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Do you have a tape inserted? That sounds like the auto-stop mech. is not sensing the tape (and returns the deck to neutral)
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I remember at least thinking about testing one of those round IR eyes, can’t remember if I tried (and it did nothing).
Here are some more pictures of the boards. The front panel is a bit tricky to remove, but from the rear the traces (at least the ones on that side, there might be more on the front) show. The three colums seem to go into the flat cables to go into the three identical boards so it looks like the colums are independent. I’d presume most of the audio/video are just pass-thru, and the boads mainly relate to the datapins on the different buses.
Serial port has only the usual pins 2, 3 (RX/TX) and 5 (GND) connected.
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@Madskp: thanks, and a nice story! I can’t find the thread now, but in one of the Beogram 4000c demonstration videos there was a clip presumably from a B&O lab with a whole bench of these original blue-case instruments still in use, that was neat.
It’s neat that B&O made these and even made the design effort to where these really work nicely together in a bench setup.
Hopefully you’ll assemble that TG7 some day and it’ll work 🙂
I presume the case feet are identical between power supplies and multimeters so I put the STL file out there if somebody else needs to print one: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6719913.
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Slight update; nope, I am at loss here. While the disconnected ribbon makes the keypad PCB show current draw, the battery is still not charging, I left it overnight and it’s still as low. My other Beo5 (with visually much better looking ribbon cable) shows the exact same issues with the new battery (shows 90mA current for a moment, then drops to zero) so either it is still the battery (incorrect temp sensor reading preventing the charging?) or both of me Beo5s have some identical fault with the charging.
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The “Official merchandise Bang & Olufsen” image link at the bottom banner doesn’t go to Beoworld.org shop, but instead goes to the official B&O website (like the one left to it).
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Inspired from this thread, I went and bought a new battery from ElectroPapa, I received a white-label vhbw one (identical to the first picture in this thread). I was happy to see that one of my two Beo5s (both bought second-hand, both worked for a while but died soon after and were put away) did came up with the battery, but there is still a problem as it’s not charging. I am using a USB charger with a USB power meter, and I can see that when I first put the remote to the dock, the current goes up to 90mA (matches the USB charge current in the user manual) BUT drops down to zero after just 5-10 seconds. The Beo5 says ‘charging’ but it’s clearly not, however it keeps it barely alive (if taken out of dock, it gives ‘charge battery’ but while in charger keeps going).
I disassembled the remote (again) and experiment shows that if I disconnect the display ribbon cable, it keeps charging. So I assue the charging circuitry itself is working, but the CPU (inside the display housing) tolds it to turn off. The wiring diagram confirms that there are HIGH_CHARGE_STOP, VBAT_SENSE and CHARGE_ID* signals so clearly it’s doing something with the charging. My ribbon cable was already bent and the contacts don’t look too good so I am somewhat expecting a bad cable. I ordered some new ribbons (the service manual gave me the needed info: 30-pin 0,5mm pitch, contacts on same side) and I’ll need to dig up my other Beo5 and compare what it does with the new battery. The ribbon cable is detachable on both ends (for some reason the display unit has a nice locking-tab connector while the keypad has a push-in connector in my remote). I was able to open the display housing too.
*) CHARGE_ID appears to be also a signal from the dock, I presume this identifies the wall-charger with which the charging should happen at 400mA, ie. much faster. If I can find my wall-charger, it would be interesting to measure how the detection works to bring the remote into the higher current charging mode.
I am pretty sure this is NOT a fault of the battery, but my Beo5s/the ribbon cable, as this is very much the same I had before; the remote seemingly works but it’s not really charging and eventually the remote dies.
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I’ve always wondered, what is the material of those three, dark vertical panels?
That’s a very nice-looking setup and a great solution with those towel-hooks. The “now playing” area fills the empty space nicely.
Regarding the Beogram brackets: could you add a thin shelf on top of the brackets and then the Beogram on top? Perhaps a piece of glass? Although that might not look as slim as the floating-effect with just the bracket + Beogram. So perhaps the double-sided tape (or perhaps velcro for easier removal?) is still the easiest solution.
What’s the stand you are using for the Form1 headphones? The width looks pretty much spot-on and it looks great!
The shelfs and stands are one area of B&O products that I think are really under-appreciated (not to mention rare, unfortunately). Couple of years back I was lucky to find a “System Module SM50” for cheap for my 7000-setup. The stand is so sturdily built (needs to be!) and looks great with the whole stack on top!
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I have a BC2, too, but it’s boxed away at the moment.
The specs mention that “Contrast on the display adjusts automatically to light conditions,ensuring that the display text can always be read easily” and a service bulletin lists as an issue: “The VFD display has an auto contrast function, if this fail, the light in the display can vary from very bright to almost black”. Perhaps you could try shining a light on the sensor (probably somewhere around the display) and see if the display adjusts any? If not, it’s possible that the VFD is just simply faded from use.
My unit also suffers from the aging soft-rubber surfaces, and my unit also has a faulty volume wheel (which is probably not repairable either and I haven’t bothered trying to find a replacement wing).
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Either PMs or a method to send message to an email privately would suffice, IMO.
(Also; I was able to vote without being logged in?)
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Back online – nice, thanks for all the effort!
There’s something odd about logging in; trying to access the My account page gives a “404 EROR” (yes, “eror” :D) but apparently I am logged in as I can post.
Testing: editing works. Topics started / total posts -counts seem to be off.
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It should slide out, but if there is any battery leakage, it will make it stuck. Try pulling it with a small pick (under the edge of the tray) and hopefully it will come out with little persuation.
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Hopefully they will re-appear as I recall they were quite useful.
I have at least some of the pics still, I can dig them up tomorrow if the archived thread doesn’t return.
I did get sound back for a while with a new speaker wire, but it didn’t last long (mechanical stress due to the movement with the alarm button) and I haven’t bothered to re-do the whole thing again.
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It was just double-sided foam tape, couple mm. thick. It resembled the original and it felt like it would do the business.
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To add into the BL7000 batteries; I just replaced the cells in my remote. The first set of NiMh AAs I bought were closer to 50mm in length and I couldn’t make it fit (battery cover couldn’t be closed anymore). My previous cells were closer to 48mm and that was still doable.
I bought new cells and this time I used 4/5AA length NiMh cells (43mm length). Naturally smaller cell means less capacity but these are still 1200 mAh which is more than the original NiCds that my remote had (700mAh).
This was much easier fit! Wide strip of capton tape at the ends in attempt to prevent any future leakage from reaching the board.
I also wanted to share this link I found: a very polished site about all sorts of BL7000 repairs: https://leicht.io/beolink/7000/articles
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First of all, thank you Lee and Keith for all the work in the background over the years.
Whatever the future holds for Beoworld, I just hope it would NOT mean (secondly after a total closure of course) another new forum with new accounts and a third archived forum. It’s already way too hard to search for stuff (on all the three forums) and the current forum is -sorry to say- very basic.
I do see the possible issues, but partly I am hoping that perhaps B&O themselves could somehow help here. Surely they see the community value that Beoworld has for the brand.
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I received mine almost two weeks ago, here’s finally my two cents on the product (it’s awesome!).
Here are the contents of the kit waiting for assembly:
The assembly is described in detail in the supplied manual. Basically it’s just soldering the cable (connector and PCB) and the LED and fitting it all inside the case. If you have never soldered a DIN connector it can be a bit tricky at first but that’s really the hardest part. Using a small flat-top LED and a custom 3D-printed cable holder / strain relief really shows the attention to detail of the kit (fun fact: during playback the LED flashes to match the real Beocord’s track indicator).
The finished product has a very B&O’ish style (perhaps reminding of the LC1 with a silver top and a black plastic case).
Here connected to my BM7000’s TAPE1 and showing the time display real-time on the MCP6500. I have a weak spot for the 2-way remotes and I really like how the Beotooth supports that! (This also lead me to finally building a new battery pack for my BL7000). I am also hoping to experiment using the Beotooth over MCL2 in a link room (with 2-way comms).
I had prompt replies from pilatomic and he even made two firmware updates regarding some small things I observed in my testing (difference between STOP and PAUSE commands in certain situations and a small issue with rewind/fast forward commands), so customer support was also really top notch. Also a note that not all apps that control playback over Bluetooth are not created equal (my phone’s default media app had inconsistent issues with playback controls working or not whereas my MacBook+iTunes always worked flawlessly).
This is a very useful little addition to any Datalink-equipped BM/BC. While using a Bluetooth receiver for audio on a vintage system is nothing new, the Beotooth does it well and the seemingly small addition of Datalink commands really makes it feel so much more integrated. Especially on pilatomic’s level of detail on everything.
I hope we will see more DIY-projects utilizing the Datalink bus in the future for something neat that keeps adding to the magic of B&O’s truly ageless designs.
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@jfrancis49: that sounds like a neat solution. Have you got any photos of the end result?
I was thinking that one option might be 3D-printing with TPU. I am not sure how well it would survive in long term, but that would eliminate the splicing.
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VERY nice! I’d be surely interested in buying (either pre-made or kit-form, latter preferred) at least a couple!
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No worries ?
Unfortunately I don’t have access to the speakers now (I sold the BV3000s and upgraded to BL45000s which are the same size but are currently in storage) so I can’t check.
However as the BV3000 specs say the speakers are 45 x 38 x 8cm (W x H x D) one could perhaps approximate the size of the foams form that. I think they had a white fabric on the outside but felt like foam on the insde.
There is also a foam tape -like gasket. It’s the black tape on the first picture and green on the second as I had replaced it. Not sure if totally necessary but the old stuff was crumbling and I had something close-enough at hand to put in there.
Are you trying to make new acoustic foams?
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If you mean front panel (cloth) removed, there will be only the two speaker elements (second picture here) visible.
If you mean back cover removed, here are some pictures from when I recapped mine. These are Beovox 3000 Type 6716.
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