radio cassette

[Jeff J]

Perhaps this will be a bit of a long shot, but my Blaupunkt Cleveland DJ has developed a fault, it will not change bands or search a different frequency, it's locked into 198 LW but not playing the station, just static. Cassette player works fine. I doubt it is financially viable to have it repaired but I would like to have a go myself if anyone can give me a clue what the fault is or where to start looking. All the facia switches ( band, presets & up down tuning ) are physically operative but not doing what they are supposed to. Volume & tape controls are fine. Thanks

[dave friday]

You could try putting the make and model into one of the service manual sites.
Can you read circuit diagrams?
Good luck.

[tforturton]

'ghost123uk' may be able to help you. PM him, or wait for him to respond to this thread.....

[Jeff J]

You could try putting the make and model into one of the service manual sites.
Can you read circuit diagrams?
Good luck.

I suspect not to the level that would be needed to effect a repair & I've tried that without out success on a couple of sites. I think I will be able to recognise a dry joint or a blown(swollen) capacitor or resistor if I could narrow it down a bit i.e. power cct., tuner, amp etc.

[dave friday]

That's why you'll need a circuit diagram with voltage check points marked on it.
I suspect that a voltage regulator has stopped working( that supplies the tuner stages )

[ghost123uk]

'ghost123uk' may be able to help you. PM him, or wait for him to respond to this thread.....

Hi, I'm here

I, as some will know, used to fix stuff like that for a living.
It's highly unlikely to be a mechanical (switch / dry joint) fault.
Even in early units like that, the band change and tuning functions are controlled by a (delicate) "logic controller" chip, usually of the "surface mount" style. It is highly likely that this has failed. One common cause of a failure like this is "electrical spikes" from welding or jump starting. Sadly, in the trade, this would be considered as "BER" = beyond economical repair.

The only thing to try is to disconnect all power to it for just a minute or so, then reconnect. There is a slim chance that might re-set it.

At least you should be able to pick up a similar replacement unit off eBay, or get up to date with a modern "deckless" unit and get into USB or sd card music storage They are very good and can be got for around £30!! (I use one).

[Jeff J]

Thanks Dave & ghost, as said I thought it would be a long shot but worth asking. I've seen others advertised as "vintage" on e-bay, but you would think they were antique furniture or pottery going by the prices being asked. I now thinking I would prefer to fit a new radio with aux socket to connect my i-pod to as I have mainly been using a cassette adaptor to do that for a while now. The only decent tape I have is a Demis Roussos album
As far as new radio is concerned are these new digital thingies any good? The one we have at home doesn't seem that impressive & I wondered if the digital signal coverage is good throughout the UK especially when on the move. I've looked at normal AM/FM ones in Halfords & if I can get one of similar dimensions with an installation kit to suit it seems like that would suffice,but I also wondered if it was time I moved into the 21st century a bit more & went digital.
Thanks ghost for the tip about powering off & on, that should be a relatively easy first step, but I'll have to try & find the user guide to see if it is coded (I presume powering down will require recoding if it does have one)

[carthago ian]

I had a similar issue with my Pioneer radio cassette , it simply stopped working, tried all sorts to fix it, failed .... It had long wave and a small remote control unit brilliant for the camper. So I started to look for a modern version , must have long wave and remote control what i found fitted the bill perfect Blaupunkt Toronto 440 took a while to get use to it , apart from that it's brilliant with all the wizzy stuff bluetooth aux jack .

[ghost123uk]

As far as new radio is concerned are these new digital thingies any good?

I wouldn't go for "digital" DAB one, just get a standard FM/AM one with no CD deck. They can often be got in Aldi / Lidl for £30 and ny all accounts are fine.

[California Dreamin]

I find the head units which have an SD memory card slot are particularly useful if you like recording and listening to your own music.

I've got a couple of old Blaupunkt RC's that were fully working when removed but haven't been connected for 10 years at least. Also a Sony Face-Off somewhere.

Martin

[Jeff J]

Well thanks for all your input. Ghost was spot on disconnecting the power (both supplies, I'd already tried the main one but never thought about a secondary supply until I read the installation instructions) cured the problem. Presumably allowing the logic to reset itself. Big thanks to you ghost123uk.