a picture of that detent switch with isulation ?
Just to be sure I got it right

Thanks for the service!

ps your MCU-II is still going strong

Hi William,
I just slip a piece of heat-sink over the inside blade and contact--mostly to inform anyone that sees it in the future, that it must be left open--
I used to just cut the blade off, but that's "too much work" -
BTW--my "original, Gen 2, prototype board", from six years ago is still running strong--never has been removed, nor serviced in any way since we designed the"final" program chip, 5 years ago. -- Ron Rich