I know the feeling. Last summer I saw a Beomaster 900K (the wide one with built-in speakers) at a flea market, and immediately knew I had to have it. I knew before what B&O was, but that was about it. The salesperson said I could bring it back if it didn't work. Fat chance! I had to fix one of the output stages and still have work on the stereo

lausvi: That would be great! Seconded! I'll put mine on hold for the time being, I suppose the work will be much easier with advice on how to dismantle the machine. Martin, do you have an approximation on how many different types of caps there are in that do-it-all replacement pile? Looks like a shopping list I wouldn't want to receive over

Thanks Martin, you seem to address each and every one of my problems! With this advice, I'll definitely take a closer look at the machine before letting it go. I wouldn't be afraid of replacing all the caps if they are easy to get hold of. I once scrapped a Panasonic S-VHS just because the power supply caps had cooked. There were 20-30 of them

Craig: Don't they suffer with overheating problems too? I see it has a cooling fan (never seen one in a consumer VCR before!) so I wouldn't be surprised. I think I'll try more throrough cleaning of the video heads, cleaning the mode switch if it isn't too much work, and maybe seeing if any of the power supply caps are obviously dead

As I now have managed to fix all audio components of my recent purchase, I tested the Beocord VX5000 I got as a bonus. It basically worked, but the picture was really bad, almost disappearing into noise. I did basic cleaning of the picture drum and fixed heads, and now I at least have colour (most of the time). The picture is still very noisy, though

Got it, thanks. It's clear enough on the physical layer and the data framing, but doesn't talk much on what the data frames actually contain. Anyway, there's enough information for building a "spy" interface, and to start reverse engineering the messages. If I only had more free time...

Are the protocol specs for Datalink available anywhere, or is it even public information at all? I got this crazy idea that I should definitely be able to control my VDR box (see here ) through the BM6500 using a Beolink 1000, and possibly vice versa... it should be possible to emulate a Datalink device using either the serial or parallel port and little

Thanks, I'll try opening the motor too the next time the machine acts up. It has now worked for a long time with no problems. Many of my 20+ year old Dolby C recordings sound surprisingly good! Some of the music is really bad, though

Well, it wasn't quite this easy. Sometimes the tape transport will just quit. The motor seems to be running way too slowly or just with inadequate torque. Sooner or later, after some twiddling, it may suddenly work again as if nothing happened. I've tried rotating the mechanism manually and it doesn't seem to be unusually sticky, and the

Never been there myself, but follow the advice in this thread and you should at least get closer. I suppose the face plate (along with all its electronics) would just lift off after you remove those two screws on its top corners, accessible after removing the keyboard.