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Truly a massive collection and very nicely displayed.
And finally some love for the B&O test equipment too (at around 12:50)!
Location: Helsinki - Finland
My B&O Icons:
@Madskp: check out the wiki’s history tab. If you compare the latest and oldest version, there are at least some version numbers that have changed, the products might be the same all the way though.
@Multicare: do you think there would be an issue to host the actual software files on the site (like the user/service manuals)? I mean on the legal standpoint as the ROMs at least originally have been copyrighted content and or commercially available parts (like the software update EPROM kits)? I opted to upload my MB45000 ROMs to archive.org mostly as I’ve already been putting stuff there. I did look at the forum rules and that only asks not to upload manuals but asks to send them to admins to add to the site.If the software stuff was added to the products, it might be handy to have a search to “show all products that have software information” on them.
Location: Helsinki - Finland
My B&O Icons:
This one perhaps, at least it does has some BL Actives and passives? (Found it after first finding this which had a link).
Sadly no mention of Beomaster ROMs, I guess the list dates from 00’s or later (the comment says 2013) as the oldest products I could see were Beolab Penta, Beovision MXs and even a “8341140 MASTER CONTROL LINK 2AV 2020 2.3” still hanging in there.
Location: Helsinki - Finland
My B&O Icons:
I’m pretty sure I’d have seen the black two-way terminal -stickers on somewhere else but can’t remember. Then again, I might be mistaking it for the similarily styled black BEOLINK sticker that can be seen on fe. BC9000’s back (no two-way IR there but I presume it hints to the device communications over the 7-pin DIN connectors and/or the MCL2 system).
Location: Helsinki - Finland
My B&O Icons:
Added now to the archive.org item: I scanned the single-page instruction sheet on where the dealer preparing the upgrade should stick the version stickers to, and most importantly the nice two-way terminal labels (to be placed on the BM and the box) 😎
Using a Dymo labelwriter, I printed myself new ones (as the NOS stickers had completely lost adhesion).
Location: Helsinki - Finland
My B&O Icons:
Thanks!
I have an older MCUMall GQ-4X USB Programmer, but any EPROM programmer that supports these older DIP-chips should be able to read the ROMs. It takes a bit of effort to get into the CPU box and to the ROM chip, but one could of course replace the battery or caps while there… wouldn’t hurt to replace those.
The seller I bought my BM4500 two-way kit also had an BM6500 kit for sale, but the single kit was already on the expensive side with shipping so I skipped getting them both.
On a related note there is currently a BM7000 ROM for sale on german eBay (https://www.ebay.com/itm/257132321336), but although the description says 1.3, the chip label says it’s 1.1. Someone probably upgraded and put the old chip in the bag and the seller didn’t notice.
Location: Helsinki - Finland
My B&O Icons:
Thanks!
With both BIN files you can write whichever version you want (two-way comms or the BM-as-link-room-mode only in 1.6, as you pointed out in Discord).
The chip in my unit (and the replacement) was a generic 27512 EPROM, which is still readily available. Mine was M27512FI, ie. by STMicroelectronics but any manufactorer should be fine (as long it’s the same 28-pin DIP package). I couldn’t find the speed rating for either chips, but in this case I’d guess the “slowest” 200ns part should work (elsewhere, like vintage computers the speed of the ROM might be important). You’ll also need an UV-eraser (for the old EPROMs with window on top) and an EPROM programmer. I’m sure there are also newer pin-compatible variants (EEPROMs, ie. no UV-erasing needed, or write-once chips if you just want to write a chip once and not re-use it).
I find it interesting that the BM4500 was shipped with the “limiting” software (if the 2-way IR hardware was fitted). Also the release notes telling a fix for “Beosystem 4500 may intermittently block and it is necessary to remove the mains plug” sounds pretty annoying bug, and surely would’ve caused calls to dealers! (I might have actually experienced this on my unit with the old ROM once or twice, I always thought it was just an effect of a low battery but apparently not!)
Location: Helsinki - Finland
My B&O Icons:
I looked at the ad and thought that they look really nice! Reminds me of the A8 headphones that I had. The leather carry-pouches are very nice too. I have absolutely no touch with the other brands if it’s a common thing but the case doubling as an audio transmitter sounds like a nice feature.
I was contemplating on the idea of “I might even like to buy those, as a celebration for the 100th anniversary” but now that I looked at the price; nope.
Location: Helsinki - Finland
My B&O Icons:
I believe I’ve seen somewhere a description of adding a switch to one of the MCL lines to disconnect a unit cleanly.Related to the accessorie, I was happy to find this desktop mount for the ‘oblong’ transceiver (in this case a white one) some years ago. I think it looks quite nice sitting on an angle.
Location: Helsinki - Finland
My B&O Icons:
I’ve seen that in the MCL catalogs too.
That’s got to be a 3rd-party electrical box, B&O probably made only the foam inserts themselves 😁 I am not sure how many of these were really sold (I don’t think any of the 90’s B&O speakers were in any way water-proof?).
Not very practical either to be disconnecting the outdoor units if the temperature falls below 0° (as the instructions say!).
I like how they call the older rectangular MCL transceiver the “oblong” one 😀
Neat find anyway, I like these obscure accessories!
Location: Helsinki - Finland
My B&O Icons:
Interesting! The cover page has prices in GBP so perhaps this was some kind of a local thing by some single dealer with contacts? The catalog itself and the photos look very professional and the design (manual, not products) would’ve fooled me.
Location: Helsinki - Finland
My B&O Icons:
Anything on the headphone out?
Is the white dummy-plug present at the Beomaster’s LINE IN/OUT connector (below the speaker 1 connectors)?
Location: Helsinki - Finland
My B&O Icons:
Regarding disabeling of the two way. As far as I know the BL7000 decides if it is one way or two way when you register components in the setup menu on it. How that works if the product is partly capabale of two way I dont know.
Perhaps using the BL7000 in a place where it can’t reach the BM (fe. other room) and re-registering the audio master would make it operate in one-way (into the BL)?
Using the BL7000 in one-way mode is very clunky though.
Location: Helsinki - Finland
My B&O Icons:
I had speed control issues on my BC2000 that I worked on years ago. Looking at my emails I ended up replacing the motor and that fixed it. There are some electrolytics on the motor control PCB (inside the motor case, where the potentiometer is) that you might want to check first.
Not related to this case but still I’ll copy-paste this here for posterity: “There’s a resistor near the voltage regulators at the cooling fin. It can burn in severe cases of overload and it will cause the motor to run at slow speed under load (wind/rewind) and eventually grind to a stop. It’s R8 and either 4,7 or 5,1 ohms”.
(Source: emails with Martin ⭐ in 2008)
Location: Helsinki - Finland
My B&O Icons:
If you are using passive speakers; are they connected to the Speaker 1 outputs? If they are in Speaker 2 they won’t mute (by design).
Location: Helsinki - Finland
My B&O Icons:
The muting relay is a likely suspect (trigger it on/off several times to see if there is any improvement).
Check if the “dummy plug” is installed in the LINE IN/OUT on the rear connections panel (if removed, the pre-amp signal won’t be going to the main amp, although this wouldn’t explain the partly working secondary speaker output…).
Also check the BALANCE adjustment.
Location: Helsinki - Finland
My B&O Icons:
Never heard of it before, quickly read couple of threads (links below) and the general consensus seems that unless it’s in breathable partciles/ingested, it shouldn’t be that dangerous. I don’t think any thermal paste I’ve ever removed was anywhere close to being a powder.
Also the last link suggests that it would’ve been banned by the 90’s, and only been used in larger volumes up to 1970’s.
https://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=409107
https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/how-toxic-is-old-thermal-paste-beryllium-oxide.1245809/
Location: Helsinki - Finland
My B&O Icons:
Thanks Axel for confirming the theory.
I just went from two non-working Beo5s to two working Beo5s 🙂
I tested with parts from two remotes, new flat flex cables (seen here) and three battery packs: two older Sanyo packs (blue cells with yellow wrapping, bought years ago, suitable NTC, one dead pack, one working) and the new one (green wrapper).
I replaced the flat flex on one remote as the old one had a sharp bent and the connectors were somewhat fiddly too after several insertions and removals.
New flat flex next to the old one. I bought a 8cm one (link for the current item on eBay at the time of writing) which does fit inside the case (needs a bit of fitting) and is easier to handle during disassembly. Shorter cable would be ideal but I couldn’t find one. Cable specs: 30 pins, 0.5mm pin spacing, Type A (contacts on the same side).
This is the new battery pack into which I replaced the “more correct” NTC from the dead older pack. While I presume this is not a good practice (the NTC should be matched to the specific cells), I expect the range to be about there for the remote to detect a hot cell, and at least with the USB charging the current is so small that unless the cells go short, I guess it’ll be fine.
For reference, this is how the display module (actually the CPU board) looks inside. The clip-up connector for the flat flex is so much easier to work with than the push-to-insert one in the keypad board.
The display case is held with clips on the edges, it can be opened and closed with not too much marks on the casing.
Both remotes appear to work now, and least they both charge (first with USB as I could plug in my USB power meter to keep checking that the charge kept going and then with the original charger (400mA), keys work and with camera I can see the IR leds beaming.
Neither remote is in too good condition, both have worn key legends and scratches on the aluminum parts etc and one has a bit loose display mounting. Both remotes have my somewhat hacky configuration from years ago (that january 2017 as seen in the display is probably correct), when I only started to grasp the configuration tool before the first remote died (I presume it was a bad battery, then the later remote I bought probably had a bad ribbon cable and/or bad battery too, and I couldn’t figure this all out then).
Now I need to get the configuration utility installed and start hacking with it again to see if I can further polish the configs!
Location: Helsinki - Finland
My B&O Icons:
I got the new flat flex cables. A short 8cm one is now being used in my test-setup and the remote works, so it’s good to know the cables are replaceable. The cable didn’t make any difference on the battery issue, but I did found something else.
I measured the resistance of the temp sensor. In the new battery I have (that won’t keep charging) it’s about 8.6-8.9 kOhm (in room temperature), while an older Sanyo NiMh pack (which I bought some 5 years ago, but didn’t work) has much higher value of 36-38 kOhm. (Measured between the black negative wire and the white center wire on the battery pack, I had yet another one un-wrapped pack and I verified that the NTC is connected between there).
I connected the old battery pack and it stays on charging! I am not sure if the cells will actually hold charge (it has been sit flat on parts bin for years now), but at least the difference in the temp sensor seems to have some part in the charging.
Now, if the old battery pack won’t hold charge (I’ll leave it charging overnight in the slow 0.09A on USB) then the next experiment might be taking the “good NTC” from the old battery and replacing it into the new…
Does anyone have an original B&O battery (doesn’t need to be working one) for comparison on the NTC value?
Location: Helsinki - Finland
My B&O Icons:
This?
https://www.dksoundparts.com/product/lamp-for-beomaster-900-1000-5000-stereo-on/
Location: Helsinki - Finland
My B&O Icons:
