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Toshiba D-VR7 DVD/VCR Combo
April 09, 2025
Previously this Toshiba D-VR7 combination VCR / DVD Recorder was brought back from the dead after changing some components in the secondary power section which had shorted. Now that the unit powered up it was time to do some further testing of the VCR deck functions.
I inserted a tape into the loading mechanism and the loading motor whirred, pulled the tape in made some grinding noises like the hounds of hell, attempted to eject the tape, more grinding, gears begging for mercy and belts straining. Two potential culprits come to mind for this behaviour, the first are the sensors that detect that a tape is loaded, and the other is the mode switch that controls the operating state of the deck.
With the top of the unit removed, it's not hard to access the various IR LEDs and receivers which are used to detect the end of the tape and if the hubs are turning. Cleaning these with a bit of IPA or glass cleaner and a swab can sometimes be all that a deck needs to properly handle tapes being loaded.
After cleaning the IR LEDs and receivers I tested loading the tape again but the same results were seen. The mode switch which controls the state of the deck takes quite a bit of disassembly to reach. The front frame, DVD drive, power supply, supply tray, tuner board and bracket, rear panel, and main board all need to be removed. Even then the deck cannot be fully removed from the main board unless a number of connectors are desoldered. However with the main board out you can carefully remove a few screws that hold the deck in place and gently lift the front right corner of the deck to reach the mode switch. This is certainly not a very serviceable deck design.
With the deck loosened from the main board and gently lifted without damaging any of the soldered connectors, the top of the mode switch can be removed revealing the contact tracks. From here, some contact cleaner and even a course brush can be used to clean any oxidation from the switch. Then the contact fingers on the mode switch cap can be carefully cleaned.
Now that the mode switch is cleaned and put back together, the deck can be fastened back down to the main board again, making sure that the mode switch is first in the proper position so that the post can fit into the hole on the cam gear. Then the rest of the unit can be reassembled for testing.
The unit will take a tape in and rather than immediately trying to spit it back out, the deck awaits further instruction. A brief test of play, fast forward, rewind and stop all show that the newly cleaned mode switch is working well. The tape transport seems a little noisy and I also notice at this point that the tape isn't dropping down completely onto the tape hubs. I eject the tape to have a closer look and that's when there is more grinding of gears and crunching, and the tape sits partially ejected.
The tape is carefully manually ejected while also lifting the mechanism at various points where it seems to get stuck. With the tape out of the way the handling mechanism can now be seen. At first nothing seems out of place so I continue to remove more and more parts from the cassette handler.
Finally, I find a broken part. The control lever for the take up side is broken and therefore not supplying the proper tension through the loading cycle. Where the break is could make this a challenging part to repair as when being reassembled there will be torsion on the broken part. The part is complicated enough that my rudimentary modelling skills aren't up to the challenge of producing a 3D printed replacement part.
Initially I tried some super glue to bond the parts as a trial, not expecting much. Of course the bond appeared initially decent but quickly broke free when torquing the screw that the part is meant to hold. Looks like a trip to the hardware store is in order! While there I identified two possible products that might offer a solution.
LePage Plastic Bonder
JB Weld Plastic Bonder
I was hopeful that the specialty two part super glue for plastics would provide a better result, and it did bond better than the generic super glue however the bond still failed after the retaining screw was torqued and removed a few times during further troubleshooting. So it was time for the epoxy and hopefully that would provide a lasting secure bond to these pieces. After application and curing time the bond between the two parts seemed very good. I secured the part back into place and torqued down the screw so that it was solid but while also trying not to over tighten it. It held substantially better, in fact it only broke again while I was trying to further troubleshoot the mechanism when I levered a part with significant force in a way that I shouldn't have.
I think that the epoxy will provide a bond strong enough to serve the machine well for the rest of it's lifetime but in looking at the post that needed to be reattached I could see it was getting a little distressed from the repeated abuse. I decided to model and 3D print a replacement hub, and model it in a way that would provide more surface area for reapplication of the epoxy resulting in a long lasting bond.
Now that the lever was repaired the loader would bring the tape in securely and lower it down further onto the hubs when manually walked through the loading process. Reversing the loader to begin the eject sequence, everything travelled well for the first half of the cycle but then the mechanism froze. Looking over the tracks I could see that one of the pins on the cassette loader was binding on another part of the mechanism which was preventing the ejection of the tape. Although I could see where it was binding, the post was too close to a mechanism that was moving towards the front of the deck, but I couldn't see a reason for why this was happening. Everything else with the loader seemed to be OK. Perhaps something was just bent slightly out of alignment with all of the previous loading issues. In the absence of a root cause the best that I could think to do was to lightly sand down the guide post that was binding. There would still be plenty of post to ensure that the loader remained in the track, but the sanding would eliminate the binding.
After a little sanding enough material was removed to provide the gap needed to allow for proper tape ejection. With the loader put back together I was able to run the tape through dozens of load / eject cycles and it performed flawlessly!
It seems like this Toshiba D-VR7 combination unit should now be ready for some functional testing and if everything checks out it can be closed up!
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