Tascam mini disc player

n8nagel · Post by **n8nagel** » Sat Nov 30, 2024 5:45 am

Good morning everyone

Yesterday I picked up a Tascam MD-02b mini disc player but the owner had lost the remote. It would be a RC-MD02 but I'm guessing any Tascam or Teac mini disc remote would get me started. I can't find anything, is my google-fu failing? If you have one if you could learn a few keys to get me started I'd appreciate it. I set up an eBay search but there isn't a correct remote currently available. Thanks!

Yes my current audio hobby is apparently collecting all the obscure audio formats.

n8nagel · Post by **n8nagel** » Sat Nov 30, 2024 5:52 am

Well as soon as I posted I thought to check Harmony, they say the can control it, but I'm out of town for the weekend. When I get back I will dig out my old Harmony and try to learn from it and post results.

Post by **The Robman** » Sat Nov 30, 2024 8:30 am

Hey Nate,
I just took a chance to see what SimpleSet.com would offer up and they only have 1 Tascam code. I have no idea what actual device it's for, but by all means, give it a shot.

http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... e_id=27079

n8nagel · Post by **n8nagel** » Mon Dec 23, 2024 12:47 pm

Well, I just did something that I should have done three weeks ago... after having had a search set up for the remote on eBay with literally no hits over that whole time, I sent a message to TEAC/Tascam asking it if was still available and sure enough it is, and better yet, it's $25.15. Haven't seen service like that from a company since the withdrawal of Oppo from the disc spinner market (moment of silence please... although they still do service their old models for now anyway) So, this might be just an exercise in slogging through learns :/

I also ordered some MDs finally last night as I got my quarterly bonus so once all my packages arrive I will have a new device to figure out.

Post by **The Robman** » Mon Dec 23, 2024 1:05 pm

Did you try the SimpleSet Tascam code, just to confirm it's not the right one? I'm impressed that Tascam still sells MD remotes as I can't imagine there are too many people still using MD players, and where on Earth did you find minidiscs to buy, and what did you get, like blank ones or pre-recorded?

n8nagel · Post by **n8nagel** » Mon Dec 23, 2024 1:41 pm

I haven't yet, but I am going to be messing with this over the holidays as I really need to get the living room set back up the way it was anyway (plus adding an activity for a Wii; I'm getting housemate's kid a copy of Mario Kart and some wheels for xmas) and one of my shut down commands is incorrect. Biggest thing was getting my hands on some MDs to do thorough testing, I ended up buying some used ones off eBay. Sadly I don't seem to have a local quirky record store who never throws anything out.

The irritating thing is that I also have a Tascam 122 MkII cassette deck - yes, I realize that it's over a decade older, but they made a whole mess of those and sold them to broadcasters who used them hard so they needed to stock replacement parts - and apparently mine needs a capstan motor, which is NOT an available service part.

I've found some writeups online about changing some capacitors on the capstan motor control board to restore proper function, but that would imply that I had the free time to do something like that... It does look great with the MD-02B though!

This is of course entirely irrelevant to this discussion because none of the 122/122B, 122MkII or 122MkIII ever used an IR remote control, although I believe that there are now adapters available to plug into the wired remote port on the back of the units.

n8nagel · Post by **n8nagel** » Tue Dec 24, 2024 8:00 am

s**t, this just made me realize something... I'm literally going back to the preamp that made me get into Xsights in the first place, but I wonder if I could make a cable that would allow my Luxman TP-117 to control a Tascam cassette deck? that would be pretty freaking cool.

The fact that Logitech did not properly support the TP-117 is what made me get into Xsghts in the first place. I eventually did find a correct remote for it, but stuck with the Xsight anyway as the Luxman CD player I had died and I "had" to use an Oppo 103 in its place, and yes I made it all work.

MaskedMan · Post by **MaskedMan** » Tue Dec 24, 2024 11:18 am

Back in 90's I had IR cable come out of Sony tv to Pioneer Tape Deck allowing the cassette remote commands to control the Pioneer tape deck that had no IR sensor of its own. The av receiver at the time was a Fisher brand.

n8nagel · Post by **n8nagel** » Thu Jan 02, 2025 8:32 pm

Replacement remote showed up today, I brain farted and tried to use the "wrong" PC to work on this but actually found that whatever bug was keeping me from running Java programs on a 4K monitor on my personal laptop has apparently been fixed (this is Win10) so I fell down a rabbit hole of getting RMIR working on it which I would prefer to use for this anyway.

I have the learns for this now; Rob, it is not the same as what you posted, this is NEC1, Device 131, Sub Device 113.

I do not have a working upgrade to test/upload however as I got through making it and I can't seem to assign the soft keys (Xsight Color). I notice that there's been a major new release since I set up this laptop so I'm going to get back to this tomorrow, I've been working on this all evening and I can tell if I keep messing with this the possibility of breaking stuff will go up.

MaskedMan, the Luxman setup is different. The TP-117 tuner/preamp is the IR receiver for not only itself but two Luxman cassette decks and it has the controls for the tape deck built in, they're pretty rudimentary, just play, pause, stop, FF, rewind, etc. Uses a DIN to mini-DIN cable to each of the two tape decks, and I have reverse engineered and made one because I can.

the Tascam uses a wired remote (that I don't have), but I haven't looked into it enough to see if a Tascam works the same way. I know the Luxman gear just sends voltage pulses to various pins to simulate hitting various buttons on the cassette deck's faceplate. I have an Adcom CD player that has a similar but different DIN jack on the back but none of the other Adcom gear I have is remote capable so I have never used it in that manner. I have no idea if the Tascam works similarly enough that a simple passive cable could be made to hook the Tascam to the Luxman tuner/pre and make them work. Now the Oppo Blu-Ray players have a 3.5mm jack on the back so if you have an IR repeater you can hook it up directly to that without a blaster and in fact I used the Luxman gear in that manner to control them rather than using the Oppo's built in IR receiver. For no better reason than I could, and I wanted to see if it worked

(this would be crucial if I set the TP-117 up with two stereo amps as a two zone system however as it was intended to be used, because then the TP-117 could control the Oppo from a remote sensor)

yeah I kind of go down rabbit holes, but it's cheaper than a coke habit. I think.

edit: here's some light reading, this was literally the reason I left the Harmony fold and started doing stuff myself. http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/viewt ... p?t=101279

Post by **The Robman** » Thu Jan 02, 2025 9:30 pm

I just checked my various lists and we don't have any JP1 upgrades that use NEC1 131.113 and I don't know of any UEI setup codes that use that either, so this is a first.

n8nagel · Post by **n8nagel** » Fri Jan 03, 2025 8:46 am

heh, that's me, always finding the obscure stuff.

I love that sites like this exist though because as many times as I've completely decoded a device from scratch, I've also gotten 90% of the way there because of work someone else did and posted.

Post by **The Robman** » Fri Jan 03, 2025 9:23 am

So, get cracking on that MD upgrade already, we are eagerly awaiting it!

n8nagel · Post by **n8nagel** » Fri Jan 03, 2025 11:46 am

The Robman wrote:So, get cracking on that MD upgrade already, we are eagerly awaiting it!

heh. How many of yinz really have rack-mount MD decks?

I did find my Harmonies so I can cross check with that too for more codes. I dunno if it's worth brute forcing this one, maybe if I get bored.

Post by **The Robman** » Fri Jan 03, 2025 1:10 pm

I imagine the chances are very good that you are the ONLY person left on the face of the earth who is still using MD players, not that there were that many to begin with, as I don't think it ever really took off as a platform.

But the remote-nerd in me is always excited when a new code is added to the JP1 universe.

n8nagel · Post by **n8nagel** » Fri Jan 03, 2025 5:26 pm

All right, I just installed v3.1.5 on my personal laptop and now I'm all functional again. Here's the upgrade, this is just a straight learn of all the buttons on the original remote, I haven't even looked to see if there's any more codes on Harmony hence 0.8, but basic stuff is functional.

http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/dload ... e_id=27170

Difficulty: I'm going to have to learn how to use some of the functions of this deck to confirm functionality of all remote codes, hence my labeling it "v0.8" but at least it's out there now.

Next up: I still need to find a DAT deck, maybe an Elcaset? and I need to get my big quad reel to reel fixed...

edit: and add an AC3 board to my laserdisc player, and get a demodulator... this is an expensive hobby