Pioneer Timers

[IMF_Pioneer]

I'll bring an old thread back to life. I have three Pioneer timers, (DT-5, DT-500, & DT-540) all of them 110/120/220/240v switchable. My DT-500 stopped working a couple of weeks ago after a lightning strike in my neighborhood. The lights in my house flickered for a few seconds then the electricity went out and came back on a few seconds later. The DT-500 has not been keeping accurate time since then. Interesting that the DT-540 in my downstairs stereo system had no issues. Yesterday I drove 60 miles one way to buy a DT-5 for $20 off of Facebook Marketplace to replace the DT-500. It's hard for me to justify spending money to fix the DT-500 when I routinely see Pioneer timers for cheap on Craigslist and FB Marketplace. I do admit that I like the blue DT-500 LED time display much more than the green display of the DT-5 and DT-540. I'm the original owner of a Kenwood AT-80D timer that I bought new at an air base BX in Germany in 1981. Six months ago, it started jumping hours ahead in time. I would like to fix it for sentimental reasons but I'm ready to declare time of death on it since a service manual for this timer does not exist. I did an extensive on line search for one and even contacted Kenwood USA and no luck.

It's upset the Flux Capacitor !

 

[White_wolf]

It's running slow, losing 10 minutes in a two hour period.

Did you check R1, R2, R8, and C6. Might have fried one of these, they are all in the circuit that gives the reference signal to the control chip.

Also if you really like the look of the dt-500 you can transfer the guts of the dt-5 into the dt-500, they are basically the same. the front display should be tinted by the front panel having a colored window.

 

[g-man02tii]

Also if you really like the look of the dt-500 you can transfer the guts of the dt-5 into the dt-500, they are basically the same. the front display should be tinted by the front panel having a colored window.

I was thinking the same thing. For what I paid for the DT-5 ($20), it would make a great donor timer and it works great. I definitely prefer the DT-500 silver face and blue LED display over the DT-5 champagne look and green display.

 

[petervv]

hi guys,

I had been on the lookout for a JT-215a for a very long time, at least 10 years, but they don't show up very often in the Netherlands.
Last week I was able to buy two PP-215a's (= Japanese version of the JT-215a) in one go!
The add stated one was 100V/50Hz, the second one 100V/60Hz, of course I was hoping the motor would have the 50/60Hz switch internally, but unfortunately this was not the case.
Both run fine but because we have 50Hz in the Netherlands, the 60Hz model runs too slow.
I will have to think about a way to get the second one running, options are of course:
- Try to find an original 50Hz motor (or just the gearbox), anyone wanna trade?
- Build a crystal controlled 100V/60Hz supply but that's quite a lot of work
- Try to find a motor from an old clock that can be made to fit, doesn't sound too simple either

For now I'm enjoying the 50Hz model, it really is a beautiful retro design!

kind regards, Peter

 

[bzb882]

Interesting thing with my DT-510. I bought it several years ago but put it in storage because the display was fuzzy. Took it out in July 2020, the display was fine. I decided to recap it anyway. I'll list the caps below. It ran fine until a couple of months ago. We've had three really bad electrical storms this year that knocked out power to my home. First one and it started running fast. I did the keep it set to clock adjust trick and it ran fine. Until the next storm. After that one keeping it on clock adjust didn't help. What did help was switching the switch on the bottom of the unit to 50 hz then back to 60 hz. Two weeks ago another bad storm. I keep it on clock adjust, but only flipping that switch back and forth stopped it from running too fast. Caps in my unit were:

100 uF 35V
220 uF 16V
100 uF 35V
47 uF 25V
47 uF 50V

 

[IMF_Pioneer]

Hi Peter,

Well looking at your post above you've just reminded me of the DT-400 that I've had for many years, thus I've pulled it out and unwrapped the bubblewrap that's been around it for nearly 10 years and I've set it up as my clock in the bedroom. It has a much better display (fluro Blue) than my current orange clock.

Thanks again for highlighting this.

 

[g-man02tii]

I was thinking the same thing. For what I paid for the DT-5 ($20), it would make a great donor timer and it works great. I definitely prefer the DT-500 silver face and blue LED display over the DT-5 champagne look and green display.

The champagne look on the DT-5 was wearing on me when paired with the rest of my silver face gear. The fix was to replace the DT-5 champagne face plate with the DT-500 silver face plate. It looks so much better if you can get past a DT-500 with green LED display instead of the original blue LED display that the DT-500 came with. Purists now hate me.

 

[krisjay]

I have a DT550 that is not in use at the monent, actually have the full rack system, not in use.