repair – Foxes Den

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

Blaupunkt BPHF-1R Dab CD radio

Just brought this. Here’s the listing on EBay

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 🤞

Looking forward to getting busy on this one, back to the end of the ever growing list of items to work on you go.

Check here to see how the repair went : Blaupunkt BPHF-1R Dab CD radio assessment and repair

Sony ICF-480L 3 band radio

I’ve purchased the item below from EBay. Got a bit of a discount and ended up paying £7:18 GBP in total. I need a small radio for listening to the sports commentary at work and thought this would be a simple enough project for me.

Sony ICF-480L 3 Band Receiver FM MW LW Portable Radio FAULTY Sold as SPARES

The unit is FAULTY. It powers on but the sound quality is poor and the volume is NOT loud. There is NO mains adaptor included. Sold as SPARES.
EBay

Cosmetically it looks a little tatty but a good clean up and touch up with a Sharpie pen might see to that, maybe a new potentiometer or just some contact cleaner might sort the sound issue out.

Anyway I will await delivery and post an update of the condition and repairs I will need to carry out shortly. You can see the assessment and repair of this radio here: Sony ICF-480L 3 band radio assessment and repair

I’ve got a bit of a queue of repairs on cameras still to come as I’m awaiting parts / components for them. So keep an eye out for a flood of updates on previous posts over the coming weeks.

Thanks for dropping by. Always appreciated.

Fuji Finepix S1500

Why do I do it?

Serious battery damage
EBay listing

I like a challenge like most people. But this listing note above should have put me off, but no, I have the equipment, I have the time but do I have the patience to see this repair through. The guy wanted more than I was prepared to pay for such a camera, I got him down to less than a quarter of his original asking price paying just £6 gbp for this camera. Hopefully if it all goes bottoms up I’ll at least have some spares that can be used, if the corrosion has got to the circuitry it might be a different story.

On the market in 2009 this camera was amongst the digital assault from the far east that earned the title of being a “Bridge Camera”. Unfortunately this was not one of the better versions but however was well received by the casual snap shot photographer. I had one back in the day and that was my introduction to digital photography. This particular camera will go to a young family member who is getting into photography, if I can get it working.

The plan with this one is to get it open and do a full review on just how deep the “serious battery damage” goes. I’m not too hopeful, but sometimes luck does go your way.

Keep an eye out for updates when it is received and the work I will be doing to restore it to working order.

Thanks for passing by.

Tag: repair

Garden solar lights

What is a YX8018 controller?

AIWA Personal Radio Cassette Player HS-TX406 assessment and repair

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

Sony ICF-480L 3 band radio assessment and repair

AIWA Personal Radio Cassette Player HS-TX406

Blaupunkt BPHF-1R Dab CD radio assessment and repair

Sony Digital Radio Cassette Walkman WM FX-20

Blaupunkt BPHF-1R Dab CD radio

Sony ICF-480L 3 band radio

Fuji Finepix S1500

More Camera statistics

AIWA Personal Radio Cassette Player HS-TX406 assessment and repair

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