No, I’m not talking about secret Russian radio stations, that seems to be all the information you can find, regarding ghost stations on the internet. This Ghost service station has popped up on DAB radio in the Uk, in Leicester, and there is no info that I can find about it online, and all that it seems to be broadcasting is someone making spooky ghost sounds. Have a look at this little video I made of it, only about 30 seconds long.
Spooky
I’m wondering if someone is having a laugh on this channel, maybe it’s on hold, just awaiting a new residency, who knows? I believe this is based somewhere in Leicester city as I’m unable to tune it, anywhere outside of the city limits. I’m surprised that our radio regulators at OFCOM are allowing it, however radio standards aren’t what they used to be nowadays.
Simple as that. And yes it’s a tiny radio but in excellent condition cosmetically.
Bush handheld
On inspection it’s obvious that the micro USB port is damaged and will need replacing.
Broken micro USBWhat’s wrong?Power board
I’ve ordered some replacements USB ports from our friends in China so I’ll have to wait a few weeks before I can progress this project any further.
Micro usb ports
The ports have arrived from China, so let’s look to see if we can repair this unit.
*This project has been on the back burner since May 2024. 13 months later and I’m now on it*
Hello all, time to clear that backlog and what better place to start than here. I do in fact have two of these with the same problem so this is a two for the price of one project.
This should be a simple case of replacing the faulty charging ports that are both micro usb ports. They are small believe me.
Old port removedNew port that has to be fitted
There has to be some preparation before we can get the new port on. Using a soldering iron and flux and a little solder wick, I clean the old board remove the old solder and give a good clean with IPA. I then prime the small connections on the rear of the charge port with a little solder. Now I put the port to the board and tack on the earth points. Then using a rework hot air gun I blast the port at about 350 degrees Celsius and hold the port in place with some tweezers until I see the solder glisten and melt around the port. I take the heat off and let the solder set before moving the tweezers and when it’s cooled a bit I check that it’s setting straight, all connections are good and solid. I then just add a tiny bit more solder to the anchor points for strength.
Whilst this is cooling down I check the status of the battery. It is a 3.7v rated battery and is currently holding a charge of 2.8v. It’s a little low but far from being dead. The second battery shows a similar charge.
Battery level
After the solder work has cooled I use my battery pack connected to a small ammeter to see if the radio and more importantly the battery is demanding any power.
Power cable connectedWe have a power demand from the battery.
Well that’s good news, 5v in and the demand from the battery is 0.96 of an amp. The battery is charging. And the fix is as simple as that.
Two perfectly good radios
A little bit of soldering aerial contacts and a couple of other wires back into place and the whole unit clicks back together. Two screws inserted in the rear and time to switch on. Both radios tune in perfectly and the sound is surprisingly good for these little units. I’m keeping one in my work space at home, as I love having some music around me, I’d sooner listen to the radio any day as I hardly watch TV. The other radio will go into my work locker for when I’m working nights or in the workshop.
In my work space, but it won’t be staying here…
Im very happy with this little project, it only took about an hour and I don’t know why I left it so long. Another couple of items saved from the tip, it amazes me that these units probably all suffered with the same problem of inferior parts that failed early on in the radios existence. Kind of scares me just how many did go to landfill.
Two cracking little radios
Well at least these two are going to carry on for a few more years yet. And that’s a positive in my eyes.
I have today received this item that I recently purchased on EBay, the original blog post can be found here: Blaupunkt Dab CD radio
Blaupunkt 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?Broken speaker bracket
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.
Aerial wire removal
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.
Speaker post fixOld cd stuck in driveHighly charged capacitor being bled
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.
Laser diode adjusterLaser diode check
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.
Excellent sound quality on Blaupunkt DAB radio with built in speakers NOTE CD player mechanism is not working
(possibly an easy repair job)
Radio & remote OK.
RRP £99.00
EBay
I ended up paying the grand total £21:22 GBP for this item and that included postage. I may have got quite a good deal, however as usual I will have to await its arrival as you can’t always trust EBay listings. Hopefully the issue with the cd mechanism is a relatively easy fix 🤞
Blaupunkt Dab Cd radio
Looking forward to getting busy on this one, back to the end of the ever growing list of items to work on you go.
The radio has been received see here: Not just Dead….Fully dead and if I can’t get it going, I have at least brought a very tidy storage box.
What surprised me when first opening up this radio was the immense amount of boards and circuitry inside, I must admit I took a gulp at this and questioned my reasoning for purchasing the item. However it’s all a learning curve and I have to start somewhere, gone are the days of simple circuits on traditional radios (with big components).
Roberts blutune circuitry Roberts blutune power boardRoberts blutune circuitry
I arrived home from work and sat myself down in the conservatory surrounded by test devices for about 4 hrs until I totally overloaded my self with information, creating more questions than answers, i decided to give up for the day and further research the potential faults for this unit via other sources.
To me the power board seems fine, power is going where it should, there appears to be no short circuits or component damage however in places there does seem to be some signs of leakage so I may have some components that need replacing or maybe it’s just remnants of flux and stuff left behind after initial construction.
Blutune board under microscope Blutune board under microscope
None of this can be seen by the naked eye but it becomes apparent after being placed under my new toy an Andonstar microscope viewer. It’s at the entry end of the range but it is already becoming a game changer for me, due to my failing eyesight.
Andonstar AD106S
Copyright Andonstar
Further investigation appears to highlight an inherent issue with this range of radios when they just seem to stop working (probably why Roberts ceased production).
Generally the power board isn’t an issue, it all focuses around the display board where a controller to the screen has failed or the amplifier chip has failed, hooray I say! And then I find out both components are about the size of a grain of rice… Boo I say.
I have no experience at all in components this minuscule in size, but if I can’t get to the root cause and eliminate all other possibilities I will give it a go. In the meantime fault finding will go on between other jobs and this will continue to be a job in progress that will be revisited and updated as time goes by.
The plan short term is that I’m going to borrow a thermal camera and check if there are any hotspots under electrical load. You never know I might just find something.
I shall comeback to this project at a later date.
Thanks for passing by. Stay safe, be superb. You’re a star 🌟
I have just brought this inoperative Roberts Dab Blutune T2 digital radio off of EBay for £8 (GBP). I managed to barter the price down a bit from £12 and I was quite pleased with myself for doing that.
Roberts Blutune T2Roberts Blutune T2
So today I have received the package. A lovely little item cosmetically in good condition with the only external damage being that the speaker cover has a tiny tear in it , and the very tip of the aerial is broken along with the plastic stop that secures it when in the down position….no real issue, all easily dealt with.
The concern is the label on the top of the unit. Fully Dead!
Roberts Blutune T2
So what’s that then? Is there an in between? Some sort of purgatory for audio systems, or is it a way of saying that someone has ensured it will never work again?
Well, I’ll get the back off tomorrow and have a rummage to see what’s in store for me. Maybe my bartering of the price has meant the seller has removed all internal contents so that I now have a nice “Empty box”.
I just love some of these descriptions sellers use, makes me giggle and wonder what was going through their minds when they decided to sell an item that is fully dead.
Maybe there is just different grades of death that I was just not aware of.
Foxes Den 