New Audio-Technica AT-LP120 does not work !!!

jimmy_tulip

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Got myself an New Audio-Technica AT-LP120 . Got it real cheap, since my friend got it from US for me (210 USD @ Amazon)

Now here is where the problem starts, Forgot to change the switch to from 110 V to 230 V ..!!! and plugged the turntable.

Opened the back and saw that the fuse was burnt .......The rating on the fuse was 250 V 500mA. Went to a local shop and for fuse...(250 V 600mA)

Now there is a different problem,
1. The Power light is ON (Working Fine)
2. The Placement light is ON (Working Fine)
3. All other lights work (The Pitch, Direction,Speed Selector )
4. However the Motor does not RUN .


Is there a quick fix for this. Can someone help me repair this in Bangalore ?
I am not too familiar with electronic gadgets
 
The rating on the fuse was 250 V 500mA. Went to a local shop and for fuse...(250 V 600mA)
Why didn't you used same (250v 500mA) fuse ? Even fuse with 400mA would have been safe. Put in proper current fuse see if it works otherwise take it to technician.
Regards.
 
With help of Audio Technica customer Service (They provided me with circuit diagrams and few sketches), I was able to identify the faulty circuit item and fix the same. With absolute no background in electronics , no multi-meter, and no solder gun :)

Thanks for all those who provided me pointers and repair shop details. That gave me confidence that if something goes wrong, I can approach these guys.

Will write in detail later.
 
With help of Audio Technica customer Service (They provided me with circuit diagrams and few sketches), I was able to identify the faulty circuit item and fix the same. With absolute no background in electronics , no multi-meter, and no solder gun :)

Thanks for all those who provided me pointers and repair shop details. That gave me confidence that if something goes wrong, I can approach these guys.

Will write in detail later.

Most amazing!! I am full of admiration. :clapping:

--G0bble
 
I'm full of admiration for Audio Technica too. It's wonderful to hear of such personal service from a big multinational.

Between you and them, well done :)

I guarantee you'll never again forget to look for a voltage setting before pluggin in new gear!
 
Got myself an New Audio-Technica AT-LP120 . Got it real cheap, since my friend got it from US for me (210 USD @ Amazon)

Now here is where the problem starts, Forgot to change the switch to from 110 V to 230 V ..!!! and plugged the turntable.

Opened the back and saw that the fuse was burnt .......The rating on the fuse was 250 V 500mA. Went to a local shop and for fuse...(250 V 600mA)

Now there is a different problem,
1. The Power light is ON (Working Fine)
2. The Placement light is ON (Working Fine)
3. All other lights work (The Pitch, Direction,Speed Selector )
4. However the Motor does not RUN .


Is there a quick fix for this. Can someone help me repair this in Bangalore ?
I am not too familiar with electronic gadgets

Hi jimmy,

I have the same problem with my AT-LP120. I bought it from Amazon and now i'm Philippines. I plugged the device without switch the voltage from 110-220. I assume i have a burnt fuse. I'm really happy to see you post and successful repair.

If it's not too much can you please help me with replacing my fuse? Did you open the turntable to be able to see the fuse? You also mentioned that Audio Technica sent you diagram to help you with the repair, can you also help me with these.

There is no service center here in Manila and was hoping to be able to repair my turntable.

Hoping for a reply. Thank you! :)

Cheers,
Aims
 
Aims, in the worst case, you have the renowned Nicadraus @Works1200 , who is a Technics SL1200/1210 specialist. He seems to be at
San Juan, Philippines works1200.weebly.com
 
Hi jimmy,

I have the same problem with my AT-LP120. I bought it from Amazon and now i'm Philippines. I plugged the device without switch the voltage from 110-220. I assume i have a burnt fuse. I'm really happy to see you post and successful repair.

If it's not too much can you please help me with replacing my fuse? Did you open the turntable to be able to see the fuse? You also mentioned that Audio Technica sent you diagram to help you with the repair, can you also help me with these.

There is no service center here in Manila and was hoping to be able to repair my turntable.

Hoping for a reply. Thank you! :)

Cheers,
Aims

Let me tell you upfront, my knowledge of electronics is very basic. I did my engineering in Mechanical and repaired my TT in the same spirit. :)

Yes, you have to open the TT and you can easily identify the fuse. Its a small glass tube, close to 1 cm long. You can get this in many local electronics shop. (You can also try Automobile spares shop, since cars also use this).
But in my case, in addition to this fuse, there was a micro fuse which was damaged. I was interacting with Audio Technica folks and they send me the circuit diagram. Unfortunately, I could not find a way to replace this fuse since this was mounted on the circuit board. All I did was bypass this fuse the TT started working fine.

I have the circuit diagram , however the filesize is 6 MB. If you can drop me a PM with your mail-id, I will be glad to share the same with you.
 
Let me tell you upfront, my knowledge of electronics is very basic. I did my engineering in Mechanical and repaired my TT in the same spirit. :)

Yes, you have to open the TT and you can easily identify the fuse. Its a small glass tube, close to 1 cm long. You can get this in many local electronics shop. (You can also try Automobile spares shop, since cars also use this).
But in my case, in addition to this fuse, there was a micro fuse which was damaged. I was interacting with Audio Technica folks and they send me the circuit diagram. Unfortunately, I could not find a way to replace this fuse since this was mounted on the circuit board. All I did was bypass this fuse the TT started working fine.

I have the circuit diagram , however the filesize is 6 MB. If you can drop me a PM with your mail-id, I will be glad to share the same with you.

Thank you for the reply. I really dont have any background in electronic as well. Anything that could help me repair will be a plus. I'm planning to bring it to someone who understands this electrical setting. I'll send you a PM for the diagram. I'm sure it will be a big help.

Thank you.
 
I have the circuit diagram , however the filesize is 6 MB. If you can drop me a PM with your mail-id, I will be glad to share the same with you.

Jimmy, I have the same exact problem as you had half a year ago - replaced the main fuse, all lights are working, but the motor is not spinning.

Would you mind sending the circuit diagram to "the-real-flow at gmx.de" or pointing me to the second fuse? I have some electrical engineering knowledge, so I believe that with your help I might be able to fix it.

Sorry for not PMing you, my user privileges are limited as well.

Thanks! :)
 
Hello,

Apologies for dragging up an old thread. I've done exactly the same thing , I replaced the fuse, and now all lights etc. come on but the motor does not rotate. Can I also get a copy of the circuit diagram/instructions?
 
There are two fuses. One a larger one which can be easily replaced and the other on on the circuit board which is little difficult. Please PM me your email ID's I will try and send the circuit diagrams. The file is too big to be uploaded here.
 
Same problem here, pretty angry with myself! If someone could email me the circuit diagram, I'd be very appreciative!

steve at steve dot net dot nz

Failing that, anyone know the component number of the problem microfuse (printed beside it on the PCB) and which of the boards it's on? Hope it's not on the top of the central board as that doesn't look like much fun to remove.

I'm taking photos as I'm doing this so can provide a guide given that this looks to be a not entirely uncommon people for those such as myself who were too impatient to follow the instructions properly during the initial setup.

Edit:
Nevermind, the fuse is on the top side of the central PCB which has the motor on it. The surface-mount fuse itself is behind where the 2-wire blue power connector from the transformer connects to the board. It's 1.5A rated. If you're brave you can just solder a jumper in instead, or use a solder-bridge.

Not particularly difficult to desolder & remove, the hardest part is getting the board off to work on as there's a fair few screws & cables to come off it. Really best to replace it properly however, although surface-mount components tend to be hard to come by in anything less than packs of 10 or so.

Pleased that a few cents of parts and a couple of hours of time was all that was needed to fix it rather than lots of money for a service agent!

HOWTO:

Before starting - remove; The cartridge. The platter. The balance weight. The SP adapter. The hinges from the lid.

Ensure the voltage selector is set correctly (230V and not 115V), that the power switch is turned OFF and that the power cable is definitely not plugged in.

Take the lid off & lay it on a table top-down and rest the main unit on the lid.

Remove the screws from the back, there are 8 screws total, each screw has a small brass spacer on the bottom of it which will almost certainly fall into the case when you remove the back, be VERY sure you retrieve them all!

Once the screws are removed, put the unit onto its feet and life the top off from the front as the USB & phono\line switch protrude through the case. You will also need to feed the RCA cables up through the hole as you lift it off.

Put the back\base aside, and rest the unit back onto the lid.

The main fuse is easily visible on a small circuit board by the main transformer. Mine had a rubber sleeve over it which lifts off, then you can remove the fuse by either hooking a fingernail under it, or gently prying it out from the sides with a small screwdriver. Don't lever against the glass part of the fuse!

If it is blown, you will probably be able to easily see a break in the wire inside it and/or burn marks inside the glass. You can also check with a multimeter that there is no continuity (infinite resistance) between the 2 metal caps.

Replace the fuse with another 240V or 250V 500mA slow-blow fuse. If you replace it with a fast-blow fuse then it'll probably blow every time you have a small power spike. Refit the rubber protective sleeve.

Put the turntable back onto the base, being careful with the RCA cables and feeding in the USB & phono/line switch, plug it in and power it on. If you get lights then you're in business. Put the platter onto the spindle and press "Start". If it spins then you are lucky and you have ONLY blown the primary fuse and can now reassemble the turntable!

Take the platter back off or it'll fall off during assembly.

The only parts to pay attention to while reassembling is that you may have to have the unit on its side while putting the base screws back in due to the little brass sleeves on them trying to fall off, tweezers can make this a little easier.

If the motor isn't working at this stage, then you've probably blown the secondary fuse on the central circuit board. Any wires that can be unplugged from it will need to be, you need to undo all the screws on the metal plate underneath where the platter sits - NOTE: Support the central board while doing this as it's fairly heavy and will fall off and may damage things further otherwise.

Once you have the board off, look on the spindle-side of it opposite where the 2 wire connector goes in and you should clearly see a labelled fuse, if you check it with a multimeter or continuity tester, you should get no signal which means the fuse has popped and will need to be replaced or bypassed. Do this as you wish then reassemble being careful to re-route the cables correctly.

All in all, not a particularly difficult job, just time consuming, and of course, given that you are dealing with mains voltage, if you're not confident with this, take it to either a proper AT repair agent or anyone certified to fix electronic audio devices.

Enjoy!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Gents - I really appreciate this post.

I picked one up for my daughter and the receipt is dated 8/31/2013.
And of course, she tells me on 8/31/2014 that the platter no longer spins :(

So yup, out of warranty and in the same boat.

No issues here with a soldering iron - would appreciate that schematic jimmy_tulip !! :)
 
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