ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Dear members,
I was taking a closer look today at a pair of Beolab Penta 3 in very nice overall condition sold by the original owner. However, on one Penta speaker, one pixel (maybe a column) wasn't working. Does anybody know what the reason might be and whether this can be fixed easily? Thanks very much!
Can the Penta III desplays be swapped with Penta II displays? I tend to like Penta II displays more...
Rgds,
Kai
Forgot to mention: the speakers were linked to a Beosystem 2500. Is it necessarily the display that has a fault, or could it also be a problem of the Beosystem or the wiring?
Rgds
If the display shows at least something, everything else is fine and the fault must be in the display module itself.
According to the service manuals the II and III displays have a completely different interface. The internal structure of the display module is not shown so there's no help for repairing it, but it might still be possible... anything from a dry solder joint to a blown driver component to a failed display element, impossible to say without taking a look.
--mika
Thanks very much. Doesn't sound like an easy task. The speakers are cosmetically in superb condition. Better than the pair that I already own. However, the display error is something that really disturbs me. Very minor. Basically, there's one dot that is not correctly displayed. But if you know it, you always look there. If the seller were letting them go for a low enough price, that'll still be ok. However, he's asking quite a bit which will probably deter me from buying. Thanks again!
tournedos:the II and III displays have a completely different interface
Well not entirely true. The interface between the display controller card and the speaker are identical. So a MKII display unit with its controller cards will work in a MKIII speaker. Could be difficult to find a complete pair of MKII display units though.
Regarding the weak or missing dot in the MKIII display I would think is a bad solder joint.
//Bo.A long list...
The display in your avatar is a MK2 display, isn't it? I like it better since it matches the Beolab 5000 display much better and has the additional items "Source" and "Track" on it.
Rgds, Kai
Yes its the MKII display. I also like it better.
BO:Well not entirely true. The interface between the display controller card and the speaker are identical.
Yes, I see the confusion now - for some reason, I was thinking about the interface between the actual display module and the controller board. You could of course swap them both over.. if they fit mechanically, I dunno.
Gentlemen,
The display PCB's in the II's and III's are (as previously mentioned) in fact very different, the II being the more sophisticated one with an ambient light LDR etc. The connection from the amplifier to the PCB, however, is almost identical.
I just tried to swap the entire display units from our III's into the II's, but for some reason they don't seem to work. Vice versa it would require some cutting on the connectors, which I'm not willing to do. Has anyone got an idea what the reason could be? All displays work fine on their respective speakers.
Regards!
Strange, if you look at the schematics it should work.
The mk2 can be swapped with mk3's. Only some mechanical changes. The processor boards are different. So are the displays of course.
The missing dots are not repairable. I've seen several displays by occasion which missed some dots. The problem wasn't cracked solder joints, unfortunatly.
Maybe the switch at the bottom was set wrong?
Sometimes you have to take off the powercords to make the displays working again.
Don't forget that the mk2 displays can't be placed behind mk3 glasses. They become unreadable. Or hardly visible.
Fully wired MK1 cables are normally used with the penta. These are thicker than the mk2 version. But then again, with mk2 cables, the penta wouldn't switch on...
I'm sure it is the Mk.2 PL cables that are the fully wired (and therefore necessary for the Penta displays).
It is the Mk.2's that are the thicker cables, whereas the Mk.1 & Mk.3 are much thinner versions.
Michael
Correct, as explained by Lee in a previous post:
Powerlink cable suitability for speakers;
Mk1 are for non IcePower speakers (for example the BeoLab 6000, early BeoLab 4000, BeoLab 8000)
Mk2 are for everything and can also carry data signals, so are perfect for BeoLab Penta.
Mk3 are for IcePowered (for example BeoLab 8002, BeoLab 6002, BeoLab 3)
Dave.
kammeri:I just swapped the mk2 display back into one of the speakers to troubleshoot the inoperability of the mk3 displays. Strangely enough, now even the mk2 displays have stopped working, which worked fine previously.
Or placed the connector upside down the wrong way?
Sometimes a total reset (back to standby and back on again) will help.
I got lost in which type of mk's powerlink cables. The earliest versions were very thick and looked the same as din-aux cable with a diameter of almost 8-10mm. Just to point out that the thinner versions will not work with the penta or beolab 5000 etc. These lab's need both pin 1 and 4 driven.