Star Tech Journal

Issue: 1991-July - Vol 13 Issue 5

11=1
Prince's Corner
Donald B. Prince
D&RMusic
Bozeman, Montana
Rowe CD-100 AC Noise Proble1ns
Do you have locations that complain about not getting to hear all the songs they played? But,
when you get to the location the CD-100 is playing fine (or maybe a 05-62 or 05-63 error
logged}. You've tried changing the Mech. Controller and the CCC (computer board} and still
they complain. ARE THEY CRAZY, DRUNK, OR STUPID? Maybe not.
SUBJECT
For sometime now
we have been having
random 05-62 or 05-
63 errors occurring
in 4 of our 15 Rowe
CD-100 Jukeboxes.
These errors are
caused by a commu-
nications failure be-
tween CMD-3 (or CD
player) and the Me-
chanical Controller
(or Mech. Control-
ler).
FACTORY SOLUTION
Rowe maintains that
these errors are
caused by a noisy AC
input. This may be
ca used by either
neon lights, com-
pressors, or noisy
AC power from your
local power com-
pany. They recom-
mend a small circuit
to be added to the
wiring harness. This
is suppose to elimi-
nate the 05-62 and
05-63 errors by re-
setting the Mech.
Controller when
there is a voltage
spike on the +5 volt
de line that supplies
L'le CD player.
EARTH GROUND
I also talked with an
engineer at our local
power
company
about noise prob-
lems. Though they
were less than in-
sightful. I did man-
age to ascertain that
Montana
(and
maybe your state,
too) has problems
with not being able
to produce good
earth ground con-
nections because of
low earth resistivity,
or not being able to
drive 8 foot earth
ground spikes.
Montana (and maybe your state, too)
has problems with not being able to produce good
earth ground connections because of low earth resistivity
What this means is that the AC lines into the
location maybe noisy due to a difference in earth
ground resistMty. Or may be noisy at times of
high atmospheric electrical resistivity. Or may
be noisy at times of high atmospheric electrical
activity 0ightning storms). This, of course, varies
from place to place, as to the severity of the
resistivity problem.
Static Probe (noise inducer) to the AC input of
the CD-100, however, message errors 05-62, 05-
63, 14-05, and "OUT OF ORDER" occurred.
Also, the current song being played would be
rejected randomly during the testing. The modi-
fication Rowe recommended didn't seem to
make a difference (the modification I tried on
location didn't seem to help either).
They also stated, "brown-outs" (AC voltage below
100 volts) are unlikely, but they did not state
that we were protected against them either (an-
other possibility).
RESULTS
Since the Rowe modification didn't seem to help,
we went with a Line Stabilizer/ Conditioner
(spike protector with under-voltage protection).
This has eliminated the problems we were hav-
ing, we even placed the CD-100 at our worst AC
power location with no problems.
TEST RESULTS
All this information seemed obscure and remote
but, it was helpful. After testing a CD-100 in the
shop for a couple of weeks, I found the following
information:
CHOICE
You may want to go cheaper if you can, by buying
just a spike protector ($40.00), instead of the
Line Stabilizer/Conditioner ($130.00). The only
advantage of the Line Stabilizer/Conditioner is
the under-voltage protection. I hope this solves
those annoying problem locations.
The CD-100 ran fine in the shop (3-4 days)
without errors even when exposed to neon light.
No noticeable change in CD-100 performance or
even any errors occurred. When I applied a
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