Well, my 80's Pioneer RG-2, range enhancer with the blue fluro lights, bit the dust this weekend. It's slowly been fading out, then get brighter, then fade, etc. etc. I guess Saturday in just faded out all together. I use to be able to push the power switch back on/off a couple of times and it would work for a spell, but not this time. So, I got to get in there and clean it out. What's the best deoxidizer I should use? Noticed there a few different brands out there. Don't really want to totally dissemble the unit, but is there a spray I could use and not have to worry about wiping away any residue? First time I've done this so any experience from some of ya'll would be great.
Deoxidizer
- Thread starter Schmoe
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DeoxIT Gold is the way to go.
I've used Deoxit red spray before.
Hey! I'm the guy who bought the other one they sold!
Still have my RG-2 out in my warehouse of junk - used it for noise reduction on my reel to reel ( which it still sits beside ). Neither has seen power in decades, though.
DeOxit is good; but I would be kinda leery of just spraying stuff in it.
Not sure what your troubleshooting skills are. If it is the florescent display, I would think it needs a high voltage power supply to light the display - they're not too different in operating principle from a diode vacuum tube, and I would be looking in that area for faults - maybe a dry capacitor or bad solder joint.
A lot of 70's Japanese stuff was notorious for poor soldering. Looked good on the outside - not so great on the inside.
Still have my RG-2 out in my warehouse of junk - used it for noise reduction on my reel to reel ( which it still sits beside ). Neither has seen power in decades, though.
DeOxit is good; but I would be kinda leery of just spraying stuff in it.
Not sure what your troubleshooting skills are. If it is the florescent display, I would think it needs a high voltage power supply to light the display - they're not too different in operating principle from a diode vacuum tube, and I would be looking in that area for faults - maybe a dry capacitor or bad solder joint.
A lot of 70's Japanese stuff was notorious for poor soldering. Looked good on the outside - not so great on the inside.
The blue floro display works great and bright, it's just something with the power switch. It still locks in for on/off so that part works. When it would start to dim, I could get it back to bright by aggressively turning the power switch off and on a couple of times. I'm thinking there's a bad contact at that point. With these older systems, I'm guessing that the actual power is all routed to that switch, then when it's in the on position, it sends power to the rest of the board/circuits. If I can clean that up, I think it might work.
This purports to be the schematic:
https://elektrotanya.com/PREVIEWS/63463243/23432455/pioneer/pioneer_rg-2_sch.pdf_1.png
If it's not the switch, and it probably isn't, I would look around Q32 and Q33 and the associated capacitors, particularly C51 and C47, since that part of the power supply is common to all of the elements. Papa Bear, or KC8ADU, or some other member who has done real service work might be able to help you with this.
If it is just one or more discrete elements fading out, then you probably need a new comparator for that channel(s).
Good luck. Hope I don't have to service mine, but after sitting dormant, I probably will ....
https://elektrotanya.com/PREVIEWS/63463243/23432455/pioneer/pioneer_rg-2_sch.pdf_1.png
If it's not the switch, and it probably isn't, I would look around Q32 and Q33 and the associated capacitors, particularly C51 and C47, since that part of the power supply is common to all of the elements. Papa Bear, or KC8ADU, or some other member who has done real service work might be able to help you with this.
If it is just one or more discrete elements fading out, then you probably need a new comparator for that channel(s).
Good luck. Hope I don't have to service mine, but after sitting dormant, I probably will ....
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