Just got my new to me AIWAS HS-J02, for some reason I'm drawn to these recording players, one of these days I'll take one into a concert and see how it works. This one is super clean and was advertised as "excellent" but there's a clicking sound internally and it won't toggle between any of the functions. Hopefully it's just something like a broken/stuck belt but it will be a little bit before I can get to it.
These are great. It's heavy isn't it? These are so stuffed with features it's unbelievable. I took one apart a few years ago to change the belt. It was a terrible mistake but like a miracle I manegd to do it. This walkman has more switches than any other. Also, Aiwa were the first to put a recording circuit and a radio into one unit. The thing I never understood was, why make this after the glorious and smaller CS-J1? It's not as if the HS-J02 was a budget item.
My approach to fixing things involves taking them apart into as many pieces as possible then sort of pushing it all together again. There's usually 10-20 pieces left over which I add to my parts box. You should see the parts box now.
I just won one of these on eBay for sensible money, seller says the tape mech doesn't work so guess it'll need belt(s) and it looks a total pain in the ass from those pictures...its also missing the direction 'knob' from the eBay pictures, so I guess I'll have to find something that fits from somewhere.....
I just noticed that the reflective tape between the hubs is white, most of my other units are chrome or orange...
These are cool. I haven't taken my J02 or CS-J1 apart yet but I did take my TP-S30 and P02 apart, to replace the belt. The P02 mechanism is a challenge but the TP-S30/CS-J1 mech is a pain, still not as bad as the JVC CX-5K. I like the CS-J1 because it's an all metal unit while the J02 is mostly plastic, except the cassette door. But the J02 has AM and FM while the CS-J1 just has FM radio. And the J02 had Auto Reverse while the J1 didn't.
If you get a chance look up the johnedwards threads on the old forum, I think he owned every unit in the series.
I know this thread is older, but I wanted to add some pics of my HS-J02 that I’ve begun tuning up. Needed a belt for sure, and at least one capacitor as there was one that was connected to the backside of the PCB by way of two long wires to where the cap resided in the side trim. The wire ends were corroded so I’ll replace the cap and trim back the wires. It is indeed a busy bugger with a whole lot stuffed in there.
Does anybody know the dimensions (at least the diameter) of the belt that this walkman uses? Thanks in advance and kind regards.
Great thread! I purchased a couple of Aiwa HS-J110’s and I really wanted to know what I was getting into without taking them apart. It’s the same exact mechanism as this. Much thanks!
One of these days I'll open mine up but I still haven't yet. It looks like the circuit board flips out of the way and the belt is pretty easy to change?
I recently got a non working J02.. belt was goo and some leaked caps. Cleaned, new belt, changed all elec caps. The mechanism works perfectly, but no sound at all on tape or radio. Voltages read ok except IC5, the power amp, TK10360 on which they are all lower than spec or absent. I suspect the amp is toast but I also can't read any (even v faint) input on it. I'm very close to giving up, which is a shame, because it is a beautiful mechanism. (Also tested all the transistors in circuit n seem ok).
I tend to think any circuit board that requires so many jumpers means either the layout was locked in before it was thoroughly tested, or features were added after it was too late to alter the board design.
Looking at the layout, it seems the board is a bit complex for a 2 layer and also has double sided load (components on both sides) and is literally packed with traces. Given there are many mechanical constraints due to the mechanism, where the two big switches need to be there's only so much that the PCB designer can do. While making the PCB design perfect was of course possible, such bodge wires and components were relatively common for designs of that era. Another aspect is cost: when they already manufactured many PCBs, it was more economical to add some bodge wires than re-designing the entire PCB and get another batch manufactured. In fact even nowadays such bodge wires can be seen in early revisions of PCBs, but due to manufacturing costs being much lower than paying people do such mods, companies now choose re-designing instead. "either the layout was locked in before it was thoroughly tested" - not necessarily locked, but rather they didn't have 5 revisions of the PCB before going into mass production.
