Tape Project Forum

Tape Machines => Reel to Reel Tape Machines => Topic started by: miroslav on July 09, 2009, 08:46:36 AM

Title: Otari BII/MKIII-2 (applies to BIII) "Alignment Procedures" manual
Post by: miroslav on July 09, 2009, 08:46:36 AM

Found this on some website recently (not sure where)...so I thought I would pass it on.

This is a great step-by-step alignment procedure manual written by Otari back in 1988 for their ?desktop? R2R decks.
It tells you the proper sequence of the alignment steps and the exact details.

The only thing I noticed that is not specified is the Record Equalization for the Low speed (but thy give you the steps for the High speed). It's pretty much the same as for the High speed, you just put the machine into low speed mode and adjust the "L" pots (VR304 & VR404) on the front panel same as you did the "H" pots (VR303 & VR403) for the High speed.

Otherwise...everything else is clearly covered and takes some of the guesswork out of the many calibration points by providing the exact process as outlined by Otari for their decks.


http://www.miroslavmusic.com/audio/Otari/OtariAlignmentProcedures.pdf


Miroslav

Title: Re: Otari BII/MKIII-2 (applies to BIII) "Alignment Procedures" manual
Post by: ecir40 on July 10, 2009, 09:14:41 PM

Nice find, thanks for sharing.

Title: Re: Otari BII/MKIII-2 (applies to BIII) "Alignment Procedures" manual
Post by: ironbut on July 10, 2009, 09:44:31 PM

Wow,.. that's killer! It's like the other half of the service manual.
Fantastic miraslav!

Title: Re: Otari BII/MKIII-2 (applies to BIII) "Alignment Procedures" manual
Post by: miroslav on July 11, 2009, 10:22:46 AM

Quote from: ironbut on July 10, 2009, 09:44:31 PM

It's like the other half of the service manual.

Yup! :-D

I was sitting there looking at my deck and included manual...and I kept scratching my head, as it seemed like there were missing steps for the alignment procedure.
It was really bugging me that they never mentioned the initial calibration of your input channels and meters.

So I spent an hour running some Internet searches, and came across this official Otari "Alignment Procedure" manual, and I thought the exact same thing... "Hey look, the other half of the manual!"

Anyway...so far, I've compared all the steps in this BII/MKIII-2 "Alignment Procedures" manual...and all the pots/switches are named/number the same as in my BIII manual/deck...so I think this manual will apply to a few of the 5050 family decks without a problem, and even if there are some differences in the names/numbers of the switches...it's well detailed so that you can use it as general step-by-step process for most other decks too.

Not sure why Otari chose to "trim down" the manual and the step-by-step alignment details in the newer/later manual like I got with my BIII-2...?

Title: Re: Otari BII/MKIII-2 (applies to BIII) "Alignment Procedures" manual
Post by: ecir40 on February 18, 2010, 09:54:08 AM

Thanks for hosting this. My hard drive at home crashed and I didn't have a backup of this particular file.

Brad