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Anyone own an NSM Hit 120A jukebox?

ronnie63

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Just purchased a project jukebox as above, some hacks have been done on the carriage wiring and I'm struggling to figure what should be where! If anyone has one they could maybe picture the wiring plug under the moving part of the carriage it might help me out?

Thanks Ronnie
 
Wont have anything that old.

That era of NSM has a major issue. It uses a crystal cartridge in the tone arm - it is double sided.

Even 20 years ago if one of these came in with a cartridge issue it would get smashed up and thrown in a skip.

The crystal cartridge was not possible to replace 20 years ago, 10 years ago or today. The tracking force is too heavy to put in a different type of cartridge - even if that could be done all the amps need major modification.

Before you start anything - make sure you have a good cartridge! You may be wasting your time.

Have no spares now - not even manuals. It all was given to the scrap man as I kept circuit boards, carraiges and mechs with broken cartridges for years........ but I was never asked for them.

On that mech as well there was plenty of hacks done to make them work better. They are not the best carraiges and there was a chap I know who is long retired who wrote a few modification 'papers' on them. You could have a pre modified mech.

The wires used to break as well over the years so it is not uncommon to find different lengths of wire have been changed.

There are a few NSM manuals here:

However they start at ES-II and I think the hit 120 is pre that.

This is Leon's site - he is like a scrap yard for old jukeboxes. I did give a load of parts to him years ago, but as I said - think the early NSM stuff of mine went to landfill.

 
Wont have anything that old.

That era of NSM has a major issue. It uses a crystal cartridge in the tone arm - it is double sided.

Even 20 years ago if one of these came in with a cartridge issue it would get smashed up and thrown in a skip.

The crystal cartridge was not possible to replace 20 years ago, 10 years ago or today. The tracking force is too heavy to put in a different type of cartridge - even if that could be done all the amps need major modification.

Before you start anything - make sure you have a good cartridge! You may be wasting your time.

Have no spares now - not even manuals. It all was given to the scrap man as I kept circuit boards, carraiges and mechs with broken cartridges for years........ but I was never asked for them.

On that mech as well there was plenty of hacks done to make them work better. They are not the best carraiges and there was a chap I know who is long retired who wrote a few modification 'papers' on them. You could have a pre modified mech.

The wires used to break as well over the years so it is not uncommon to find different lengths of wire have been changed.

There are a few NSM manuals here:

However they start at ES-II and I think the hit 120 is pre that.

This is Leon's site - he is like a scrap yard for old jukeboxes. I did give a load of parts to him years ago, but as I said - think the early NSM stuff of mine went to landfill.

Cheers no good news there lol, ok the cartridge looks ok as far as I can tell, otherwise I'm stuck for now with it fault wise

Ronnie
 
Just checked the stylus properly they both look good, also I think these are the ones it uses


“there was a chap I know who is long retired who wrote a few modification 'papers' on them. You could have a pre modified mech.”

Are these modification papers available anywhere?
 
Just picked up a hit 130 and a consul 130 not sure if they have similar wiring to yours. Both these non working. Going to try get the hit 130 going first. These will be my first attempts at resurrecting a jukebox

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It looks similar Alan nice finds, Mine got pushed to the side for now and I picked up another 2 last week both Rock_ola, one is a 453 the other a 481 both need work!
 
Here are the latest two the 453 has a blue piece of Perspex where the lovely glass should be!
 

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My Ceramic cartridge is not working on the HIT130D - I have proved that the signal is getting to the amp - e.g. touching one of the connectors in the head shell, I get a buzz in the amp, but nothing out of the cartridge. I wired the cartridge to my DMM on mVolts and it does seem to generate a signal when the needle holder is gently agitated, but doesn't seem to be enough to interest the Amp at all. I might take it apart and see if there is any serviceable parts inside - it's riveted shut, so I doubt it, but nothing to lose.

On the Consul 130D, someone has replaced the ceramic cartridge with a Magnetic one, and then has added a home made "pre-amp" to get the signal level and impedance right for the amplifier. I have tested this and it works! I take @Pick Holder's point about the different tracking weight, But that might be something I can adjust with the tracking springs..........

I'd ideally like to return both of these to using the original Ceramic Cartridges, but they are hens teeth as @Pick Holder has already clearly stated. There are plenty of single sided ceramic cartridges about, so that could be a compromise - but would only then be able to play all A sides or all B-sides, unless I can fit 2 back to back - but looks doubtful.

For now I am going to progress with the Consul. I have other issues. The lever that selects the record on the carriage mech is broken off (it is on both my mechs). I have one spare to refix and then I have a spare NSM mech of a later model that I can pinch the lever from. These are rivetted as well as screwed on by looks of it though.

On the consult the cam shaft system is a bit jammed up an needs manual help to get it turning. Also the credit unit has a mal-adjusted switch, preventing adding credits and making a selection. If I manually close it, I can add credits, but the selection system isn't selecting al all.

On the hits the can shaft system is moving fine, but when I add credits, it keeps turning and turning, deducting all the credits. Not sure why. I disabled the credit deduct relay and just like the Consul then selection system is not working on this one either. The selection system is a "pin" system - it's is supposed to push up a pin - and it does this using a bank of 16 solenoids. Each solenoid moves on an arm and can therefore select one of 8 different pins. So far I can't get either machine to select a pin. If I manually pull up an pin, both machines will stop at that selected record and go into play mode - so it's just the selection circuit that is faulty on both.

I'm in desperate need of schematics, but unlike pinballs (except Gott), none available on-line nor so it seems in print!
 
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