Sony’s self-destructing MD Recorder from 2070
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- čas přidán 8. 12. 2023
- The MZ-R5ST is a unique MD recorder & dock combo - that silently kills itself from the inside.
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One can only presume that someone from that film watched this video and found out they needed to remove the batteries and that is why their MD recorder is still working in 2070
Techmoan legit could be a reason why some of these devices will remain for the future in working order. I bet that all of about a dozen people who still have and use these and haven't changed those batteries yet, will start to do so after this :D
@@MetalTrabant plus all of them that have only recently been killed and are still salvagable
There need to be a credit in the film "A Special shout out has to go to Techmoan without whom this phone would not be possible."
MD is a failed format that nearly no one bought, so it’s perfect for movie props
People watching this in 2070 are going to be so confused.
Best keep them prepared!
They are going to have really leaky batteries. :-)
If we don't wipe us out ourselves out before then
"Sony? I thought they were bought by metazon years ago?"
I doubt youtube, or any of this content will exist in 2070.
Thank you. I have one of these still all working and didn’t know about the batteries. Extracted them and a little leakage but no damage yet. Sleep well in the knowledge you helped save a minidisc player.
take some pictures of the pcb traces for techmoan :)
Put lithium AA batteries inside, they won't leak, as far as I know.
I'd just leave the batteries out (and keep it unplugged when not in use) as the corrosion might still conduct electricity and keep advancing if there's a steady source of power there.
It is probably still worth trying to clean out the alkaline residue as its still conductive and corrosive to a limited degree... I have had success a couple times on various electronics removing the circuit board and gently and carefully (to not spread it around) using a tooth brush or Q-tip and distilled water rinse away the alkaline residue, Once or twice that alone solved the problem (apparently it shorted a circuit out) and another time a couple of obvious breaks in traces were revealed and so minor soldering and short wire overlays solved the problem. Just a thought if you want to protect it longer-term....
Use vinegar or lemon juice to clean the residue off. And then use isopropyl alcohol to clean that off.
In all my years as an electronics/DIY enthusiast and professional technician, and despite having visited Japan twice, I had never come across the term "minus driver" for a flat-bladed screwdriver until noticing it in that disassembly guide (12:50). Having now Googled it, it seems that the terms "plus driver" _(purasu doraibaa)_ and "minus driver" _(mainasu doraibaa)_ for cross-head and flat-head screwdriver are common in Japan and clearly have been for decades. Every day is a school day.
Wow yes ! exactly the same here...who knew lol !
It's also relatively common in Russia too
Interesting. And thinking about it, it actually makes sense to describe them that way, visually speaking. I'm actually surprised it didn't catch in other places too.
Seems kinda obvious as a quick term every one would get !!@@zanizone3617
I knew about "plus driver", and had assumed but never actually seen "minus driver" in the wild. Nice to get confirmation all these years later (about something I clearly never cared enough to look up!)
From discs to hardware, MiniDisc will always look futuristic.
True!
@@MiggerPleaseYes really. Stop being contrarian for no reason and go outside.
@@MiggerPleaseSounds good. Let's rumble. It's gonna be hard tho because you are already comment blocked on my channel. Scream into the void you dweeb.
Agree, never had it, unfortunately, but each time I see it - I desperately want one
it’s a fascinating piece of tech
for sure !
I have two of these docks that are both working, I had no idea there were batteries inside! This video was a lifesaver 🙏
Phew !
I think you owe him a beer :)
@@cc8530There are no "donate me a beer" sites - only "donate me a coffee" ...
Maybe you could take some macro photographs of the circuit boards to allow techmoan to patch his missing tracks.
So the superior digital port works. I see no problem here.
Hey I have and repaired one of these! It was a pretty damn intensive repair. I have a post going into detail. Lots of traces to fix and the LCD polerizer replaced. It can do so much! I love it.
If you ever need it repaired let me know.
this one has a damn intensive amount of damage / u really are a crazy guy LOL
@@echelonrank3927 you should see what pinball people used to fix on old Williams pinball boards when the 3 AA's died and leaked all over
i have a board with 1/3 of the tracks replaced with jumper wires and it works just fine
Tried browsing your YT channel to find the post, but I didn't see anything. Did you take it down? I'd like to see the repair.
I remember Sony Mini discs being cutting edge tecnology back in those days and i wanted one SO badly, but they were unobtanium in my little south american country (Uruguay) they were only available in the official sony store and they were starting in like 600 dollars, a fortune back then. I just ended giving up and trying forgetting them. Some months after the junkie of the neighborhood appeared when me and a friend were hanging out and offered us a "walkman" for a couple bucks. I couldn't believe my eyes, it was a Sony MD in very good condition. I know it was wrong because it was probably 99% stolen from someone but i just couldn't resist buying it.
So that's the history of how the neighbor junkie got me a piece of the most advanced portable audio at the time😂
From cutting-edge tech to obsolete curiosity to futuristic prop… what an interesting life this device has led 😄
A few years ago I bought a vintage oscilloscope from a local electronics repair shop in my city and I had an interesting talk with the guy. As general "electronics repair" has become less viable over the years, he had been buying out the equipment and inventory of fellow repair shops when they decided to leave the business so he really had a variety of vintage equipment. He said the majority of his business at that point was selling to film students and artists who simply needed cool retro looking blinky props
We'll see it in Back to the Future 13! :)
And it looks cool in both cases.
@@Eequality72521 that makes sense, a bunch of analogue oscilloscopes were already relegated to prop duty even in 2005. It's nice that they're still being used at least!
My favourite is always when a sci-fi control panel is just an old mixing and equalising desk, with the knobs set for Maximum Variety and therefore in nonsense combinations!
All the while a commercial failure
You might be able to fix the PCB by adding jumper wires to fix the broken traces. If you can find the service manual it will help. It's a time consuming process but with luck you might be able to fix it if no critical component was damaged too.
or send it to a youtuber that does that
@@simonl7784 Recommend any? Ive seen Adrians Digital Basement but he usually does 8bit computers.
@@simonl7784I'd suggest Big Clive.
Even if not fixing it, cleaning the PCB with isopropyl to avoid more degradation from the battery guts would make sense.
@@av_oid White vinegar is good at removing leaked battery ooze as well. But clean up after with iso to remove acidity!
Breaks my heart to hear that this gorgeous bit of kit is falling apart like that because that thing is one of the loveliest designs the MD line ever produced.
Leaky batteries and capacitors can do more damage than you might think. If the liquid gets underneath the soldermask, it'll gradually destroy all the copper traces underneath the soldermask, without you being able to notice.
Neutralising the liquid fully by full exposure to a neutralising agent (e.g. vinegar followed by IPA) is paramount for long-term conservation.
Oh, I never knew, one should neutralise severe leakage like that with vinegar.
I would have thought, if all of the leaky content (be it fluid or crystallized) is removed with IPA, then it cannot degrade any further. 😅 Good to know, thank you!
@@Dzubbs Just a good clean with IPA can work too, but if any remnants are left (like under the soldermask), then those will continue to do damage. That's where neutralising it is the best preventative option.
Even if you do not clean everything off afterwards with IPA, at least it should no longer do any harm to the copper traces.
@@MayaPosch got it. I have one game cartridge, where some traces got destroyed. Cleaned it with IPA, repaired it. Given the damage, there is a vedy good chance, some got under the solder mask. It is a Famicom game, so disassembly will be stressful, literally. 😂 Hencewhy I would not have checked that in quite some time (was it not for your comment). So you may have saved a copy of Kirby's Adventure.
Sorry, what's IPA?
@@karlkarlson3502 Isopropyl alcohol (99% is best)
Such a well thought out device (aside from the self-destruct). This little slot for charging an extra battery blew me away. It's just a small feature, and yet a brilliant idea.
Agreed !
I quite like the idea that you have a portable device that can play music but also functions as an integral part of a larger machine.
The way the ports are concealed when taken out of the player is very clean design.
I'm not a big fan of playing music out loud, but the concept is very cool, mechanically.
BOY! I cannot believe you wrote a comment with these exact details, as I wrote nearly the same
Send that off to ‘mend it Mark’
It’ll get fixed. The man is a genius.
Who is 'Mend it Mark' ?
That time machine function reminds me of something I used to do. My dad had a stereo delay guitar pedal that I liked playing with. I'd run the radio through the pedal and out to the cassette deck. I would set the delay time to a good amount, no feedback and all the way dry. When the song came on that I wanted to record, I'd set the fx mix to all the way wet and record the song entirely. Kinda miss doing that...
That’s actually so genius
@@VFuzballYou took the words out of my mouth because that's such an brilliant idea!
Bravo @chupathingy5862. Bravo
"The street finds its own uses for things."
- William Gibson, "Burning Chrome" (OMNI magazine, July 1982)
:)
That's brilliant!
What does "wet" and "dry" mean?
2:41 sounds like a "robot voice" saying alkaline
Most my family could afford around 2000 was a portable cassette player of mid-tier. I can afford a lot more now but still yearn for the nice shiny things that I never will have had at the time.
I had a similar problem. I wanted a stereo system with radio, cassette, turntable and possibly a CD player, but any that were half-decent were out of my price range at the time. Years later, when I was more in a position to be able to afford to save up to buy such things, they'd become far less of a priority and the technology had already moved on.
That's the exact reason I've a house full of film cameras and tape recorders.
@@Bill-eq5ov I live in an apartment with eight portable TVs and two 15 inch semi portables...
@@testcardsandmore1231 That knocking you hear is me, I've brought circuit diagrams and beer.
yea but i skipped minidisc i thought it was a flop and cd was the way to go. i am surprised to learn how many people had minidisc. and i also see people trying to rewrite history into thinking nobody used cassettes anymore in the year 2000. and creating an idealised high tech version of the 90s but it was still mainstream .
"No point crying over spilt alkaline" - gave me a chuckle
The turn of phrase, or the fact that it was a super silly sounding overdub of the word “alkaline”?
What a better way to start a Saturday then to watch a Techmoan video. Thanks, Mat.
Once I recorded a song onto MiniDisc for a school production in 2006 as I’ve known their sound system for including a MiniDisc player since 2001 and although they got that MiniDisc player working eventually, a staff member got at me saying they couldn’t get it to work and told me to record the song onto cassette! That staff member was REALLY stuck in the past, for a class project on The Phantom of The Opera, she gave us the film adaptation on VHS instead of DVD!
I noticed especially our female teachers were very reluctant to use any newer tech and sometimes simply refused to learn anything new. Not the best example to give to the students.
i had the same problem when i was at school they simply couldn't use the wax cylinder edisphone and we had to have the actual string band the heathens
A VHS in 2006 was not really shocking.
Audio cassettes were shocking.
Left high school in 05
@@darkcoeficient we were given the Phantom of The Opera VHS in 2005. 2006 was the year of Now’s last cassette release, Now 64. I left school in late March 2006 and started college after Easter.
Even if the Blu-Rays were available in 2006,
but of course,
an expensive cutting-edge technology, back then.
I like that you mentioned its unique appearance. Sony used to make some really interesting devices.
Their CLIE PDAs are still some of the most beautiful gadgets i've ever seen.
VAIO products looked so cool back in the late 90s.
@@romulus_ Even the 2010s did, pretty nice machines, albeit much of the subdued aesthetics of the time hit it.
Dear Matt
I fear I also suffer from “techmoanitis” and we share very similar views about aspects of technology. In particular this week's episode about the Sony MZ-R5ST, you may have saved me a problem, as I have one of these and I didn’t know about the internal batteries. So thank you for that bit of wisdom, Fortunately mine has only corroded the battery terminals and non of the board. A drop of white Vinegar and IPA has caught it all in time.
Whilst there clearly is battery leakage in your unit, I have a suspicion the lack of analog output may be down to the actual MD player rather than the dock. The main clue for me was that you couldn’t get any output from the inline remote. With my unit I do get output with the player in the dock. I’m not sure how or if you want to get around it.
I bet he thinks you pulled a prank on him,you should apologize
He's getting output optically (digital) not anything else (analogue) the good money is on the clear and obvious alkaline damage.
Still think minidisc is the best format of the last 30 years. Portable, hard wearing, decent capacity, switch between devices easily, small enough, skip tracks instantly, what's not to love.
If you have to have a moving/rotating physical media, then yes. Otherwise, flash memory it is.
@@simcax6087 here's the rub though, cloud backup notwithstanding, many devices don't have cloud back up, if the drive fails, you lose everything. If a minidisc fails, you only lose one album.
Don't get me wrong, I suspect like many that are old enough, I have vinyl, loads of cassettes, mini disc, stacks of CDs, Ipod, ipod nano, and plenty of other mp3 players, and more I've probably forgotten about, but I keep going back to my LP mini disc, which is at least 20 years old.
Currently contemplating hooking up my ipod to my car as well lol.
@@SeanHendy You don't need cloud to backup your files, just a spare usb drive. It's still less prone to failure, than any physical medium coupled with the mechanical machines needed to play them. And not to mention the lossy compression of md vs. flac... I know it's kinda romantic to have a piece of our youth with us and vinyl is the best, but i'm glad my music doesnt take any storage space in my apartment. So the practical reasons are more important to me than this romantic feeling.
Micro sd? Hell , even normal sd seems to be better across the board for that matter.
Except for the shininess of an md of course
Correct me if I'm wrong, but you could only use the proprietary ATRAC format on it, which basically no-one else used... so you also needed proprietary software to handle the files. And if those are not supported anymore, it's not easy to do so. I don't like closed proprietary systems...
Get the service manual for the device. Search for L301 and IC301. These are the coil providing supply to the ADC/DAC and the ADC/DAC chip itself. The rotten trace just above the batteries happens to be the one with the supply going to L301 and from there the IC. Should be easily fixable with some wire.
I've already fixed mine. I had to remake a few corroded/dissapeared traces and neutralise the board. Problem is the leak spot on yours is right where the akm dac is. Mine was there too and around the headphone jack area. I could fix it for a fee of course 😆 xx
How much please ?
I continue to love your videos. You've evolved a really wonderful formula that's always comfortable and entertaining. And thanks especially for not asking me to "like" or "subscribe," "watch to the end of the video," or to answer an inane question in the comment section. As time passes, these things become unbearable.
Very well said on every count.
“As always, should you open the unit for any reason other than disposal, Sony will disavow any knowledge of these batteries. This machine will self destruct in 25 years. Good luck, Agent Taylor.” 😂
It occurred to me that those analog input/output may have never worked. That unit may have been defective right out of the box, got set aside and was never sent out for repair. I say that based on the fact that there’s a disc in the machine with blank recordings, that you believe were created when the machine was new.
This would explain why the unit looked virtually unused and the remote control had never been unwrapped. It was faulty from the get go.
But the fact that a large trace 2-3mm wide that was probably VSS has been visibly eaten away by an alkaloid is still the main issue.
@@andymouse Yes, the eaten-away traces are still a major issue, but might not be the only issue. Just speculation anyway.
The damage is not that bad, actually. This could be fixed. I´ve seen worse damage, especially in my Sony VCR power supplies.
By any chance is your old man a TV repairman? I hear those dudes have an ultimate set of tools.
@@kevinjokipii4260 Nope. But I collect VCRs and have been through a lot with them. Sometimes the damages are pretty extensive. Sony was famous for their leaky capactiors on hifi boards in some of their VHS machines. I´ve had one where the traces were just gone. I also remember one Betacam SP machine where I had to use 2 cans of brake cleaner to wash the power supply board clean enough to be able to work on. It was horrible!
10:14 "Someone at Sony programmed this for no other reason than it looked cool."
This has been part of the reason for Sony's popularity, they managed to do both reasonable quality and to add some coolness factor to consumer-grade equipment. It was on high-end of affordable, with some extra coolness that made one willing to spend the money for it.
That's a very good point...
Too bad they make crapola now
Those symptoms scream “DAC broken” it’ll need a thorough cleaning, acid neutralizing, bodge wires to replace corroded traces, and possibly a new DAC chip
"No used trying to cry over spilt alkaline" 😂
This is such a nice dock and player combo. Seems really well thought out, especially with that additional battery charger built in to the dock, making sure you always have one ready to go. And those totally unnecessary but fun effects on the screen! Really nice product.
Edit: Well, well thought out besides that whole battery business, of course. Such a weird and out of place thing compared to the rest of it.
I was hoping you'd show footage of vacuuming the black dust, and I wasn't disappointed.
Absolutely love the use of Anders Enger Jensen - Discovision at 3:42 - apt and funky track ❤
Whenever I encounter this I use white vinegar with a cotton swab to neutralize the alkaline and then a quick clean. What usually happens is a trace on the board gets consumed by corrosion. Sometimes it can be saved depending on patience levels. Great Video!
I always wanted to get into MD, but I just never had the money, and by the time I did it was already becoming rather obsolete. They still fascinate me, but I cannot justify getting one since I would almost never have a use for it other than playing around with fun tech. So thank you for letting me live out these desires through your excellent videos. :D
Exactly the same for me. A friend of mine had an MD player/recorder. IT was the net MD variant, and could plop a load of MP3's from her computer to a blank disc, have a bag full of discs, and play whatever we wanted on the bus. At the time I could never afford such a thing. Just a few short years later, when I could afford something like that, HDD based players like the ipod had completely displaced MD, offering massive capacity without the need for removable media. There was the Hi MD which i was sorely tempted by (1gb was a massive amount of storage at the time!) but when the contemporary ipods and other players could hold 20-60gb, it seemed expensive for what it actually was. I do regret not getting one though!
When I think of movies and mini discs, I think of the 1996 film, Escape From L.A. In that film there was a tiny CD that was used to control satellites and could send out an emp burst to disable any tech or whatever. It would be interesting to see if there has ever been such a tiny CD with any use. I know the smallest consumer was the 8cm.
They make me think of Goldeneye as the control disc was a TDK minidisk 💽
Brilliant, just brilliant.
I eagerly wait for your video each week and you never disappoint.
"There's no use crying over spilled alkaline" - hahahahahaha!!!!!! Best comment ever 🙂
Only Techmoan goes into the FUTURE to bring us entertainment.
I highly recommend getting some white vinegar and neutralising the battery fluid’s. If you don’t, the acids will keep eating away the PCB and components.
The battery electrolyte is not an acid, it’s a strong base (potassium hydroxide). That’s why using white vinegar (which is diluted acetic acid) is good advice for neutralizing electrolyte residues.
@@tookitogo true, I was just trying to keep my explanation simple.
@@Cybernetic_Systems Simple is OK, but I really hate it when people “simplify” to the point of being absolutely wrong: an alkaline electrolyte is the diametrical opposite of an acid. And this matters because a reader needs to know how to neutralize it.
Great video as always. Like many of your videos, it fills with me with a warm sense of retro nostalgia and catastrophic feeling of existential loss at the same time!
Mini Disc was great! I still have a Sony MD Recorder/CD Player home unit and a Sony MD player/recorder walkman that I purchased for my son when he was only 8. The walkman was taken care of as good as an 8 y/o cared for it. Both units still work flawlesly. They've been in the family for over 25 yrs. Don't play it much these days, but I really liked that format. And even my son loved it, too back then. It was good, when it was good! Blessings!
Despite I can't share your fascination about this one way device, it might be possible, that it weren't the batteries which caused the problem with the built-in amp . I'd rather think that the internal power supply is faulty and doesn't supply the Amplifier section of the doc.
Also capacitors which weren't powered up for a long time sometimes become deaf, which means they don't transmit any current to the outputs.
Maybe it is a good idea to check the internal power distribution.
I was also thinking it could be the "pre-amp" components / circuits.
sony was the apple of the 80s . it was cool with the best designs. i wish sony would go back to its roots as japans aple.
Always an excellent job on the MD information.
Oh No! I’ve got one of these that I bought from new. As soon as I get home I will check to see if the internal batteries have leaked. I had no idea that was an issue. Thanks Techmoan 👍🏾
I'm always looking at old tech thinking how it could be used on a movie set and the MZ-R37 is the one I'd use. Glad you saved this dock.
Nice video , MD and Toslink features still gives 21 century looks ... hope one day some one makes a Toslink 2 protocol (more data bandwith) ,Fiber optics is the future :D
You are the best Mat! Love your videos and appreciate all the work you put into these bringing us wonderful gear. Cheers from North Carolina in the US!!
What a nifty little device! I would have absolutely _loved_ something like this in my hi-fi. Those Apple iPod standalone 30-pin docking stations that have the 3.5 mm audio output and little tiny remote control are reminiscent of this kind of concept - you come home from being on-the-go, dock your iPod, and continue listening through your stereo, all while charging your device back up. This is something I still use to this day, and it’s funny to see Sony innovating _years_ prior to the iPod's heyday and consistently setting the bar for everyone else. You truly cannot go wrong with a Sony. Great video, as always. Your enthusiasm and dedication to this craft are much admired and appreciated. I look forward to Saturday mornings - the Techmoan notifications are always a pleasant surprise. Cheers. 🍻😊💙
Great video! It is sad to see old batteries are killing old tech. I've lost a few things over the years from acid leaks.
My dad and I bought into the MiniDisc revolution wholeheartedly. It was a terrific format- light years ahead of audio cassette tape. For the first time you didn't have to record in real time! We could rearrange the tracks, skip tracks and find a specific passage of the music all within seconds. it WAS the future! We didn't know anyone else who had a MiniDisc set up and friends and colleagues used to marvel when they saw it! The i-pod came along and of course the rest is history. MiniDisc became yet another casualty of technological progress and aggressive marketing- those early I-pod ads were iconic. Great to see this particular piece of kit being repurposed in a Sci fi movie- after all- to paraphrase a certain politician- it was the future once.
I loved the way this device looked. Thanks for the review. keep up the good work on your videos. I really enjoy them.
Wonderful device! Sony really had their stuff together sometimes.
Um they STILL have it together, what are you talking about?
Not even close. Sony used to be THE standard in luxury electronics. Cameras are still great, that's the only area they lead.@@toyokawashigako1643
@@toyokawashigako1643 i guess a Typical "new bad" case
@@toyokawashigako1643 there was no condom on the battery , not even a plastic bag
Such a shame that the leaky batts ruined the board like that.
I hope someone (perhaps the peeps over at the Minidisc museum and their associates?) can come up with a replacement board to get any units with severe battery damage fully operational again - even if, realistically, I bet that a lot of those have either already been hand-repaired where possible, scrapped for parts where not, or even thrown out altogether.
Those boards aren't ruined. You could definitely rescue them pretty easily. It'd be annoying work but it'd be successful
Given the position and how sony batteries tend to be a bit more forgiving, I don't think we need replacement boards yet. Just someone good at trace fixes.
I had one of these back in the day, it was such a cool device. Sadly, I sold it on ebay when the whole Mini disc thing took a dive a few years later. The mechanical function that ejects the portable unit from the base station is sooo satisfying... the sound it makes, etc. Thanks for providing me with some excellent nostalgia.
This dudes yard sales must be legendary
That is a really cool machine actually, such a shame about the batteries though. Great video as always!
Seeing that windscreen disintegrate is always surprising to me, as I still remember interacting with those as a kid and remembering them being a completely normal sponge-like material.
Seems like the sponge material used in electronics will just do that, I've seen the same thing happen to little pads of sponge in battery compartments many times.
Polyurethane disintegrates by interaction with water contained in the air. Many products nowadays contain polyurethane and sometimes I suspect manufacturers that they put PU in their products so that it "selfdestructs" after some time.
@@somitomiSame happening to earphone pads, like Sony's own MDR-DS5100 VPT wireless infrared from 2000, 2001's DS8000 used a different material that still holds. I'm using them for 23 years now (Bought a few new old stock over the years).
I have 2 of these. I immediately opened them both up. Original Sony Ni-Cd's in both. Very little battery leakage in the first one. Easy clean up. No damage done. The second one had just a little in the battery ends and the compartment did not even need cleaning. Thanks so much for this video.
those had some pretty Awesome Features! 😀
thanks for another Awesome video👍
I've always liked the idea of MiniDisc. It's a shame it didn't last any longer than it did. This particular unit would have got a lot of use if I'd had the opportunity to find and buy one at the time. I'd be tempted to want to have a go at this particular example with some IPA to try and get some of the crusty copper compound off. Not that it may make any difference to it working, though. If the traces have gone, then short of trying to solder in new lines, (which is tricky at the best of times), there's not much else you can do, unless you start testing everything to see if there's any way of getting it working properly. Or, you could just leave it and rely on the digital outputs. Which, is no big problem.
To be honest over 25 years is actually pretty good going for something that wasn't a huge success. It sold in decent enough numbers though that home and portable machines can still be bought on Ebay for reasonable prices with a little patience.
It should be possible to somehow bridge those tracks with some wires. At least from what I saw in your video. If it is worth the hassle of course is up to you.
Thank you for posting
Wow! You've shown a lot of cool old stuff on this channel.. but now we can see something from the future!!! Thanks!!!
Is there not a setup option for maybe turning on/off the analog input/output perhaps? No doubt it could be damage from the batteries, but certainly makes me wonder if there isn't just a setting or something... Great video as always!!
It really would serve no purpose to be able to turn the analog I/O on or off. If you don't want analog audio just don't plug into it. You may also assume that Matt read the manual and would have found any such hidden function.
One thing that has always puzzled me is why electronic manufacturers never appear to put leak protection in their devices. Giving at least a chance of not corroding all the innards.
probably to save money. Though that does not excuse companies that make higher end products where the user can logically expect to get something more due to paying more.
Because with the best will in the world they didn't think 30 plus years ahead, in the case of alkaline eaten pinball machines 40 years, hindsight can be a cow ! :)
@@andymouse More than likely true for lower-cost consumer items. But I wonder if it is the same for very high-value items. After all the US missile command has just replaced floppy disks allegedly so. Even where I worked in the early 90s our telecom room was still using 8-inch disks at that time LOL
LOL :)@@atlanticx100
@@atlanticx100 Well, if they had a Varta battery in them, we would've had to replace them a lot sooner. They must've been had a motherboard with jumper pins and an external battery pack.
Always the highlight of my day is a new Techmoan vid.
What a wonderful bit of coincidence (and serendipity) that inspired a great video for us to enjoy 😁. Thanks, Techmoan,
Devices with clocks that aren't set really triggers me...At least the cells weren't soldered in....
00:00:00 01/01/1990 😅
Yes [flashes] 01/01/1900 00:00:00 😂
But did you test the phone functionality? ☎😀 Or isn't this compatible with our current phone lines yet, so you need to wait another 47 years (since in 2070 it obviously will be compatible...)
Funny you say that lol the UK is currently replacing all existing Analogue phone lines with Digital ones
I inherited one of these from a local radio station years ago and still use it as a backup when I do remote recordings.
I remember hearing that in japan, consumer electronics were sold with an expiration date. When reached, people would literally trow away fully functioning devices and buy newer ones, like they were some kind of expensive, longer term groceries
you can fix that...
Reminds me of game consoles. The Xbox has a capacitor also for a clock that is prone to leaking and my GameCube had a dead button battery that fortunately just caused the clock to reset whenever powered off.
I'm surprised there aren't more videos on the channel of dead disc drives. None of my devices before the late 2000s have disc drives that still work. I don't know how any of these mini disc players work.
Nearly all vintage electronics with large capacitors need them replaced. Also, a lot of 1960s-1990s electronics used filter capacitors in the power supplies that are known for exploding dramatically after being powered on for the first time after however many years.
90's and 00's CD players fail due to the laser diode burning out... The minidisc lasers were a different design that lasts longer, like and cd drives with a write function. CD players also suffer from failing DC servos, mostly due to bad design and cheap components. The best audio cd players to buy are Sony blue ray or DVD players... They will last a lifetime.
@@peterlarkin762 minidisc lasers do burn out too.
Using AA batteries on a mainboard is far different from button batteries. The bastards who designed this were well aware many units would be toast within 5 years due to guaranteed leaking AA battery corrosion. Pure greed.
@@DD-ld1xq More like planned obsolesence.
Manythnx as always Techmoan 🤘
Thanks for showing 😊👍
the damage can probably be fixed with a lot of extra work, though I think those are multi-layer boards. I wonder for preservation whether anyone has considered reverse engineering the machine and reproducing the PCB. The components could then be swapped over, with any damaged components replaced.
If the damaged isn’t deep, then you might be able to soldier a few bodge wires to replace the damaged traces but I suspect the damaged is a bit beyond the “bodge wire”stage.
@@Charlesb88 These are multi-layer boards too so difficult to 'bodge', especially as once corrosion starts it's very difficult to stop.
the CZcams channel Cathode Ray Dude has a video called "An MP3 Jukebox for Everyone" about a product that feels very similar to this one - it's a home stereo unit for playing MP3 files that rips them directly from a built in CD player that transfers them to a portable MP3 player. the really wild thing about that unit is that for the portable unit, it writes the music to RAM, which means you do lose all the music you copied over if the batteries die completely, but it's so much faster than any other method of writing to portable storage could have possibly been at the time. on the one hand, it's certainly more convenient to not need these sorts of solutions nowadays, but both of these devices display some fascinating attempts to solve the problem of having a music player that meets both your home and portable needs.
Dang, the portable unit in there is obviously based on the MZ-R50 that I _still_ use as my regular MD player having bought it new in 1997.
I didn't know about the 3D printed battery carrier, though! I've been using the screw-on alkaline add-on for decades. I'll have to go get one of those 14500 carriers now!
Pfff easy to repair.
I'm glad my dad recommended to remove the batteries to anything I desired to store long term. That saved me from a lot of long term issues.
wow! thank you! I had no idea and never read that part of the manual! opened up mine (owned from new since 97) and luckily no damage and just the beginnings of some corrosion on the battery terminals - phew!
"Cool but falls apart". That is the story for me of all mechanical Sony devices right back to my shoebox cassette player.
So cool to see that Techmoans time machine also brings stuff from the future :)
Oh nice music choice at 4:54 ;)
Sony gear was notorious for all sorts of proprietary standards, but their design and engineering was second to none. One wonders if those two things were related ... sell the units at a reasonable consumer price, get peoole hooked, and then clean up on all sorts of Sony-only media, cables and battery holders.
In the late 90s, I worked as a recording engineer creating audio advertising. Originally, we would mix down to RDAT. The RDAT machines were very expensive and pricy to maintain, so later we went to MinDisc, which was awesome. Sad to see that format disappear.
They made a place for charging an optional battery, but buried the other batteries deep inside the device. Someone didn't think this till the end.
You could say that 90s Sony was... The Creator of a Digital Dream.
such a cool unit. I have the portable component, but never knew the dock station existed. Always wondered what that connector was for! I first saw the MD in The Matrix and I’ve been hooked since. Still use it regularly and make mixtapes
Man, I was expecting you playing back a secret message then the machine saying: “Self destruction commences in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…
That machine is stunning to look at. I have that microphone for recording my band in on my mini disc recorder in 2000. Thankfully the foam has not become dust. My mini disc recorder was my pride and joy of Christmas 1999 and I bought the mic with my own money from my cleaning job after starting college when I was 16. That double A adaptor was a godsend. Made it heavy but kept me listening. I can still use my mini disc with the battery adaptor. I wish I had had a dock like that though.
at 8:55 you talk about the Lip-8 Battery. I have a few additions to it, that may help some long term users out there: These cells tend to have a very long life, but if you let them sit idle for years, the self discharging pulls it down below the minimal voltage the charging electronics expects. So while the cell seems to be dead, it most likely isn't. This can be adressed rather easy, if you have a current controlled power source, like a laboratory power supply. See, almost all chargers out there won't accept to give charging current to any LiPo Cell that has its Voltage dropped below 2.8 Volts. But with the laboratory device you can easily pull it back above this voltage, so it can be charged normally again by its original charging method. Set the Voltage below 4.2 Volts (which is the absolute maximum Voltage you should use !), better use 4 V for some safety margin. Set the maximum current according to the mAh writing on the battery - in this case 750mA or better a little less - lets say 600 mA (0,6 A).
Now comes the tricky part: You have to take the battery plastic casing apart, to get to the cell direct outlets. In this case it luckily isn't glued together (unusual for Sony ^^), it is hooked together by rectangular fins that have a rectangular whole in them that click into edgy hills in the base side. By pulling and locally pushing the round top casing inside in the edge to the base with something thin, you can eventually get them loose piece by piece. Three on each side, one on the small side. You don't have to take it apart completely - just get a gap between battery and the base with its electronics, so you can reach the power fins coming from the cell directly with crocodile clamps. If you know something about cylindrical LiPo cells, you'll know which one is + (where the can was closed by rolling a groove into it). Now, you can check the residual voltage for academic reasons, by turning down the laboratory voltage to zero, but it doesn't matter. Most LiPo cells will also start charging immediately, if they have drained themselves down to completly zero Volt. Now let it charge as long as you like - because LiPo cells will stop charging incrementally as closer as they get to the voltage you set on your power source - and stop completely as they reach it. After some hours, you should have it well above the 3.4 minimal Voltage threshold all charging devices out there will recognize as a sufficient starting voltage. Now you can put the housing back together and charge it up to its exactly 4.2 Volt fully charged state witht he original charging method as normal. Will it have lost some capacity, because of the complete draining? Yes, it's not something that helps the cell life. But it will work again - keeping the original cell usable - which is quite remarkable for cells that are now almost 30 years old...
I do not have any of these recorders or minidisc players, but somehow I got stuck and watched 15 Minutes of this clip. I am fascinated how the producers thought about EVERYTHING (even the battery charger, which is not an expensive add-on, but built-in), but didn't think about battery-leakage. Suspicious :)
Thank you Techmoan! I didn't realize what an interesting film was coming out soon! I just watched the trailer on CZcams.
You can see that this is still from an era where a lot of engineering went into audio products. I am fascinated by the small little features.
When I saw the thumbnail, I was really hoping it would have a Mission Impossible-style self-destruct feature.