I have a Sharp RT-W500 duel stereo cassette deck that I picked up at a thrift
store. It plays great and sounds great, but the only thing is that when the
power to the unit is on, you can hear a slight "hum". Upon further inspection,
when I open up either cassette door, I noticed that the little metal rod (that
spins the roller when it makes contact" is spinning - on both decks. When I
turn the unit off, they stop spinning, but when the unit is on, they both spin,
and nothing is pressed, so I'm just wondering why this is, is it supposed to do
this, and should I be concerned?

THANKS for all advice and help.

The motor(s) are running. It's designed that way.

Mark Z.


"THE SPACE BOSS" wrote in message
...
I have a Sharp RT-W500 duel stereo cassette deck that I picked up at a
thrift
store. It plays great and sounds great, but the only thing is that when
the
power to the unit is on, you can hear a slight "hum". Upon further
inspection,
when I open up either cassette door, I noticed that the little metal rod
(that
spins the roller when it makes contact" is spinning - on both decks. When
I
turn the unit off, they stop spinning, but when the unit is on, they both
spin,
and nothing is pressed, so I'm just wondering why this is, is it supposed
to do
this, and should I be concerned?

THANKS for all advice and help.

The metal rod is the capstan. It's not that uncomon for the capstan motors
to be on all the time so I shouldn't worry about them.

The hum I would guess to be the mains transformer vibrating, unless you are
talking about a hum through the audio. Again, this is not uncommon and
nothing to worry about. If it annoys you too much you can sometimes cure it
by loosening and retightening the mains transformer mounting bolts.


Gareth.


"THE SPACE BOSS" wrote in message
...
I have a Sharp RT-W500 duel stereo cassette deck that I picked up at a
thrift
store. It plays great and sounds great, but the only thing is that when
the
power to the unit is on, you can hear a slight "hum". Upon further
inspection,
when I open up either cassette door, I noticed that the little metal rod
(that
spins the roller when it makes contact" is spinning - on both decks. When
I
turn the unit off, they stop spinning, but when the unit is on, they both
spin,
and nothing is pressed, so I'm just wondering why this is, is it supposed
to do
this, and should I be concerned?

THANKS for all advice and help.

I think he was just hearing the motor(s) running.

mz


"Gareth Magennis" wrote in message
...
The metal rod is the capstan. It's not that uncomon for the capstan
motors to be on all the time so I shouldn't worry about them.

The hum I would guess to be the mains transformer vibrating, unless you
are talking about a hum through the audio. Again, this is not uncommon
and nothing to worry about. If it annoys you too much you can sometimes
cure it by loosening and retightening the mains transformer mounting
bolts.


Gareth.


"THE SPACE BOSS" wrote in message
...
I have a Sharp RT-W500 duel stereo cassette deck that I picked up at a
thrift
store. It plays great and sounds great, but the only thing is that when
the
power to the unit is on, you can hear a slight "hum". Upon further
inspection,
when I open up either cassette door, I noticed that the little metal rod
(that
spins the roller when it makes contact" is spinning - on both decks. When
I
turn the unit off, they stop spinning, but when the unit is on, they both
spin,
and nothing is pressed, so I'm just wondering why this is, is it supposed
to do
this, and should I be concerned?

THANKS for all advice and help.

"Mark D. Zacharias" wrote in message
...
I think he was just hearing the motor(s) running.

mz


Ah, yes.

OK, guys I've got to ask this: WHY in the world would the capstan's spin all
the time? I mean why would it be designed this way? Wouldn't the motor that
spin's them wear out?

"I took a ride on a one way ticket,
I shot my arrow at the mark and hit it.
So while all the others talked, I did it-
Kept pushin everything beyond the limit.
You play the game, you gotta play to win it" - KISS

THE SPACE BOSS wrote:
OK, guys I've got to ask this: WHY in the world would the capstan's spin all
the time? I mean why would it be designed this way? Wouldn't the motor that
spin's them wear out?

"I took a ride on a one way ticket,
I shot my arrow at the mark and hit it.
So while all the others talked, I did it-
Kept pushin everything beyond the limit.
You play the game, you gotta play to win it" - KISS

Because it's cheaper to make that way, and by the time the motor wears
out, the warranty will be long gone...

On 18 Jan 2005 21:12:14 GMT, (THE SPACE BOSS)
wrote:

OK, guys I've got to ask this: WHY in the world would the capstan's spin all
the time? I mean why would it be designed this way? Wouldn't the motor that
spin's them wear out?

Dunno. But they all do.

"THE SPACE BOSS" wrote ...
OK, guys I've got to ask this: WHY in the world would the capstan's
spin all
the time? I mean why would it be designed this way?

So you don't have to wait for it to come up to speed when
you start the tape (particularly from pause mode.)

Wouldn't the motor that spin's them wear out?

Rare to non-existent.

Gives the lifter gear a running start, also no motor switch in the
mechanism, these can fail too. If you don't want the motors running, turn
the machine off.

Mark Z.


"THE SPACE BOSS" wrote in message
...
OK, guys I've got to ask this: WHY in the world would the capstan's spin
all
the time? I mean why would it be designed this way? Wouldn't the motor
that
spin's them wear out?

"I took a ride on a one way ticket,
I shot my arrow at the mark and hit it.
So while all the others talked, I did it-
Kept pushin everything beyond the limit.
You play the game, you gotta play to win it" - KISS

"THE SPACE BOSS" wrote in message


I have a Sharp RT-W500 duel stereo cassette deck that I picked up at
a thrift store. It plays great and sounds great, but the only thing
is that when the power to the unit is on, you can hear a slight
"hum". Upon further inspection, when I open up either cassette door,
I noticed that the little metal rod (that spins the roller when it
makes contact" is spinning - on both decks.

The rod is called a capstan. In cassette machines its small so it can poke
through the holes in the cassette. In open reel machines it is generally far
larger. The capstan generally has a larger flywheel where you can't see it
to help it spin at a constant speed. The motor that drives it is
intentiionally made so that it can't torque the capstan in an instant, so
that the flywheel does its job of evening out the rotation. Therfore, the
capstan motor needs to run all the time so that the deck is ready when you
start pushing buttons.

When I turn the unit off,
they stop spinning, but when the unit is on, they both spin, and
nothing is pressed, so I'm just wondering why this is, is it supposed
to do this, and should I be concerned?

Cassete decks often have one motor for running all of the transport
functions. The motor is often needed to do FF, rewind, etc. as well as run
the capstan(s).

In , on 01/18/05
at 09:12 PM, (THE SPACE BOSS) said:

OK, guys I've got to ask this: WHY in the world would the capstan's
spin all the time? I mean why would it be designed this way? Wouldn't
the motor that spin's them wear out?

Cassette motors take at least a few seconds for the speed to stabalize
after power is applied. By running them constantly the decks are ready
for "instant" use without any initial funky speed changes.

And, it will save the manufacturers a few cents to have the motors run
all the time.

I deal with higher end decks and about half of them switch the motors
off until PLAY or RECORD are started. Even in the same manufacturer's
line, some will switch and some will not.

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