u/Lion-Rabbit

Usual story with an FZ-1, but I just wanted to check if anyone more experienced had any other ideas as to what the problem might be before I write the laser off as dead and say it's ODE time.

Things I've checked:

• Wormgear cogs (not cracked, no broken teeth)
• Wormgear motor (spins when 3V is applied, spins laser rail)
• Spindle motor (again spins when 3V is applied)
• Cleaned laser lens with IPA
• Adequate lubrication on rails
• Laser stop switch is working, pressing it manually with multimeter probes attached shows continuity
• Majority of caps appear to have been replaced properly by previous owner with Nichicons (including disc drive board)

On boot, the laser starts moving backwards from the centre spindle in three movements, the laser moving up and down trying to focus all the way. It gets to around the middle portion of the rails and gives up, and the 'insert disc' screen appears. At no point does the spindle motor actually rotate.

When an audio CD is inserted, the behaviour is identical.

Replacement lasers are around the same price as an ODE from AliExpress, so if the laser really is dead, I'm not getting another.

So I got back last week from my pilgrimage to the home of YRYR. I spent five days in the area; two exploring Takaoka and the other three in Toyama. I used animepilgrimage.com for the most part to find exact locations from the show, as recommended by other fans here who have done this trip in the past. Pretty much everything can be reached easily with public transport, although for the Nachuyachumi locations like the rest stop, roadside shrine and Kanjōji Park I did cheat slightly and hired a car (I wanted to drive up to Tateyama and Shōmyō Falls anyway, sights worth visiting for any tourist in the region).

I only had a couple of locations that were partial failures. Pasta E Pane, the Italian restaurant where Akari and Chinatsu had their date was one of them. The unusual wooden chalet had been turned into a pub a few years back, which then closed down. Google maps hasn't updated yet, but the building has since been demolished which is a big shame for such a unique structure. I took a photo of the empty lot anyway because AkaChina is important to me. The grocery shop where Mari and Kaede did their errands is still there (as is the sign) but also sadly closed down.

Overall, it felt kind of surreal to be standing in locations that I'd seen in the show. I didn't think it'd mean that much to me but I'm very glad now that I took the time and put in all the walking. I didn't do every single marker on the website - hanging around Kizu Elementary taking photos would probably have been a bad idea for one thing. Some of the places like the Aming store I just stumbled across randomly on my way to Akasofu shrine. Café Ramble was probably my favourite spot, and not just because they had great coffee and cake. It was fun to look through their shrine of merch and photos from when the VAs visited, plus one of their staff is called Yui so that's just perfect.

I also did the necessary legwork to get around all the manhole covers and pick up the card/coaster/map in the tram info place. It was a fun treasure hunt and gave a bit of direction and structure to the whole sightseeing business - a great idea that more cities around the world should take up.

Would I recommend doing a pilgrimage to anyone else? Absolutely, providing you don't mind walking a lot. Toyama as a whole has so many things worth seeing, Namori's lucky to call it home. Would definitely like to go back some day.