Philips 70CD555 adventure

[Arbusto67]

Hello everyone, about one month ago I was able to win an auction for one of my holy grail, the Philips 70CD555 in the title. It's in very good conditions, save for a couple scratches (nothing major) and part of the plastic finishing foil peeled off form the right speaker box. I tested it and the radio is working, after a brief lens cleaning even the CD player works (almost incredible), obviously the cassette player did not, not even tried putting a cassette in, and the display stated error (cassette lid impossible to open). This device sounds very nice, even if the D8644 sounds better... After tearing it apart I reset the mechanism by rotating one of the flywheels and the error disappeared. Used it like that for a couple weeks and in the meantime I bought a spare gear for the one that always disintegrates in this mechanism. After dismantling the unit almost completely I managed to replace the crumbled gear (in this case a YouTube video by Daniela Spieler has been very helpful, thanks a lot!) and the flywheels belt, reassembled everything and the cassette deck only works partially, fast forward and review are OK but trying to play a cassette results in the classic tape salad because the winding reel doesn't spin (and this occurs in both play directions). So I have to dismantle everything again to try and understand what's wrong with the cassette mechanism and, let me tell, this unit is a nightmare to tear apart and reassemble because of the number of screws it uses, there's literally a ton of screws of different sizes and the service manual doesn't exactly specify which screw goes where, moreover there are many circuit boards with a lot of connectors (some of them completely similar between each other) and it's very difficult to fit everything in correctly. I end up saying that, after having reassembled the unit, I have now some spare screws that I wasn't able to fit, and I even paid attention in what I was doing...
Lastly here is a photo (sorry, maybe it's a bit dark).
Please wish me luck for the next time I'll try and repair the deck .

 

[Eddy]

I have 2 of these , so on both only the tuner works and like almost all the speaker foil come off one one.
These were extremely expensive in the 80's
I saw the repairs that Daniela did , awesome

 

[Arbusto67]

So guys I have a small update, now even the cassette deck is working as it should (it was a small sliding piece on the rocking arm that alternatively moves the spools that did not move freely) but unfortunately now the CD player display shows four "8" instead of the track time and both displays are not lighted anymore, maybe I messed up something with the connectors, go figure.
I'll have to open that thing again and, believe me, it's the last thing I would like to do, tearing apart this device is an utter nightmare, I need a very big dose of bravery...

 

[Arbusto67]

Tested the Philips further and even the radio doesn't seem to be working properly, the reception is somewhat low and the stereo LED doesn't light up steadily.
This old devices seem to be more and more fragile the more you try and fix them, very annoying...

 

[Eddy]

A lot of info on restoring the 555

Home - Philips 70CD555

The long way to recover a legend from the 80s PHILIPS 70CD555 About Read more First Aid Franks Sound Machine (Project #8) CD-Player More to come… Tape Deck More to come… AM/FM Radio More to come… Amplifier More to come… Back to the 80s Produced from 1986 to 1987 the Philips CD555 was a – back...

70cd555.com

 

[Arbusto67]

Thanks, already found that site, incredible amount of useful informations on the CD555, I even found something on Stereo2go forum from the same author (Daniela) and others.

 

[Eddy]

Daniela has a lot of knowledge. I wish i had that too.

 

[Arbusto67]

Well, performed another partial dismantle of the unit only to discover that I previously inverted a couple connectors on the power supply board, put everything together again (another pain in the butt...) and now it works completely, save for the lamps in the displays unfortunately, didn't even try and understand how to replace them because I got the impression that it would have been a lot more complicated than expected. For now I'll use it like this...

 

[Arbusto67]

Guys, if you believe me, the second time I powered on the unit after the last repair some horrible and loud noises came out of the speakers, tried again and it was the same. Now go figure what could it be, I suspect that maybe some capacitors in the power supply board went bad (in her excellent site Daniela says that the blue Philips capacitors are prone to failing), I have to dismantle it again .

 

[Eddy]

Guys, if you believe me, the second time I powered on the unit after the last repair some horrible and loud noises came out of the speakers, tried again and it was the same. Now go figure what could it be, I suspect that maybe some capacitors in the power supply board went bad (in her excellent site Daniela says that the blue Philips capacitors are prone to failing), I have to dismantle it again .

Yep , i have red all kind of things about the 555 on Daniela's site. Kinda got discouraged on working on it.
There was one that Daniela redesigned , new µ processor /programming and **** . The 555 was overengineered and when that goes wrong...............
I guess you have to start with replacing the power supply caps and go from there

 

[Arbusto67]

Thanks Eddy, I checked some blue capacitors with my ESR meter and a couple of them tested weird, I have to unsolder them from the board and check further but unfortunately, despite having a good collection of hundreds of various capacitors from Aliexpress, I don't have the exact specs reported in the service manual (it's impossible to read the values directly from the capacitors themselves because of the position on the board), so I have to wait until I source them...

 

[Arbusto67]

Another episode of the saga: replaced some capacitors in the power supply board but after testing they all were good, well within specs, replaced them anyway with new ones with higher voltage capability but the problem obviously remains. Maybe the last time I reassembled it I did something wrong (don't really think so), the only thing that I did was to lengthen one black wire that was attached to a metal shield (isolated the junction properly) that broke while trying to disconnect it (it was wrapped around a prong instead of soldered). I'm very disappointed to say the least.

 

[Eddy]

Don't know if you have contact with Daniela , ask for tips?

 

[Arbusto67]

Yeah Eddy, it would have been an excellent idea if after checking everything again I didn't discover an hidden cable disconnected from the radio-amp board, after connecting it it's back to normal operation, I feel a bit ashamed I have to say... .
Well, let's put it like this, now the power supply board has new capacitors with higher voltage capability. Some days ago I glued back the peeling plastic finish in the right speaker box, it didn't came out 100% perfect because if you look at it with powerful light some very slight uneven areas are noticeable but it looks nice. For now I'm stopping here .

 

[Eddy]

Ok , good to see that you got it goin again.
They used bad glue for the plastic finish . My 555 has the same issue. I use it as it is at the moment

 

[Arbusto67]

Damn, this device is a never ending story: today I tried playing a cassette, the mechanism is working but there is no sound, so tried recording and the result is a continuous clicking sound (the heads don't move up) that only stops shutting everything off. I guess that the plastic lever that moves the play-rec bar is out of position because the first time I fixed the mechanism the sound came out normally from the deck. Unfortunately every time that you want to take apart the unit you have to remove the cassette deck board and reinstalling it requires to center the plastic lever pin into a hole in the bar end, so inevitably you have to force it until everything is in place, maybe I forced too much and now the bar doesn't move as it should.
I'm a bit tired...