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
Aiwa HS-TX406
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
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.
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
Sony Walkman
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!
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.
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.
Sony ICF-480L
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.
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.
Fuji Finepix S1500
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.
Battery compartment corrosionFuji Finepix S1500 base Battery cover corrosion
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.
Canon EF 28-90mm Lens Working Then Produces Err99. Reduced to sell at a bargain price will be easy fix
EBay
Canon EF lens 28-90mm
The dreaded err99. It’s a general error code that seems to annoy many Canon owners, and can be a simple fix or a tedious one. I wonder what it will be for me? I’ve seen a good article on Improve Photography’s website that explains some of the steps that can be taken to remedy this error, you can read that article HERE.
I now have the lens in front of me so here is what I can see. Overall the lens is in good order for its age and mounts to the camera ok. All manual focus and zoom works and the lens is clean with no sign of fungus or haze so I’m happy with that. I’m still waiting for the camera battery to arrive so I can’t really comment yet on the error code. I’m not cleaning anything just yet as I want to see for myself if the error shows on one of my cameras, if it does then i’ll start the process of cleaning the contacts which is what I would of attempted first off.
The battery has now arrived and I have now commenced further testing. I have placed it into auto mode and all seems well. I have tried the lens in 4 different camera bodies and have had no sign of the Err99 error code. The only issue I have noticed that may not be contributed to the lens is that when connected to an Eos5 body there is a fair drop in battery power. Again this has been noted in the past as something than can be connected to dirty contacts on the lens, so as a precautionary measure I shall be using some IPA and a fibre glass scratch pen to clean those up.
Using a fibre glass scratch pen
I’m unable to recreate the advertised fault as everything about this lens is working fine as far as I can see. I’m going to wrap this one up as complete now.
I’ve really enjoyed working on these two cheap damaged lenses that I originally purchased just to test my old SLR kit. They are now both working fine and i believe the invested effort shows in the end result.
The batch of cameras I purchased the other day, all old SLRs / DSLRs have now arrived… with a bonus.
I was expecting 10 cameras but I’ve trumped that with 12 and a lot of spares as well. The guy I purchased the Nikons from has thrown in two more D70 as spares, with loads more spare parts. He was having a clear out so I guess he’s funneled that stock my way…thanks old chap.
So I have received today
One Canon 5 SLR – stuck mirror, missing some small Connection covers and like a lot of these old cameras has a sticky rubber covering that was well known back In the day.
One Canon EOS 50E – damaged curtain, faulty lock and again sticky.
One Canon EOS 1000F – cosmetically sound no other visible issues.
One Canon EOS Elan 2 – cosmetically sound, just sticky.
Two Nikon D70S DSLR – missing battery covers and some other small accessory covers, both sticky.
Six Nikon D70 DSLR – all missing battery covers, or other accessory covers, one missing a CF card reader and all sticky.
And two sizeable bags of D70/D70s spares
And then there were 12
I’ll be starting with a good clean to get rid of that stickiness and then I’ll power each up individually to see what other issues lie in wait. I’m hopeful I can get most of them up and running, I’m confident that the majority of the DSLRs will be repairable.
I’ll feature the repairs once I’m in a position to donate the time to them. I’m a busy boy at the moment what with work and the wife’s growing list of things that need doing around the house.
Canon 5D Mark II DSLR Camera – Body Only – Spares or Repairs
We have tested this camera and found the following fault:
The camera powers up, however the sensor is damaged and images are recorded either blank or unusable, and so we are describing this item as FAULTY / SPARES / REPAIRS.
Shutter Count: 69,970
EBay
90% off. What have I brought?
I noticed this 5D on sale earlier for £109 Gbp. It’s from a supplier who has a good reputation who I have used before, however he suddenly drops the price by 90% and I snap his arm off for this. It has sensor issues and that’s at least a £70 price just for that part. Considering how much these cameras usually retail for it’s a price I could absorb…but I think something else must have come to light for him to change his pricing. The body is pretty beaten up, again I’m not too bothered with that, the usb port might be damaged by the looks of it and again that’s something I can sort.
Eos 5D Mk2Eos 5D Mk2Eos 5D Mk2Eos 5D Mk2
I guess I’ll just have to await its imminent arrival. In any case for a total of £9.99 GBP I’ll make more from this just for spare parts.
Needs opening cleaning and fixing sounds like something loose so selling as a repair project cheap.
EBay
Canon EF lens 35-80mm
No error code so in theory this should be an easier fix, however the fact that something is moving about inside tells me there could be more wrong with it than expected.
I now have the lens in front of me so here is what I can see.
Shake rattle and roll
Well, it certainly does rattle, something quite significant is moving about inside. When Connected to a camera you can’t focus or zoom so something in there is restricting movement. There is also fungus on the lens so this one will need to be carefully dismantled and cleaned throughout.
Fungus in the rear of lensFungus from front of lens
About 10 small screws later I am into the internal parts of the lens and the cause of all the rattling becomes apparent. A piece of the internal zoom mechanism has broken off stopping the zoom from smoothly operating through its range.
The piece that was broken
The part of the barrel that the item had snapped off was broken due to forceful action with the previous owner. There are two options here, junk the lens or see if it can be saved, I went for the latter. I mixed some epoxy resin and fixed the piece back into place also gluing it to a part of the mechanism that was not liable to hinder future movements. I left this for a couple of hours to cure.
Epoxy resin and waitLens internals
Whilst waiting for the glue to cure I used a mixture of water and hydrogen peroxide to clean all the lens elements. I thoroughly dried them and gave a quick polish and reassembled them into the casing. The glue was dry now so I was careful to reassemble the lens not damaging any ribbon cables or contacts along the way. The lens looks lovely and clear of any fungus now.
Fungus gone frontFungus gone rear
I’ve put the lens onto a test camera and it’s fantastic. I couldn’t get focus when I unpacked the lens but now I have the full range of action and a lovely clean working lens for very little outlay and probably just 2 to 3 hrs of maintenance. Well worth it in my opinion. I wanted a good cheap lens to test my old stock and I now have one that I can easily sell on at some point, on top of that I’ve learnt a lot from working on one of these lenses. I’m certainly going to attempt working on more in the future.
Foxes Den 
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