The community repair thread

Danny1969

Volksempfanger V301 radio 
This is the oldest thing I've ever fixed. I'm no radio expert but the owner says it's a German radio that was made in the thirties at the request of the Nazi party so more radios were in in homes for them to spread their propaganda. It's certainly the only thing I've ever fixed that has swastikas on it. 





This has no signs of life at. Owner would like it fixed as it's apparently worth a few hundred. I thought it would be interesting to look at so I took the job on. 

The radio came with a convertor for the mains plug. As Germany was on 220V 50Hz back then it's fine on our mains now. Here's the back removed for a "proper-gander" (Get it ) 



I'm so used to valve combos I've photographed this upside down. The amp is actually at the bottom of the enclosure, which makes more sense as it raises the height of the speaker and means the valves sit in their holders rather than hang down. Note the electrodynamic speaker with it's output transformer, this means it's 1938 onwards according to Wilki as previous models had metal reed speakers. 

Here's the guts, very simple circuit with one valve being the audio amp, the other the RF and the other thing some kind of strange looking rectifier valve (I think) 



So first thing I do is measure the volts coming in and there are none on the input of the transformer. I can see the original mains cord has been replaced (still no earth though) so I look at that and find it's not been done great. As the  wires have passed through a hole in the metal chassis one has  chafed and partially shorted through the insulation. So that must have taken out a fuse. At first I can't find one but following the tag on the transformer finds it, a 500mA on the actual transformer. So that's all it was. I sleeve the offending wire with heat shrink and resolder it. Replace fuse with correct type and it powers up. 



It burst into life quite quickly but at first I couldn't pick anything up. So I looked at the back panel and see it's got one antenna terminal that needs to be earthed and 3 terminals for antennas wavelengths. Where I live it's a bit of a black spot and radio reception is poor. Plus this thing is the most insensitive radio I've ever played with and no ones broadcasting on the wavelength it's designed for. But eventually after making some antennas and hanging them high, then playing with the sensitivity knob I tune into some guy talking on a radio to someone else. So that's good enough for me. It now lights up, picks up radio and plays it through the speakers. Fuck Hitler

normula1

I’ve a real soft spot for old radios, so well done.

Kittyfrisk

Nicely done for sorting it out. An early Blaupunkt product 
Good job that you didn't pick up Lord Haw Haw broadcasting "Germany calling, Germany calling..."

Emp_Fab

It would have been so much better if you'd switched it on and one of Hitler's ranting speeches started coming out !

Well.... by 'better' I mean the story....  obviously I'm no fan of Adolf  

Danny1969

Well this was an odd repair. It's a set of Mackie speakers and the fault is  ... there's a family of mice living in them. Or at least there was until recently. The speakers  were stacked with one on top of the other in garage and with easy access through the front the mice saw them as a two story block of flats I guess. 





I could smell it wasn't going to be a nice job. Removing the woofer reveals it's worse than I thought. 




As bad as it looks though the drivers are ok and move freely with no fouling and the cabinets are made of plastic which is washable.  So I remove every component and every speaker wire  and part the 2 shells of the cabinet. Then  get the hose on them after letting some bleached water sit in them for a while. 





Now I have this 



A word about the power amps in these. I knew these would be ok as they sit in their own sealed compartment at the back and nothing can really get in there. Sure enough they were fine and in good condition. 



Coming in at the top we have the mains filter PCB to the left and the audio DSP board to the right. The board in the middle has a stereo TDA8924 class D IC amp bridged in mono to run the woofer ... it's under the clamp in the middle of the board. This chip is normally used in stereo and is 110 Watts or so a channel. Bridging it in mono to drive the one speaker will result in over double that so about 240 watts I reckon for the woofer. On the left is a traditional class A/B chip to run the horn, a TDA7294 which is 100 watts I think, 

At the bottom is the power supply and that produces the dual 15V supply for the audio opamps, the 3.3V for the digital DSP and the dual 28V for the power amps. It's pretty underpowered for a PA speaker really and probably prone to failure if you really pushed it. Probably fine for a stage monitor though. 

Putting the speakers back together was easy enough, I replaced the wadding and cleaned the rust off the grills too. 



Then forgot to take a finished photo which is annoying but you get the idea. 

roundthebend

I finally got a T25 Torx bit out of the garage and tightened the handle on my Tefal frying pan which was an annoyingly tiny amount loose. It took a few turns which made me worry it had stripped the thread but it got there and now feels right. 

Actually I did do a tissue that was a bit more impressive. We have a tall fridge freezer which occasionally leaks water on the floor. We'll clear it up once or twice a day for a few weeks. At the same time we find ice under the salad box and remove that once per week. Until I remember what causes it and do a proper repair job. Albeit temporary due to a design issue. 

I think the way it works is that the back panel inside the fridge is where the cold happens. Moisture builds up on it and runs down to a gutter and then through a drain hole to the rear. Over time that hole gets gunged up with mold that forms a jelly-like plug and stops the water from draining out. So, it drips down inside the fridge and freezes. Eventually the iceberg fills the gaps enough that future drips find their way out the door. 

Anyway, a few cocktail sticks and cotton buds later and I've cleared it out nicely. That bus is a few months before it happens again.

TTony

Poor homeless mice 

boogieman

roundthebend said:

I finally got a T25 Torx bit out of the garage and tightened the handle on my Tefal frying pan which was an annoyingly tiny amount loose. It took a few turns which made me worry it had stripped the thread but it got there and now feels right. 

Actually I did do a tissue that was a bit more impressive. We have a tall fridge freezer which occasionally leaks water on the floor. We'll clear it up once or twice a day for a few weeks. At the same time we find ice under the salad box and remove that once per week. Until I remember what causes it and do a proper repair job. Albeit temporary due to a design issue. 

I think the way it works is that the back panel inside the fridge is where the cold happens. Moisture builds up on it and runs down to a gutter and then through a drain hole to the rear. Over time that hole gets gunged up with mold that forms a jelly-like plug and stops the water from draining out. So, it drips down inside the fridge and freezes. Eventually the iceberg fills the gaps enough that future drips find their way out the door. 

Anyway, a few cocktail sticks and cotton buds later and I've cleared it out nicely. That bus is a few months before it happens again.

You are supposed to clear the drain out regularly but hardly anyone knows about that or bothers. The easiest way to do it is with a pipe cleaner. 

Kittyfrisk

roundthebend said:

I finally got a T25 Torx bit out of the garage and tightened the handle on my Tefal frying pan which was an annoyingly tiny amount loose. It took a few turns which made me worry it had stripped the thread but it got there and now feels right. 

Actually I did do a tissue that was a bit more impressive. We have a tall fridge freezer which occasionally leaks water on the floor. We'll clear it up once or twice a day for a few weeks. At the same time we find ice under the salad box and remove that once per week. Until I remember what causes it and do a proper repair job. Albeit temporary due to a design issue. 

I think the way it works is that the back panel inside the fridge is where the cold happens. Moisture builds up on it and runs down to a gutter and then through a drain hole to the rear. Over time that hole gets gunged up with mold that forms a jelly-like plug and stops the water from draining out. So, it drips down inside the fridge and freezes. Eventually the iceberg fills the gaps enough that future drips find their way out the door. 

Anyway, a few cocktail sticks and cotton buds later and I've cleared it out nicely. That bus is a few months before it happens again.

You need some pipe cleaners. No more lost or snapped cocktail sticks & good fridge drain channel cleaning. Job done   

TTony

roundthebend said:

I finally got a T25 Torx bit out of the garage and tightened the handle on my Tefal frying pan which was an annoyingly tiny amount loose. It took a few turns which made me worry it had stripped the thread but it got there and now feels right. 

Actually I did do a tissue that was a bit more impressive. We have a tall fridge freezer which occasionally leaks water on the floor. We'll clear it up once or twice a day for a few weeks. At the same time we find ice under the salad box and remove that once per week. Until I remember what causes it and do a proper repair job. Albeit temporary due to a design issue. 

I think the way it works is that the back panel inside the fridge is where the cold happens. Moisture builds up on it and runs down to a gutter and then through a drain hole to the rear. Over time that hole gets gunged up with mold that forms a jelly-like plug and stops the water from draining out. So, it drips down inside the fridge and freezes. Eventually the iceberg fills the gaps enough that future drips find their way out the door. 

Anyway, a few cocktail sticks and cotton buds later and I've cleared it out nicely. That bus is a few months before it happens again.

I’ve heard (a couple of times) that pipe cleaners are good for that job.

Kittyfrisk

^ They really are good. Not too soft wires or too thick 'fluff/fleece' are best, or they can bend or stick in the drain channel.
I found the old fashioned 'Ronson' style work best for me.
Cheap enough to experiment with various types to find what works best with your individual kinky crevices...

roundthebend

I shall look out for pipe cleaners and make the job a regular one. I've recently started cleaning out the washing machine filter regularly.. First time a few weeks back was a grim experience, but since then it's been fine. First time made things worse. Seemed to release some trapped odour and we ended up having to run bleach through the machine a few times to kill it off.

Kittyfrisk

TTony said:

roundthebend said:

I finally got a T25 Torx bit out of the garage and tightened the handle on my Tefal frying pan which was an annoyingly tiny amount loose. It took a few turns which made me worry it had stripped the thread but it got there and now feels right. 

Actually I did do a tissue that was a bit more impressive. We have a tall fridge freezer which occasionally leaks water on the floor. We'll clear it up once or twice a day for a few weeks. At the same time we find ice under the salad box and remove that once per week. Until I remember what causes it and do a proper repair job. Albeit temporary due to a design issue. 

I think the way it works is that the back panel inside the fridge is where the cold happens. Moisture builds up on it and runs down to a gutter and then through a drain hole to the rear. Over time that hole gets gunged up with mold that forms a jelly-like plug and stops the water from draining out. So, it drips down inside the fridge and freezes. Eventually the iceberg fills the gaps enough that future drips find their way out the door. 

Anyway, a few cocktail sticks and cotton buds later and I've cleared it out nicely. That bus is a few months before it happens again.

I’ve heard (a couple of times) that pipe cleaners are good for that job.

Seriously, I wonder if someone in the community could fix the bug feature in the forum software where it does not update the topic view, so that a person typing a response, cannot see that another person or ten, has just posted a similar response until after posting what is now the same blindingly bleeding obvious reply ?

Danny1969

Have you tried pipe cleaners ? 

Kittyfrisk

  

roundthebend

Whilst not technically a repair, I think this qualifies in a similar spirit. I've been using an old Honda Jazz as my band vehicle for a couple of years but it's getting tired, so I bought an old generation Nissan Leaf. I'm confident it'll work for my needs, but the one issue is the shape of the boot for transporting bulky and heavy stuff. There's a big lip and deep floor, and the rest seats fold flat but very high. 

So, I have started building a raised floor which will make loading the PA much easier. And it'll be good for hiding the charging cables and other bits. The base consists of 4 pieces of hardwood ply, with slots that slide together without any fixings. You can just about tell from the 2nd image that it suits flush with the boot lip and the rear seats. There's a gradual slope so I'll need to be careful with anything that can roll out! 

roundthebend

Further to that, the next step is to cut 2 pieces of ply to create the base/floor/lid. I want it to neatly fill the shape of the boot and I'll likely cover it with carpet or rubber matt, or maybe even some hard-wearing paint so I can slide heavy things in easily.

I would normally use a big piece of cardboard to create a template and just hack away at it until I'm happy, then cut it with a jigsaw and find that it doesn't fit as neatly as I hoped. D'oh. So, this time I'm going to try and use a Tick Stick approach which I discovered in doing some research on YouTube. I'll try and document that approach so you can all see how bad I am at woodwork.

midiman1962

You’ll be taking local gigs in this vehicle ( my wife has one so I know how far they can go )

Danny1969

roundthebend said:

Further to that, the next step is to cut 2 pieces of ply to create the base/floor/lid. I want it to neatly fill the shape of the boot and I'll likely cover it with carpet or rubber matt, or maybe even some hard-wearing paint so I can slide heavy things in easily.

I would normally use a big piece of cardboard to create a template and just hack away at it until I'm happy, then cut it with a jigsaw and find that it doesn't fit as neatly as I hoped. D'oh. So, this time I'm going to try and use a Tick Stick approach which I discovered in doing some research on YouTube. I'll try and document that approach so you can all see how bad I am at woodwork.

Yep document it cos I'm looking at similar cars at the moment. 

@midiman1962 ; ...  A car with limited range for me is fine. I actually gig 3 venues in my road, all within 10 mins walking distance of my house .... then there's another 11 venues within 2 miles of my house which I play on and off. 

midiman1962

To be fair to the leaf , it is absolutely bombproof in terms of reliability and driving is virtually cost free if you charge at home