BeoSound 5c – Open source revival of B&O’s BeoSound 5

[Tlali Letete]

hiya,

thanks for your input on this problem I have.

let me explain, I have a smart projector which is mounted on the ceiling, which I want the sound to come through the Beolab 6000 speakers connected to the Beomaster 5. so at the back of the Master 5, I tried to use the USB ports as I thought it would be just easy to connect the Bluetooth adaptor there, the sound which was coming out of the project disappears as the bluetooth device is paired with the projector, however no sound comes through.

Steve(Heavenly Sounds) advised that I get Beolink Convertor and Masterlink cable as he was saying that there will be delay on the sound. I got everything, tested the Beolink Convertor, there is a buzz sound which make me believe that it is working(second hand, the seller on advert said it was working). so I connected everything including the Bluetooth device and still no sound through A.Aux. So yesterday I put a question on to Chatgpt about this, it came with suggestions on which source to use and it said I should not use A.Aux, look for TV channel or Sat, which I unfortunately are not on the list on my Encore and it end up suggesting to use the remote control to change to TV. so I am now looking to get Beo 4 remote control.

is there anyone who uses Bluetooth to connect from the external media who can explain how he/she has connected their system?

 

 

Location: Hoddesdon

Favourite Product: Beosound 5 + Beomaster 5

My B&O Icons:

[lechatsurletoit]

Hi,

I’m using a beolink converter in my masterlink network, I confirm you need to hit TV on the beo4. I’m afraid you still my get a audio delay but maybe you can adjust that on your projector. I used to have the same setup but with a cable that worked ok.

Location: Düsseldorf

My B&O Icons:

[Tlali Letete]

Hi Lechatsurletoit

thanks for the information, much appreciated. the last part of your message, are you having a cable which goes to the BeoMaster from the projector, is that what you mean to avoid the sound delay?

Location: Hoddesdon

Favourite Product: Beosound 5 + Beomaster 5

My B&O Icons:

[lechatsurletoit]

Hi,

I have a beomaster/beosound 5 in my ML network, a beolink converter 1611 and an NL/ML converter 1790 with networklink speakers. First plug all the masterlink cables, then the power for the converter 1611 and the beomaster. Hit TV button on the beo4, should work. My projector was plugged in the converter 1611 directly, I could not notice a delay.

I need to get a raspberry pi now and test the 5c in this setup.

Location: Düsseldorf

My B&O Icons:

[Henning Dalgaard]

If I want to build my own power supply and not use the beomaster – what cable do I need? Is it DIN 4 or DIN 4 mini?

I assume mini? Would this work: https://www.amazon.de/Chargeur-str%C3%B8madapter-erstatning-NAS-server-DiskStation/dp/B0C69SS8L2/ref=asc_df_B0C69SS8L2

 

• This reply was modified 5 days, 18 hours ago by Henning Dalgaard.

[beosthlm]

The description on Amazon is not clear, it says input as both 230V AND (!) 24V and output 12V. I suspect that it may instead be 230V input and 12 V AND 24V output. If that’s the case, you may en up burning the IR circuitry in the the BS5, or worst case the BS5 itself.

Having said so, you can always get one and check it out with a multimeter. There is a bit of work done on this that is documented in the issues on GitHub to the project e.g., https://github.com/mkirsten/beosound5c/issues/9

Feel free to reach out on a thread there if you’re having issues or want to bounce some measurements or thoughts for your build

Location: Stockholm

Favourite Product: BeoSound 9000

[Ashley Griffin]

Looks interesting, so i assume you need all the BM5 hardware? does it use all the connectors?   can it be loaded on a dead drive and connect and it works?

Location: Ontario, Canada

Signature: Many Thanks

My B&O Icons:

[beosthlm]

Hi, no you don’t need all. The only thing you really require is the BS5 screen. With the BM5 you additionally get ability to

• Provide power to the BS5 (otherwise you need a separate 12V supply, see above)
• Use IR remote, with the IR receiver on the BS5
• MasterLink – if you want to use the BS5c as a master (or slave) in a link system to other speakers/zones
• PowerLink – to connect B&O speakers. Without this, you either connect speakers directly to the Raspberry Pi using e.g., RCA/phono cables, or alternatively no speakers at all, and you let the BS5c control a network speaker – such as Sonos, BlueSound, or even B&Os Mozart/ASE system
• Connect the HDD in the BM5 and use the local library. Actually, you can do this without the BM5 if you connect the HDD to the Pi without the BM5, but mostly relevant if you already have a music library in a BM5

Hope this clarifies.

As a side note – many BM5/BS5s that have issues are either a fault motherboard or a faulty HDD. Neither of those components are required, so hopefully this project also helps bring some systems back to life

Location: Stockholm

Favourite Product: BeoSound 9000

[Ashley Griffin]

Hi, thanks for the question response, so this new software has the ability to drive all the bepoke B&O ports, thats nice.. its a shame the BM5 is so physically large….  when using a PI i assume its just pushing video and using the USB connections from the BS5 display.

This wont work on a BS5e? what board did they use inside that? i believe it was linux, as that has all the same port built in to the unit itself.

Where is the download for this? how is it pushed on to a drive?

Location: Ontario, Canada

Signature: Many Thanks

My B&O Icons:

[beosthlm]

I think most people just chunk away the BM5 and hide it somewhere, so the size doesn’t matter so much. You can always get longer cables if distance is an issue. Back in the days B&O even made an extender solution also over Ethernet cables actually 🙂

You can check out the instructions on https://beosound5c.com where there is also a link to the source code on GitHub

The Encore is a different platform. The original BM5 is basically an off the shelf PSU, an off the shelf motherboard, an off the shelf HDD and then a B&O BeoLink PC2 Office with custom connectors. Encore dropped the HDD and has custom PCBs. It runs a different processor, and as you write Linux instead of Windows.

There may be a way to get the Encore working, but it requires a fair bit of work and I don’t have one so can’t really test. But there appears to be a healthy 2nd hand market for the original BS5, so I’d recommend that route instead.

Location: Stockholm

Favourite Product: BeoSound 9000

[Ashley Griffin]

I work in IT so am interested what the board is in the BS5e, what OS of this re-write (Windows CE?), any Windows could be an issue, they still dont have drivers for the Pi, i know Microsoft write one (i believe).

The BM5 ive seen had a bespoke motherboard as it has a plug on board for the B&O Link connections, the original i saw was IDE, however ive seen them with SATA.  Its the case size that has the issue for me, its huge.

Location: Ontario, Canada

Signature: Many Thanks

My B&O Icons:

[Henning Dalgaard]

Thanks. I don’t have the beomaster module and I am not a technical person, so I was hoping to find a power supply that just works out of the box. Is that possible?

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