Philips N2220 Cassette Recorder Checkout

[DMcMahon]

My latest acquisition a mid 1970's mono portable battery/mains cassette recorder, sold as untested.

Resonable condition. a few scuff marks but should clean up. No mains cable but luckily it looks like a standard figure of 8 connector so not one of those very difficult to find other 2 pin connectors.

Something was rattling around inside, so removed the rear cover (2 of the securing screws hidden under the retractable handle were totally missing).

Found 2 machine screws, a crinkle washer and another metal piece, no obvious signs where these might belong, the screws are not the missing cover securing screws.

As half expected no sign of the rubber drive belt (s), apart from some horrible sticky goo.

The ERT Service chart lists 2 drive belts items 76 and 92 but on the drawing I can only see one belt item 92. Even though the drawing clearly shows where belt 92 goes, I cannot marry that up easily with the actual unit to work out where the belt actually goes and definitely cannot see where a second belt might go.

If anybody has a N2220 if they get a chance could you please post a photo showing the belt (s).

David

[Michael Maurice]

It’s a standard Philips deck similar if not the same as the EL3302

[ben]

As Michael says, same layout as 3300 series. Long belt from motor to capstan, also touching white idler. Small belt or O ring on black/grey idlers. piccy

[DMcMahon]

Thankyou Michael and Ben, the piccy certainly tells a thousand words.

Need to find some suitable drives belts now but first clean lots of goo from the idler/pulley grooves.

David

[Sideband]

It's fitted with the later 'hysteresis' clutch. These were supposed to give better wow and flutter figures and interchangeable with the earlier friction clutch. If you open one up (don't...I never got one back together reliably) there is a magnet and an outer ring....no physical contact between them so essentially a 'frictionless' clutch.

[dazzlevision]

This model may contain the erase head type that used a potting compound which liquifies after many years......

[DMcMahon]

Picture of the heads.

David

[DMcMahon]

Been cleaning up the drive belt goo, what a mess, taking ages to get properly clean, the goo had gotten all over the place, on cables, on the underside of the PCB. in the motor housing and various metalwork and plastic parts etc. Particulary difficult to get the idler/pulley groves really clean.

Always surprises me how much goo there is, in this case from 2 small drive belts.

[DMcMahon]

Plugged in figure of 8 mains cable to make sure the motor works before I replace the belts but none of the keys will press down. Before I took it apart, all the keys did press down but did not stay pressed when released, so looks like taking it apart has somehow jammed the keys operation.

David

[DMcMahon]

Took apart the keys assembly and all individual keys worked, re-assembled and all still work now. With figure of 8 lead plugged in the motor does rotate when Play/Wind/Rewind keys pressed.

With reference to SK6 in this linked Thread -

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=205501

SK6 is an integral on/off switch in the power connector housing.

As shown on the schematic the power connector is 3 pin (in-line) to cater for dual voltage switching of 110V-127V and 220V-240V, rotaing a plastic screw head turns a plastic shutter to select the appropriate 2 pins.

David

[DMcMahon]

Replaced the 2 drive belts. Could not find a drive belt small enough for the smaller belt so used a new O-ring, for the larger belt used a new square section belt.

Powered up and tested Start (Play), Wind and Rewind. They worked but the keys would not stay latched down. Got reasonable sound on playback of cassette (once again having to keep the Start key pressed down), volume at max setting of volume slider not overly loud but maybe normal for this unit.

On the keys assembly there is a plate that can slide across, if I manually push the plate over after having pressed a key down the respective key latches down until Stop is pressed. Have a suspicion there maybe a spring missing that should attach to the plate, needs a closer look at.

David

[DMcMahon]

Stripped down the latching assembly. Even though previoulsy the latch plate (item 509) could be manually slid over, it was quite stiff, this was due to very sticky white grease on the latch plate and plate (item 507) it moves along.

Cleaned off all the old grease and will apply some new grease as required. This will not help the latching operation because there is no spring tension. Looking at the sevice manual I can now see that there should be a tension spring (item 67) fitted on the latch plate going to a tab on the other plate.

I have a box of small spare springs somewhere but first search they have not been located.

The design of the other plate (item 507) is slightly different to the one shown in the service manual. The service manual show fixings item 5 (clamping ring) and item 12 (ring) which look to secure the latch plate to the other plate (maybe by a raised post/stub on item 507). These do not exist on mine and the securing (loose/sliding) of the latch plate to the other plate is done by raised T shaped metalwork on the other plate.

David

[DMcMahon]

Originally Posted by DMcMahon

On the keys assembly there is a plate that can slide across, if I manually push the plate over after having pressed a key down the respective key latches down until Stop is pressed.

David

Cannot find my box of spare springs so have been trying a couple of springs taken from retractable biro pens, cutting the length of the springs to suit.

Not ideal but have got latching now working but only on the Start and Record keys. Now realise that the Wind & Rewind keys are not latching keys and have to be held down during fast winding operations.

David

[ben]

We had one of those in our school art department, I remember the annoying lack of locking fast wind keys! Standing there to rewind a c120 was not much fun!

I would be looking at how to make 'em latch while you're in there. A little nick in a plate here, an extra superglued bit there...

[DMcMahon]

Yes I must admit that idea had crossed my mind.

I am unlikely to use the machine much and may not keep it that long so I think best to leave it as standard build.

David

[DMcMahon]

After playing around with 4 springs from biro pens got one of them to stay in place and Play/Record key latching appears to be working well.

Need to put machine back togetehr and give it a good operational test, also need to test out recording.

David

[DMcMahon]

Machine reassembled and running well. Microphone recording works well from test with a Grundig microphone. Recording is fully automatic with no record level adjustment and no record or playback level monitoring.

Next to check line recording out, also external speaker operation once I find my 2 pin DIN plugs. Initially thought the 2 pin conector on the machine looked smaller than a standard 2 pin DIN but there is only one size as far as I know.

David

[Sideband]

I thought these had a built-in electret microphone but I must be thinking of another model.

[DMcMahon]

Definately no internal microphone.

David

[Nickthedentist]

The N2225 had a rather stylish internal microphone... which popped out on a coiled lead if you pressed a button!

https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/philip...automatic.html
https://audio-database.com/PHILIPS/radio/n2225.html