During the coldest winter months I tend to stick to indoor activities instead of freezing while taking pictures. Recently my brother in law gave me this classic Philips GA-212 turntable that was manufactured in Holland. I decided to do a restoration and refurbishment of the turntable a few days ago being vinyl is back in favor these days. It did have a few issues though. It wouldn’t hold its 33 or 45 rpm speeds even when the trim controls were adjusted and the auto stop feature wasn’t working either. Luckily the problem with the speed was solved by opening the turntable up and adjusting a variable resistor in the main board to exactly -9 volts DC (as per the Philips service manual) and the auto stop feature issue was caused by a burnt out light bulb. Did you say light bulb Joe ? Yes I did. The Philips GA-212/312 series use a total of four tiny light bulbs (equivalent to 6 volt flashlight bulbs). The auto turn off feature utilizes a flashlight bulb that illuminates a CDS cell (cadmium sulfide cell) that is sensitive to light. When light illuminates the CDS cell the power is transmitted to either the 33 or 45 rpm touch sensor controls. When the light is blocked from the CDS cell the power is interrupted and the turntable platter stops. But how is the light blocked from the CDS cell Joe ? Philips chose to use a shutter mechanism under the top deck of the turntable that follows the tone arm movement. When the tonearm is at the end of the LP and enters the leadout groove the shutter mechanism blocks the light from the flashlight bulb that illuminates the CDS cell. Now that everything is working properly and the turntable is reassembled all I have to do is change that really sucky sounding cartridge 😊
If you are interested in photography and some audiophile projects check out my site at www.thevisualchronicle.com
Monochromia 
You’re the ultimate tinkerer, Joe. 😃 Hope you get the sound how you like it. Vinyl is back!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Jane 😊 It’s unfortunate I sold my vinyl collection to a person in Canada about 20 years ago. I know some people will argue that vinyl sounds better than digital but I would beg to differ. With the proper outboard digital to analog converter and CD transport (CD turntable without D/A conversion) IMO digital sounds better. Of course a properly designed digital system is very expensive but did you check out the price of excellent turntables and cartridges lately ? 😊 I have the Philips up for sale on a couple of Facebook audiophile groups. Onto other projects. Anytime I hear pops and crackles like there’s a fireplace in the room I’m outta there LOL
LikeLike
Well, then you’re the ultimate online dealer! I love the ease of streaming music and having access to any music I can imagine. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m a a big fan of streaming music also Jane. I stream my music with a gadget called a Bluesound Node 2i. It hooks up to my router and then to an auxiliary input on my preamplifier. It will stream from all the music services and it will also play my entire CD collection which I loaded onto a NAS drive (network attached storage). Bluesound also makes a device called a Vault which is basically a Node 2i with a built in hard drive to load your music onto. For casual listening and when I’m too lazy to get up and change CD’s I stream from my NAS drive. All functions as well as music selection on the Node 2i are controlled through an iPhone or iPad app. When I want maximum detail in my music I bite the bullet and load a CD 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
And I thought my Sonos system was cool. 🤣🤣
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sonos systems are cool Jane. I used a Sonos connect for years to stream music through my 2 channel high end system but unfortunately it gave up the ghost. Everything I mentioned about the Bluesound can be done with a Sonos connect. When looking for a replacement after my Sonos connect gave out I discovered the Bluesound Node 2i which got rave reviews. After an extended listening session at my local high end stereo store I was sold. I never did use any of the wireless features of the Sonos I strictly used it in wired form on my 2 channel system. I guess there was a method to my madness when I ran Cat 5 network cabling to every room in my home when I renovated it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nice 👏🏻
Just recently had a post about vinyl too 🖖
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Reinhold 👍🏻 I checked out your post and that’s a nice Dual turntable.
LikeLike
Indeed. It’s refurbished and looks and works like new 🖖
LikeLike