#trackingforce — Public Fediverse posts

Lessons learned from the problem solving of “fixing” a recent “broken record”. In summary:

1. sometimes waiting can (partially) fix a problem or reduce its severity
2. applying reasoning and practical math & science (e.g. mechanics & acoustics) to diagnose and take actions can also repair something (at least partially), as well as eliminate possible causes
3. web searching for “how to fix” can reveal additional potential causes (and steps to take)

The record was a brand new specialty vinyl that I had ordered.

Problem: when I placed the record on the turntable and pressed the START button, I could immediately see that it had a bit of a “bump” or rise at a specific spot, once per revolution. When I tried playing it, the needle skipped backwards, just after the bump, because while the needle was able to follow the rise of the bump, it was unable to “fall” fast enough to stay on track (literally), thus losing touch with the vinyl, and when it recontacted, it slid outward to prior revolution of the track.

I figured the warping was the problem, and not something I could fix (without risking worse damage), and placed the vinyl back into its double sleeves, into its cardboard cover (still shrinkwrapped except for the side slit I had cut open), then that into the packing and box it was shipped in. I left it flat on a desk (nothing on top) to eventually investigate how to return the record for a replacement or refund.

About a week later I looked into the specifics for a replacement/refund which said to take a photo or make a recording of the record problem to submit online.

When I put the record back on the turntable, fully confident I would reproduce the problem and record it, I immediately noticed that the “bump” had somehow become much gentler (shorter, less prominent) than I remembered.

I gently lowered the needle on the record, and now, on the gentler bump, the needle tracked perfectly. Zero skipping.

Somehow simply packing the record in its stiff cardboard and then that in the packing materials and box and leaving it out for a week (note: not in any sunlight or other heat source), had resulted in the record plastic “settling” and flattening just enough to fix the problem. Lesson 1.

Still I could see the smaller bump, and figured I should test the record thoroughly. I flipped it around to its B side and played it. I had not previously tested the back side. For some reason, the bump was less apparent from the other side. Perhaps the “valley” on the other side of a bump on a record is shallower and wider?

Regardless, the needle started skipping, again consistently in one location per revolution, however not where the bump/valley was! It skipped the way I know record needles skip when there is a bad scratch.

I experimented with dropping the needle at various spots along the track and quickly determined that it only skipped in the first 10-15s of the song. Any needle drop after ~15s into the song played consistently all the way through to the end of the record.

I visually inspected the record with extra lighting around the region it was skipping, expecting to find an obvious scratch or stubborn piece of dust. I was unable to see either, despite visually inspecting the area across multiple viewing angles, which was made more challenging by the record’s use of transparent or at least translucent plastic.

Seeing no visual damage, I concluded the problem was more likely either a small fleck (or flecks) of dust, or possibly microscopic scratch which the needle was hitting while being invisible to the naked eye.

I grabbed a fresh optics cleaning cloth and thoroughly wiped off the entirety of the track area on the B side. I also gently dabbed the bottom of the needle in case any dust particles had been attracted by the static electricity. Under very bright lighting, I couldn’t see any hint of any dust remaining.

Tried playing it again, almost the same result: the record skipped back at the same spot every revolution, however the range where it skipped was smaller, perhaps only 5-10s into the track. Wiping the dust had helped, and I had eliminated at least a few possible causes (a visible scratch or more dust). Lesson 2.

Feeling like I had exhausted the limits of reasoning about the physics of record player and needle functions, at this point I was about to give-up, and make a recording of the skipping. I decided to try one more thing, encouraged by the incremental improvements so far.

I web searched for something like “how to fix a record that is skipping” and plenty of results showed up from various vinyl experts and shops. I opened several of them and skimmed their descriptions, recommended diagnoses, and things to try.

Most of the articles listed nearly exactly the steps I had taken already which was a nice validation of my physics reasoning and diagnostic & repair steps.

However, multiple articles listed a couple more things, which I had forgotten about (having not adjusted the turntable in a very long time). Tracking force. Seeing the phrase was an a-ha moment, yes, that’s a key aspect of the physics that I had forgotten.  A record needle depends on having some (but not too much) weight in order to stay in its groove while playing, and have less chance of being dislodged by small (perhaps microscopic!) scratches or dust particles.

I immediately adjusted the counterweight on the other end of the player arm a few twists to make the needle “heavier” (I should probably measure the actual needle force with a sensitive digital scale for a proper adjustment) and tried playing the B side one more time.

It worked. The track played perfectly. Lesson 3.

Lessons:

1. time alone (or nearly, sometimes leaving something in a static position) can fix or improve some things

2. use math & science to reason about the problem. this will not only lead you to solve many (perhaps even novel to you) problems, the cognitive effort alone reinforces such knowledge and reasoning skills. practicing problem solving makes you a better problem solver.

3. lastly, ask (for help). today we ask search engines. if you know someone with expertise in a subject matter, especially someone who has solved similar problems, ask them. asking for help at the point of needing it, and having reached the edges of your own knowledge is a particularly good moment to learn something, because you’re already in a motivated mindset and open to it

The entire problem solving process probably took longer than it could have, however, many aspects were a good reminder and reinforcement about problem solving in general, which was certainly worth the time.

And it saved me the time it would have taken to return the record and request a replacement or refund.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/broken_record

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