Metropoulos Forum

Hello, i'm starting a thread here, about the complete checking and restoration of my second echoplex ep3. i think that it'll force me to do it because otherwise, it's been waiting since months and probably years now !

first, this echoplex, purshased for about 120 or 150 $, had several plaback heads in line ! and i had to find a transport bar for the write/erase combo head. in line, a bit like a copycat, it didn't work ... it came with 5 playback heads and a board for each ! + some volume pots for each head.

i could find this transport bar on ebay some months ago and i managed to set the mecanic just right.th motor is even better than in my first echoplex. i want to restore this one as an exercise for my first one : i worked on it years ago but didn't totaly figure out a few problems it still has, but it's playable and i dig its sound. So, i'll work on this one and check and replace probably each part !!! cap after cap, resistor after resistor, head after head, pot after pot ....
So ... if every new part coming in is just right and into specs, there's no reason that it wouldn't work perfectly.
i'll even replace all wires , because as Rgorke pointed out, one wire on his echoplex had continuity but was damaged and it wasn't visible, so it poduced some noise. hence, i'll replace all wires.
i'll replace these carbon comps mostly by my piher resistors, carbon film.
tonight, i just started with the power section, replacing the 500 uf electrolytics by some new ones ( but in the future i'll replace them again for some atom sprague, just like in my first ep3 ) .

So ! to help some guys who work on their echoplex, i'll post my handy help ! it's the result of a big work on it.
And by the way, like Rgorke, i'd love to see an echoplex section on this forum ! please !!

here it is, the echoplex when i received it :

some more, showing both ep3's big differences.
Taking care of the engine section, replacing the belt with a new one. i did this two years ago already ...

Originaly, there was some kind of guide for the tape, ( picture 7 ) i removed it and replaced it with whatever i had, because it wasn't practical and it didn't help the tape really, quite the opposite.
you can see how different the mechanics are compared to my first ep3. picture 8 is my first ep3, ( ep3 I ) picture 9 with the black top is my second ep3 ( ep3 II ). Now, there's a bridge coming from ebay, someone who was ok to sell me one of the pieces he put in auction. i could then instal the heads on it, remove the extra boards, making it standard.
i don't know who tried to mod this ep3, i don't think it was original because it didn't work : the tape simply didn't have enough contact with the heads. but the extra boards were original so ... i just don't know, anyway it was unique, never seen any other like that. i still have the pieces anyway.

Here it is, with the new transport bridge that i installed last year, endly ! After a year lurking for such piece.

OK, Now, the electronic !!

Here it is, what i did for my ep3 I, to help me. ( when i'll work on it i'll make it closer to the stock values and parts of the original schematic, because there were some "improvments and differences" on mine )

I hope that this thread will help peoples. i think it'll do, because it'll be complete, with no much compromises ...
Clips in the end.
Some help is welcome off course

The preamp board :

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The Nortronics board

( i'm not sure of what this little black box is meant to do .. )

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And most of the rest of the parts. It'll differ from the schematic and from my other ep3 II. all these pictures were made after ep3 I, and since, some mods or repairs were made i think.
Anyway, for ep3 II, i'll follow the schematic, and almost build a new one, or a "clone" into a real one ha ha.

...

Next, i'll do an excell fie for a list of the parts required with an Echoplex Ep3. And i'll see what i have in stock and what i'll order to complete it;
Some parts will maybe not change, i'm thinking of the nortronics board with the two transistors and nortronics board, things like that ..;

But other transistors, electrolytic caps, resistors, trimmers, pots, wires ... they'll change.
i'll check the variable capacitors , heads ...
both echoplex had their switch replaced by some metro : ON/ON/ON , which let me discover a cool mod by accident ! i'll come bac to it later, it basicaly allows a position on the switch where the sos also features echo on both the incoming signal and on the sos, funny stuff.

okay, enough for today !