A while ago I replaced the capacitors around the IR transmitter and receivers which resolved the “No Contact” issue. Now it’s time to tackle the next problem, one that has been covered on this site before but I thought I would add my own experience in as well.
The issue of late is that if the remote is off the charger, after about 10 minutes of use the status display will flash, followed shortly after with the remote powering off, then on again. This cycle repeats until finally the remote is dead altogether. If I place it back on the charger it powers up and can be operated without any problem.
I had a look at the service manual and that partly describes the issue. The fix being to replace module 1 – Analogue Board. Err, that’s not an option. So here is what I’ve done
Base of Beolink flipped open to expose “Board 1 – Analogue Board”. From other threads I’ve read, the large blue Vishay axial cap gives problems. So I removed and tested that first. The ESR was way out of spec! This cap is 680uF 10V which I couldn’t find so used a Vishay 680uF 16V instead. This was physically slightly larger at 10mm*18mm but still fitted ok. The smaller Elna 220uF cap was ok but figured that since I had removed it to test I might as well replace it. A replacement Nichicon (PW) 220uF 10Vcap was used. Again this is physically larger than the original at 8mm*11mm but there was still enough room to accommodate it.
View of Analogue board with new capacitors mounted.
Next is the battery pack. The “Original” had no markings at all and I suspect is anything but original. As I don’t know how old it is I decided to replace it. Couldn’t find any pre made battery packs that I felt were suitable so went ahead and made my own. I’m not convinced about the long term reliability of using NiMH batteries. I’ve therefore used what I believe to be batteries of similar spec to what would have been in the BL to start with.
Here I’ve glued together and soldered in series five Sanyo NiCd 1.2V 700mA batteries. These require a charge of about 70mA for 14-16 hours.
Last on the list is the Charging base itself. While strictly not necessary, I decided to recap this as well considering the caps are 20+ years old. Two caps to replace here.
After an overnight charge the BL is up and running again.
Next on the to-do list is replace the Lithium cell battery. I wish I had done that when I did the Recap for the “No Contact” issue fix. My concern here is that if it is very old it could leak.