I picked up a like new looking Sony Discman in original box (was really after the car adapter for power and ac adapter for $37 aus The discman would only display "no disc" I took it apart and under the laser assembly I turned the pot slightly clockwise and no it works perfect. I presume the laser lost a little power over time?
Not the Discman I would pick up for my collection, but Hey! You did it!!! Turning pots is how u fix them, or Kill them forever! Any photos from your resto available? To check against its SM of what you actually did there... Wish I were that lucky, but I used all of my luck decades ago... Fixing Discmans is my second-fav hobby nowadays (plastic jets modelling goes first... as posted at square-2.com) but it is a real pain to make all those pots fit, at least for me
[GALLERY=media, 1155]Sony D-E406CK Laser Unit Pot by rcpilot23 posted Oct 2, 2018 at 11:59 AM[/GALLERY] I have attached a pic of the laser unit showing the pot in the centre
Yeah I was not fussed about the discman and typical I'm sure if I was then it would have never worked !!
Laser assembly are typically factory calibrated so that the photodiode receives the correct amount of light (too little and signal cannot be decoded; too much and you burn the PD). If a discman needs a laser pot adjustment it is very likely approaching its end of life. Or the optics (prism, lens) are a bit cloudy due to external pollution (e.g. a smoker's house). You might have bought another couple of years of use, I think that is good enough !
