Seeburg SPS160 Olympian CD conversion help

Hi,

I got my first jukebox today, a 1972 Seeburg SPS160 Olympian. The guy I got it from bought it off of another person who converted it to play CD's instead of records. After plugging it in and trying it, I found that the CD player part of the jukebox isn't working. I can type in the CD number (of 50) and then the track number, it uses a credit, but the player doesn't move at all, let alone try to grab the disc. I can't find any information on the kit that the original owner installed in this, and I'm at a loss. I've included pictures of all of the important parts. I really want to get this machine fixed up and working, so any help at all is appreciated!

Thank You


The Jukebox


CD player information


Connections on outer case of CD player


CPU Board


Top View of CD Rack


View of moving CD player


Top of moving CD player

Could it have been this:

http://seeburgdigital.com/

or this:

http://www.cdadapter.com/

I appreciate the help, but I don't think it is either of them. Both of those are for digital conversions. If anyone has any knowledge about any kind of jukeboxes that have been converted to play CDs it would really help. I plan to take the system out of the jukebox when I have time to see if there are any mechanical problems, but other than that I don't have any ideas.

Thanks again.

I've been in the jukebox business over 25 years and I've never seen a CD conversion kit like this one. But there were several 3rd party conversion available back in the early 90's, all of which are long out of business.

Your best bet would be to contact JVC and see if they still have service manuals and schematics for the CD changer itself. It sounds like the jukebox selection side of the conversion is working and the changer is dead.

Are there any 'test' buttons on the changer? play, next, previous ...
The Sony changer that SCDx seeburg jukes used had test buttons inside the back panel.

Sorry for the absence, I have been really busy lately. I have contacted JVC, Uni-Tronix (The makers of the board in the fourth picture), and several jukebox repair places in my area and none of them have ever heard of this CD system. However, After disassembling the CD changer itself, I found that the grease and lubricant had become almost gummy, preventing the motors from running. So after carefully putting on new grease, oiling bearings, and generally cleaning up the player it mostly works. You can select a disc, it moves to the slot, lowers the disc and tries to play. However, the mechanism that presses on the CD to spin it does not always start and often sits there until the system thinks there is no disk. If it does spin, it plays the CD and I get sound. It has been hooked up to an oscilloscope and it is not always getting a signal. The next step is going to be checking the various ICs and cables to make sure everything is working as it should. The only other problem is that it will give an error message after unsuccessfully trying to play a disc several times. However, this will most likely be alleviated when the CD player is fully functioning. If anyone has any other thoughts on what the problem could be, it would be appreciated.

Thanks!

I am late to this discussion but, I have just this week dealt with a similar problem. The fact that the unit will, on occasion initialize and play but won't even spin-up at other times indicates that perhaps a sensing switch be it leaf or optical is intermittent.

These conversion units varied greatly in quality. Some were nothing more than consumer grade players w/custom interface. Problem is that the volume of use that a commercial unit is much greater and lightweight leaf switches and opto switch exciter LED's that are over currented may not hold up.

So, my two cents is to look for what senses the clamped CD. Then beyond that check those ribbon cables for knuckles and the usual suspects: Defective capacitors. The fact that you can get operation at all is a hopeful sign..
Rob/NYC

In a major brand, CD jukebox, the sequence of operation is something like the following (who knows in that unit ?) :
Main computer tells mech control to search for disc # XX, and to place it on the player. That done, the main computer tells the mech controller to search for track # xx. At that point the mech controller turns on the laser power. The "eye" checks for a disc, once (IF) found, it tells the player control to spin the disc, and search for that track. Once found, it plays the track. The most common failures occur at the "eye", either if fails to "see the disc", or it can not focus on it. Most of the time this indicates a "bad eye"--although sometimes it is just "dirty". You might try cleaning it--but be careful, as the "eye" is easily damaged by "cleaning"--
You should take precautions against "static" and you should also know how the "eye" is constructed prior to cleaning, as you can not "just wipe it off".
If you can determine which player is installed, I may be able to describe the correct cleaning method-- If not, you might try one of the available "lens cleaners" available. Ron Rich

Thank you for the suggestion. Its funny that you say that because I did that earlier today before reading your post. The problem was indeed that the laser diode was dirty with this film on it. I hadn't seen it before when I first took it apart, but you could see it under a magnifying glass. After carefully cleaning it because it was apparent the assembly was fragile, the player works great. It still needs adjusting with the tracking settings, but it is near perfect now. So it turns out that after over four years of sitting in a guys garage all of the problems were mechanical. So now all that is left is to restore the cabinet, which is just sanding and painting as its all in pretty good shape. I will post a picture of the finished product, and maybe a video as a reference to others that might come across this. I also just wanted to say that this is a very friendly and helpful community, and I'm glad that I found it!

Thanks again