PART 1- Pioneer CT-S820S - DIY Infrared receiver for Pioneer Tapedecks

Pioneer CT-S820S

So i just recently picked up this great Pioneer CT-S820S high-end Cassette Player.

According to hifiengine it was produced from 1993 to 1994 so that's about 25 years ago, at the end of the line for Compact Cassettes.

Pioneer CT-S820S - 25 years old

For at least 5 years i have been searching eBay and other marketplaces for a decent, affordable high-end cassettedeck. Off cause i have dreamed of Revox B215 or the Nakamichi Dragon or even the Sony TC-K 909ES, but with price-tags around 1000 to 2000 € that is way beyond my budget.

Then i discovered the Pioneer top player, the CT-95, which is also far from what i can afford, but its smaller brothers like CT-S920S or the CT-S820S are much more in my league.

Inside the Pioneer CT-S820S

But one thing is really annoying about these decks, almost all of them doesn't have a built-in IR receiver. When i disassembled and cleaned my CT-S820S i discovered that the right front control-board actually was laid out for remote controlling, but the electronic components are missing and even the silkscreen on the board is missing. So you can't really see what to put where.

On the outside

Front right - no Remote control window.

Inside

No components and no silkscreen.

On the silkscreen you can read the word "flat", but on the front it's actually "Super Auto BLE". Pioneer used this same board in several high-end models, here a small image from the Japanese T-1100S where you can see the IR cutout and the "flat" button.

The missing components is a solvable problem. but the real challenge is the metal front of the deck, it doesn't have a hole for the IR receiver - like the T-1100S above - and drilling a hole through the nice metal front would only destroy its value - and therefore not an option.

But there is another non destructive way.

On the backside of the tape deck there are two a remote-control link terminals. Which makes this tapedeck controllable from other Pioneer Amplifiers or Receivers.

The Control Bus

You simply connect these with a mono mini-jack cable, chaining them together through the in/out connectors and you should be good to go.

Then again, this is my only Pioneer equipment, so i can't use this simple option.

Who came up with this crazy idea anyway? Pioneer sales dept? For what reason? To force customers to buy Pioneer only? Pioneer still pursues this strange policy.

Oh, and then i need a remote-control (needless to say), but these tapedecks, without IR receivers, were sold without a dedicated remote-control. You'll need a System remote for Amps or receivers, which offered somewhat rudimentary tapedeck control buttons.

Luckily a have a Logitech Programmable Remote-control, which can learn from other remotes and already has a very comprehensive online library of codes to control almost any kind of IR units.

Even Pioneers CT-S820S is included, so it is just a question of downloading and configure the Logitech to remote control the Pioneer tapedeck.

Next steps:

1. Configure the Logitech remote control.
2. I need to find out how Pioneers SR remote control bus works
3. Get the hardware (IR receiver)
4. Build a mock-up on a breadboard
5. Test it out.

Go to Part 2