|
THE Misterßetamax LOGIC CONTROLLED WINDER To best understand why the Misterßetamax logic controlled two-way winder is so good to your tapes one must look inside and examine its construction. Click on the photo above and here the top cover has been removed to make the switching and releasing mechanisms visible. In the center are the direction keys. They are lock and release with the center red key canceling both black direction keys. LEDs mounted in the cover notify of the operation and direction. On the left is the solenoid that activates to release the lid and stop all winding operation. Pop-n-stop winders use the tape to trip a lever that rides against the tape or the snap of the supply pulley to halt their winding action. Both are very bad for tapes. This brutal action can cause breaks, fisheyes, stretching and a bunch of other horrible things. These type winders are greatly discouraged. On the left is the tape counter. With a little ingenuity notation of the numbers can be logged and used as a valuable aid in navigating cassettes. Click anywhere in the picture and the next photo shows the pulley system. Notice that all rotating components are solidly mounted. The pop-n-stop type winders the center pulley might swing back and forth to trip a lever and stop the motor. These pulleys being mounted rigid which means the operating platform is held stationary and rock solid to the base frame. This stability transfers over to the operation of the internals inside the Beta cassette. It means more uniform tape placement and smoother winding. Click on the picture and in the center is the centrifugal clutch mechanism. It locks into the drive assembly that sits on top. This driver turns the spools (reels) inside the cassette. Locking is performed according to rotation. The pawls slide out and lock to ribs inside the companion assembly on top, seen in next photo.The inside of the cassette drive assembly is visible at the top. The ribs for locking are in the perimeter. Here the pawls are moved out. They would lock into the reel driver in this position. Both pulley assemblies are made this way. When the pulley is turning one way the levers are influenced to pull in and no locking takes place. The other way pushes them out. It depends on direction which pulley is operating and which one just rides along. But going both ways each assembly exerts a minor amount of drag on the tape. This is done to meet Sonys tape tension requirement for tape winding. The gray disks just below the E-clip on the center shaft produce just enough drag to meet that target number. These are mechanism that also acts as a damper between the levers and the pulley. This helps to insure the regulated action of the locking engagement and later, the stopping operation. In the next photo on the extreme right the drag assembly is shown with the E-clip removed. In the center is copper colored detector that senses rotation. Notice how the main shaft is firmly mounted into the base frame. Click on the picture. This is the underside of the pulley.
This is how the winder knows when to stop. When the tape ceases turning the pick up doesn't get any signal from the coil. The logic circuit reads this as no movement. So, no pulses within a few microseconds and pop goes the solenoid, up comes the cassette and the tape is finished winding. It also won't wind a defective cassette, because if the reels do not turn, the mechanism will sense the no movement condition. It also will not try to rewind a cassette that is at its end. There is one more photo (click) that shows the various components. So as a final summation you can see that this Intelligent "Logic Controlled Mechanism" is very kind to your tapes and very smart about how it goes about winding them. Before closing there are two other strong points I want to mention that makes this winder attractive to own. It is quiet and it doesn't require a transformer that hangs out of your wall outlet... it runs on good ol' 110 volts AC. Remember, do not wind tapes in your Beta machine, save it and your precious tapes. |