Pioneer CDJ 1000MK3 lens replacement...totally stumped

[Cypher]

Hi everyone, i'm having a lot of trouble with replacing a lens for a professional cd player (for DJ's - the Pioneer CDJ 1000 MK3) and after scouring the internet for information, i think my last chance is finding some help from a bunch of electronics gurus. Seriously, you guys are kinda my last hope.

This is a somewhat older model (they stopped manufacturing them a few years back) and a few months ago it started having errors after 20-30 minutes of playback (E-8302 - Error during playback). After googling this i found out that it's most likely due to the lens being worn out. I ordered a new lens head, the Amazon store said it was for the CDJ 1000 MK3, but when I received it i noticed minor differences (the pictures on the site were too blurry to tell). By minor differences i mean it has a few extra electronic parts on the circuit board, as you can see in the pictures below (left is original, right is new one).
After installing the new lens head, the CD Player doesn't even start spinning the disc - it just takes it in, waits for a few seconds and then ejects it. My next option is to find out if either the lens itself can be taken out of its housing and moved to the old lens head, or if the circuit board can be in some way modified to match the original (for example by removing some of the components).
Please keep in mind i'm a total noob when it comes to electronics (i can solder a cable but that's about it), but the repair will be done by a friend of mine who was practically born holding a multimeter, so he knows his stuff.

I've uploaded the service manual here - http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=05787587552537619489 .
Pics of the unit here -
Pics of the lens head mounted on the transport assembly here - http://www.soundservice.gr/e-shop/en/product.php?products_id=785

Pics of the two lens heads (old one on left, new one on right) with differences highlighted:



This is what the lens itself looks like (no difference between the two heads here):


Well, that's about it, i'd just like to say a major thank you to everyone who bothers to read this thread. If any of you fine gents can help me solve this, i will send tons of karma and kudos your way

[Shock]

When you put the old one back in what happens?

[Cypher]

It works the same as before, CDs play fine for at least a few minutes. Didn't leave it playing for 30 mins to test if it still generates errors, but since i haven't changed anything else, it probably still does. 

[Rasz]

did you remove esd jumpers or was it shipped like that? if the latter than maybe you got shipped returned broken item

[Cypher]

I didn't remove anything, except for unsoldering some connections (on the back, near the CD/DVD markings) - my electronics-knowing friend told me they were some sort of protection and they needed to be unsoldered anyway (they're unsoldered on the original). The new lens head isn't missing anything, on the contrary, it has some extra parts (see pictures). Someone on another forum suggested they might be generic parts to be removed as needed - Pioneer makes several models of CDJ (1000 mk1/2/3, 200, 800 mk1/2 etc.) and a DVDJ, so this might be a generic part, with extra parts to be removed/ adjusted as needed...

[jeremy]

The difference the the first pic is nothing. They just replaced the pots (tuneable resistors) with fixed ones. Only thing you need to check is that they have approximately the same value. Get in there with an ohmmeter and you might be lucky enough to be able to get a reading while it's still in-circuit. And having extra ICs is usually not a problem. It is having less that matters.

Edit: what happens if you start it up *without* a lens head?

[Rasz]

I didn't remove anything, except I did

yes, those are ESD jumpers, they protect laser from ESD damage in transport
thats fine then, you didnt mention doing that in first post so i expected you might of gotten used unit
presents of those jumpers means you got new one

at this point you should contact seller, either its incompatible with your model, or factory defect (happens with chinese  parts)

[PA0PBZ]

[Alex Eisenhut]

Did you clean the lens? Do people smoke in clubs over there?

[Rasz]

PA0PBZ you got them wrong way around, + its probably only unity gain opamp

[PA0PBZ]

PA0PBZ you got them wrong way around, + its probably only unity gain opamp

Oops, thanks for the correction 

[sparx]

Definately try cleaning the lens if you haven't tried - some isopropyl alcohol and a lint-free cloth should do the trick. Water-based glycol smoke fluid gets EVERYWHERE (Club I used to work at didn't have its lights cleaned at all, they lost track of where they were which made light shows impossible!)

[Alex Eisenhut]

Definately try cleaning the lens if you haven't tried - some isopropyl alcohol and a lint-free cloth should do the trick. Water-based glycol smoke fluid gets EVERYWHERE (Club I used to work at didn't have its lights cleaned at all, they lost track of where they were which made light shows impossible!)

I "fixed" a few CD and MD decks in my day by cleaning the lens. There's something about a spinning insulator that just plates crap onto the lens especially for smokers or pet owners.

[Cypher]

@jeremy - I saw no need to try this, i need a functioning lens head no matter what

@sparx & Alex Eisenhut - Before I ordered the new lens, I tried cleaning the lens with earbuds with isopropyl alcohol and that didn't work. Only the exposed part of the lens, not the underside though (for obvious reasons). I thought maybe i should try cleaning the inside with a compressed air spray, but i don't know whether the jet of air could damage/move anything so i decided to be cautious.

One thing i thought about is removing any part that isn't on the original lens head except the two pots, set the two pots to match the readings on the original lens head, measure everything going in and out of every removed component and see if they match the values on the ones on the old lens head. Do you think that might work?

[Rasz]

contact the seller already

[sunnyhighway]

I thought maybe i should try cleaning the inside with a compressed air spray, but i don't know whether the jet of air could damage/move anything so i decided to be cautious.

What would you loose by trying?
It doesn't work now.
Worst case scenario after blowing out the dust bunnies: It still doesn't work... 

[wraper]

You probably don't need to replace a laser assembly at all. Such faults more often are caused by by bad motor with worn sleeve bearing rather than laser assembly. Reading errors start happening when reading closer to the end of the disc and progress closer to beginning with time.

[Cypher]

Thanks for the suggestions everybody!

I'm going to first try cleaning the inside of the old lens with an air spray. Since i can't return it (I also talked to the seller, he doesn't know why it won't work), if the airspray doesn't work i'm going to try carefully unsoldering everything on the new lens head that can't be found on the old one (except the trim pots, i'll set those to values that match the ones on the old lens). If that doesn't work, they can always be soldered back on. Wish me luck!

[amyk]

Careful, the structures are very fragile.

You can see if the laser lights up when it tries to read a disc (obviously don't look into the beam, but it's usually bright enough to shine through the thin layer of the disc - if it's an infrared laser then a video camera would work and possibly be safer.)

[mcinque]

Reading errors start happening when reading closer to the end of the disc

That could explain why the error happens after 30 mins of playing.

In my experience, I've had a similar issue with a Sony PlayStation caused by temperature rise during use. I fixed it by fine adjusting the gain trimmer on the laser assembly.

[speedman2049]

I know this is a old old thread, but it's the one of only 2 i found online and wanted to share the info as i got mine working with the same aftermarket laser unit!

Thanks to a commenter on a YouTube video (), he mentioned that he had removed parts on the new aftermarket unit and got it working!
Thanks to the user @alessiobiancalana8414 in the comments on that vid, i too got the aftermarket laser working in my unit. I bought the CDJ used and i had no idea it was even a aftermarket lens in there until i compared pics from this post vs the one i had in my unit.
I removed all the highlighted components in the pics on this thread except i left on the 2 trim pots and boom, working!
Hope this helps others in the future!