Making lemonade with a Tag Mclaren.

AlienALX

Active member
OK so it would appear I got lemons. However, I always had a back up plan.

So I have been looking for a TMC CD transport since I started my AV rig many years ago. Problem is they cost too much for how much I would use them. As such I waited for a player in poor condition to come along, hoping I could possibly repair it.

I knew from the outside it had been tampered with, but obviously I had no idea about what had gone on inside. When it arrived the laser was in pieces, but I think this was a ploy by the seller to slow me down finding out that really it was dead. This is what it looked like.

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Now you may have thought I was nuts spending several hours doing this.

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Before trying to fix the laser, but like I said I have always had a back up plan in place. In fact, I have been looking for a shell for years.

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One slot empty. However, I had a media PC but obviously it didn't fit well into the stack. I recased it and moved it to the side but that made it even worse.

So, I decided to go through with my plan. My friend still has this that I sold him that was the media PC.

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That is the most critical part. It is a quad core "On chip" Celeron, and it is passive. It is more than man enough for 4k movies and streaming too, as I found out when I had it last.

BTW I am not doing this lightly. What I mean is, if it could be repaired professionally I would send it to a professional. Sadly someone got there before me and has basically ruined it. Look at this.

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It is just full of bodge wires and god knows what else. Look at these broken traces.

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It has been done very very poorly.

I am no expert but I am 99% sure I know what is wrong with it. I also know how a pro would repair it. See, it is supposed to look like this inside.

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The thing in the middle is made from metal, and has shielding on the back. It is soldered through the main under board covering up the CD transport board. This one.

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There are two procedures required to do it proplerly. 1, unsolder that cover. 2, unsolder the stacking pins that hold the board into the bottom main board.

Neither of these were done. That is why none of the capacitors match, as they soldered them in up top (wrong, they are through components) and yeah the whole thing has basically been butchered.

Now when I said I knew what was likely to be wrong with it? I meant it. It will be those Philips chips there that control everything.

When I fitted the new laser the tray opened and closed extremely slowly. Like it wasn't getting enough power. The laser bobbed up and down even slower, and the CD spun for about half a resolution before it stopped and "ERROR" came up on the screen. Bear in mind, this was a brand new laser assembly.

If it had not been butchered I would send it away for professional repair, but I don't want them thinking that I did something so horrific.

So yeah, I hope that explains why I do not feel bad about what I am about to do.

I stripped it last night. I removed the sockets from the IO on the back as I will be using those again. The idea here is to keep it looking as normal and original as possible. I then measured up to see what I could do PSU wise, and settled on this. It was £22 delivered.

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350w Gold rated. More than I will ever need. It is also brand new, which was nice. I am going to change the whiny fan for a Noctua. I then measured out the whole inside. It is 55mm high in there, the PSU is 40mm. I laid it out like this. Yup, I am going to put a DVD drive in there.

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Now you may be wondering why the parts are sitting like that. It is because I am going to fit them "remotely". I did this with a Mac mod I did a long time ago. Here, like this.

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Again it is so I do not need to go full gangsta and cut up the shell. I will run the cables from the board into connectors like that. In fact, I still have all of those.

OK. So stage one? do something with the display.

The display on the CD unit is a little disappointing when compared to the 7.1 pre amp. Like, the wording on it is not generated, but made from whole words. So like, "PLAY" and "ERROR" are fixed. It does not have a boot screen like the AV unit either, as that is a far better screen. So, last night I cut all of the legs from the LCD screen to get it out of the way. Under it was a blue filter (important) and a piece of opaque acrylic to diffuse the light from behind.

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Ignore the arrows. I was going to cut it apart along those lines, but have now had a better plan.

OK, so this is the screen on a AV32.

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It is blue tinted btw. IDK why in stock pics it looks like that. So, I started to think about what I wanted it to say. I am going to keep all of the buttons (those will control things like opening the DVD drive later) and the power LED etc. All of that will be connected. So I had this idea.

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Hmm nah.

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Nope not the same.

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Jackpot :D it's identical !

So I cut it. God it was a nightmare. So smol and my eyes are so bad.

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I had to take a break... Any way.

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lmao. Soooo good. I am going to cover that with some smoked acrylic, and use the original diffuser also.

Happy with the day's work I bought this.

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And this.

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OK so wifi is out. I had the wrong board. Asrock do a B version with no wifi socket. Have cancelled that !.



I just did one of the few mods the actual chassis needs. There is an area where the original PSU is built in. I needed it gone. I thought about cutting all the way along and getting the welded in bolts out, then I realised it was spot welded.



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It's kinda in reverse. I was too busy thinking about doing it than taking pics. But this is what I removed.



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That side wall ruined the layout, and yeah welded in posts and a bolt. It looked something like this.



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I realised earlier the acrylic I bought (the see through) for something else is nowhere near dark enough. Before it goes into the bin bin I pulled it out of the waste basket and had a look (the original). It is verrrry dark. I don't want it looking too blue or too bright, so I got an A5 of this.

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Was £4. I mean really, at that price it is well worth doing properly. Whilst I could theoretically mount the original LCD back over it holding it in place would be very hard. And I can't exactly drill small holes in it being glass.
 
Happy Mondays.

OK, so time to solve another problem. I mentioned the only hole I would need to cut is a HDMI. The two optical outputs will be present and wired. So I looked at the back panel.

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Bottom pic, farthest right. It is for a balanced output. Hmm, square thing in round hole?

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And a 20cm patch cable to take it from there to the board.

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OK so today's job - start thinking about the drive. As funny as it sounds it will probably be the hardest part of this. Well, other than the LCD which I already did. What I mean is, getting it in there in the correct position with the cover panel on the front and all lined up and working will be the most work. Well, that and removing said front cover.

The first thing I wanted to do was remove said cover. Thing is, the drive is heavy and has a whacking lump of metal attached. So, I removed the metal. I then took the entire drive apart, removing all of the annoying dangling wires.

I then started to pry and poke. I had to get a little rough, but eventually I heard that "schloop" noise as glue starts to let go. So, I pulled and pried a little harder. POP !

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You can see what they used there. Yup, that is 3M tape lmao. What amazed me? it is solid. Like, that metal cover is a solid piece of billet that has been machined and it is *heavy*.

I then started tossing it all in a trash bag. However, I was being nagged by the carrier. So, I got out the ruler.

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See that? 5 and 1/4 inches LOL. I decided to keep that. I will use it to hold the drive, once I cut some hole rails in it.

I've also decided to paint the insides, and make it all look nice. For no other reason than I have absolutely nothing better to do :D

I then went and bought a drive. Thought about getting a used one, but given I need to customise the drive itself and would hate for it to die I got a brand new one for £17. Not worth the risk over a tenner, given the amount of fiddling it will require.

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OK so that should be about it for today. I need to dig out a momentary switch and CNC a holder for it, then mod the original power button onto it.

Let's talk about the sound.

I had a media PC with the same board in it a while ago. This one.

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I tried a variety of sound cards, but my fave was my trusty old STX

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This will be mounted on top of the PSU. I will even try to use the original signed TMC shield. I have this ribbon somewhere at home.

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So it won't be hard to connect up. I will then take a 75 ohm digital RCA, plug it into the sound card, lop off the other end and solder it directly to the connectors on the back of the unit.

Since having to get rid (I got a new larger TV on a new larger TV stand and doubled up my front stage, so there is nowhere to put a PC) I have gone to using my Fire TV cube to listen to music. It's not great. It also pops when playing HD music, I would imagine because it doesn't support it properly? IDK.

So with that sorted I ordered some fans. One for the PSU, the other two might need to be fitted but I will only do that if it gets too warm in there.

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As well as a fan hub, because the board is very short on connectors.
 
Hmm actually no, let's sort the power button.

First thing I did was dig for anti vandal switches. Seems I had two in my drawer 'o crap.

This project is a funny one, because it is almost like it has been waiting for me. I only had to file for around 30 seconds.

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Ignore the braid. That will get replaced with black.

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So the issue was getting the original button to work with it. I stuck it on, but it is too big to press the button.

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Well, I say stuck it on, I just used the adhesive still left on it. It came straight off after.

I then measured the travel of the original with a vernier, how far it needed to be from the button and the diameter of the button. I need to CNC an adapter to sit between the Tag power button and the momentary button.

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11mm circle. Will calculate the thickness in a minute, but will no doubt need to make one of out 6mm and then machine down some 3mm to get the right thickness.
 
Right, so I threw that into Easel. Been a while !

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The shim needs to be 7.5mm long with a diameter of 10.5mm. So I welded two scrap bits together. a 6.19mm and a 2.91. So I need to machine that down to 7.5, then cut a circle out of it. Will set the machine up tomorrow.

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Also asked my pal to 3D print me a new, non gorilla attacked one of these.

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, so the machine is all ready for the job tomorrow.



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Still had loads of the double sided masking tape thank goodness. Annoyingly? I also found this.



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Annoying because I just bought the exact same, yet not annoying because it means I can machine out the tinted cover for the screen.
 
So I posted a pic of this thing.

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It's the LED holder thing for behind the screen. Seems my mate got carried away and modeled one in 3D.

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So I just sent him the proper sizes. He is going to print one for me.
 
Actual board.

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Ugly IO.

Elaborate IO cover that is 1.5 hours of machine time lol. Currently being machined.

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OK that is done. Not the best, I could have calibrated the bit better (didn't go as deep as I wanted) but I will take it. Needs some file work, will crack that out later and get a pic.

Given the board does not have WIFI M2 I got this.

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I just wanted a USB one with a proper antenna socket. I then ordered this.

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So I can put a socket on the back of the unit.
 
Actually you can see it wasn't my fault. Both ends? are fine. The acrylic is clearly p1553d.

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Either way? it is more than good enough. Will file it up and clean it later.
 
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Right so last update for today. Tired now lol.

I first designed the floor panel. This is what the PSU and mobo will mount to, as well as the fan hub and so on.

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I also finished the power button.

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I wasn't going to put that brace bar back but I had to. Because it holds this up.

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That will all be getting painted satin black, but obviously not until everything has all been test fitted and so on. Otherwise I will be chasing my tail every time I scratch it.
 
OK so yeah, the drive didn't fit the sled. Unexpected, and a pain. Machined out a floor and fitted it.



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Yes, it is the shell of the player that is out of whack. Probably from the gorilla who manhandled it before. I then stuck the adapter I machined into the CNC tray cover and dropped it in. Note, it is not stuck on yet. That will come later.



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It will need shims put around the edge to keep it from catching.



This arrived too.



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Took the drive out and added the eject wires.



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Then put some electrical tape over it to stop it shorting and closed it back up. For now.



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Oddly the unit has 3 lenses in the front. One is for the IR, one is for the power LED and the other one does nothing. So, after finding these.



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I am going to remove the green one from the drive when I can power it up and find out which pin is +, then extend it into this.



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OK so there was a fail or two.

Firstly the drive tray is too wide. As weird as that sounds even the inner part of the drive tray was too wide to fit through the holes in the CD shell.

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I had two options at that point (note the marks from me trying to pull it out with pliers). Those were - try and modify the drive, or, send the whole front panel down to my friend with a mill to make it wider.

I predicted what would happen. "I bet it is extruded plastic and just melts when I attempt to work on it" and I was bang on. So basically I killed a new drive before it had even spun up a disc *sigh*.

These failures are what you get when you mod. I licked my wounds for a bit, and then ordered a used replacement drive. Mostly because if I kill another one I don't want it costing me £18.

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Now I don't expect that tray to go through the holes either. However, I can mod the inner steel one myself and then send the front panel down to my friend. It needs 1.2mm taken out of each side only. If there is any light gap from that (I doubt it, the drive pushes right up against the inner steel panel) then I will get around that with cloth tape.

OK. So I got home kinda peed off. Then again I had been spoiled to be honest. Like, everything had gone far too easily, even the power button swap. That works beautifully.

I even had some luck. Like, that 20cm HDMI cable cost me around £8 or so. Short ones are more expensive than long ones. So I was kinda annoyed I did not wait before ordering it. However, when I got home I found this stuff.

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All good right? nope. I hit another big hurdle. Now I had about 15mm to put the sound card on top of the PSU. Only problem? it is 22mm thick at the thinnest. And that is worsened by the solder pins sticking out of the PCB. After spending about 4 hours making templates in Photoshop and moving them all around? the only way on earth to make it fit is to remove every capacitor (about 15-20) and put them on wires. And then remove all of the audio sockets, again putting them on wires. And remove the copper shield that is mounted vertically in the middle of the board to block crossover signals.

And when you consider that all I need is a digital coaxial output? far too much time and work, and not worth destroying a sound card given that all of the good bits on it would never be used. IE, from the DAC through the OPAMPs and even the main sound chip none of it would even be used running digital.

I did find a solution pretty quickly though. This.

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Again though, 99% of it would be pure wasted. It would at least fit, though, and I decided USB was the way forward in this scenario. So I bought a 50cm USB A to B cable.

Today though I decided to go further down the rabbit hole. Just how small can I make this part of it?

Did a lot of research, and then stumbled across this.

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I then IDed the chip on it (Texas Instruments) and looked at the schematics and data sheet. At first I thought it would be useless, limited to only 48khz output. But then I remembered that digital audio outputs (Toslink and Coaxial) are limited to 48khz. Which explained that. £10 from Ali, ordered.

Having already hit quite a few obstacles with space and sizing? it is by far the best option. I will most likely make it even smaller, too.
 
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