I did a teardown on my first walkman that I bought and it REALLY amazes me. Since there were no short and clear video on YouTube demonstrating it, I decided to take a video myself. Retro techs that relies heavily on mechanical designs are always interesting to look at, but I have a love-hate relationship with it because it's absolute nightmare if something in the mechanism breaks
What model number Walkman is this as I watched your video and I made a comment in your video just now as I'm curious, is it the wm631?
Okay, well here is a picture of the remote that I believe you should have I'm showing you the model number That's the front side The controls on this side And the controls on that side This is the only major blemish on mine. Other than I believe it needs a belt. I don't know much more about it. I don't even know when I got it. I have no idea what I paid for it. I'm just wondering why so many people are picking this model all of a sudden?
I just asked the old shop owner if he have any stereo cassette tape player in stock, and he showed me this walkman. Maybe it was quite popular back then due to its ok-ish price tag so there are a lot of second hand devices? The one I purchased did not come with the remote control, but I found some sort of aftermarket "button" that can be plugged into the control jack and trigger RV/MB/GRV. Not sure if it will work though, I'll order one and give it a try.
Good luck with that one. I've never seen that before. I have seen a adapter that you can use a standard headphone with like on the wm-701c which has a multi-pin connector. Connects directly to the remote control, but if you don't have that, it also comes with a multi-pin plug that you can then plug in a 3.5 mm serial Jack to it. I'd post you a picture for that but I know what that looks like and it's buried. and I'm working on other things right now.
The second part of your question is, There is a hell of a lot of second-hand devices walkmans. I don't know if you've ever searched the internet for cassette Walkman but there's zillions of them out there and I wish I knew just how many different models Sony made because I swear they made like maybe I'm just guessing 300 different models easily.
3.5mm Headphone Jack Adaptor Plug For SONY Cassette Walkman WM-EX GX FX BLACK New $13.95 Located in: United States, United States https://www.ebay.com/itm/403957177335 1PCS DIY 3.5mm Headphone Jack Adaptor Connector Plug For Sony Walkman WM-EX GX FX Series: 701C 702 EX66 EX77 EX80 EX85 EX88 EX99 EX555 EX606 EX666 EX701 EX702 EX703 EX707 EX777 EX808 EX909 EX999 FX55 FX77 FX88 FX505 FX707 FX777 FX808 FX999 GX707 GX711 RX77 RX707 F701C F702 F703C F707
What is even more impressive is that some of the most complicated mechanisms pre-date Computer Aided Design. For example have a look at this Akai deck which came out at around the same time as Microprocessors were leaving the research lab.
Turns out the product is prohibited to be ship overseas (no idea why though.) So I may have a favor to ask: Can you please measure the resistance value between GND and REMOTE pin on the remote control connector, while pressing all possible buttons one by one? As I don't have the remote control itself, I can't tell exactly which two pins are them on the actual connector. So I'm sorry for the trouble but you may have to try to figure it out. My assumption is that the micro controller in these walkmans are simply polling for the resistance value of the REMOTE pin to identify which button was pressed. So I'd like to see if I can reproduce button presses by simply bridging GND and REMOTE pin on the walkman with the same resistor value. If this actually works, then it will be a great help for the community and I can try to come up with a simple PCB design to create a cheap alternative of this remote control.
