Hey, I have a AIWA HS P08 in Good Condition. I replaced the belts and put everything together, but every time when I think it works, it works just for one day and the next day the Autoreverse doesn't flip to the other direction anymore. Yesterday I got exactly the same issue. I controlled the whole board, soldered everything, put it back together and it worked perfectly fine. I went to sleep and the next morning the Walkman just played Side A and didn't reverse anymore. If I press play the second time I hear that it gives the command (sound mutes for a short time) and the Direction LED gets a little darker in this moment but nothing happens. yesterday a cable from PL2 was broken but after fixing that it worked… after a few hours it didn't anymore. The PCB looks like crap after desoldering, disassembling and put everything back together 10 times… it's like looking for a ghost. everytime I thought I found the issue it's back again… I don't think that me and this guy become friends in this life :-( does somebody know this unit well? Nobody can tell me anything about it. Cheers Tobi
I don’t know the name of the mechanism, but I guess it is a Full Logic Version of the HS-P07. But to be safe here is the manual: https://elektrotanya.com/aiwa_hs-p08_hs-g08_hs-g500_sm.pdf/download.html
I have a couple of these the HS-G08 and it's US market HS-G500. The G500 is perfect but the G08 has issues with the transport. Once it is working it reverses fine but sometimes the buttons seem to do something other than the functions they're supposed to do. If that happens the unit jams between play and Stop and it's goodnight. I'm reluctant to put any valuable cassette in it in case this happen. My work around is to always remove the cassette before pressing any of the soft touch controls. Then with the cassette door open I press the green microswitch down and then hit the play button several times to make sure it's switching from Play to Rev Play before putting in the cassette. So far this has worked for my HS-G08 without that door locking on my cassette.
Indeed these HS-P08/G08/J08/G500 don't use the 2ME-7 mechanism (mechanical controls), but the 2ME-3/2ME-3-J (recording version). Problem presented in first post is mechanical, caused by old grease in the mechanism causing PL2 lever to be hard to disengage. That's why it appears to be fixed but after some time of not using the device, problem re-appears. So despite these units may seem like an easy "just a belt swap" kind of units, they're not. Mechanism needs to be completely cleaned and re-lubricated. Also pay particular attention to cleaning the belt grooves (requires sanding or a solution to dissolve the residue) and goo below the motor pulley. Another important thing is to use the correct belt: note the original belt is 0.8mm thickness, not the standard 0.6mm used in many slim walkmans. The camgears have to overcome some stiff springs and a 0.6mm belt will slip. So incorrect belt can also cause a no REV engagement symptom. There is another thread about a problem with unit suddently stopping, which is cause by a tantalum capacitor. I'll link that here too for reference: https://stereo2go.com/forums/threads/aiwa-hs-g500-autostop-issues.11081/
Hi Valentin. I have a similar issue with a HS-J08 where the standard replacement belt is definitely the 0.6mm specification and the control levers struggle to push the head into the locking position to enable playback. As most replacement belts are sold as specifically for the HS-J08 and are 0.5 or 0.6mm in thickness I'd be grateful if you know ofva supplier who can ship the 0.8mm square cut belt. Cheers bd
I know some sellers sell mostly 0.6mm belts for all devices, even when original thickness was different. While that may work in many situations, it's not ideal and in some cases may straight up not work (like this one). I would normally recommend the DeckTech belt (which usually preserves the original thickness), but it's to be kept in mind many of their belts are old and may become loose after some time. Think best course of action is to order a belt by dimension, rather than one specifically for a device. The unfortunate part is many that are sold specifically for a device are not the ideal fit. Some are designed to be a bit on the loose side to compenate for lack of re-lubrication. But these will tend to slip after some time. On this unit something that measured ~65mm x 0.8mm is what worked for me. FixYourAudio has a 66mm x 0.8mm, which is the closest one.
I haven't been happy with all the belts I bought from DeckTech. On the other hand, I've been completely satisfied with the belts from fixyouraudio. Definitely they are as thin as the originals. I did my first player 3 years ago, so I'm far from knowing anything about the longevity of the new belts. And it would take studying my receipts etc. to even guess which belts are in which units, to compare them.
Decktech are great but that's a really good point as the label on the packet states "Aiwa HS-J08" for the last couple of belts I've purchased. However when checked with a micrometer they are 0.5mm whereas the original specification was 0.8mm. As usual everything seems to work fine until reassembly and then it doesn't. Also got an email from Marian at FixYourAudio confirming that they have several 0.8mm belts of varying lengths. I've ordered a couple of these. I've had this HS-J08 for several years and would like to have it reliably operational again. I've got a troublesome HS-G08 in the collection that also has a 0.5mm replacement belt which may explain why it locks up after a period of no use. Thanks for your help. Cheers.
For FixYourAudio depends on model, as most of his belts are 0.6mm with few exceptions like TPS-L2. As stated before, in most cases this will work just fine, but there are exceptions. It's why I added belt dimensions in the common problems thread: https://stereo2go.com/forums/threads/list-of-walkman-portable-recorders-common-problems.7535/ This G08/P08/J08/G500/J500 will be added to the thread. Fact unit is still working after 3 years is definetely a good sign. Those that are not the right dimension or old will fail much sooner than that. As far as J08 goes, the recording mechanism differences are small and it uses same belt as the play-only version. Here is the belt I reffered to: https://fixyouraudio.com/product/sq...8-for-cassette-players-and-cd-players-rcd9fi/ There's also a 62mm available, so if you want to test for best fit I recommend getting these 2: 62 and 66mm.
