Universum Senator 8800

Dear members and followers,

my Senator waits for a maintenance to solve the little problem with the tapedeck......and to clean it up

I wonder about the whole thing, cause i was very surprised, that the "ingredients" all japanese label, also many signs on the mainboard.

The kind of assembling is interesting i find. Its a whole frame in a cover. The first time i have not seen it. But then cames the "AHA" effect.

Very good. But before you can dissasemble it, you have to remove the cover of the tapedeck first.

The handle is very massive and the holders are made from solid steel. Also you have to weld the speakers of from the mainboard.

Everything is with jackets and plugs mounted. Only the speaker not. But its a easy excise.

The Tapedeck is a little bit more complicated mounted i find. All wires are also directly welded to the mainboard.

And they are very short. When i have it, i make more pictures.....For the moment its enough

Wow, very nicely built boombox!!!

Yes i find too, and the quality is one of the best i find. All is solid and very heavy. Every little mainboard is very good to disassemble. Only pull out or

loosen the screws and you have it in you hand. Everywhere plugs and jackets. There are really many of them.

Looks like the quality of an early JVC or National Panny. I think JVC built the best 70's & 80's boxes, by far...

Nice unit.

Yes i find too.....at the moment I have to figure out why the auto stop doesn't work.

I have a suspected thing find. A tension spring which seems to week over the years.

But I have to test it. By the way 9,5kg without a battery is the weight.....Awesome

Trommelmops said:

Yes i find too.....at the moment I have to figure out why the auto stop doesn't work.
I have a suspected thing find. A tension spring which seems to week over the years.
But I have to test it. By the way 9,5kg without a battery is the weight.....Awesome

Click to expand...

Wow!! That thing must be a tank. I love it!

They are very cool boxes, good-sounding too. Sadly, the digital frequency display often malfunctions, displaying random digits.

At the moment everything goes and works fine. I have fixed the issue with the auto stop. I cut from the spring 4 rings and so its after few hours successful. A second problem was a little clutch which was to slippery. Now it works like it has to be.

Pictures comming soon.....

I'm very happy with the results.

I love the design of
That box .

Here the pictures:

I have no description to the pictures. all is self explaining i find.....






Here the measurements.....dimensions from the wheels, capstan and the disrtance between the wheels.....

So you can easy calculate the length of the belts.....

Good job. I like this model.

THX the only what i want to change is the scales light.....its a little to less and to dark. I have ideas but first i have to measure the voltage. LED's i have,

but maybee i have to mill a little board first where the LED's are soldered on. But now it goes first on the M90 switch for DOCS......

Superduper said:

Good job. I like this model.

Click to expand...

If you put a thin sheet of acrylic over the numerals, and point the LED's into the edge of that sheet, it would illuminate evenly across the entire tuner

I know that kind of illumination but when you use the edge the light has no chance to break the light along the whole way through the sheet. To illuminate you need a point where the light breaks. Usually you can make this when you grind it but then you can see no more the scale

You could install a metallic reflector around the bulb to change the angle of the light

Or create a "stepped" edge with a frosted surface --- Like this:

Reli said:

If you put a thin sheet of acrylic over the numerals, and point the LED's into the edge of that sheet, it would illuminate evenly across the entire tuner

Click to expand...

If the lettering is on the back of the plexi you should be able to light it directly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVRCrh_-6vw

I will make some test but I have very less space around the scale....the idea is good and knowned I will see what is possible but i forgot the pointer for the scale....

Directly on the surface isn't possible cause the sheet material must be very very thin....so we see and I will figure out what looks good and what i like.

caution said:

If you put a thin sheet of acrylic over the numerals, and point the LED's into the edge of that sheet, it would illuminate evenly across the entire tuner

Click to expand...

If the lettering is on the back of the plexi you should be able to light it directly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVRCrh_-6vw

Click to expand...

Yeah, unfortunately the lettering on the Universum isn't printed on acrylic. It's just printed on metal I think. But I still think that adding a blank sheet of acrylic on top of it, with a lightly sanded backside, would light up the lettering a bit. It would also smooth out the light. LED's without acrylic have a tendency to "spotlight" and look too harsh.

Good idea in the past I have blasted the acrylic and the results were good too....
But to create a complete new scale I need many time. For the moment I'm happy....but now grows an idea.....cool stuff....

I don't think a blasted or frosted acrylic placed in front of the tuner scale will look good if I'm to understand that this is what is being suggested here. In fact, it will obscure and give the tuner dial a rather cloudy and dirty look.

A clear acrylic sheet with polished edges (or silvered to reflect back inside) will actually work best when brightly lit. Anything close to the sheet such as a dial scale will be illuminated, especially if the tuner scale is black and lettering is white. If the other way around (silver tuner with black lettering), forget it. One option of there is room is to place an acrylic rod across the top or bottom. The rod should be square, triangle or other shape that directs light towards the scale and the end closest to the scale can be blasted. This will cause the entire length of the rod to light up like a star wars light sabre and it's glow should light up the dial nicely but it does need a substantial light source.

Or... another suggestion is to have a clear acrylic panel placed in front of the tuner scale and mill two angular grooved bands across the upper and lower areas. When lit up, these two bands will light up and if the angular cut if correct, might help direct light at the scale? Would look really cool too.