CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

[banjodrummer]

I am glad to report that I managed to get the function motor belt on just the other day. I had originally thought that this would be all of the repair needed on my SGT-250. Sadly, I had only completed Round 1.

When I load a disc (which I am happy to say is now possible), the disc spins up to speed (I am unable to tell if it is at the required 450 RPM) and the stylus does make contact with the disc (I can tell because there is feed being displayed on the TV). However, the two dashes (--) on the display do not change to 0, and thus no playback commences. Once I manually move the stylus arm gear, I do get video, but it is either green or B&W (and in very poor quality), and there is no audio. Additionally, the two dashes (--) do not go away while all of this is happening. The Rapid Access and Visual Search features do not work, but the Pause feature does work. (Note: I've only been able to test one disc so far, which is the RCA Rocky disc. I'll be sure to test my other discs later today.)

I've scanned the forum and I did find at least one other topic discussing this very issue:
http://www.cedmagic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2076&highlight=sgt250

However, I would like help that is directed at me, since this is my first time doing any sort of electronics repair, let alone CED repair. I will say what I've gathered and understood so far:

The cause of this can either be a) a poor stylus; b) something wrong with either the turntable drive belt or the servo drive belt; c) the landing screw adjustment is not correct; or d) something wrong with the 15-Volt Regulator. I doubt that it is (c) because, no matter where the stylus is on the disc, proper playback won't commence. And I believe the probability that it is (d) is low. So, I believe it is either (a) or (b).

At the moment, I have to assume that it is (b), because it is too much work to worry about a CED stylus right now, since I've started collecting. So, in that case, how can I tell if there is something wrong with either the turntable drive belt or the servo drive belt? Or am I analyzing all of this incorrectly?

Thank you all for your help!
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Austin N.

[jsdspif]

for a speed check I bought a cheap tachometer for like $10 and put a little piece of the reflective tape on a disc that has nothing on one side and use that for checking my speed. I found it to be pretty accurate because I had a belt I put on and it was running around 400 rpm , I put the old belt back on and it was 450 rpm. So I stretched the new belt a little bit for a couple days, put it back on and it then ran at 450 rpm.
I would suggest first sending your cartridge/stylus to CEDatum they'll clean and inspect it for free and let you know the cost of repair/rebuild if needed. So much of proper playback depends on the stylus being good.

[banjodrummer]

Ah, thank you. I'm not into cars so I never knew that a tachometer was a thing. I'll have to get one ASAP.

I did contact CEDatum yesterday regarding the stylus cartridge, but I have yet to hear back from them.
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Austin N.

[jsdspif]

that tach just has a laserbeam shoot out of it and you point the beam at the little piece of reflective tape and it has a readout on it that gives rpm. It's pretty neat. I also used it to check the speed of a metal lathe and also a fan to see how much difference there was running it with 9 volts instead of 12. I also checked the speed of a motor in a tape deck.
CEDatum is an excellent company. They have done quite a few cartridges and some other work for me and also sold parts to me. They're usually pretty prompt with me as far as emails and work. It may be the holiday has delayed things or if they're really busy there could be a slight delay.

[banjodrummer]

I sent the e-mail to this address: CEDatum@ccrtc.com

That's the right address, yes?
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Austin N.

[jsdspif]

yeah that's right. I'm pretty sure you'll here from them before too long.