AMI Rowe CD 100-G new user

[AcesDjs]

I am trying to help out the guys at the local Veterans club by setting up the new jukebox they bought. This is an oldie, about 300,000 plays and from the looks of it not much repair upgrades. Only weeks after overpaying for it the problems started. I have two questions and please be kind because I have never even seen the inside of one of these before. 1. It takes the money allows you to make a selection, you hear noise of things moving inside, then nothing happens. I t plays maybe one in ten songs. 2. I read the manual, wow twice as long as the bible. There was a mention in there of a modem for future use. Was this ever implemented and is there a way to program this thing from a computer instead of the keypad?

[ed12]

if u have the manual ? we start there
all digital juke box's will spit out an error code..are u getting 1 ?
if not the go to the ineatialitzn part,and follw it to reset the ccm to do a full read of all of the cd's in the unit,this will narrow your problem area down alot...
if it has let's say 58cd's then it will olny see 58,if it has 100 then it will see 100
ehiter way it will report to via the display the count...this is your first trouble
shooting part...

ed

[AcesDjs]

I do have the manual, read it cover to cover, man that was long. I have no error codes, but when initializing, it is only reporting 20 discs.

[ed12]

u might have a corupt nvram in the ccu unit
if is scanning all 100 cd's which i take it u have 100 in it?,and is olny reporting 25
then that lend's its self to a few error's
see if u can get it to spit out an error code
to get these there is a way in the manual under error code's

ed

[AcesDjs]

No errors, ran a cleaning disc through it, still only finding 20 out of 100 disc.

[ed12]

ok let me get a better idea here
when u say it olny found xx cd's
did it
a=scan all 100?
b=if so did it pick the cd and spin it for a few second's >it is trying to find it's control track<
c=are these burn's ie copy's that u are using or are they all branded
ie rca-sony,u know the kind u buy at a cd shop.
but not a cdrw/dvdrw

ed

[AcesDjs]

It did pick up and scan all 100, they are a mix of original and copied cds. Some of the copies play and some don't, some of the originals paly and some don't. They all played just fine a week ago.

[ed12]

ok
it is picking them all up,and reading there control track's,then put's them back.
but olny report's xx to u,which is under the real # of cd's in the box,will play both
store bought and or burn's,that point's me to your ccu unit,replace the bat first.
as it sound's like your nvram is going south,nvram is used to store that info.
now your chip it's self may be heading south,they are not expensive,and i recomend
to all my coust's that they replace the 10yr old chip with a fresh 1


ed

[AcesDjs]

Thanks Ed, you have been a big help. Do you know where I can find detailed instructions for purchasing and installing these parts? Until last week I had never even seen the inside of one of these.

[ed12]

it will be listed in your manual.
clear as a bell nvram/battery back-up
now be clear some batt's are soldered in some are not
this is rev depented on the rev # of the ccu.
now most part's house's stock the nvram,
digikey/mouser/rowe-ami/happ-suzzo etc
and the batt..

ed

[ed12]

i will add i do not believe it is your laser platfourm >good new's here<,
reason is it scanned propley..
so it lead's me to the ccu..

ed

[AcesDjs]

Thanks again Ed, I will check it out be sure to report back. Also, do you know anything about the modem functions mentioned in the manual? It says for future use, was this something that was ever developed?

[ed12]

to my know it was never used in canada.?,but for usa u would need
to chk rowe/ami site to find out

ed

[lilshawn]

to my know it was never used in canada.?,but for usa u would need
to chk rowe/ami site to find out

ed

if it was implemented it would have likely been to simply integrate with a website from rowe to display play data and report errors. I doubt any kind of "digital" music would have been possible with the hardware available at the time.

depending on the laser play head it has, it may not correctly read burned CD's well. I believe this was improved later.

i agree, swap out the battery on the CCC and do a reset on it and go from there. something has gotten corrupted in there. weird it isn't throwing a code though.

[AcesDjs]

I want to thanks everyone on this site for their help. I was able to clean all of the discs in the jukebox, reinitialize and everything worked. I have now learned to make new cards and update the music for the guys. I recently connected it to the sound system using an adapter from the preamp outputs to a 1/4 inch signal cable into the mixing board. My problem now is that it appears this is before the volume lever because they all sound the same from the internal speakers, but through the sound system there is a big difference between one song and another. I need to determine where I can connect the wires to get an output signal after the volume leveling circuit.

[johnyfroes]

O.K. from what I understand from your post, is that? It only sees 20 of the 100 CD, many things can have a factor, let's start with cleaning of CD, try to cleaning the originals it is not playing, with windex and a good old cotton old underwear, see if it plays them, then try to clean the CDpro lens gently dont put pressure on the lens, damp a qtip lightly in camera lens cleaner, and clean it, qtip must be moist not soaked so it doesnt let fluid spill on the lens,
No player es consistent with Burned CD's, the worst are the CDpro,
The Cdpro 2 with the V5.0 are very tolerant, but the later V6.8 ?? I think, descriminate between what burner burned the CDs, example some CDpro like philips oe Teac CDR burners, and won't play H.P. and Liteon burners, Or they may play from a model of samsung and not from a different model of samsung CD writer, or will play 3 out of 5 times,
The last, you may want to swap CDpro player.

[lilshawn]

What I meant with my post is that blank CDR's really improved compatibility wise in the 2000's with the shift away from the use of really dark thick layers of cyanine dye which impeded the red laser passing through and back out to the sensor. sometimes you could overcome this issue by cranking up the laser gain to get better reflectivity back.

more modern CDR's used phthalocyanine which has way way less cyanine (thus a very light blue green color) so it has better optical transmission of the red laser used in these older players.

basically if it plays regular CD's just fine, it's a CDR disk issue.