From: "Alexander W. Chin" Subject: Re: 32kHz vs. 48kHz tracking Date: Wed, 18 Jun 1997 00:33:57 +1000 At 1:49 AM +0200 17/6/97, Heiko Purnhagen wrote: >Hello Alexander, DAT-Heads! > >Although things have to get really bad before I4d start considering to >sandpaper my headdrum, I was quite fascinated by Alexander's reports on >his experiments. It is exactly this kind of detailed technical "tips and >tricks" that makes me reading DAT-Heads! >Could you give some hints regaring how to take of the D7 top cover >(incl. display and buttons). I tried it myself - without success ;-(. >Maybe I just was too carefull - or simply didn4t find the trick ... Ok... this is how it is done. Put the D7 on a table. Turn it around so the back (part with the DC power in jack) is facing you. There are 2 screws on the top door, at the hinge. Remove them (and try to lose them in your carpet). Then engage the eject to open the door. The door is connected to the inside via two hooks at the cassette cage (part where the tape lives), and of course the two screws that you just removed. You need to unhook the door part from the cassette cage. Once that is done, it is a little tight because of the attached flexible ribbon cable/PCB whatever. The wire. You need then to tug the wire. Don't worry, you cannot break it, it is folded at a 90 degree angle at the top of the door (where the upper board is). Once you tug it, the fold will give way and you will free up more cable so you can manipulate the door more. By tug, I mean leave the D7 on the table. Keep the door horizontal and lift it up towards the sky. You will feel the cable give way when the fold is undone. You will obviously have unhooked it from the cage first, before trying to lift it. Then you can tilt the door back and have it lie face down on the table as well. This now exposes the innards of the D7. Life the cassette cage, there are two screws at both sides. These don't look like normal screws. They have very very big diameter. More like a washer attached to a screw head. Remove these two, then you can lift the cassette cage towards you. Well, you know what I mean. Then there just remain two screws left to remove. There is a piece of metal about 1.5 cm x width of DAT tape covering the head (with a plastic slider arm on it). You take the two screws out, and that metal, and the D7 is totally exposed now. If you want to wet clean, you have full access to the heads, capstan and all. You can also load a tape (which you have to free the flap first) and watch the mechanism do its thing. Really cool, epsecially the way it loads and unloads the tape. You later reassemble it in reverse. I also did mention in a previous post, you need to do this in relative darkness, if too bright, the D7 may not work. I get around this by slipping two pieces of cardboard besides the DAT tape at left and right optical pickups. Enjoy! Cheers Alex ============================================================================== Alexander W. Chin Unisearch Multimedia Suite 232 Systems Administrator National Innovation Centre E-mail : alexc@newt.phys.unsw.edu.au Australian Technology Park Phone : (612) 9209 4065 Garden Street, Eveleigh Fax : (612) 9209 4061 NSW 1430 http://gerulf.acsu.unsw.edu.au/~alex Australia