I brought my FZ-10 Back from the Dead!

[zetastrike]

I have to share this because it's awesome. Back in June, my North American FZ-10 console developed drive problems and sure enough, it was the gear on the shaft that often cracks. I got an STL file for the gear from someone on reddit and had it printed locally, for $30 (ouch). Turned out the print job wasn't very good and the gear had a lot of rough/jagged edges, making it not work. I put it on the back burner for a while. But a couple weeks ago I stumbled upon this ebay listing:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/PANASONIC-3DO-LASER-GEAR-3d-printed/173426347781

 

I went ahead and ordered 8 of them, in case more than one of them were duds. Here is some info on disassembling the FZ-10.

 

http://retroconsoles.wikia.com/wiki/3DO_Interactive_Multiplayer

 

I put one of these new gears in and found that it was very loose on the shaft, meaning that the motor would spin the gear, but the shaft wouldn't turn. Here's where I had to get creative. I took some fine gauge metal string and unraveled it to the individual strands, then I wedged those strands in between the shaft and the gear, making a tight fit. Now, the motor spins the gear AND the shaft, making my 3DO alive again!

 

To anyone with this problem, give it a shot.

[+madman]

Nice tip!

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Good job, congrats!

[+Charlie Cat]

I have to share this because it's awesome. Back in June, my North American FZ-10 console developed drive problems and sure enough, it was the gear on the shaft that often cracks. I got an STL file for the gear from someone on reddit and had it printed locally, for $30 (ouch). Turned out the print job wasn't very good and the gear had a lot of rough/jagged edges, making it not work. I put it on the back burner for a while. But a couple weeks ago I stumbled upon this ebay listing:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/PANASONIC-3DO-LASER-GEAR-3d-printed/173426347781

 

I went ahead and ordered 8 of them, in case more than one of them were duds. Here is some info on disassembling the FZ-10.

 

http://retroconsoles.wikia.com/wiki/3DO_Interactive_Multiplayer

 

I put one of these new gears in and found that it was very loose on the shaft, meaning that the motor would spin the gear, but the shaft wouldn't turn. Here's where I had to get creative. I took some fine gauge metal string and unraveled it to the individual strands, then I wedged those strands in between the shaft and the gear, making a tight fit. Now, the motor spins the gear AND the shaft, making my 3DO alive again!

 

To anyone with this problem, give it a shot.

Interesting to know Matt.

 

I will keep this as reference and save the links you provided if that ever does occur down the line with my 3DO units. Quite ingenious on what you did to make it work correctly to help make your console playable again.

 

Thank you for sharing this.

 

Anthony...