Pioneer player is DOA

[Mr. Mike]

I was given a Pioneer CLD-K1000 karaoke laser disc player yesterday. I
played it for several hours, but today I was starting to play a disc
and suddenly the thing went dead. The power button doesn't respond at
all. This is a Japanese machine which takes 100V (I am in Canada).
Could that be part of the problem? I have a Sony Japanese LD player,
also set up for 100V, which I have used to watch many discs without
any difficulty. Is there a fuse of some kind on the CLD-K1000? There
doesn't seem to be anything on the outside that you can adjust.

[Thad Floryan]

Post by Mr. Mike
I was given a Pioneer CLD-K1000 karaoke laser disc player yesterday. I
played it for several hours, but today I was starting to play a disc
and suddenly the thing went dead. The power button doesn't respond at
all. This is a Japanese machine which takes 100V (I am in Canada).
Could that be part of the problem?

Checking Canada's AC mains voltage here:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_electricity_by_country>

shows 120 VAC @ 60 Hz like the USA with identical wall sockets and
plugs as used in the USA. Sounds right since the power grids are
shared across the USA-Canada border.

That differs considerably from Japan with 100 VAC at either 50 Hz
or 60 Hz (depending where in Japan) with a dramatically different
plug and socket than the USA [visible on the above Wiki page].

Decades ago in this newsgroup we discussed using Japanese equipment
in the USA and the consensus opinion was a stepdown transformer was
mandatory for long-term life. Considering my two HLD-X9 players, a
Toshiba 32HD3E HDTV MUSE, and a YEM HSC-1125 HDTV Scan Converter
(all of which are designed for 100 VAC and 50/60 Hz) are still working
fine now after almost 20 years using stepdown transformers, I would
surmise that operating at 120 VAC may be contributory to your problem.

The recommended source of stepdown transformers then and still now
is San Mateo Electronics as I mentioned here:

<http://thadlabs.com/LD_info/index.html>

San Mateo Electronics' web site is still:

<http://www.smelectronics.com/>

and a direct link to their list of Japan <=> USA power converters:

<http://www.smelectronics.com/japantrans.htm>

Post by Mr. Mike
I have a Sony Japanese LD player also set up for 100V, which I have
used to watch many discs without any difficulty.

Until the higher voltage and a transient spike, hash and/or line noise
take it down -- it's living on borrowed time -- because you're
operating it at 20% *ABOVE* its design voltage.

Post by Mr. Mike
Is there a fuse of some kind on the CLD-K1000? There
doesn't seem to be anything on the outside that you can adjust.

The pictures here:

<http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/laserdisc_archive/pioneer/pioneer_cld-k1000/pioneer_cldk-1000.htm>

don't show any external fuse but there "might" be one inside (or a
circuit breaker).

Kurtis Bahr (a longtime participant in this group) may be able to
provide some more info.

A service manual for it might be available -- there are several web
sites that provide free manuals but they are all at heavily-cloaked
locations due to [possible] copyright issues. Google *WILL* find
them for you using a search such as (as an example):

"pioneer cld-k1000 service manual download"

without the quotes. I recognize some of the sites returned by that
search but my two favorite ones didn't appear (but they're still
very much alive). The manuals are typically RAR'd PDFs so you'd
need something like PeaZip to extract the PDFs:

<http://peazip.sourceforge.net/>

PeaZip is for Windows (WinXP. Vista, Win7); you'd need unrar (or
similar) for *BSD, Linux, Solaris or UNIX. I have them all:

<Loading Image...>

:-)

[Mr. Mike]

Post by Thad Floryan
I would
surmise that operating at 120 VAC may be contributory to your problem.

Thanks for the detailed advise.

I actually have a transformer that I paid some electronics store in
Vancouver a lot of money to build for me after I returned from Japan
some 40 years ago with several pieces of equipment. I used this
transformer with a Pioneer amplifier for many years without problem.
But today I actually checked the voltage of this thing and discovered
that it is 115V (as opposed to 120V coming out of the wall)!

What is annoying about this player locking up is that there is a laser
disc stuck inside, and there is no equivalent to the small hole that
you stick a paper clip in (like on a computer CD or DVD drive) to get
the disc out...

[Thad Floryan]

Post by Mr. Mike

Post by Thad Floryan
I would
surmise that operating at 120 VAC may be contributory to your problem.

Thanks for the detailed advise.

You're welcome!

Post by Mr. Mike
I actually have a transformer that I paid some electronics store in
Vancouver a lot of money to build for me after I returned from Japan
some 40 years ago with several pieces of equipment. I used this
transformer with a Pioneer amplifier for many years without problem.
But today I actually checked the voltage of this thing and discovered
that it is 115V (as opposed to 120V coming out of the wall)!

I'm looking at my mains voltage and it's 113 VAC at this moment (probably
due to all the air conditioners running here in California as the temp.
here in Silicon Valley reached 100°F (37.7°C) today). Wimps! I have no
problem tolerating either hot or cold! :-)

Post by Mr. Mike
What is annoying about this player locking up is that there is a laser
disc stuck inside, and there is no equivalent to the small hole that
you stick a paper clip in (like on a computer CD or DVD drive) to get
the disc out...

The LD disc transport system is considerably more massive and robust that
than for a CD or DVD and a paper clip just wouldn't work. You'll see what
I mean if you proceed with the work mentioned below.

I have 5 Pioneer players and they're all the same in one regards: there's
a simple "bridge" with one screw at each end that secures the "bridge" to
the chassis, and by removing the "bridge" you can directly access the
"stuck" LD by simply lifting it up and out assuming the head is away from
the platter (if it's not, just push it to the back to get it out of the
way). Access to the "bridge" is available after the top cover is removed.

FYI: the purpose of the "bridge" is to carry the top clamp, and it auto-
aligns its position easily when placed back down onto the chassis and the
two screws are refastened, so there's no need to worry about centering it
above the spindle assembly.

[Mr. Mike]

Post by Thad Floryan
I have 5 Pioneer players and they're all the same in one regards: there's
a simple "bridge" with one screw at each end that secures the "bridge" to
the chassis, and by removing the "bridge" you can directly access the
"stuck" LD by simply lifting it up and out assuming the head is away from
the platter (if it's not, just push it to the back to get it out of the
way). Access to the "bridge" is available after the top cover is removed.
FYI: the purpose of the "bridge" is to carry the top clamp, and it auto-
aligns its position easily when placed back down onto the chassis and the
two screws are refastened, so there's no need to worry about centering it
above the spindle assembly.

As you have suggested in e-mail, the mechanism in this player which
holds the disc is not "normal" as per the above.

I have posted some pictures of the player with the top off on my WWW
site:

http://www.mjq.net/misc/ldpix

IMG_4004 - top view from the back, showing "trapped" LD
4005 - side view on the right of player (the right when viewed from
front), showing this metal "ribbon" which holds wires in
4006 - closer view of top
4007 - closeup of where the AC wire comes into the case (left side,
near back)
4008 - closer view of top mechanism
4009 - closer view of metal ribbon
4010 - closeup of left side mechanism

Is this metal ribbon supposed to act as a "ground" of some kind, in
addition to keeping the wires behind it?

Picture 4007 shows the inside of where the AC wire comes into the
case. The two wires that make up this cord are connected to these two
pole-like things (you can't see these in the picture) which are at
opposite ends of some small clear plastic thing which is glued to the
circuit board. The wires, or whatever they turn into, then go
underneath. There is some gizmo behind this (which you can see) with
what look like all these switches on it, I don't know what the
function of this is.

Under where the laser disc is trapped, there is this flat, black thing
like a tray which you can lift up a little bit. But I don't think this
is the actual tray for the disk, because it goes around the power
supply at the back right, and you cannot move it forward because of
this.

I am just trying to find where there is a fuse or circuit breaker!

[Mr. Mike]

have added a closeup shot of picture 4007 mentioned in my previous
message. This shows the place where the AC wire connects to the
machine via these two small poles the wires are soldered to.

Here are three more photos:

4011 - this picture is to the right of 4007 above. It shows a small
rectangular shaped red plastic thing with the number 25D1 (?)
reflected in the side. If you look carefully, you can see the CSA
(Canadian Standards Association) logo on the side of this red thing,
which is very curious, especially if this was a machine only sold in
Japan as I am beginning to suspect
x4012 - the bottom of the unit. There is no way you can go "through"
the bottom. It's a solid metal sheet with several screws that are
anchoring stuff above poking through
4013 - here is the name, rank and serial number of the machine

[kbahr]

Post by Mr. Mike
I was given a Pioneer CLD-K1000 karaoke laser disc player yesterday. I
played it for several hours, but today I was starting to play a disc
and suddenly the thing went dead. The power button doesn't respond at
all. This is a Japanese machine which takes 100V (I am in Canada).
Could that be part of the problem? I have a Sony Japanese LD player,
also set up for 100V, which I have used to watch many discs without
any difficulty. Is there a fuse of some kind on the CLD-K1000? There
doesn't seem to be anything on the outside that you can adjust.

I agree with Thad, not a good idea to play without a stepdown transformer and you can get those for around $25 to $50. I have never worked on a Japanese LD player so I am not familiar with the internals but it looks like an older player. You would have to open this up and start debugging the power supply.