hemenex wrote:

For everything TURN TURN TURN

there is a season TURN TURN TURN

😂😂😂 I'm going to PLAY NEXT that! 😁

BTW, there are a couple of test points on the processor of the MCP that sound like they would allow it to remain on (obviously only for testing purposes). However, I think Ville tried them once and told me he couldn't get them to do anything... they probably need to be shorted in some particular way / timing, or something else that isn't described in the Beomaster service manual.

tournedos wrote:

BTW, there are a couple of test points on the processor of the MCP that sound like they would allow it to remain on

don't know about the MCP5500 (don't have the SM) but on the MCP6500 there are...

especially TP3 looks like one of them...  and TP2 sounds like one, too.

Maybe there are some similarities - but I don't have a MCP6500 either so can't try out. Perhaps someone else can step in?

But if it does - be prepared for a lot of Mono / Type D cells to spend - they drown out fast already when in normal use...

   Gunther

tournedos wrote:

BTW, there are a couple of test points on the processor of the MCP that sound like they would allow it to remain on (obviously only for testing purposes). However, I think Ville tried them once and told me he couldn't get them to do anything... they probably need to be shorted in some particular way / timing, or something else that isn't described in the Beomaster service manual.

Yeah. I tried shorting the TP2 but it made no difference. I didn't note the TP3, which sounds pretty promising, indeed. 

I bought two for-parts MCP6500's (bad volume controls, loose hinges, blown caps(!) inside), made one good out of the two. I was thinking about a wall-mount, mains powered MCP, that would be pretty cool!

If I come across the for-parts/testing-MCP again, I can give it another go. 

I did some more testing. I tried several combinations of the test points but to little avail. I was able to keep the display on, BUT it was rather useless: after the normal "display on" period the battery low -indication (display texts blink) starts and the display won't update after that. Pressing status again updates the display (again for the usual period of few seconds) but it keeps blinking. So nothing very practical.

One way to work around this would be making a small circuit that would trigger the STATUS every couple of seconds...

Okay then, too complicated!

Thanks for investigating!

Bwy the way, what kind of IR eye do you use with this system people? My rack being at right angles to the remote's emission/reception diodes the connection is intermittent, which is annoying with volume control. It works but it isn't optimal.

chartz wrote:

Bwy the way, what kind of IR eye do you use with this system people?

Nothing - it bounces off a wall or two with no problem, just like with the one-way remotes. Cap problems in the Beomaster seem to reduce the two-way remote range, so you might want to look into that instead of fixing it with an extra eye (small caps in the power supply, caps inside the CPU module, the few electrolytics on the front panel PCB).

However, the volume control with an MCP always feels a bit like there's a long rubber band in between, I've never thought of it being too smooth. I think it alternates between single and repeat kind of volume control commands depending on how fast you turn the ring, and sometimes the Beomaster tries to respond at the same time the MCP transmits another command, messing up the transmission.