Hello, so, I've been a collector of handheld computers for some years, as I've always lusted after them in the '90s. I have a few; anything that contains its own screen is usually fair game, while I try to avoid home computers that are large and require mains power. I haven't bought a Walkman since starting collecting those. I certainly had Walkmans before, one in particular which I'm pretty sure is nothing much now: autoreverse, two-parameter equalizer, bass boost I think, and not entirely sure about Dolby. I will see if I find it and provide the model later. Anyway, it's kinda plasticky, and non-functional now. I've wanted to buy a recording Walkman for some time, however, especially when I wished to keep my old C64 tapes on my PC, and perhaps record some of my own to play with the C64 again. But now, the C64 is also broken, and I haven't fixed it. Yet, I bought a recording Walkman anyway... turns out it's broken despite seemingly working okay for the seller, and really, this is why I subscribed to this forum (though I had read a fair amount of threads previously): I need to know things about my semi-functional WM-D3. Even though I'm not entirely sure the reasons that led me to buy it in the first place are still valid. Oh well!
Welcome to the forum, Ljl. I recommend you the DD repair guide by MArian mihok, you'll find a step-by-step guide.
Welcome LjL, I love all of the small gadgets, please post a photo thread of your computers, I have a small collection but mine are mostly large calculators with docking stations or PDAs. You have a nice Walkman, they have a common gear breakage problem, there's a fully illustrated guide to replacing it on the forum. Fix it up and enjoy it.
Thanks guys. I did check out the guide, but among other things it involves soldering, and I'm really not comfortable with that... you should see how "firm" my hands are when I'm anxious to get it. But... maybe instead of sending it somewhere for repair, I should study that guide and other ones very carefully, buy a small soldering station, and slowly try to overcome my small issues. After all, I do have many old electronics, and they will break sooner or later, as everything does. For Mister X... you're in luck because except for a couple of the gadgets that I neglected to include, I already have a photo album of them. Flickr has been restricting things a lot for free users lately, and right now it was refusing to let me login, but I'm stubborn and so the pictures are still at https://www.flickr.com/photos/ljlbox/albums/72157633997037650 after all. You might also enjoy this, uhm, mini-series I did on YouTube about the keyboards of the bigger machines I have with nice keyboards, if you can hear through my accent: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUHYzV0mEx6FMoxcqBdrnirnwbo8MqU8C
Welcome aboard! Just had a browse through your Flickr pics, some nice units you have there! I have a few PDA's, an Apple Newton, a Psion 2(?) and I think an Ericsson P990i phone/pda thingy (I think that's the model anyway!) I love that Epsom HX-20 you have with the printer and micro-cassette
Thanks lupogtiboy. You know what? That's something other people have told me about the Epson HX-20. The fact I put it first probably helps, heh... (at least, I think I put it first, haven't checked now) but the reason I put it first to begin with is that it's one of the first that I bought (I think the very first was the Atari Portfolio), and probably the one I'm the most fond of. When I saw it, I remembered it was reviewed in a C64 magazine I had as a kid, and I was like "wow, this thing!". Couldn't not buy it, and it wasn't even expensive. These days everything on eBay is pretty expensive. It's also the only one I actually did a bit of work for... http://hxtape.sourceforge.net/ is software I've written, in PHP just to be very weird, that sometimes I still get emails about. It has trouble working with recent versions of PHP and Linux, but basically I made it to read and write HX-20 tapes from a PC (or, more realistically, just "save" programs from the HX-20 to the PC by connecting it to the soundcard).
Welcome to S2G, LiL, Let's return to your D3-Problem... There's a way to fix nearly everything on D3 , even centergear replacement without soldering.
Man, that's a lot of tiny little parts. I'll study it a bit next to the guide and try to figure it out. If I don't, I may ask for more details. Right now I'm playing music on the D3 connected to an amplifier via the line out... the RCA-to-jack cable I have is a bit dodgy, and I don't think this JVC amplifier is great (I actually found it dumped by someone... a relay makes it stop playing sound if the volume is too high, and since the components are probably worn out, that happens even when it's not very high, but apart from that, it works), but I like the sound. I'm not giving up on it. I'm far from an audiophile really, and you could probably feed me a lot of badly recorded/amplified music that sounds "okay" to me, but the thing is, just like vinyl people probably like hearing the odd pop, I think that my brain is connecting the slight(?) wow and flutter and other artifacts to the way music sounded to me in the '90s, which makes it feel a little special, turns out some neurons that had been asleep. I know that using it will probably make the gear worse... but it's cracked anyway, that much is obvious, and before I'm comfortable repairing it or getting to to someone, I want to enjoy it a little. These mechanical buttons look and feel like they're almost "feather touch" electronic buttons instead... which makes all the classic DD models look very sleek to me, although the D3 is a bit more square-looking than other models with more curves. One bad thing for me is that the cassette lid looks very flimsy with just those bits of plastic connecting it to the metal that hosts the actual head and mechanism. Some cassettes are hard to remove without feeling like there's a risk of breaking it. I also tried recording briefly. It works, that's all I can say... I literally shouted into my headphones which I had plugged into the mic-in, just to make sure recording worked.
