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Stylus Cartridge Replacement Guide

 

Three Sizes of Stylus Cartridges

 

Pictured above are the three basic stylus cartridge styles used in all production CED players. In general, if you find a cartridge of the right shape for your player, it will work regardless of the name brand that may be printed on the cartridge. RCA had two different part numbers for the F/G stylus cartridge that technically should be used as specified in This Section of the RCA SelectaVision VideoDisc FAQ, but in practice, I've found that the 149000 and 154100 cartridges can be used interchangeably. Hitachi and Toshiba also had their own branded cartridges with different stock numbers for seemingly identical cartridges. Like the RCA 149000 and 154100 cartridges, the difference is a small rubber damper above the stylus tip that reduces the likelihood of audio resonance in the 10 KHz range. The rubber damper on the 154100 cartridge is somewhat wide and could conceivably interfere with stylus kicker operation on players with narrow stylus sensor spacing. The rubber dampers used on Hitachi and Toshiba cartridges were too narrow to affect stylus kicker operation. I've successfully tested the 154100 cartridge in all my players, but be aware that it could potentially impede stylus advance or reverse visual search in any of these players: The primary purpose of this document is to provide alternate part numbers for the three basic stylus cartridges, so they can be sought after at a variety of parts suppliers. It is possible that just about any local dealer with replacement parts for Elmo, GEC, Hitachi, JC Penney, RCA, Realistic, Sanyo, Sears, Toshiba, Wards, or Zenith name brand products may have a stylus cartridge sitting in inventory, but they would probably require a part number to go looking for it. Although RCA stylus cartridges are still readily available at the time I'm writing this, these could become difficult to find once the supply of new old stock (NOS) is depleted. Since the stylus tip required some specialized micro-manufacturing techniques, it is unlikely that any new CED stylus cartridges will ever be manufactured. Another reason for this document is to simply provide pictures of the various stylus cartridge types. I've received emails from people who have picked up CED players missing the cartridge, so they have no idea what the cartridge even looks like. It may even be useful to take a printout of a stylus cartridge picture to a parts dealer, as they might recognize the part from the picture.

 

Cartridge Identification Table:

This table provides images for the three RCA stylus cartridges, as well as the Hitachi, Sanyo, and Toshiba name brand cartridges. One interesting note on the RCA 154216 cartridge is that it's an RCA-manufactured unit, but has a Bally label, having come out of the CED player used inside their NFL Football Arcade Game. Blue casings and white casings were used interchangeably on RCA stylus cartridges. Clicking on the thumbnail images below will open a larger image suitable for printing.
149000 Stylus Cartridge 154100 Stylus Cartridge 154216 Stylus Cartridge Hitachi Stylus Cartridge Sanyo Stylus Cartridge Toshiba Stylus Cartridge
RCA 149000
RCA 154100
RCA 154216
Hitachi
Sanyo
Toshiba

 

Stylus Cartridge Part Number Cross Reference Table:

This table provides three columns of part numbers corresponding to the three stylus cartridge shapes in the photo at the top of the page. You should be able to use any of the part numbers in a given column to locate a replacement for your player (keeping the caveat about the 154100 cartridge in mind). I still haven't seen an Elmo service manual, hence the question mark for the part number on the Elmo cartridge. Clicking on the name brand will take you to that brand's web site where you may be able to find a listing of local parts dealers applicable to that name brand. If such a listing is not available, try submitting a request via an email link at the web site. Other possible sources are listed below the cross reference table.

Name Brand (Source) RCA F/G Style Part No. RCA J/K Style Part No. Hitachi Style Part No.
Elmo ? N/A N/A
GEC (V5000H service manual) N/A N/A V2550183
GEC (V5000H owner's manual) N/A N/A CTG200
Hitachi (VIP1000 service manual) N/A N/A 2550111
Hitachi (VIP2000 service manual) N/A N/A 2550108
Hitachi (VIP201P/202P service manual) N/A N/A 2550183
Hitachi (VIP1000 owner's manual) N/A N/A CTG100
Hitachi (VIP2000 owner's manual) N/A N/A CTG200
JC Penney (686-5705 service manual) N/A 154216 N/A
RCA "F" & Early "G" (service manuals) 149000 N/A N/A
RCA Late "G" (service manuals) 154100 N/A N/A
RCA "J" & "K" (service manuals) N/A 154216 N/A
Realistic (16-301 service manual) N/A N/A CT-0313
Realistic (Tandy Parts Database) N/A N/A CT0313
Realistic (RadioShack Unlimited) N/A N/A 10587905
Sanyo (VDR3000 service manual) U7001 N/A N/A
Sears (274.54740150 service manual) 149000 N/A N/A
Sears (934.54780150 service manual) N/A N/A 46-33223-3
Sears (934.54811350 service manual) N/A N/A CTG201
Toshiba (VP100 service manual) 72353001 N/A N/A
Toshiba (VP100 owner's manual) VC101 N/A N/A
Toshiba (VP500 owner's manual) 72353006 N/A N/A
Toshiba (VP550 owner's manual) 72353010 N/A N/A
Wards (GEN10301 service manual) J85144 N/A N/A
Wards (GEN10301 service manual) VC101 N/A N/A
Zenith (VP2000 service manual) 142-203 N/A N/A

 

Additional Possible Sources for Stylus Cartridges and Other OEM Parts:

CEDatum offers a stylus cartridge rebuild service for both RCA and Hitachi cartridges where a new diamond tip is installed in your old cartridge. Another way to find the rare Hitachi cartridges is to buy a complete working GEC, Hitachi, Realistic, or Sears CED player on eBay just to get the cartridge. Try these sample searches to find these players, and check with the seller to make sure the unit can really play a disc before bidding. With Sears players, make sure the player is not the rare 5474 model, which uses the RCA-style cartridge.

It may also be possible to find Hitachi cartridges at a local parts supplier by printing out the Hitachi Packaging page and bringing it to the supplier. Hitachi replacement cartridges usually came in plain white boxes with no numbers printed on the box, so there's the possibility a supplier may have one in the box but not know what its part number is.


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