DTS XD-10 : Won't Power UP

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Yeah, it isn't practical to change the DTS LEDs in the field. Once you solve the jigsaw puzzle of getting the guide roller off of the LED bracket, you'll find that there is a channel of RTV holding the last bit of the red/black (could be different colors) wires and the LED itself. So, once you dig all of that out, depending on if you were lucky in not damaging the wires (including from the reader disassembly), you have to put it all back but, before you can do that, you have to let the new RTV cure. Then you can put it all back together and aim the LED at the lens/cell/test. There is but so much time in an operating theatre.

To be honest, they weren't all that much of a problem to do, unsolder wires from PCB, slide wires out of chassis, carefully slide rectangular mount off wire by feeding the wire into that mount . I spent perhaps 90 minutes doing one. then let the silicone dry over night and check alignment the next day. You can also temporarily assemble it with out silicone to test it first if desired. I made a mount for one of my Dubber racks and used that to do alignment. Did the same with the BACP DP-70 scanners. To find the LED, I sent a good one to several companies that made that size LED and one came back with a perfect match. Some where I have photos of all this...

I never needed to repair the CP65 power supplies. For the Panastereo, the fan was the biggest failure point for me. Some claimed the small bridge rectifier but I didn't have problems with those. The PS510 never seemed to have problems.

Sorry, my Typo Error... CP-650, not 65. But today, if a CP-65 were going to be placed in service, I would recap the whole thing. Ditto for any other older processor. I did have several bridges fail in Panastereo's. I mounted a new bridge on the heat sink in a small area I machined flat. If you compare an Australian to a Smart Panastereo, the bridge in the one from down under is quite a bit larger... physically. Yea, the fans!

Strong de-rated the compact 1-3KW supplies to 1-2.5KW. I wonder how close to the edge it was at 3KW. Depending on what part of the supply you are looking at or what literature you are reading, it would still say 1-3KW.

They did de-rate it, however, they would still fail from bad power surges. In places like Southern Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, etc. if lightning hit really close by, or if they didn't have full ventilation, plugged ventilation holes, or a hot booth in the summer over a couple years.. Cottonwood trees were very common in Utah and parts of Wyoming, had one in my front yard in Utah. The 3 to 4K units were a lot more reliable and had double the the switching and rectification devices and heat double the heat sinks. The 2.5 kw unit would have had better luck if it had had more heat sink area. There were only two devices each on the positive and negative sides for both switching and rectification. IR has since come out with higher current / voltage devices in the same package since those days. Also, they saw Varistor failure, and certain diodes on the pcb would usually short out if the power devices failed. Had to check components carefully or you may fry a whole new set of devices.