The photo shows the audio-visual equipment in our living room. The turn table on the rack on this side is Victor QL-Y55F.
I wanted my turn table to meet at least the following two condidions.
1. A good wow and flutter attribute(Natural!)
2. Automatic stop
Why 1: For instance, that long non-wavering rendering of a string in symphony No. 8 “Unfinished” by Schubert must be playbacked without deviation. I recognized the importance of such an attribute after ignorantly using a cheap turn table.
Why 2: As I often fall asleep while listening to music, I need a turn table that stops by itself when the stylus comes to the end of a phonograph record.

-1/9-

(The player in the photo is an old Philips player which Mr. K, a neighbor, gave to me. I cleaned and beautified it and used it for a while. However, it's a manual player and, naturally, doesn't stop automatically. If you don't stop it, the stylus goes on scraping the groove as well as shortening itself. I, as a pensioner, feel such frictional wear my heart.)
So, looking for one, I happened to meet a Victor QL-Y55F at Yahoo auction at that time. I learned it was an ambitious model equiped with a very unique tone arm controlling mechanism. I fell in love with it.
I outbid it as a trouble free player but, unfortunately, it wasn't. But the auctioneer was a good man and the negotiations ended with a satisfactory solution. I got it for a reasonable price as a junk.
Luckily, I could repair the troubles it had at first as well as those it suffered later. It has been playing an important role in my music life.

-2/9-

The original troubles were:
1. Powere switch failure (It worked sometimes.)
2. Turn table switch failure (It worked sometimes.)
3. Strong stylus pressure and tracking force adjusting volumes failure...
I didn't have any clear prospect of successful repair but anyhow I started dismantling.
Luckily, the electric board was composed with darlington circuits and spacious enough for me to trace them. On top of it, the motor and its controller was healthy.

Details: 1&2. Troubles were caused by cupper rust, carbon and mold thickly accumulated inside the tact switches. I cleaned them with CAIG and they revived. 3. The trouble was caused by mal function of variable resistors. I opened them and cleaned them with CAIG and they revived.
I bought necessary parts ready to replace them for the further troubles.

-3/9-

The followings are how I repaired the table.
The sub board, on which are mounted variable resistors for adjusting stylus pressure and traceability, is being detatched.
Another sub board, on which are mounted switches other than power switch, is seen behind.
You can see how this player is spacious enough inside for repair, which can never be possible with those recent digital epuipmenet.
I know it isn't usual but I opened the tact switches to pieces and cleaned them.

-4/9-

Left: before cleaning
Right: after cleaning
Such switches can't be taken to pieces again. You have to replace them with the new next time. The same is true with the variable resistors.

-5/9-

Upper Left: Push buttn.
Upper Right: Lid.
Below: Disc spring that shorts contact points when pressed. It is completely covered by black things(carbon?).

-6/9-

I scraped off the black surface of the disc spring. It revived OK, but that way of cleaning was not good as it became thinner and it became weak. It lost the original feeling when pressed.
I did the same to the variable resistors and they revived, too.

-7/9-

The photo shows the power section. You can see a nostalgic hybrid IC.

The cleaning of the switches and variable resistors revived the turn table. However, to get it restored much younger, I replaced all the chemical condensers with the new.
Such are the repair initially done.

-8/9-

Postscript

About one year later, the tone arm lost its normal motion. There are some trimmers(potentiometers) that concern the tone arm control. I marked the trimming position of each trimmer for setting it back and carefully re-adjusted them and, luckily, the arm revived.
Amazingly, the controller of the table revolution has been quite healthy for its age. I thank these Victor engineers for making such wonderful mechanism!
Details (in Japanese) are at Footprint of Audio "Victor Player QL-Y55F"

-9/9-

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They were married off to me from an acquaintace of mine arranged by Mr.L who had strongly recommended them to me.
The photo shows the original inside except the wiring for a multi-amp driving.
The woofer, two phones and networks were of Electro Voice.
I listened to the sound of this set for a while and judged that they need some improvement. The sound was flabby.
The way the two phones were fixed was unreasonable, too.

-1/9-

To begin with the improvement, I added a rib across the baffle as shown in the photo. It ended without any particular effects.
Next, I replaced 8HDs with JBL horns (2730horn + 2426driver). The mid range sound, naturally, improved but not the bass sound.

-2/9-

Next, I added center ribs on both side panels and the back panel, and connected them as shown in the upper photo.
Some improvement appeared but the bass sound was still flabby and was lacking that strength a 15-inch caliber woofer usually had.

-3/9-

I made up my mind to revam the baffles and install mid range horns inside cabinets. The photo shows the baffle sandwiched with new plywood, and new holes made for fitting horns. The black part is untouched.

-4/9-

The horns and the woofer were installed in vertical line. The baffle became much heavier.
The tweeter was fitted between the mid range horn and the woofer because of the original holes.

-5/9-

The photo shows a front look of the reformed speaker, which I stopped driving with multi amps but with a single amp. I also installed new restored networks which I had taken out from SB-7, the old Technics speakers.
Sound improved a lot but not fully satisfactry with its bass sound.

-6/9-

About that time, the back unloaded horn speakers were completed and their sound turned out to be very satisfactory, which almost made me give up renovating these big space occupying speakers.
I was sure that cabinets and horns were okay. That is, I had come to the last step of the renovation. The woofers(Electro Voice SP15) had to be replaced!
The price of a new 15-inch woofer is naturally too expensive. So I looked for a pair of secondhand woofers. JBL woofers, even secondhand, were still too expensive.
After all, I came across a pair of secondhand Radian2216 and I got them for a reasonable price. They were rather new as they had been through with breaking in. Their corns were still glossy.
The long journey of improvement was rewarded. The bass sound, though characteristic of bass reflex speakers, was satisfactry both in quality and ampleness. Data
● Network Crossover frequency: 800Hz、6000Hz
● Tweeter:EV T350 3.5kHz～15kHz ±3dB
● JBLHorn：800 Hz～20 kHz response
● Woofer:Radian2216 40～3.5kHz voice coild iameter 10.5cm 　　　　　　　　　　

-7/9-

Scrapping （added 2017/07/18）

The speaker units were all moved to Nautilus D.I.Y Version and the cabinets became empty. I had to deal with them. They were considerably big, old and useless. I decided to scrap them.
In scrapping, I first took off the glass wool. It was stapled. Taking it off was a prickly work. I packed it in plastic bags to be collected as noninflammable garbage.
The rib and the connection bar in the center were what I added as sound improving measures. However, what actually worked seemed to have been improving the the baffle boards and employing new woofers.

-8/9-

I learned how to scrap with the first one. Cutting it in two as shown in the photo was a better way.
Taking off staples and screws before cutting were troublesome. I cut some staples with a buzz saw as I made a few oversight of staples.
The scrapping took almost a whole day. I worked overtime that day until sunset. My overtime pay was a canned beer which I shared with my wife.

-9/9-

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In order to listen to live recorded music in NHK FM in my living room, I connected a portable audio player or a radio to the amp but the sound was not good.
I found the sound of my old pioneer tuner, TX-6300, was good! It was covered with dust and has been roughly handled long time like a junk in my workshop.
I apologized it for my treatment and decided to use it in my living room. The followings are the record of my atonement.

-1/10-

Upper view inside:
I opened it for the first time since I bought it.
Inside was very sparse perhaps because the size was arranged to match other lined up products.
It was unexpectedly clean inside and parts and the mechanism looked very healthy, too.
I listed up the chemical condencers for the later replacement.

-2/10-

Bottom view inside:
It's out of sequence but before dismantling, I searched for a service manual in preparation for the later readjustment of FM front end. No Japanese manual seemed available but I found an English manual of TX-5300. The model number is defferent but somehow the outlook and the arrangement of parts are quite the same.
You can get it at http://www.manualslib.com/manual/911336/Pioneer-Tx-5300.html.
I got the manual but rearrangement was unneccessary. There was no tuning gap nor deterioration of sensitivity. I didn't touch the MPX circuit as I haven't needed equipment.
I would replace chemical condensers later but the sound seems very good as it is.

-3/10-

Upper-front veiw with the panel and dial glass detached:
The rubber fittings for the dial galss were weathered but the printed letters on the glass were not injured. They looked very sturdy and beautiful.
The needle, when tuned to a station, was about 2mm off to the left from the position it ought to be and I adjusted it.

-4/10-

The front panel and the dial glass and a fitting being dried after they were washed:
The aluminum panel seemed applied with clear vanish and it was partly damaged but I decided not to beautify it more.
It was worth washing the dial glass. It became very clean and, with the original lamps, makes a beautiful illuminated visage.
It is not remote controlled but it is not needed as I listen to one particular station.

-5/10-

In listening to FM broadcast, the radio wave must be stronger enough than the noise.
In order to satisfy this condition, I used a antenna terminal for TV. A wire antenna I installed in the curtain box in the living room was not good.
Later, as the condensers I ordered arrived, I replaced all the old chemical condensers on the boards except those fitted on the lands of IC pins. I decided not to replace them with the new to avoid risks of destroying ICs. For, you can't change condensers without heating a pin with a soldering iron as you take one off and solder a new one there.
The change of condensers, to my disappointment, didn't make any notable improvement in sound. I happened to listen to the sound of Japanese drums, which I could enjoy listening to very comfortably.
TX-6300 was produced in about 1975. It has survived longer than 40 years. Isn't it amazing!

-6/10-

Installing a booster:
Later, I wanted to boost the output power a little and told it to Mr. H. He sent me a circuit of 5-power booster within the day, with telling that he had ordered necessary parts, too (big thanks!).
The photo shows the booster being made. I put parts on to a small piece of board I happened to have at hand.

-7/10-

I installed the booster with convenient screws on the main board. I warried about the noise in vain.

-8/10-

It turned out that the 5-power boodter was too powerful and so I installed volumes to adjust the input level.

-9/10-

Post script

FM broadcast extends the world of music beyond your expectation. There are two big advantages in being able to listen to FM broadcasts as follows. 1. You can get the most ap-to-date information and knowledge about music.
2. FM broadcasts more HiFi music. I have found the live performance in front of the microphone at the studio is most HiFi, and the live recorded performance, like those music in the N-kyo(NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo) hours comes next. I judge it's hard for CD music to match them.

-10/10-

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Condenser Tuning Refined2 Added (2018/07/19) here
Condenser Tuning Refined Added (2018/06/28)here

Preface

I did a condenser tuning to my 6N6P A-class differencial push-pull amp which was designed and its parts prepared by Mr. Perch. I was not fully satisfied with its sound in that it lacked punch a little.
With the tuning the sound became punchier yet delicate.
A condenser tuning is a method of improving performance of an equipmeent or machinery. It was once a popular topic of car tuning among young men. The cars then with mechanical distributors were handy targets of analog tuning.
Such tuning that lacks scientific proof was, is and will be looked coldly on by learned engineers.
As I am a do-it-yourselfer to whom all's well that ends well, I don't mind if something isn't scientifically explained. This time I surely recognized the effect of the condenser tuning and therefore report here how I did it.

-1/11-

The three horizontally attached sylindrical objects are the condensers. There are more condensers attached inside too.
Their capacity/withstand voltage are all 100μF/450V.
I used old condensers I had and that is why they are so big for their capacity. They can be replaced by one much smaller condenser.

-2/11-

An outlook of the original 6N6P amp.

-3/11-

The circuit above shows where condensers are added as rectangle 1, 2 and 3.
Rectangle 1: resistor 0.3Ω, chemicon 630μF/450V, filmcon10μF/400V
Rectangle 2 : resistor 0.3Ω, chemicon 220μF/350V, filmcon20μF/400V
Rectangle 3: filmcon 10μF/400V(pararell to original chemicon 470μF/50V)
Rectangle 3 is the power supply to the first stage amplifier with FET 2SK30Y.
Film condensers are added parallel to each chemical condenser for more delicate and graceful expression of strings.

-4/11-

An inside photo of the shassis. Red circles show where condensers or resistors were added.
From left to right
The resistor 0.3Ω in rectangle 2
The condensers in rectangle 2
The film condenser in rectangle 3
The condensers and the resistor 0.3Ω in rectangle 1

-5/11-

The waveforms on an oscilloscope before tuning.
The B+ of an A-class amp ought to be fixed but actually it is fluctuating synchronized with that of the output.
The blue waveform represents the fluctuations on B+. The maximum fluctuation value is some 20mV.
The red waveform monitors maximum output without distortion.
You can read one cycle of the red waveform corresponds with two cycles of the blue waveform.
I conjecture the latter corresponds with the fluctuation of the voltage at the center of two 3.3Ω resistors between the 6N6P cathodes.
I'll put up an oscilloscope picture at the bottom in order to show a basis of my conjecture.

-6/11-

The photo above shows waves after condensers were attached.
The maximum fluctuation value on the blue waveform can be read to be some 10mV.　The improvement is 6db. No changes are found on the red wave.
For the first time in my life I witnessed the wave forms that represent sound improvement. It is very exciting to find and observe the real values and waves.

-7/11-

The waveforms that were monitored at an output and at the center of two 3.3Ω resistors between 6N6P cathodes.
The blue waveform monitors the fluctuation of voltage between the two cathodes.
The red waveform monitors the fluctuation of voltage at an output.
I conjecture that the uneven peakes in the red waveform here are reflected in the blue uneven waveforms above.

-8/11-

Review

This tuning brought the improvement of the B+ regulation by some 10mV. Counting the value of 190V of the B+ voltage the rate of improvement is only about 0.005%. Could it be called improvement? It is far less a value from the bodily sensed effect of the tuning.
At any rate the result was very satistactory and I did the same tuning to other three amps I had built. Their sound became all punchier yet delicate.

What were brought are as follows:
1. Re-balancing the current between the final tubes needed.
2. The sound volume of the higher range as well as that of the lower range increased.
3. The sound of the higher range became so strong that I had to attenuate it. Yet they are still delicate and graceful.

N.B.
There are changes and improvements as above but no change is found on the maximum wave forms. This phenomenon taken into account with the fact of the increase of the sound volume concludes the condenser tuning brings increase of the total output energy.

-9/11-

Postscript

I was repeatedly listening to Beethoven's symphonies no.3 and no.8 conducted by Paavo Jarvis and also Paganini's violin concerto played by Nemanja Radulovic just before this tuning. Punch is characteristic of these music. So I was using the 6CA7 amp as the sound of 6N6P amp was a little unsatisfactory. The 6CA7 amp was already added with big condensers only right next to rectifiers though.
After the tuning the sound of 6N6P amp improved a lot. Encouraged I did the same tuning to other three amps including the 6CA7 amp.
Tunings were all successful. The improvement of 71A amp was most obvious as its sound was beautiful but slender.(to be continued)

-10/11-

(continued)
I had underestimated the sound of CDs but it was my amps that were responsible. The sound improved as if our CDs all became SACDs. The sound of David Oistrakh's violin is really touching and now I can listen to the music of Bach, which I couldn't enjoy before.
6N6P amp became almighty for any music and it is now unnecessary to change amps to 6CA7 amp, the most powerful one among the amps I have. However the result is very cynical. Now I don't need any amps other than 6N6P amp.

-11/11-

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There were three must be improved points that had been left untouched as to the last condenser tuning. I could finally implement the following improvements.
1.Replacing old condensers with new and smaller but of more capacity ones.
2.Removing the condensers from inside the chassis to the outside.
3.Isolating the condensers next to the FET ripple filter attempting to make the power more independently regulated on each channel.

The photo shows the finished view of the amp with newly arranged condensers. All the added condensers except one film condenser for the first stage FET amplifiers were placed on the print board outside the shassis. Their sizes were all almost the same accidentally. Red ones are film condensers attached parallel to black chemi-cons each nearby.

―1 of added 2 ―

The photo is the circut of the power section.
I used wire wound resistors next to the rectifiers and the FET ripple filter expecting their inductances would help prevent destruction of semiconductors from inrush current.
The condensers next to the FET ripple filter are separately grouped through separate resistors. No oscillographic difference was found but the sound was of more three-dimensional.
The dumping factor, by way of the ON-OFF method, was about 4. Unfortunately I have no numerical value to compare with as I didn't check it before tuning. My calculation of the factor of the very first original Perche 6N6P amp turned out to be about 3.35, just for an information.

―2 of added 2―

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The successful refining of the previous amp drove me to another refining/reforming of the 6DJ8＋6N6P amp.
The reformed amp is placed on the lower rack in the photo above while it was auditioned.
The renovation was two staged. The first was to replace 6DJ8s with FETs. I had been worrying for a long time the unstable behavior of 6DJ8s. The second is the refining of the condenser tuning.
The replacing 6DJ8s with FETs were successful. I'm now completely free from the worry.
The condensers were placed out on the chassis at the positions where there were tubes before and their capacities increased as well as they were divided into two groups by way of resistors(inrush current protectors) to supply power separately to right and left channels.

―1 of 4 of added2―

The photo above is a backside view of the shassis within which are installed two small circuit boards that replaced tubes. Each of them(the first stage amplifiers) is composed of two 2SK117GRs, one 2SK30A and four resistors.

―2 of 4 of added2―

I set NFB to 6db. The dumping factor turned out to be ≒2.8.
The internal resistance turned out to be ≒2.8 too.
The B+ voltage regulation was 6mV. That is, the total improvement of the regulation turned out to 10.5db.
Data were taken under the same conditions as they were taken for the previous amp.

―3 of 4 of added2―

Review:
Refining of the condenser tuning resulted in a sort of natural reality. That is, the amp reproduced the very same sound as that of the previous amp, not something superb I had romantically dreamt of. However, the regulation of B+ power this time improved to 6mV, which brought the volume nob setting a few more degrees backward. That is, this condenser tuning brought more increase of the total output energy.

―4 of 4 of added2―

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　　　　　　 ● Additional Repair 2 as of 2022/06/03 (on sensor board, sensor lever, diaphragm) added
● Additional Repair 1 as of 2021/09/23 (on photo-interruptor) added
● Additional Repair as of 2017/08/19 (on power unit) added
**********************************************

Fine Sensor Repair（Nov.2016)

Preface

Our house when built was located on the outskirt of a village where the water pressure was lower. In order to apply more pressure, we installed a pump with a tank N3-256SH made by Kawamoto Pump. The pump has been used for nearly thirty years. See also Ball Tap Link
However, it seems to have gotten old and began to fail in getting started. Luckily I could repair it.

-1/24-

The pump is controlled by two sensing switches.
It starts when a pressure sensor detects the decompression of water.
It stops when a flow sensor detects the stop of water flow.
The red circle shows the photo switch which senses the water pressure.
The cover comes off as you pull it with force. Then you can approach screws for taking off the unit. A slender plus driver is recomended for the work.

-2/24-

The photo sensor is soldered downward on to the print board, by the side of which is installed the interrupter adjuster with a screw and a coil spring.

-3/24-

The red circle shows the photo sensor switch.
The navy blue circle shows the intercepting lever that moves on and off the optical path.
The trouble was caused by a kind of insect nest at the photo sensor slit. By cleaning the slit the sensor revived.
The photo was taken after cleaning.

-4/24-

The illustration, which I downroaded from Roam, shows the structure of a photo sensor switch. Roam calls it a photo interrupter.

-5/24-

This illustartion shows the equibalent circuit of the device(photo-interrupter) which was actually used in the sensor.
GP1A52HRJ00F is a SHARP device the intercepted output level of which is low.

-6/24-

Power Supply Repair （August 19, 2017）

It started to happen that water from a faucet suddenly stops or water doesn't come out of a faucet when opened. These malfunctions automatically recovered after a few minutes each time but they irregularly happened and never stopped.
I checked the sensor unit but there was no bug nest. The sensor might have deteriorated I thought and I neatly cleaned the surfaces of the optical path. It didn't work.

-7/24-

As I mentioned before, the pump has been working for more than 30years. It may have done its term of service.
However, the motor is still beautifull and the pump functions quite normal when it works.
So I opened the black plastic box (at the center of the photo) hoping to find any other cause, not mechanical but electrical.

-8/24-

I surmised there, on the board, are a power supply section with a transformer of 15V output and a switching section with a semiconductor installed on to the box with a piece of heat sink tissue.
I paid my attention to three chemical condensers in the power supply section. (They are yellow circled in the photo.) It was very probable they were deteriorated. The life of chemical condensers are rather short.
So, I replaced them with new ones.
The pump revived and started to work normally. My assumption was right. The trouble was caused not by the sensor but the power supplied to the sensor.

-9/24-

I checked those three condensers. The top one in the photo(35V 100μF)　was broken. It was the one used at right after rectifiers. I know such a condenser is under a high ripple charge.
Other two condensers were, amazingly, not broken. My tester showed their capacities were normal.
The pins of the top condenser are not showing for I cut them as I took it off in order not to hurt other devices on the board.
The pins were being soldered very close to the rectifires sharing the same lands. On top of it I couldn't use a heat clip.

-10/24-

Restoration （March 2018）

The pump which had been smoothly working stopped again soon in the new year. Though I tried a few possible improvements it didn't revive and I gave up repairing and posted about the affair to my blog and facebook on Feb.20.
However I couldn't stop thinking about reparing and I finally made up my mind to restore it though with no prospect of success.
The following is how I restored the pump.

-11/24-

The photo was taken as I finally completed the restorarion.
I planned to use it not for daily life as before but only for watering flowers and washing cars. I installed a faucet newly for such purposes.
Thus the tank can be a reservoir of fresh water that can be used for drinking in case of emergency.
As I didn't own a thread cutter the piping was the game of combination of ready-made parts.

-12/24-

The Pump Before Restoration:
The photo was taken soon after it stopped working.
While I was checking and working on the electronic controller for many weeks the motor stuck and the backward flow check valve, the old worn out rubber packing of which dried up, lost its function never to revive.
The motor had kept revolving with squeaking sound which I didn't notice then.

-13/24-

Pump Parts:
From left to right, they are the casing(I partly broke it when detatchin), the impeller, the mechanical seal, o-rings, etc.
I bought new parts except the casing and the impeller.
Unfortunately I broke the casing as I struck it off the pump base.

-14/24-

Replacing The Motor Bearings:
My bearing remover was too small for the motor and I had to lengthen the arms with pieces of wire. Luckily the bearing came off.
The bearing number was printed on the seal pasted on the motor. They were amazingly cheap.
A bearing can be warmed for easier work both in taking it off and in fittig it on.

-15/24-

Flow Sensor:
The inside and the plunger were thickly covered with rusy fur. (The plunger in the photo is cleaned.) This rusty fur once caused wrong response on the reed switch.
A whity cylindrical object is a plunger within it is molded a ring magnet.
When a faucet is opened it slides up pushed by water and makes the reed switch on. When a faucet is closed and water stops moving it slides down and the reed switch opens off.
In some internet articles the plunger is called a float. It isn't. The plunger is heavier than water and it never floats. I was troubled by the wrong name in understanding how it works.

-16/24-

The photo, taken before it was cleaned, shows how I repaired the casing with a piece of stainless steel.
The casing which was unified to the motor had been stuck fast to the base. So I had to strike it hard many times to detach it out.
I tried to install a similar stainless piece using a bolt or a screw only in vain as the nuts collided.

-17/24-

The red circled object in the photo is a photo interrupter installed in the fine sensor(water pressure sensor).
The device died a little while before I resolved on the restoration. The lost once made me give up repairing. The only information I could read out was it was manufactured by Sharp.

-18/24-

I flatter myself that I didn't give up searching for an equivalent photo interrupter. The device must be less than 5mm in thickness and 12mmin width. I only knew them after I made mistakes two times. The first one I bought was 1mm too thick. The second one I bought was of a high intercepted output. The one I needed was of the low output.
I finally came to GP1A52HRJ00F by SHARP, which wasn't the type to be fitted by screws though. I glued it onto the board.

-19/24-

Fine Sensor Circuit:
The circuit is connected parallel with the reed switch, which is operated by the magnet molded in the plunger.
The circuit and the behavior of the flow sensor show how the pump is automated.
The motor is started when the fine sensor is made on as any faucet is opened. The pump is kept working untill water stops flowing letting the plunger return to its resting position and the reed switch beeing left off.

-20/24-

Controller Board Modification:
Four red circles show the places where new lead wires are soldered. Two short red bars mark the places where the patterns are cut off. The area is shown enlarged at the right bottom corner.
Red circles from left to right are of:
DC-5V power, GND, water pressure sensor signal and for the motor operation signals to be input. The last one leads to the cathode of LED molded in the photo thyristor.

-21/24-

Handmade Substitute Controller
The controller consists of a sensor signal detector and an off-delay timer switch.
The sensor signals are detected high or low by one of pair comparator units in LM393. When the signal is detected high the comparator makes the original photo thyristor on.
The timer switch, built with a timer IC(555), gets started when the sensor signal is detected low triggered by the output of the other comparator unit. Its output prolong the motor operation for a few seconds.
I built each of them on a small sized print board that I pushed them into the original controller box.
The whole circuit design in pdf is here

-22/24-

Postscript

I had replaced the accumulator, which is an expendable article, twice before.
The pump had never got any electrical trouble before for nearly thirty years. It's a very tough apparatus. We are living now without children and the pressure applying pump is not actualy needed. But the water in the tank is always fresh as far as we use it. That is, it will be a very valuable water in case of a disaster.

-23/24-

Having Completed The Restoration

I wasn't confident of the restoration. It took many weeks but I enjoyed the restoration.
Before tackling the project I bought a junk pomp hoping to be able to repair it. But it was a real junk.
Unluckily I lost some money, which pushed me strong to restore my old pump too. I feel fulfillment now.
I tackled the work and consequently I could train myself how to use a circuit design software.
I could learn how to apply a comparator IC, too.
At first I started building the controller with transistors but my radio friend Mr.H advised me not to use them but to use a comparator IC. I had to learn how to use a comparator but now I thank him a lot for the usuful and profitable advice.

-24/24-

The photo is one of the three solar cell footlights we set up along the path to our house from the street. The approach is rather long and dark in the night.
The amount of light of each footlight is very small and can not light up the area around it. They only show which way is the path. However, they are better than nothing and we have been using them.
Well, one of them got out of order after using about two years. My wife asked me if I can repair it.
As I said, the light is not much useful and I was reluctant to repair it. However, I was interested in opening it and seeing how it was made.

-1/8-

The light is composed of three parts. They can be assembled only by incerting and, with the head, turning a little clockwise until it clicks after incerting.
The solar cell is set on top of the head, inside of which are contained other electric parts being fixed on to the bottom cover. The cover is fastened to the head case by two small screws.
The LED illuminates downward at the center of the bottom cover, the light of which is reflected around by a cone shaped reflector.

-2/8-

I tried to shoot the trouble as in the book, checking the voltage of the rechargeable battery first. It was the battery that looked very cheap, as if almost nothing else was cheaper. The voltage was 0.7mV. It's dead.
The solar cell worked. It responded to the light, OK.

-3/8-

I tested the lamp with a new battery. The LED lit. So, I replaced the old battery with the new.
However, the repair was not complete. The light was unstable.

-4/8-

I suspected the mal function of the slide switch. I washed it with CAIG. But the light was still unstable.

-5/8-

Carefully watching, I found one of the IC pins, the far left pin out of the inline four at the lower end of the circuit board was not properly soldered. I resoldered it and the repairs were finished.

-6/8-

As in the photo, the lamp revived. The LED is switched off as the solar cell is exposed under certain amount of light.
On-off seemed to be controlled by the amount of light on the solar cell. A good mechanism!

-7/8-

Postscript

This time the repair was for the repair's sake.
My wife bought them for about 300yen each (amazingly cheap!). I bought two new rechargeable batteries for 598yen. They sell them two in one pakage. So I had to buy one of them for nothing.
Was it the repair for the sake of repair? No
I most enjoyed half the day repairing the lamp. It's a priceless way of spending time for me.

-8/8-

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Photo:Model DL-EDX10, the same one as we have been using.
It was sold with a DIY kit (in 2012-3?). After using for a few years, the press switches have become less responsive gradually and one day, finally, they stopped working.

JUMP to the culprit and the measures taken.

The trouble was caused by water leaked into the arm where the controller board was fitted (beneath press buttons). All the tact switches on the board stopped functioning due to carbon, verdigris, etc that accumulated in and around them.
The followings are the process of repair. If you try yourself, it should be done at your own risk.

-1/15-

Steps of dismantling the seat:
The followings are the steps. First, you'd better cover the floor with a bath towel or something alike to let it soak spilt water.
1. Stop water to the seat tank.
2. Take the hose off the seat assembly.
3. Empty the inner water tank.
4. Detach the seat forward(to your way) pushing the button at the right rear.
5. Unscrew 4 stainless screws.
Three of them are marked by red circles each and the rest by a green circle on the other side. 6. Prize the under plate, on which are mounted the main compornents, off the hooks from the upper cover.

-2/15-

You check the components mounted inside, such as the motor, plastic pipes, the nozzle and the power unit, etc if there were any unusual appearnces.
They all looked normal this time.

-3/15-

Repair of the controller:
The board is fitted inside the arm, screwed on to the upper cover.

-4/15-

You screw off the controller boad carefully and turn it over, again carefully, in order to pull off two white connectors.
The connectors are showing themselves in the photo at the upper-left end of the board. After pulling them off, the boad is free to your hand.
At this stage I found verdigris here and there on the board.
Mending tact swithes:
I found all the 12 tact swithes, more or less, bore verdigris. The whole board itself was wet, too.
To begin with, I dried it and took off the switch for bottom washing and checked its conduction. The switch was dead.
I had no spare tact swithes then and so I opened it and cleaned the inside as I did with the Victor turntable, reassembled it and put it back to the board. The bottom washer function revived.
I ordered new tact swithes with which to replace the old ones later.
As the tact switches arrived later, I replaced the old ones with the new. The switches I ordered were 4-legged while the ones used on the board were 2-legged.
I converted 4-leg swithes into 2-legged. I had to contrive to fit them to the board, which I could manage to do successfully.

-5/15-

Giving waterproof:
The photo shows the bottom plate onto which the washer nozzle unit is mounted.
There were five possible places where water leaked in from. I took the following measures.
1. I blocked up two slits on both sides of the nozzle sylinder. They exist a little deep inside for which I cut out a proper shaped shield from a piece of plastic sheet and glued it.
2. The three oval cirlces indicate other possible slits, which I filled up with a water proof glue.
3. I re assembled the seat and it has been used with all the swithes functioning without troubles.
* (The measure was not appropriate. The seat again started to suffer mal function in about six months. See The second repair.
4. I installed DL-EG10, a later succeeding model of DL-EDX10, to the other toilet in our house, which I checked before installing if the same waterproof operation is necessary. The check was useless. DL-EG10 was a water-seepage-proof model. (Oct. 2015)

-6/15-

Second Repair
To my disappointment, the seat began to suffer mal function in about six months and I had to repair it again.
The photo is showing the switches that bore verdigris again. Where had water leaked in?
I replaced all the tact switches except the one at the far end of the board(out of the photo). It looked quite healthy free from water.
This time, I drilled two new holes on the board for each tact switch to fit four-leg switchs tight.
I replaced one LED, too. One of the two pins was corroded.

-7/15-

Another water leak measure:
Water must have come from other than the slits mentioned above. My close inspection, however, couldn't shoot where did water come out.
The measure I took was to cover the tank unit (in the bigger red square) and the nozzle unit (in the smaller red square) independently with plastic bags to stop water from coming out.

-8/15-

Then I covered the board likewise as shown in the photo.(March 2016)
I'm expecting the repair this time is successful.

-9/15-

The culprit and the measures taken.(The third repair)

On the occasion I replaced the gaskets of our two toilets, I happened to notice an irregular spill of water from the washer toilet seat other than that from a relief pipe. The spill turned out to be the real culprit that had been troubling us. It was coming out from the drain plug and socket made on the inner tank of the seat.
It was too unlikely the part for me to notice much earlier. I took the following measures.

-10/15-

I filled all the apertures around the drain faucet with sealant.
With the advantage of hindsight though, the faucet is located closer to the controller board and if any water splashed upward at the faucet it easily spreads inside the apparatus container some reaching the board.
It seems that the leak was caused by the poor quality of the faucet. I replaced the old O-ring with the new but the leak didn't stop. Incidentally, the size of the ring was the same with "SANEI 10."

-11/15-

Top view of the aperture inside the apparatus container.

The drain faucet is installed on the tank facing downward. I applied sealant there, too.
Water must have been splashing up into the apparatus container from this aperture.

-12/15-

This is the plug used for the drain faucet. To help make leak lesser, I applied seal tape.
I split a piece of seal tape and made it slender in order to fit it to the plug. The white thing beyond the plug is a remaining piece.
I applied it thicker but couldn't stop the leak completely. However, as the sealant stops water now from getting into the container, I decided to let drops of leak go on, for it occurs only as you use washing.

-13/15-

Postscript

This is the plug used for the drain faucet. To help make leak lesser, I applied seal tape.
I split a piece of seal tape and made it slender in order to fit it to the plug. The white thing beyond the plug is a remaining piece.
I applied it thicker but couldn't stop the leak completely. However, as the sealant stops water now from getting into the container, I decided to let drops of leak go on, for it occurs only as you use washing.

I suspect the seat had a defect in design or with materials, for a measure was being taken with the later model.
Apart from the troubles, I was impressed by the sturdiness of the IC chip. When the controller board was wet, the chip was wet too and suffered burden more than designed as the switches were broken. But the chip endured it. Thanks to the tough cip, the seat revived by replacing the switches again.（March 2016）

-14/15-

Postscript -2- Replacement

About a month ago the seat made a big gear noise and the nozzle stopped moving. I tried pressing switches and moving the nozzle by hand, and finally found the seat can be used if you move the nozzle by hand. I am the only user of the seat and I accepted the trouble and kept on using the seat manually.
However, a shop made a discount sale recently for the card customers and we found a successional washer seat(DL-EJX10) was among the list. It turned out that with saved points we can get one very reasonably. So we bought a new one and replaced with the old one which I loved so long.
Hereafter there will be no more additional writing about the seat. Thank you very much for finding and reading this page.（July 20, 2017）

-15/15-

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Preface

One of the fluorescent lamps (hereafter cited as fl-lamp) in my study stopped responding the switch one day. It took some time to shoot the trouble but I found it was caused by detachment of soldered wires. It occured at one of the sockets to which one end of an fl-lamp is inserted. I have experienced dead lamps and glow swiches many times but never such a trouble.
As usual with me, I tried to repair it. The repair was successfully finished saving a purchase of a new lighting equipment. Here are the process of the repair for your information.

-1/17-

This equipment died.
I wanted to repair it there on the ceiling but it seemed impossiboe. So I detached it down.
The photo was taken after the repair.

-2/17-

Important! You first put off the wall switch for the lamp.
Before taking off the equipment from the ceiling, you take off the cover by pushing the buttons shown in the green circle. There are two buttons, one on each side. There are cases you need more force than you expect. Some might have experienced it.

-3/17-

The photo shows the naked equipment after the cover and fl-lamps are taken off. It is fixed onto the ceiling with four screws shown in the smaller circles.
The screw in the green cirle functions different than other three. You don't take it off. The explanation is given later.
Before taking off the screws you have to take off the power wires off the socket that is in the bigger dark blue circle.
Once again, when doing this by yourself, never forget to put off the wall switch or the corresponding circuit braker!

-4/17-

A close-up photo of the power line connector.
The power is led to the equipment from behind the ceiling out of the hole in the center. The connected wires are retained by the spring force.

-5/17-

Pressing the square button in the green circle enables you to pull off the wires from the connector. I used a minus driver to press it. The pulling off was smooth.
You don't have to push the button when inserting wires because the connector has one-way cruches inside.
This is the last process before taking off the equipment.

-6/17-

Now the process of taking off the three screws.
As was mentioned above, the screw in the green circle is not taken off.
Explanation of the screw: It is used to temporarily hold the naked equipment on to the ceiling. It must be driven before enything else and not be tightened all the way to the end so that you can hook the equipment to the screw head by sliding it a little. Thus you can use your both hands for driving other three screws.
The process this time is taking off, not fitting it on. So, you take off other three screws first, then loosen the last one only a little in order to slide the whole equipment to the downward way in the case shown in the photo.

-7/17-

The processed hereafter are done on a bench.
Raise one of the holding nails and you can take off the socket free.
The photo shows how wonderfully? the soldered wires came off the brush.

-8/17-

The photo is a close-up of the detached wires. I suspect the cleaning of the brush surface was insufficient when they were soldered.

-9/17-

The photo shows the parts that compose the socket. Brushes are polished.
Before polishing, the soldered spots were black.

-10/17-

Close-up of the brushes.

-11/17-

One of the brushes onto which a wire was resoldered.
They must be soldered so that they can be fit in the socket as showen in the next photo

-12/17-

The brushes are set inside the outer frame of the socket.

-13/17-

The inner retainer is set.

-14/17-

The thin pastic outer retainer is set with an eyelet rivet.

-15/17-

To complete the repair you go backward the processes of disassembling. Place back the socket, bend back the nail to hold the socket and you finish what you have to do on the bench.
Now, you hook it on to the ceiling and drive screws to tightly fit the equipment to the ceiling, incert the power wires to the connector, place back fl-lamps and the cover.
The photo at the top of this page was taken at this stage.

-16/17-

Postscript

The production of incandescent light bulbs has been stopped in Japan, and it has been reported that the fate of fl-lamps is going to be the same very soon. In electric stores the LED lamps in the shapes and sizes of fl-lamps are sold with the notes that they last twice as long and their running cost is less than one third as the fl-lamps.
However, the price is several to fifteen times higher than that of fl-lamps. That is, with such a price the replacing of fl-lamps with LED lamps in our house will not be economical while we can buy the former.

-17/17-

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Photo: Gas/Solar Heated Water Selector Valves.
There are two water heating systems installed in our house, a solar heater and a gas heater. Solar heated water is stored in a tank on sunny days but it doesn't work on cloudy or rainy days. On such days or when we have used up the stored heated water, we switch the valves for a gas water heater. The witches are electric motor driven.

The original valve switches were solenoid valves but they stopped working one day.
The trouble was caused by a check valve which was badly worn out, not the solenoid valves. However, the solenoid valves were old and I repladed them with the new motor driven valves.

-1/4-

The illustration shows a section of the check valve.(Thanks to Kitz)
The trouble was that the valve was out of its guide and choking water.
As usual with me, I made temporary repairs to the valve by making the shaft longer by about 3mm so that the valve doesn't get out of the guide.

The material I used was a piece of brass pipe I happened to have then. The diameter was luckily the same with the shaft. I ground the shaft and capped it with the brass piece and soldered them. The check valve revived!
Later, I replaced the valves but I made the shaft of the new valve longer before installing.

-2/4-

The photo shows the switch panel.
The upper switch, the original one, is for power and the lower for valve control.
The solenoid valves were on-off controled devices but the motor controled ones needed forward/backward rotation control. I used a 6-pole/2-way toggle switch picked up from among . my stock switches.

-3/4-

Postscript

When the mal function happened, I called a contractor and asked him to repair it. Somehow, he didn't accept it. Instead, he recommended me to replace the whole system. So, I made up my mind to repair it myself.

-4/4-

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