CAPACITORS ON SONY CAMCORDER CCD-TR350E (year = 1994) HELP PLEASE

[isetta]

First time on here for me. Please be gentle.
I do not have much skill in diagnosing faulty electronics. My skill is limited to taking something apart, spotting visual signs of bulging (cylinder shaped) capacitors and then replacing them. I have done this on probably over 100 items, mostly computer motherboards and computer power supply units.
Today's problem is this - I have about 15 hours of Sony 8mm video tape of my children in the 1990s filmed on SONY CAMCORDER CCD-TR350E. I want to transfer these tapes to more modern media (my PC and DVD discs). But the camcorder seems to have a fault. The head fails to spin up. If I leave the camcorder off for hours the head sometimes spins up, not very often and not for long. What it does most of the time is twitch slightly and not spin. the twitch can be in either direction. When it twitches I have tried spinning with my finger (I have taken the plastic cover of the side of cassette tray so I can get in there) but that does not help. The head seems to be making a sh... sound inside it and if I hold my finger on it it feels like it is vibrating. Research so far suggests it might be a failing capacitor problem. I can't see any failing capacitors visually like you often see on computer motherboards. I know that does not mean they have not failed.
Can anyone guide me towards what capacitors are the most likely to cause the problem with the head not spinning.
I don't want to replace all of them, I just want to do the minimum to make it work for me to get the video footage from my tapes. And i don't even know if replacing all of the silver cylinder capacitos would even work as I don't know what type of capacitor affects the head spinning eg. might be rectangular ones for all I know (I don't know the correct terminology).
I have att'd some photos. Stupidly I didn't take a photo of the pcb with the battery terminals on (back end of camcorder) and I have reassembled it all now which also it a bit daft really.
Any help greatly appreciated.

[adinsen]

You say that your research suggests it might be a failing capacitor problem, but what are your sources? Have you found others who have experience repairing this particular camcorder with this particular problem? If I were to fix this problem, I'd get myself a service manual and start analyzing.

I understand why you want to want to digitize your films, of course! I'm a parent too. Your best bet here might be to find a shop that can digitize the tapes for you.

/Anders

[factory]

Don't know about this camcorder, but others that are 30+ years old are well known for peeing SMD capacitors.
There is a dead Sony camcorder here too, I still haven't got round to opening it.

David

[coppercone2]

that is bad cap time period so you  can say its a pretty good guess

[Runco990]

Welcome to a fools errand.  When I worked at Circuit City Service around 2000, we saw a TON of these with capacitor failure.  We'd just heat them up and sniff for that typical fishy odor and give the customer a totally unrealistic estimate.  NO TECH wanted to mess with these, as results simply could not be guaranteed.  So we quoted whole board prices, IF available.  These damn caps were a BLIGHT in those years.


The first to fail are always in the DC-DC converter.  But it's already over 20 years later, so it's likely ALL of them, especially if you hope to get a clean transfer out of it.  It's very unlikely it'll make a clean picture or even have sound.  Maybe analog, but most recorded in PCM.

I wouldn't bother.  I'd buy a running 8mm DECK.  FAR easier to service enough to do what you need.  I did this, and used my PC to digitize.

Another POSSIBLE and common problem was the mode switch.  Try cleaning it.  Maybe YOU will be the only lucky person on earth that has a simple fix.

I'd grab a running deck, do the transfer, and then sell the deck.  For all you know the tapes you have could already be un-playable.  I have been in the transfer business.  Most people wait far too long before they remember to back up their "precious memories".... by then it's usually the media is bad or no running machines.  Usually BOTH.

Good luck! 

[inse]

There is also the chance that the mechanics has also aged in form of cracked Nylon gears and a hardened pinch roller.
Unfortunately these things are not made to last…

[isetta]

Thanks for replies.
In answer to some points:
I had never heard to a 8mm deck. I am in United Kingdom, not sure if they were sold here - perhaps for professional use only. Just looked on ebay. Very few on there in UK and cheapest working one is 400 GBP (about 500 USD) so i won't go down that route. I know if it is OK I could try to sell again afterwards but demand for these will be very low I would imagine. camcorders in the early 90s were never very common the UK because they were expensive to buy.
I did think about paying someone to digitise the tapes but it is expensive so i would rather avoid that if at all possible.
On the rare occasion that the camcorder will load and play a tape the image looks fine through the black and white viewfinder. I know that does not prove colour will be OK or sound OK.
"You say that your research suggests it might be a failing capacitor problem, but what are your sources?".  I have read countless stuff on the internet about camcorder problems hoping to stumble on a fix for this. I can't pinpoint exactly where I formed this idea from as I have read so much and what i read wasn't neccessarily about his exact model. I definitely did come across posts where people had the same problem as me with this same model but none revealed a fix.
Rubber on pinch roller feels good.
I don't want to be beaten by this, I hate giving up on a challenge like this.

[isetta]

i filmed what happens on my phone but file size too big, will try again later

[isetta]

does anyone know where I can get the service manual free? although I don't know if i would be able to make use of the info in it due to my limited knowledge.
I was hoping someone would just say try replacing capacitor number C122 as that's the likely cause or something like that but I knew that was a real longshot.

[wasedadoc]

does anyone know where I can get the service manual free? although I don't know if i would be able to make use of the info in it due to my limited knowledge.

https://elektrotanya.com/blaupunkt_cc-824_ccd-tr350e_sm.pdf/download.html

Good luck.  You will need it.

[isetta]

thanks for link. yes it's a bit complicated. well beyond my understanding. Praying someone else with a lot of time on their hands will look at the manual on that link and be an expert and tell me which capacitor numbers are likely the ones that might affect the head spin (or lack of).
Also, what direction should the head spin? the same as the direction of the tape travel over it, or the opposite?

[Haenk]

Honestly, this IS beyond repair. Even more so for untrained persons. Trained persons will not try it for money. Likely most If not all capacitors are dead or need to be checked. Even worse: they usually leak and destroy the surrounding area (comparable to leaked batteries). But that is only the electronics part. Mechanically, being a trained watchmaker will certainly help. Disassemble, lubricate, reassemble, replace broken plastic parts. Then calibrate using special Sony calibration tape.
Remember: You will need a well equipped workplace, too.

Suggestion 1: Sell untouched in eBay.
Suggestion 2: Take that money and pay a video transfer guy. They have working, maintained, equipment for most formats - and are reasonably cheap.

[Jeff eelcr]

Actully in that timeframe replacing all the capacitors first would be the easy problem as long as it has no leakage yet.
Being very careful not to affect any calibration controls or cause more damage. (you could pull a few and test first)
These units were a pest to work on by trained people with the proper equipment none of which was cheep or easy.
I would start one board at a time slowly and carefully, personally I hate to use any capacitor less than 7mm, so no SM type
unless for fit.
I also prefer to use Matsushita brand as out of thousands of caps I have found bad few have been made by them and if so they
were usually all same types no longer made because of the failures or one lone individual fails short or open.
Smaller caps usually have ESR problems or will decrease in value.
Jeff