I just picked up a second A810 (machine 2), the S/N is 9 digits away from the other one in the studio (machine 1). Everything seems fine but it's transport hours counter is empty, machine 1 indicates 785 hours on the clock, and the condition of the heads looks to be in line with that. The heads on machine 2 look pretty much the same. How could the counter have been cleared? I thought maybe the battery on the MPU might have gone (it does look a bit crusty, and will be replaced ASAP), but the machine seems to store alignment data with no problem. I can't see anything in the manual about re-setting the clock, and it seems like it wouldn't be something you should be able to do. Besides, I'm pretty sure the guy who had it up until now would not have been able to do that anyway (the machine was locked shut so you couldn't even change the alignment when I got it.)Could this be a sign of something weird starting to happen? If you can fiddle with the clock, is there a way I could stick, say, an arbitrary 1000 hours on there, just so the machine has about the right info on itself? I'll try running some tape on it for an hour or two and see if the clock goes up at all (edit: after running tape through the recorder for an hour, the count is now 1, will try powering down for an hour and see if it clears again), seems pretty odd though...Edit: Now that the Studer list is gone, is there a better place to ask questions like this?

Left the machine unplugged overnight, the counter still reads 1 hour and the alignment data is still stored...

I assume some part got replaced. I don't know what counts that. I have never paid attention to the hourglass on mine. You could post something on the Ampex list. A lot of the same people view that.

Cheers, I guess I will just replace the crusty battery, keep an eye on it for a while to see if it forgets anything else, and make a note in the manual that the transport clock is not correct.

tarandfeathers wrote:Cheers, I guess I will just replace the crusty battery, keep an eye on it for a while to see if it forgets anything else, and make a note in the manual that the transport clock is not correct.I have been slack and only just gotten around to getting my new battery (have also picked up a couple of spare MPU and RAM chips while I was at it). However, all the current batteries I can see in this form factor are NiMH, the original is NiCd. As far as I can work out, I should be able to just pop the NiMH in there and it will work the same but be better and last longer. Is that correct? Anything else I might need to change?

Hey, thought I'd bump this instead of starting a new thread about the same machine.I just picked up a pair of these tape machines that were being got rid of at work. One of them was working until half an hour after I got it home, and the other I thought I could raid parts from.Now the "working" one just turns all the front panel LEDs on, and a relay inside somewhere keeps clicking, causing the vu meters to jump about. The front panel display has stopped working too. This machine seems to have been serviced in 1998, and has had a new battery put in it. The EEPROMs seem to say 1988 on them, so it's possible that they have gone.I've tried swapping the MCU cards over between the two machines, but the second one has a corroded battery and also 1988 EEPROMs. Could anyone provide me with a service manual or schematics for this machine? I've tried to get them from a few other places but have had no luck so far.Thanks, Matt

Hi Matt,You can download the service manual and supplements from the Studer FTP site, I guess that's the source of all the pdfs that people sell burned to CD on eBay, fuckers that they are.If the problem is with one of the EPROMs, you'll get an error message when you start the machine, indicating which chip, (1,2 or 3) is at fault. As I recall the error message is EEEEx for a problem loading the software or EEE0x for another error but you can check that in the manual. Otherwise the machine will display a number which in your case will be xx88 or 88xx indicating that the software written on that date has been successfully loaded.You could try re-seating all the cards, and also take the back off the machine and double check that all the ribbon connectors from the front panel modules are properly mated onto the mother pcb, they could possibly have come lose when you moved the machine.Also, make sure the machine is kept somewhere pretty dry, I have experienced arcing between the cards and the shielding plates in between them in high humidity, which both makes a click and usually produces a random error message. Good luck. Also, if you can verify that one of your sets of EPROMs are ok, I have a reader/burner so I could make you a back up set if you like.

I've managed to get it up and running again. The card with the transport buttons on had become disconnected, and I was unable to get the back off the thing yesterday! Having found the appropriate allen key this morning I reseated it, but the display still wasn't working, so I swapped it for the same board from the second machine and am now getting the 0188 message on power up.Thanks for the studer ftp site link. Apparently safari is rubbish for ftp, but using a different programme worked.I should be able to make eprom backups at work, as we have an appropriate reader/writer there. I just need to get hold of some more of the eprom chips now! Thanks a lot,Matt

You might be able to get them hereIf you have a bad eprom (not too common), you will be backing up the corrupt info.

If you do make backups I wouldn't mind copies of the 88 software, mine has 2586, I think the release from 88 has some useful maintenance functions that will probably come in handy one day.