REPAIR GUIDE - TG-CD: Total capacitor replacement chart + useful info

[kid_rondeau]

My apologies if someone already brought this up, but I found a site that details how to mold your own gears with what appears to be relatively little effort...

http://marshallbrain.blogspot.com/2006/05/casting-your-own-plastic-gears.html

His situation seems to be very similar to ours.

http://www.hobbycast.net/video.htm

The second video shows in detail how it works. Looks like it could be the solution! The prices look alright, but I haven't really investigated too thoroughly...back to work!

If no one gets to this before I do (could be QUITE a while), I am willing to temporarily extract one of the "as of yet undamaged" gears from one of my TG-CD's to make such a mold.

[kattare]

It might be ok if one of us were to take the plunge and sell the resulting pieces... but for one person to do it for one gear...

HobbyCast 110 w/ Mixing kit   HobbyCast 110 w/ Mixing kit
055502/054010 - 2 lb Kit w/ 16 oz mixing kit

   $27.95
 
HobbyMold 160 w/ Mixing kit   HobbyMold 160 w/ Mixing kit
055232/054010 - 2.2 lb Kit w/ 16 oz mixing kit

   $43.25
 
TOTAL WEIGHT:    8.00 lb
TOTAL SHIPPING:    11.36

SUBTOTAL:    71.20
DISCOUNT:    - 0.00
TAX RATE:    0%
TOTAL TAX:    0.00
GRAND TOTAL:    82.56

That's one spendy gear when the entire apparatus (incl new laser) can be had for ~$45 elsewhere on the net.

[kid_rondeau]

Kattare,
admittedly, not an outwardly cheap way to acquire the offending gear, but it really is an investment. I don't know of anyone who has conclusively found an exact match in any other device, and the KSS-162a and 220a (completes) don't have the same gearing that the TG-CD has. The gearing seems to be unique to this device, and one of the gears seems to have been made from a defective plastic.

I can understand if no one sees any pressing need to take this task on right now...and the only reason I'm not is due to financial and time restrictions. But that won't always be the case (knock on wood), and someday I will shell out the $80 or so to be able to make my own gears. My intention is, after a successful run, I will sell them to forum members for a reasonable price. But that's putting the cart before the horse. I just want to attack this common TG-CD problem and make it a thing of the past.
I would consider it a great honor to have such a large role in keeping the systems alive.

[kattare]

That's true... I have a unit here with a broken gear as well.  The gear is all yellowed and the gear tooth broke in my hands when I was just trying to turn it to lubricate it... heh.  depressing.  If someone were able to make a mold, that'd be a one-time cost.

In the meantime, I've been working with a KSS-220A apparatus.  So far I've had some luck dropping in the entire apparatus as a replacement.  Obviously it doesn't fit in the case, but that's my only hangup.  I already got it to play music with the lid off, so I don't think there are any compatibility issues.

[override]

That's true... I have a unit here with a broken gear as well.  The gear is all yellowed and the gear tooth broke in my hands when I was just trying to turn it to lubricate it... heh.  depressing.  If someone were able to make a mold, that'd be a one-time cost.

In the meantime, I've been working with a KSS-220A apparatus.  So far I've had some luck dropping in the entire apparatus as a replacement.  Obviously it doesn't fit in the case, but that's my only hangup.  I already got it to play music with the lid off, so I don't think there are any compatibility issues.

You could always get yourself a NEC-35D or D35? whichever one it is...lol

Heres the link - http://www.computertradeexchange.com/inventory/NECB.html

I ordered one of them from these guys, they have great customer service and shipped really fast and packaged well! Everything in the CD-Drive you get can be used EXCEPT the PCB, its not made compatible for a Duo, although its all the same shape and stuff on the inside, Im sure its a matter of the chips are different on the Board between the two.

[kattare]

Override, I've looked at those before.  I didn't want to take the chance that they were manufactured at the same time and thus have the same gear issue.

I'm starting to lean toward the molding gear.  I successfully dropped an entire kss-220a apparatus into a TG-CD that I just got it from fullnelson the other day.  I had to:

- move 5 caps
- remove the line out jack
- remove the external power jack (yup, it'll never work stand-alone again... big whoop.)
- cut/dremmel/file the crap out of the chassis
- cut/dremmel/file the crap out of the kss-220a
- reverse the leads to the tracking motor

All that is cool and whatnot, but it took freakin' 6 hours...  6 hrs I'm willing to do once, but not 2 more times.  (2x jap briefcase units I need to repair)

Final product works great... unreliably reads CD-R's... probably some tweaking of the pots would get that going, but it's reliable with regular games so I'm gonna leave it be.

Maybe the second time won't take so long I guess... and the kss-220a is only $30.

[kid_rondeau]

Wow,
All things considered, that's pretty cool, Kattare!

[pceslayer]

The Sony Discman D-33 also uses a kss-220a

It looks just like the D-34

[override]

Override, I've looked at those before.  I didn't want to take the chance that they were manufactured at the same time and thus have the same gear issue.

Maybe the second time won't take so long I guess... and the kss-220a is only $30.

Personally I think the extra $15 you would spend on getting the NEC drive, would be worth it! Thats minus probably 5 hours of work, its straight pull out and drop in, and the guys that run that business have GREAT customer service, if you got a drive that had issues with the gears etc. they most likely would refund you every penny or simply swap you drives! Im sure another reason as to why they are charging $45 is cause it also comes with the CD power supply and the CD Interface that allows it to hoook up to the PC. You may get away with it cheaper if you were to ask them for the CD portion only.

All that said, Im glad to hear and see that you got it working! Im sure the pots need a little tweak such as the duo's do with the new hop-m3's...

[kattare]

Were you able to look at the suspect gear on that unit you had and verify that it was not yellowed with age?  If not, it may be worth a shot.  It just makes me nervous I guess... So much $$ for one little gear.  heh.

[Ace]

Override, I've looked at those before.  I didn't want to take the chance that they were manufactured at the same time and thus have the same gear issue.

I'm starting to lean toward the molding gear.  I successfully dropped an entire kss-220a apparatus into a TG-CD that I just got it from fullnelson the other day.  I had to:

- move 5 caps
- remove the line out jack
- remove the external power jack (yup, it'll never work stand-alone again... big whoop.)
- cut/dremmel/file the crap out of the chassis
- cut/dremmel/file the crap out of the kss-220a
- reverse the leads to the tracking motor

All that is cool and whatnot, but it took freakin' 6 hours...  6 hrs I'm willing to do once, but not 2 more times.  (2x jap briefcase units I need to repair)

Final product works great... unreliably reads CD-R's... probably some tweaking of the pots would get that going, but it's reliable with regular games so I'm gonna leave it be.

Maybe the second time won't take so long I guess... and the kss-220a is only $30.

I'll tell you one thing: I'm definitely gonna drop a KSS-220A into my TurboGrafx CD once its gear disintegrates.  It may look REALLY ugly, but I'd take a working TurboGrafx CD that looks like crap than a good-looking TurboGrafx CD that can only serve as a paperweight any day.  And it sure beats the crap out of paying upwards of $80 just to mold a single gear.

[BlueBMW]

Bump, this thread needs a sticky too, as we are starting to see issues with the caps on these units also.

[Keith Courage]

There is a dude on ebay with a gear replacement solution. I had mine repaired by him a couple months ago for $55 and it works great. Just saying if you are going to spend anywhere from $25-$45 for a donor drive you might as well pay someone else to do the work for not much more.

[BlueBMW]

There has been some speculation as to where that ebay guy got his repair info.  He was on here "chris computers" and when asked about how he figured out the two gear solution (a solution in development by chop5 for quite some time now) he clammed up.  Then when we nicely asked for his source of gears in order to help everyone afflicted by this problem, he would not say.  I think he knew that he was using the free repair info from this site in order to profit for himself.  He left here not long afterwards (though some of us think he may still be lurking around because we DO get some great repair information here) 

Bottom line... if you're totally desperate, use that guy.  Personally I think he's taking advantage of the tech crew here and using free information to take advantage of everyday gamers.  He's profiting for himself and not contributing anything back to the community from which he's stealing the repair information.  I tend to fix stuff for little or nothing because I'm more concerned with helping out the community than making personal profit.  This chris computers guy seems more interested in money than anything.

I am very close to perfecting the belt drive replacement system for these units.  So far its proving to be quiet, reliable and dirt cheap!  And when you get something fixed by me, I'm here if there are problems.  I'm on the side of the gamer, not on the side of making money.  I can only ask a little more patience as I'm nearly done developing this solution.  It will cost less than $10 to implement... a far cry from the $55 gouge that guy is charging.

[Keith Courage]

Well that's good news. Maybe if I have a broken drive in the future ill consider sending it to you for repair then.