THE  Misterßetamax  Winder To best understand why the Misterßetamax winder/rewinder is so good to your tapes we must look inside and examine its construction. In the photo above we see the top cover has been removed and the mechanism is visible. On the left is the solenoid that is used to release and stop all functions, which also releases and opens the cassette tray. Many pop-n-stop winders actually use the tape pulling against the pulley system to halt the winding action, something that is very rough on tapes. That method can cause breaks, fisheyes, stretching and a bunch of other horrible things. Notice also over on the left is the tape counter. With a little notation it can be a real aid in winding to a particular location on a tape. Click anywhere in the picture and the next photo shows the pulley assemblies. Notice they are all mounted solid and none are able to swing or pendulum back and forth in order to operate any levers or trip any kind of mechanism. This would be the case in the pop-n-stop winders. In the next photo (click) we see one of the pulleys that has had the the top section removed. What your looking at here is the centrifugal clutch mechanism that causes the lower section to lock to the top (the part removed) then turn when the proper rotational direction swings them out. Or, by way of example, when reverse is requested the pulley base rotates and swings the levers out due to spinning motion and locks to the top section causing it to move and rewind the tape. Both pulley assemblies are made this way. When the pulley is turning in the opposite direction the levers are influenced to pull in, rather than to swing out and no locking takes place. One other thing while we are here, notice the gray disks just below the E-clip on the center shaft. These are a clutch mechanism that acts as a damper between the levers and the pulley. This is to insure soft action of the locking engagement and later, the stopping operation. Moving on (click picture) if you look to the left of the shaft that now has all the parts of the pulley removed from it you will see a copper colored sensor. This is a small wound coil that senses movement of the pulley. More on that in a moment, but look to the extreme right and you will see the clutch assembly, now relaxed and open because the pressure has been released since it is no longer mounted on the shaft. In the next photo you see the underside of a pulley that has a disk magnet mounted in it. When rotation is taking place it repeatedly passes by the little coil and ceates an electrical pulse which tells the electronics that movement is taking place. Aha, now we know how this winder knows when to stop. When the tape ceases turning the electronics doesn't get any pulsing signal from the coil. The electronics reads this as no movement. So, no pulses within a few microseconds and pop goes the solenoid, up comes the cassette and the tape is finished wiunding. It also won't wind a defective cassette, because if the reels will not turn, the mechanism will sense the movement condition. There is one more photo the shows the electronics and reels as one photo. So as a final summation you can see that this Intelligent "Logic Controlled Mechanism" is very kind to your tapes and very smart about how it goes about winding them. Before closing there are two other strong points I want to mention that makes this winder attractive to own. It is quiet and it doesn't require a transformer that hangs out of your wall outlet... it runs on good ol' 120 volts AC. Remember, do not wind tapes in your Beta, save the machine and your precious tapes. To close this window and go back to the main page click here.