Electronics – Page 12

Teenage jealousies revisited

I’ve just brought one of these, it’s a toy and I’m heading for the senior end of adulthood:

BIG TRAK / bigtrak is a programmable toy electric vehicle created by Milton Bradley in 1979, resembling a futuristic Sci-Fi tank / utility vehicle. The original Big Trak was a six-wheeled (two-wheel drive) tank with a front-mounted blue “photon beam” headlamp, and a keypad on top. The toy could remember up to 16 commands, which it then executed in sequence. There also was an optional cargo trailer accessory, with the UK version being white to match its colour scheme; once hooked to the Bigtrak, this trailer could be programmed to dump its payload.

WikipediA

Here’s what the original listing said:

Item probably does not work. I recall attempting to fix corroded terminals years ago and it’s still not working. I do not have D cell batteries to test now.

EBay

I was just browsing around as I do and this popped up on my timeline, the wife is going to disown me for bringing such junk into the house, however for a split second 14 year old me was in the house and a flood of memories, not all good came back to me. These toys came out in 1979 when I was aged 14. My friend over the way from me was brought one of these for Christmas and I experienced one of my first ever episodes of Jealousy. Back in 1979 I believe they retailed for approximately £39 Gbp, and my parents weren’t about to part with hard earned cash to invest in developing technology like computing – “It’ll never last, it’s just a fad” (Famous last words).

I made every excuse possible to go around his house to play and even offered to look after it for him when he went on holiday, he never let me though and I believe at that moment my friend realised what the term obsessive meant, as he was experiencing it big time with me.

Now I own one, however this is the later version from 2010, it only cost me £9.99 Gbp and its probably a wreck, but I’m really going to treat this like a proper full sized car restoration and I want this to work, crikey I’ve even found out I can buy the original decals from Australia, so it’s patently obvious the obsession is still there.

I can’t say I have genuinely looked so forward to a parcel arriving as much as this one. I sincerely hope I have no regrets…. And I have all fingers crossed.

This is going to be a labour of love and I can’t wait.

I will keep you updated.

Head over to the repair page here: Big Trak CE3962 restoration it was a pleasurable experience

Size isn’t everything… Apparently

Just a quick post, after having taken some time to think just how much electrical component’s have reduced in size in my lifetime.

What made you think this way? I hear you ask (or at least imagine that you ask.)

Well, today I had ten Audio amplifiers and fifty charging points delivered. Now, years ago I’d have probably had a large van deliver this little lot but today a small sized Jiffy bag came through my door containing all the above.

Ok the charging ports were micro usb ports and the audio amps were some small audio amps in an IC format needed for a current project I’m working on.

Amazing isn’t it just how far this technology has progressed. And shrunk in size.

My problem is that I’m easily impressed.

Impressive stuff.

Have a good day.

Technics Mash SL-XP165 Portable Cd Player With XBS Bass

The listing states:

For parts or not working, Does not power on don’t know what is wrong with it,screen looks to have a leak

EBay

This is probably going to be one of if not the least problematic units I have received yet. Probably more along the lines of boring for those looking for a repair report, I fear I have brought you here under false pretences, that was not my intention and I apologise if that has been the case.

Another unit from 1996 (therefore now 28 years old) this one originally had rechargeable batteries which were a bonus item for such a unit at the time. Personally I’m using good old alkaline batteries for test purposes, I doubt I will be using rechargeables.

I down loaded the instruction pamphlet, grabbed a pair of earphones and then dropped in two AA batteries and a CD.

Nothing. Silence…..

I looked at the unit, the seller is right I thought….then I pushed the play button and took the switch off hold on the side and put the second switch into normal operation and almost blew my ears off.

Superb sound and it was quite obvious that the unit was working. All buttons are doing what they should do, the Xbass system is phenomenal and the volume dial is faultless and crackle free.

It just goes to show the seller in this case wasn’t fully aware regarding how the unit works. You have to turn it on and off to get it working, it’s not all automated like other similar units. See video below.

Stop start works good

The unit is a bit tatty and the indicator panel has had some leak by the looks of it (See photo at top of this post) but even though this looks a bit poor cosmetically it does still display most of the information, it’s just not showing the track number info. Yes I could probably try another screen on this unit but what is the point? It works fine and the unit will gain no significant value for doing such a fix. It’s just not a financially viable choice unless I somehow come across a no value donor unit and seeing the prices people think these units are worth, I can’t see that happening anytime soon. And the Sony donors I have just aren’t compatible.

So I’ll leave it as it is. As the saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it.” It isn’t faulty, the only fault was in the sellers knowledge of its workings.

Another one saved from landfill. And that’s a positive.

Garden solar lights

I purchased a pack of 5 of these cheap old garden lights from a local garden centre. I know if you buy cheap you pay twice but these did look quite reasonable. I know that most people only expect a season out of these lights however I try to look after mine, bringing them in during winter months when the garden isn’t being used and sunlight is non cooperative.

These were so full of promise, worked lovely for a few days and then two of them just didn’t work at all.

I took them apart and decided to test the batteries, both were showing 0.6v so i suspected the charge circuit was not working. When I put in a fully charged AA battery the lights came on but when exposed to light they remained on, so in a way I am right but it might be slightly more complicated. The battery isn’t charging, also the switch off is not occurring when exposed to light.

I’ve done a few tests using the multimeter, the solar panel is ok and giving a reasonable voltage under sunlight of 2.4v.

The circuit board only consists of three components and two out of the three test ok. The issue seems to be with the YX8018 controller, the small four legged component in the pictures below.

What is a YX8018 controller?

YX8018 is a high-performance solar lawn
lamp boost control chip, which is suitable for a solar lawn lamp powered by a 1.2V rechargeable
battery in series.

The main functions include charging control, boost drive, optical control, etc.
The solar lawn lamp mainly uses the energy of
the solar cell to work. When the sunlight shines on the solar cell during the day, the light energy is transformed into electric energy and stored in the battery, and then the battery provides power for the LED (light emitting diode) of the lawn lamp at night.

It has the advantages of safety, energy saving,
convenience and environmental protection.It is
applicable to solar products powered by one 1.2V
rechargeable battery.

Conrad electronic SE

This appears to be the culprit after some basic tests have been carried out, there is about a 16% failure rate in these components so I don’t hold out a great deal of hope for the two that I’ve ordered. I shall eventually order a stack of them from China but for now I wanted some a bit quicker so I have ordered locally.

Well, the two components I ordered have arrived today. But now I need three, as in the week another one has suffered the same issue. On top of that I have dropped one of the units and the solar panel has parted company. I’m now sourcing some liquid solder that may assist with getting this problem sorted. As is normal with me this little project has escalated due to my utter clumsiness. I must do better in the future. (Sounds just like one of my old school reports.)

I dismantled the two units I previously mentioned and followed pretty much the same process with each. Desolder, remove component, wick solder, put new component in place and then put a semi charged battery back in.

I left the lights in the sun for a couple of hours and the charge has lifted from 0.8 to just over 1.1 volts so I’m happy that the charge circuit is now working.

The final test was to turn on and see what happens. Good news, nothing seen until I covered the solar panel and then the lights came on. Excellent, job done and more items saved from landfill. I must say I was really happy with my soldering on this job, it appears to be getting better.

Now working

I just need another component for that other one I broke in the week. However I won’t bother you with that one 😂

AIWA Personal Radio Cassette Player HS-TX406 assessment and repair

I recently purchased this item, you can read the original post here: AIWA Personal Radio Cassette Player HS-TX406

I love this little unit, it has a great radio reception probably better than a number of Sony Walkmans I have worked on to be honest. It has arrived in good cosmetic condition with only a few dinks and scratches commensurate with its 30 year plus age.

On opening up the unit it’s patently obvious that this is another drive belt issue, it’s saggy and breaks on removal. Luckily I have a replacement belt that I purchased earlier.

It’s another saggy worn belt issue

And that is basically it. No major dramas it’s as simple as replacing the belt.

A bit of light grease on the gears, a tweak of the speed adjustment and all sounds as it should.

I’ve used a calibration tape with a 3Khz sine wave, it’s tuned in pretty close to the tone and I’ve used a downloaded oscillator software package to check the matching. It’s not a professional setup but it’s fine for my requirements.

All working with a new belt

Sorry there is nothing else much to write but I have a good working unit that plays tapes well and all I can say is I’ve saved yet another easily repairable unit from landfill. I already have someone who wants to take this one off my hands so I hope it will have many more years of trouble free operation.

Jobs a good ‘un 👍

Sony Digital Radio Cassette Walkman WM FX-20 assessment and repair

I recently purchased this unit and you can find the purchase report in this blog post: Sony Digital Radio Cassette Walkman WM FX-20

The initial report of the purchase stated the issue was solely with the tape playback and that every else works fine. Cosmetically it looks fine apart from a bit of cleaning that is needed in the battery compartment, touch wood there isn’t any battery corrosion.

I’ve kind of jumped the gun a bit here in ordering a set of new drive belts for the unit, the fact it is 33 years old now probably means it would be money well spent. ( I may order a stock of belts for any future projects that I partake in) The belts alone were £6.95GBP so that now takes the total for this project to around £26.00GBP in total, but I’m going to use this personally so I’m not too concerned. In good condition and in full working order I could still make a small profit on this so at this stage I’m not too concerned.

The unit arrived on the 29th April. It is in a very good cosmetic state and all the lettering on the buttons is intact, a few small scratches and battle scars as expected but overall very good.

Radio and all button functions work fine, when you push any of the cassette buttons you can hear the motor run so no issues there. Let’s get this package dismantled.

Once inside the most obvious issue is that the belts have turned to mush.

I remove what’s left of the old belts, give a good clean to the cams and reinstall new belts that I have purchased earlier. A little bit of grease to the moving parts and cogs and all moving smoothly. As I’m doing this I notice a problem that I was not expecting, there seems to be a damaged cog, see the video below:

Damaged cog

Well, that’s a bummer as I’m going to have to obtain a donor for a new cog on the fast forwarding capstan, I’m hoping they are all pretty much standard so I will keep an eye out for a cheap option to repair. Whilst checking the system out it becomes apparent that this cog is specific to the fast forward operation so as long as I don’t use this then it should all be ok…shouldn’t it?

In theory yes, however every now and then when in play mode there is a slight dip in quality so I’m not going to chance damage to a tape.

Conclusion: it’s fixed, sort of. I’m looking for a donor cog that will fully fix the issue, the radio is fine, tapes can be played it’s just that I don’t really want to damage any until this issue is sorted. It’s a shame as it really was just those rotten belts that needed replacing. I’m pleased with what has been accomplished, yet again another 30+ year old electronic item has been saved from landfill. That’s a result.

Sony ICF-480L 3 band radio assessment and repair

I originally posted regarding the purchase of this item in this blog post Sony ICF-480L 3 band radio

The radio was received earlier today. Cosmetically it is a bit tatty, batteries were placed into it and apart from a quick flash from the power light when it was switched on there was no sign of life. So the original description was false as it stated that it powered up with a very low volume. Oh well, not to worry, it now gives us something else to look at.

Looking in the battery compartment there looks to be corrosion, this seems to be a common problem with items I’m buying at the moment. The screws have all been tampered with so I suspect others have been inside this radio prior to my purchase, this could be interesting to see what’s already been tampered with or attempted.

I’ve had the unit open and the first thing that comes to light is the utter filth inside. The speaker is thick with god knows what and the board and switches are also covered in the same filth. Before I do anything I’m going to get this cleaned up.

I’ve used IPA on the board and cover and on the (thankfully small) corrosion on the positive battery pole and this has cleaned up nice. I’ve used contact cleaner on all the switches and dials and these have also come up ok.

The speaker grill, I have tidied up and used permanent marker to get rid of the marks on this item. This has tidied it up really nicely.

On the speaker I just used a dry cotton bud to wipe it over but I have my suspicions with this speaker, it looks quite worn and earlier reports on the lack and consistency of sound points to this being a potential issue with this unit. There are no clicks and pops when turning the unit on, there is a power and tuning light. Just no sound.

The speaker is a 4 ohm 1w speaker, I’ve used a multimeter to check its operation and it’s showing as dead, not registering at all, it should be looking at indicating something within its 4 ohm range. I’ve double checked it by putting a battery across the terminals and there are no pops or clicks so this confirms things. I now need to source a new speaker.

Trying to source this speaker in the uk is a tad problematic. There are items available but I’m not paying out two to three times the value of the whole unit. I’m going to try some thrift shops to see if there are any suitable donor units available if not I’ll have to purchase a few of them from China, and that will still be cheaper than purchasing here in the UK, crazy isn’t it? But it’s a long wait….

I did manage to get one from the Uk. Paid about £5.18GBP and it should be here in a couple of days. The annoying thing is that the postage is almost the same cost as the actual speaker and that only cost £2.69GBP. Annoying though that is, it has to be done if we want to get this fixed.

I couldn’t get a 1w 4 ohm speaker only a 1w 8 ohm speaker, this will be fine as at this level of use it will not affect output at all.

A small bit of desoldering, removal of the speaker clamp and the speaker comes away after a little persuasion. I take the opportunity to clean the board and all the battery contacts with some cleaner, and all corrosion marks and debris are now a thing of the past.

I put some contact adhesive on the speaker grill and put the new speaker in place, clamp is attached and I now solder the speaker wires back in place.

All screws back in place, new batteries in the rear and battery hat hatch closed, the unit looks good.

But does it work?

Radio works – have a listen

You betcha! Have a listen to the short video above to hear it as it should be.

I’m very pleased with this little project. Simple repair in the end but in my eyes it’s another item that isn’t going to landfill. And that’s a win for me, as it’s a nice little radio and I’m going to get some good use out of this.

Jobs a good ‘un 👍

AIWA Personal Radio Cassette Player HS-TX406

Just purchased this item, here is what the listing said:

Radio works fine but the cassette is poor at playing tapes as the sound quality is really slow.
EBay

Yet another Cassette player circa 1990. Again possibly another one that needs its drive belt renewing, so in that case I’ll order one in. This one cost the grand total of £9.95GBP.

This link takes you to Radio museum.org where you see the technical detail of this unit : Aiwa HS-TX406

See the assessment and repair of the unit here: AIWA Personal Radio Cassette Player HS-TX406 assessment and repair

Blaupunkt BPHF-1R Dab CD radio assessment and repair

I have today received this item that I recently purchased on EBay, the original blog post can be found here: Blaupunkt Dab CD radio

Did you know that Blaupunkt translates as Blue point or Blue dot from German to English? This relates to the blue dot that quality control used to paint on their headphones that were being produced. In fact all their products now have that blue dot as part of the logo on all of their range.

I think I mentioned that this might be an easy repair, it’s probably not going to be anything too technical, but it will need a bit of deconstructing to get to where I need to be, due to the way this item is assembled.

The unit is cosmetically sound, radio in both FM and DAB works perfectly, Bluetooth and USB also work perfectly, in fact the whole unit works perfectly apart from two obvious issues.

The CD was reported as an issue however the actual fault wasn’t clear. It appears that when the unit is turned on the cd drawer opens no matter what mode the set is in. You can close the door and it opens again about 10 seconds later. It won’t stay shut and it dosen’t recognise any media.

CD drawer opens constantly

The second and what is an unlisted issue is that the unit has inherited a knocking from inside that I suspect has probably occurred in transit. On opening the unit one of the speakers has broken loose as a securing catch on the speaker grill has broken. I will need to fix this, it’s really nothing major.

Who’s knocking?

To get to the front of the unit you first have to go in through the back. When the back panel is removed you have to unsolder the aerial to be able to get into the box and unscrew the front unit, this then allows you to extricate everything through the front of the unit.

Reading about similar issues on line it appears there could be a number of issues here from loose belts, dry drivetrains, loose cogs, sensors needing cleaning, lasers needing cleaning right through to total replacement of the cd unit. I will wait and see what presents itself when I can spend some time on this in the next couple of days. It really is a nice little unit and it would be good to get it back working fully.

The mains circuit contains a big capacitor that needs bleeding before I get anywhere near it. This is done and work begins.

I’ve fixed the broken speaker securing clip by using some Araldite 2 part adhesive and a small clamp. I’ve left this for a few hours until it set hard. It’s now back in position and doing the job it was designed to do. Both speakers are now secure.

I found out why the Cd drawer kept opening. There was a previously installed and damaged disc sitting under the carriage. As soon as that was removed the Opening/Closing scenario is no more.

I reassembled the unit and it all appeared to go well until….no disc error 🤦‍♂️

Sort one issue and another arises

Damn, I checked the drives they’re ok, I’ve cleaned the lens and reassembled yet again. Same issue.

I’ve opened it up yet again and checked the output power of the Laser and that is at .03 ohms. Small adjustments on the diode show no improvement in either direction so it is looking as if the damage is within the laser itself. I don’t hold out much hope of getting the cd working as it’s not really a replaceable unit as it wasn’t designed that way. So unless I can find some way of getting around this issue I might just have to accept that the unit will just be used in Dab, FM, USB and Bluetooth modes.

It works. So I guess it’s a job done. Sort of.

Anyway who uses CDs these days?

I do 🙋‍♂️

Sony Digital Radio Cassette Walkman WM FX-20

I’ve just purchased this item from EBay. Here’s the listing:

This is being sold as spares as sounds like the belt has gone so don’t play tape has some battery leaking marks but radio plays fine.

Please study the pictures as this makes up some of the description thanks for looking and please check out our other great bargains 👍
Ebay

Just a sucker for a bit of retro me. I’ve worked on the discman, blog post here: Sony Discman D-121 Pt:2 as well as on a few others spread over this site.

This one dates between 1991-93 as these were the years that these particular units were manufactured between. I knocked the price down a bit but ended up paying about £18GBP in total.

It looks to be in good cosmetic condition with light usage as you can still see all the numbers on the rubber pads quite clearly. For a unit that’s potentially into its 33rd year that’s no mean feat. Anyway we will just have to await its arrival and not get too excited.

I preferred the tape Walkmans to be honest and I’m hoping this one will be a simple fix so I can play all those old REM tapes I have sitting in the cabinet at home. But it probably won’t be a simple fix. And it has corrosion , how quaint!

The assessment and repair post can be found here: Sony Digital Radio Cassette Walkman WM FX-20 assessment and repair

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What is a YX8018 controller?

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