BeoLink Converter 1611 Innovative Configurations

[Madskp]

Guy wrote:

Madskp wrote:

Mute button on IR eye still has no function (but LED turns on and off) no long press standby, so I might have a defect somewhere.

I have noticed strange physical mute button (and light) behaviour so I don’t think it’s a fault. I also had different behaviour between Type 2020 and Type 2023 so that confused me further. If I do further testing of MUTE and LED I will stick with the earlier Type 2020 to try to find results consistent with yours.

Good to know that not nesecarily broken. For good meassure I will try to make a MCL cable and hook the MCL2AV up to my BM5500 to see if everything works as expected there.

just found a bag with MCL cable and speakerlink connectors in my storage today. Also in the bag was an extra IR eye of the same tape as used with the MCL2AV just wired up with a minijack from when I used it with a Beoport many years ago. Made me remember that it came from a MCL2AV I had over 20 years ago, but didn’t know how to use at that time, so it probably ended up as E waste ?

[Madskp]

matador wrote:

Guy wrote:

so how about a new thread title of ‘BeoLink Converter 1611 Innovative Configurations’?

Done now!

Great 🙂 Now we can really widen the scope of this thread 😉

Joke aside, one thing we haven’t discussed about the use of the 1611 in this thread is how it could be used with a Beosound with Masterlink. It would probably give an extra aux input with a video command. But could it also give an extra sound input, or will the Beosound just open it’s integrated aux input regardless of audio command that is not integrated for example N.music?

[Guy]

Guy wrote:

I have noticed strange physical mute button (and light) behaviour so I don’t think it’s a fault. I also had different behaviour between Type 2020 and Type 2023 so that confused me further. If I do further testing of MUTE and LED I will stick with the earlier Type 2020 to try to find results consistent with yours.

I had another quick look at this yesterday. I can only replicate the Mute button ‘lock up’ when the MCL2AV is in L.OPT 2.5, not 1.5. I used the BL3500 rather than a TV, and I could not get the same result every time. I think sometimes the result varied according to what order I did the Option settings (BL3500 before MCL2AV or the other way around), and I also think the behaviour changed depending on the order in which I then activated the devices!

The IR sensors are so very sensitive – this makes it very difficult to cover/shield each sensor to simulate two rooms! I resorted to placing the MCL2AV and sensor under a thick duvet to avoid it receiving IR commands!

[Guy]

Madskp wrote:

Joke aside, one thing we haven’t discussed about the use of the 1611 in this thread is how it could be used with a Beosound with Masterlink. It would probably give an extra aux input with a video command. But could it also give an extra sound input, or will the Beosound just open it’s integrated aux input regardless of audio command that is not integrated for example N.music?

Yes that would be a useful experiment, especially for one of the many BeoSounds with only one AUX socket (eg Ouverture), or with no datalink (eg BS9000 or BS3000/3200). I would imagine that some Beogram users would like to remote control their turntables using such a setup, (assuming you could add both BL1611 and MCL2AV).

Unfortunately I don’t have an ML-equipped BeoSound or Ouverture to test it with!

[Madskp]

 

Guy wrote:

I had another quick look at this yesterday. I can only replicate the Mute button ‘lock up’ when the MCL2AV is in L.OPT 2.5, not 1.5. I used the BL3500 rather than a TV, and I could not get the same result every time. I think sometimes the result varied according to what order I did the Option settings (BL3500 before MCL2AV or the other way around), and I also think the behaviour changed depending on the order in which I then activated the devices! The IR sensors are so very sensitive – this makes it very difficult to cover/shield each sensor to simulate two rooms! I resorted to placing the MCL2AV and sensor under a thick duvet to avoid it receiving IR commands!

Ok so not so weird that I couldn’t get the mute button to work in my testings. Will still try it with the other IR eye I found and in a MCL system just to have a baseline for it.

[Madskp]

Guy wrote:

Yes that would be a useful experiment, especially for one of the many BeoSounds with only one AUX socket (eg Ouverture), or with no datalink (eg BS9000 or BS3000/3200). I would imagine that some Beogram users would like to remote control their turntables using such a setup, (assuming you could add both BL1611 and MCL2AV). Unfortunately I don’t have an ML-equipped BeoSound or Ouverture to test it with!

Me neither. What I am unsure of is if the Beosound will just open the integrated AUX at any sound command that is not a internal source. Maybe if need to be setup in an option as a link room system so the 1611 + MCL2AV acts as the Master system.  We’ll have to see if anyone with a more modern BEO setup joins the experimentation in this thread

[matador]

Guy wrote:

Unfortunately I don’t have an ML-equipped BeoSound or Ouverture to test it with!

Ahahahahahaha (sadistic evil laugh…)

Yes, you have a lot of fancy beocom triangles under table remotes, BUT YOU DON’T HAVE A ML EQUIPPED BEOSOUND!

Guess what? I DO!

There’s a justice on this world!

Et toc!

[Madskp]

matador wrote:

Yes, you have a lot of fancy beocom triangles under table remotes, BUT YOU DON’T HAVE A ML EQUIPPED BEOSOUND! Guess what? I DO!

Looking forward to what that will bring to this thread 🙂

[matador]

Madskp wrote:

Looking forward to what that will bring to this thread

Precisely the reason why its good we dont live in the save neighborhood, we would being consider as the strange black box brotherhood with rituals far into the late night…

[Madskp]

matador wrote:

Madskp wrote:

Looking forward to what that will bring to this thread

Precisely the reason why its good we dont live in the save neighborhood, we would being consider as the strange black box brotherhood with rituals far into the late night…

or accused of black box magic whitchery…

[Guy]

matador wrote:

Ahahahahahaha (sadistic evil laugh…) Yes, you have a lot of fancy beocom triangles under table remotes, BUT YOU DON’T HAVE A ML EQUIPPED BEOSOUND! Guess what? I DO! There’s a justice on this world! Et toc!

Now I feel inadequate hence I am searching eBay for something that I can collect when my wife is away at work … ?

[Madskp]

Madskp wrote:

Good to know that not nesecarily broken. For good meassure I will try to make a MCL cable and hook the MCL2AV up to my BM5500 to see if everything works as expected there. just found a bag with MCL cable and speakerlink connectors in my storage today. Also in the bag was an extra IR eye of the same tape as used with the MCL2AV just wired up with a minijack from when I used it with a Beoport many years ago. Made me remember that it came from a MCL2AV I had over 20 years ago, but didn’t know how to use at that time, so it probably ended up as E waste

So got the MCL cable soldered to the cable and hooked it up to the MCL2AV with just speakers connected to the PL outputs. Radio from the BM5500 going throug just fine, but the mute button on the IR eye still doesn’t work.

tried the other IR eye but it would not respond to IR. Opening it up it had som modification inside where the yellow wire was connected to an extra transistor. Don’t know what thats about, but I also have a cut of 7 pin din connector that was on its cable when I got it. The former owner was in B&O ‘s R&D department back then, so he might have used it for something fancy before I got it. I will try to reverse the modification and try it again.

When I had the BM5500 connected I also made the connection from the MCL2Av to the 1611 and BC6, and control of the BM5500 sources from the BC6 works fine through all these  connections

[Madskp]

Madskp wrote:

I will try to reverse the modification and try it again.

OK, so I got the modification reversed (I hope). I t was not just added components and wires but also cut traces on the PCB, but luckily I got the reference IR board to look at and the PCB is fairly simple to overview.

It is working now though sometimes a little unstable, but also on this one the mute button is not working. I wonder if it’s something on the MCL2AV that is actually not working.

Madskp wrote:

When I had the BM5500 connected I also med the connection from the MCL2Av to the 1611 and BC6, and control of the BM5500 sources from the BC6 works fine through all these  connections

I did one more experiment with this setup. I removed the speakerlink cable that carries data so only right channel connected from BM5500 to MCL2AV. Started the radio on the BM5500, and the tried to activate the MCL2AV with different audio commands. Both Radio, CD, Phone and Link A.tape (I still have the Beocord 3500  directly connected to the MCL2AV) would open the sound input from the MCL connection. So it looks like the MCL2AV when receiving and audio command will use 5-10 seconds to look if this source is available locally with datalink, and if not open the MCL connection, regardless of the source being available at the other end.

Guy wrote:
Madskp wrote: @Guy: One thing I don’t think you have tested is how the reaction to an AV + Video source command is from the BL3500  when connected to the 1611 and MCL2AV? Does it just open the video source on the 1611? Just tried that now (with no IR sensor on MCL2AV): BL3500 in Option 2 or 6: Behaves exactly as when selecting TV etc without AV first. Just opens the video source on the 1611.

I did some experimentation myself regarding this matter, and for one thing it might actually be the shift + radio + 1 (or A.AUX +1 on BEO4) command that should be used for this proposed scenario.

I tried to make a split cable connected to the MCL2AV’s AUX port and the 1611 and an iphone as input on the aux port. I got very mixed results, but 1 or 2 times I actually managed to get sound from the iphone connected to the AUX port back via the AUX port out to the 1611 and BC6. But i was very inconsistent regardless of option settings. I wonder if this is at all possible

[Guy]

Madskp wrote:

It is working now though sometimes a little unstable, but also on this one the mute button is not working. I wonder if it’s something on the MCL2AV that is actually not working.

This is strange! I think the sensor relays the MUTE instruction to the MCL2AV via the data stream, and your IR is working so the mute should be as well.

I did once have to take apart an MCL2 sensor to fix a faulty mute switch – from memory it simply wasn’t making the correct electrical contact when I pressed the button. So a faulty switch is not unheard off, but it seems a strange co-incidence that neither of yours work!

[Guy]

I just found the MCL2 sensor that I previously repaired – luckily I had labelled it as being from the kitchen in my last house. It was right next to the cooker hence exposed to a bit of grease over the 30 years that it was fitted.

Anyway, I have just dismantled it to have a look. You have to be a little careful prising the circuit board away from the front face, and I can see that I broke a few plastic clips last time!

Here’s the mute switch when you peel back the plastic:

And here’s the little square metal contact piece that can be removed:

When in position it ‘pops’ in slightly to connect the center PCB contact to the outer edge (ground) to send the mute command.  Here’s the PCB with the metal piece removed:

I think that I had use a tiny dab of solder when I last fixed this one (there was a broken trace to the left), but perhaps yours just needs a clean?

[Madskp]

Guy wrote:

This is strange! I think the sensor relays the MUTE instruction to the MCL2AV via the data stream, and your IR is working so the mute should be as well. I did once have to take apart an MCL2 sensor to fix a faulty mute switch – from memory it simply wasn’t making the correct electrical contact when I pressed the button. So a faulty switch is not unheard off, but it seems a strange co-incidence that neither of yours work!

I think your assumption about the Mute function being through the data stream is true for the MCL2AV. On the diagram for the IR eye /Transreceiver in the service manual the yellow wire is connected to a output called mute on the chip. (note the servicemanual is for a type 2021 and the 2 I have is type 2047, so there might be differences)

However on the MCL2AV it seems like it is connected back to the grey wire which is is also an output of some kind on the IR board chip.

On the MCL2A diagram the yellow wire is conencted directly to the ciruit with the mute relay for the speaker, so it might be used differently on that unit.

[Madskp]

Guy wrote:

I just found the MCL2 sensor that I previously repaired – luckily I had labelled it as being from the kitchen in my last house. It was right next to the cooker hence exposed to a bit of grease over the 30 years that it was fitted. Anyway, I have just dismantled it to have a look. You have to be a little careful prising the circuit board away from the front face, and I can see that I broke a few plastic clips last time!

Thanks for taking the time to do this extensive writeup of how you fixed the mute contact. I will try it out for good measure. However it might not be that as the red LED next to the button is turning on and off when I press the mute button. I might not have mentioned that earlier.

Looking at the diagrams in the servicemanual for the MCL2AV it seems like there are three mute “stages”. one at the MCL speaker input to the MCL2AV, on after the AUX port called mute AUX, and one after the input switching circuit called Line mute. It seems none of the work as I also tried it with the MCL setup where it had no function.

 

 

[Madskp]

When going through the diagrams for the MCL2AV in the servicemanual i noticed some jumpers J4 (opt. TV) and J1 (opt. 5/6). Can’t find J2 and 3 right now.

There are 2 more jumpers (2 and 3) and all of the located with the chips under the metal casing

 

I know for sure the J1 is cut on mine, and If I remember correctly J3 is mounted, but not J2. Not sure if we can use it for something, but I will check up on the exact ones in use on my MCL2AV.

[Guy]

Madskp wrote:

However it might not be that as the red LED next to the button is turning on and off when I press the mute button. I might not have mentioned that earlier.

With my MCL2AV in ‘stand-alone’ (just power, iPhone input to TAPE and speaker connected), the LED just flashes as I press the sensor’s Mute button – it doesn’t stay on. The LED comes on permanently when I switch the MCL2AV off with the remote.

[Guy]

Madskp wrote:

I know for sure the J1 is cut on mine, and If I remember correctly J3 is mounted, but not J2.

J1 is cut on mine but I think the two ends were touching. J3 mounted but not J2. And J4 looks like it has been scraped to break the contact – there is no continuity.

(yes J2 and 3 seem to be missing from circuit diag)

My MCL2AV Type 2032 is similar, but with J4 intact:

[Author]

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