http://totaldiscrepair.co.uk/5055378113475.aspx

Key Card? Seriously… Key Card?

“The Eco Pro is controlled by a chip that is supplied in each consumable pack. This technology separates consumable usage into repair minutes, ensuring the highest quality repair, disc after disc. ”

Well, I did say it… “can’t be long now til some crafty guy at venmill / discotech / tdr catch on to me and make these things totally proprietary”.

Hehehe. And now for some *real* hacking, software stylee ftw How long til RTI = pwnd? Well, we all know how good they are at security. Don’t even have to get your hands dirty this time.

“The KeyCard’s primary function is to ensure that each disc comes out perfect every time. ”
“Secondly, it increases the useful life of the machine by ensuring the pads and polish are changed when needed. ”
Thirdly, it ensures supplier’s revenue stream by artificially limiting the life of consumables and preventing 3rd party consumable supplies, requiring additional keys to be purchased from licensed sources before further use. Wonder which one was the primary concern of the oem? Mwahahaha.

Here’s a much better site for info on the Eco Super: http://www.rtiecopro.com.au

“The repair pads are made from two layers of a soft absorbent foam. The liquids used in the repair process are captured within the pads.” Yeah yeah, don’t rub it in…

Eco Super’s polish contents ( apparently, 4x more effective than the DGD, cut rate of 2 to 20 microns (guessing that’s over30 sec to 2+mins):

Water: 30 – 60%
Distillates (petroleum), acid treated, light: 10 – 30%
Al2O3: 7 – 13%
Hydrotreated heavy naphtha (petroleum): 5 – 10%
Glycerin: 1 – 5%
White Mineral Oil (petroleum): 0.5 – 1.5%

A standard oil based Al2O3 polishing suspension, perhaps?

Quick money saver:

http://www.discmagic.net/rtisupplies.html

You probably want the Black #1 pads (much cheaper on eBay too). “Solution D” is added in very small quantity to tap water to make the “disc water solution” (a standard anti-static lubricating fluid available for next to nothing may work just as well). And the polish should be the same. Just watch out for the customs charges on importing liquids from abroad. Oh and, you’ll still have to hack the “key card”… looks SD shaped… mmm….

Assuming an Al2O3 size of <5 micron, and cloth polishing pads...

Logitech UK:
Aluminium Oxide – Of varying sizes. Price is ~£80 + VAT for 5kg.
Polishing Cloths – Hyprocel Pellon type look best suited. Price on request.

Kemet:
AO – looks a little too big though.
Various Polishing Cloths – Probably Chemo PSU style. All prices on request.

Lapmaster:
AO – in decent sizes.
Felt Pads – not sure how suitable these’d be.

Peter Wolters:
AO
Pads

Lam Plan:
AO
Pads

Prices again hidden from view, ie. if you have to ask, it’s too much. But most pads are bound to be ~£50+, and all start around 8″ diameter, though I’m sure they’d cut some ~1″ on request.

Nearly midnight. The time when my mind goes strange places. Like this:

http://www.dvd-repair.nl/redisc1.jpg

Suoya’s timer based model 6620 aka Redisc aka Aleratec CG etc etc.

See that little round rocker switch on the front left? Here it is, rocking away on YouTube? Doesn’t that look familiar?

http://www.plugnplay.re/images/vignettes_news/DiscGoDevil7.jpg

DiscGoDevil’s power switch. Same button.

Now, considering the DGD uses the same process, same polish, same pads, motor and pump from the far east, and the same damn minor components as other Suoya products… guess who I recon manufactures (or prefabs) the DGD on Disc Go Tech’s behalf? At least, I’m guessing DGT have at least some kind of ip invested in it, otherwise Suoya would be all up on everyone’s export lists for the thing. Except, TDR import the DGD from DGT, not Suoya (at least on paper). Which would explain why there’s no sign of the DGD on Suoya’s site. And why it’s got some vaguely decent asthetics and isn’t made entirely of plastic. Oh well. Here’s some other random thoughts…

—–

“Abrasive” pads. Are what they’re described as within a few patents and the odd marketing sheed. “Polishing” pads are what they’re described as in many other places. Somewhat ironic that the “polish” turns out to be the abrasive, and the “abrasive” pads turn out to be the polishing parts. Nevertheless, I’m starting to think the only abrasive involved is the “polish” liquid. Which means the pads are…

CHEMOTEC PAD POLISHING CLOTH – From a nice north american company as favoured by DGT.
Bueleur ChemoMet polishing cloth – Pricey. Their Microcloth is also popular.
Struers OP Cloth – No doubt there’s a cheaper eastern alternative.

“Soft synthetic chemically resistant no nap pad removes smears from tough materials. Used with aluminum oxide powders, colloidal silica suspensions and 1 micron and finer diamond products for final polishing on titanium, stainless, lead/tin solders, electronic packages and soft non-ferrous plastics.”. Hmmmm…. If only there was a close up shot of the edge. Either way, it feels like cloth, around 4 – 5 micron particle size, yet must hold Al203 particles within the surface. Which, I’m guessing, means the ao particles should be smaller than the surface particles of the pad?

Speaking of which… Either my 2 year old (2nd hand) DGD polish has gone weird, or all that ao sinks to the bottom in seconds in very visible particles, nothing like the (much newer) Compact polish. Not sure what that means. Either I did something strange to it, or the Al2O3 in the DGD polish is a larger particle size than in the Compact polish. Which would mean the actual particle size isn’t that much of an issue, so long as it works. Or I’m just going insane.

Quote for the evening. Aleratec say:

“New Aleratec DVD/CD Disc Repair CG…. Our award winning disc repair products… We have developed the industrial strength DVD/CD Disc Repair CG machine that uses specially formulated Aleratec professional disc finishing solution ”

Yeah, it’s all Aleratec’s work. All of it. Even the polish. Not this stuff, that’s all some cheap chinese knock off. No no, Aleratec just copied their knock offs. Via ELM Digitalia. Or was it dvd-repair.nl. No wait, redisc.net. Erm… I’ll never believe a press release again. Silly me.

So… it’s not MicroMesh. It’s far too thin (~0.2mm, as oposed to the original 1.2ish mm). However… MM 4000 and MM 6000 both feel a lot like the original pads. Therefore, the original pads’ abrasive is roughly between 4 and 5 micron. Let’s say 5 micron.

3M Imperial Lapping Film 5 Micron (Brown) (PSA)

PSA = Pressure Sensitive Adhesive. Eg. 300 LSE ) Doubtful, but, the fact 3M make an adhesive backed abrasive looks promising. My guess is it’s still a standard 3M product, just gotta figure out which one. Now we know the grade, shouldn’t be too hard. If anyone wants to try the above, it’s all of £2.90, plus shipping. Think it’ll be reallly thin though. So… anyone know of a 1mm fibre backed 5 micron abrasive sheet?

Random thought: Used pad actually feels like rubber (slightly abrasive), then felt (or wool). Who the hell makes felt backed rubber pads that can be used as an abrasive, and possibly come pre-backed with 3M adhesive?

Can’t find some 3M 300LSE Adhesive down your local B&Q? Still need something to stick that as-yet-unknown product (could they even be Buehler pads?) to your old Disc Go Devil pads? Well, fear not.

300LSE is commonly used as the adhesive for that ever so omnipresent a product, the iphone. And there’s no shortage of eBayers selling handy iPhone sized strips of the stuff.

Eg. DIGITIZER TOUCH SCREEN ADHESIVE STRIP 4 APPLE IPHONE 4 £5.98 for 10 strips.

Easily enough for application to 20 pads (10 pairs), or at a very tight squeeze, possibly 45 pads (may just fit 3 in a row, and 1.5 across). Just make sure you don’t buy a strip with the centre taken out, as that’s the important bit. Hell, buy the strip, remove the centre for use, and sell/use the excess as the original product for an iphone :p .

Note there’s a number of sellers also shipping 3M 200MP tape, but I doubt there’s much difference during use.

Just found out why I can’t find any Pod/Compact machine patents held by Disc Go Tech. Ain’t their damn machine

Suoya Science & Technology Industrial Co. Ltd

Producers of the Suoya SY-4 (aka. SY-4, yeah, idiot ). Model-6510 (aka. Compact), Model-6520 (Compact Plus?), Model-6620 (aka. Redisc), and plenty other bits n bobs.

Re-sold in Canada by Disc-Go-Tech, the UK by Total Disc Repair, Italy by ELM-Digitalia, and a few other places here n there. That said, Suoya’s pads n paste n application methods look just slightly different, so either they’ve got very out of date pics, or DGT / TDR have adapted a few things. Specifically, the abbrasive pad section of the Compact’s pads have an *identicle* material to that of the Disc Go Devil. So, either the Devil (or at least it’s pads) are made by Suoya, or DGT / TDR / whoever are making their own pads, and maybe their own polish too. We’ll see…

Back to those patents: here’s Suoya’s disc repair based one. Nothing too interesting, and quite a way from an end product, but their website does suggest their pads / polish are designed to remove 0.0003mm/5Mins (3 microns). Which isn’t much at all. However… Blu-Ray’s protective layer is somewhere between 30 microns and 100 microns. And TDR suggest Blu-Ray’s can be repaired “up to 10 times” by the DGD / Compact. 10 x 3 micron = 30 micron… hmmm ) So what size AO is required to remove 3 microns over 5 minutes whils also using abrasive pads of an us yet undetermined micron particle size? So close yet so far.

And I’ll leave you with some lulz for the day. Here’s what everyone’s favourite disc repair machine OEM does in their spare time. There’s so much wrong with this image I can’t even begin to explain… but yes, IE, you’re a common disease… trolololo…

Disc Go Tech’s Pod / Compact pump v2:

Jebao 355 – 350 l/h, 6 watt, 51*42*47mm.

Cheapest UK supplier? Actually… *gasp*… TDR.

As for the Disc Go Devil pump, same as the ones on the RTI / ELM eco series:

Anyone got a name for those things?

Oh yes, google strikes. Actually, they just had the model number written on the things. As ever.

Welco WP1000 peristaltic (wha?) pump. Comes in various setups, as detailed in this handy categorize-it-yourself PDF. Apparently they’re decent Japanese made pumps, very highly regarded in the reef aquarium community. Sadly, they’re also quite pricey, and only generally available in bulk quantities. For the business man in you, WP-1000s start at ~$100 USD, 50 MOQ. Price break >50 @ ~$62 (which doesn’t make much sense with moq @ 50, but anyway). Orders (and samples ) available through Ms. Watanabe – naoko.watanabe@welco-web.co.jp , or welco.net.

TDR will no doubt sell them too, my guess @ ~£60 to £100, which is probably pretty good considering. Starting to see why these machines cost so much. £10 worth of sticky tape, £50 worth of pump, tomorrow we’ll see how much the motor costs. This place is turning in to freakin’ iSuppli… Meh, forget tomorrow.

Disc Go Devil motor = Honline Induction Motor 82 Series – exact specs, who knows. Model number on mine is HLC3582URB002 – 230v, 50Hz, 3uF. Looks like the C8240B-2302A or C8240B-2304A. Here they are, the Honline crew, slaving away, possibly literally.

Funnily enough, they also make Peristaltic Pumps. Only $26 USD. They most likely suck. But at least we all have a new word-of-the-day. Peristaltic. Read it n learn, bitches. Anyway, I’m of to watch the brand new will-it-ever-end series of Two Pints. While the internet crashes n burns. Good day all.

Guess what DGT use for their adhesives?

3M LSE300 Low Surface Energy Acrylic Adhesive Transfer Tape

Yup, another 3M product. Wouldn’t surprise me if those elusive abrasive pads were also a 3M product, however I’m still convince MicroMesh will provide just as good if not better a surface. Likewise, I’m guessing any old double-sided tape will be good enough.

UPDATE: Possibly… http://3mcollision.com/products/abrasives/discs?aad_grade_range=255&aad_wet_or_dry_navigation=165 … but they look ~2mm thick at least, too thick to be the right stuff.

Good job all these companies aren’t in the security business. They’d be fucked. Although in their defense, most of this info comes from re-sellers. Who most likely just looked at the back of their RTI pads, and found this:

That’ll be RTI’s “Blue” pad for the ECO series then. Another 3M paper, P800 grit, is the Tl21 relevant? I don’t think it refers to Thallium anyways. Background:

RTI use multiple pads in their machines, not just the one type.

Black = Clean /Polish
Yellow = Very Light
Green = Light
Red = Medium
Blue = Deep = P800
Purple = Blu-Ray

Lets fill in the rest, shall we?

Red = P1200.

Ok not much more info about, but let’s deduce…

Clean /Polish = P2400 ??
Very Light = P2000 ??
Light = P1600 ??
Medium = P1200
Deep = P800
Blu-Ray = ??? (May be softer due to thinner poly layer, or harder due to, well, harder poly layer).

And some education in grit levels, cos some idiods *cough*americans*cough* came up with differing standards.

http://www.metalclayuk.co.uk/asp/MicronsGrits.asp

1200 Grit (no prefix) = CAMI standard = ~7 Micron = JFJ’s “Soft”.
P1200 = FEPA standard = ~15 micron = RTI’s “Medium”

JFJ’s sanding route:
Coarse (use for ~20 sec) = 600 CAMI = 3M 431Q 600 Wetordry, made from Silicon Carbide = 16 micron.
Soft (use ~ 20 sec) = 1200 CAMI = 3M 401Q 1200 Wetordry, made from Silicon Carbide = 6.5 micron.

RTI’s:
Deep = P800 FEPA = 3M (guessing wetordry again) = 21.8 Micron
Medium = P1200 FEPA = 15.3 micron
Light = P1600 ?? = ~12 micron
Very Light = P2000 ?? = 10.3 micron
Clean /Polish = P2400 ?? = ~8.5 micron

Which suggests Their light & polish pads are actually even lighter (clean = P3000 ?, very light = P2400?) Which would put them out of the reach of most 3M products, which would explain why no one’s selling alternatives as you’d have to start using something like MicroMesh instead of 3M paper. FWIW, the more available MicroMesh REGULAR is made from, you guessed it, silicon carbide. Slightly rarer MicroMesh AO is, not surprisingly, Aluminium Oxide based. My guess on DGD’s covering – MicroMesh Regular 6000 4 micron or 4000 5 micron. Oi, MM, wanna send a sample pack over for evaluation / review? Maybe? No? eBay it is then…

I feel more like Boycie every day. Take that, £40 powders & sandpaper, I got ya alll figured out.

And I’m not alone.

http://www.discmagic.net

http://umdcase.com

At least one of those guys has a “background in microabrasion”. I knew the IT degree would be pointless… So, let’s raid some more info from the web shall we?

http://www.discmagic.net/catalog/item/6787143/8733598.htm

“1200 Grit” “Sandpaper” pad. Well, I wish it’d just been written on the side of my pads, would’ve saved me weeks of research. Oh and would you look at that…

http://www.discmagic.net/catalog/item/6787143/7378977.htm

“Polishing Compound for Disc-Go Tech”. Sadly, they’re staying quiet on the actual content front. So I still got plenty of work to do. Unless they ship overseas…

Other thoughts: Standard available Microdermabrasion Al2O3 is 100 micron sized. That explains the sinking in the water then.

Oh gawd…

Just gonna sit there and taunt me, aren’t ya? Still, maybe, just maybe, the DGT stuff is different enough to give just *something* left to do for the holidays. Unless they have it written all over their rear’s too. Oh and, FWIW, JFJ’s ones have sticky tape pre-applied to the rear. But I might still stick with the MicroMesh stuff and my blue peter style sticky-back-plastic, cos I’m a quality freak see.

Ehehehehe… 3M… fools… There’s that boycie laugh again £2.50 bags enough to re-cover… maybe 4 DGD pads? Ehehehehehehe.

http://www.discmagic.net/catalog/item/7142833/7352153.htm

3.8 litres polish, £110 shipped to UK.

http://totaldiscrepair.co.uk/5055378100499.aspx

4 litres polish, £240 + VAT shipped. Although it does include pads, cloths and wax spray. And doesn’t cause the closure of a small neighbourhood and a visit from the local Hazmat team should a tiny amount leak in the post sorting office.

Alternatively, 5kg of 12 micron Al2O3 about £80, I recon would make ~35 litres. Just depends how clever I am with the other bits n bobs. Seriously, is the nonahydrate relevant? I feel like the guy on the advert with the squirrel. And that’s never relevant. Might be an anti static measure. The nitrate, not the squirrel.

EDIT: I take it back – 1200 grit (9 micron) should be used no longer than 20 seconds, according to JFJ’s manual. Which puts the DGD pads much finer. MicroMesh 3200 = 1200 grit = 9 micron. MM 8000 = 3 micron = “feels like silk”, hmmm, familiar…. How relevant that is to the Al2O3 particles size, I dunno. I’m still going for ~10 micron, it’s not like it’s being pushed against anything much.