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
Well, I've done it again. You may remember my previous eBay haul. This past weekend, I was trolling for junk at a "hamfest" (flea market/boot sale oriented towards amateur radio equipment), when a friend told me that he'd spotted some Bang & Olufsen gear near one of the commercial buildings. My initial searches turned up nothing, but after turning a corner near the far end of the grounds, my jaw dropped. There, sitting on the ground, was a Beomaster 8000 (complete with Beolab Terminal remote) and a Beocord 8002! Even more absurd were the price tags on each: $5.00! My jaw just about hit the ground.
I asked the seller what he knew about them. According to him, the BM8000 has display issues (not entirely sure what sort; I haven't powered it up), but the BC8002 seems to be fine (though the rosewood veneer's seen better days). I was only really interested in the Beomaster, since I already have a Beocord 8002, but he ended up throwing it in for free. I paid for the pair, put the two units aside, and went to borrow a flatbed cart from a friend (one attempt to pick up the BM8000 convinced me that trying to carry it across the grounds wouldn't be a good idea).
Beogram: 3000 | 4002 | 8000 (2) | 1800 | RX | RX 2 | TX 2 | CD 6500
Beomaster: 1000 | 8000 | 6000 | 2000 | 6500
Beocord: 8002 (2) | 2000
Beovox: M70 | S45.2
Is there such a thing as too much Beostuff?
Congrats and nice find :) Yes the led's fail in the displays and so you end up replacing the actual chips with SMT LED's. Very fiddly and not worth doing one or two you need to do the whole display really! Finding the correct colour of red led is important otherwise the displays look orangy. Then you have to match the brightness, as the old leds are not very efficient and new much brighter... Good fun :)
I keep promising to finish my 8000 referb on here so that is what I will do next and you will be able to see the processes involved. A full referb is a good 2 days of hard work!
Oh and the control will work fine your 6000!
Olly
Thanks for the reply. Thus far, I'm not sure to what extent the display is working. I plugged it in (without any speakers connected), and the case seems to be more along the lines of the unit refusing to come out of standby mode. When first plugged in, the decimal point on the leftmost display was the only one lit, though the MANUAL light was also lit. Toggling the manual/automatic switch had an effect on it, as did moving the stereo/mono switch for the MONO indicator. Pressing the buttons on the front panel had no effect The tuning meter registered a solid '2' regardless of how the tuning knob was moved. I unplugged it and plugged it back in, but since then, the only sign of life is the aforementioned decimal point, as the other lights (as well as the meter) now do nothing. Any ideas? Thanks in advance!
-Adam
Great find ! Never seen one in the flesh .
Hi Step1,
I read your comment about "orangy" LEDs...what is your favorite SMD LED for the display refurb? Thanks!
Adam: Congrats on your find! And I thought I was lucky when I got a 8000/9000/8000 set for $150 from craigslist a couple years ago...;-)
http://beolover.blogspot.com
http://beolover.com
valve1: Great find ! Never seen one in the flesh .
From what I understand, the Beolab 8000 and 6000 System components are more common than you might expect. They were the cream of the B&O crop, so-to-speak, and an outstanding set of components by many standards. Even though I'm in the US, I've managed to acquire a matching set of 8000 components (two times over in the case of the Beogram 8000 and Beocord 8002), along with a Beomaster 6000. My guess is that the rarest component from the series is the Beogram 6000 (type 5751), which was little more than a radial-tracking Beogram 2402 with a simple Datalink interface, and therefore didn't match the components it was supposed to match!
HarryPierce: Adam: Congrats on your find! And I thought I was lucky when I got a 8000/9000/8000 set for $150 from craigslist a couple years ago...;-)
Yeah, it's been an odd, strange journey through the 8000/6000 series for me. Started with my first Beogram 8000, a $100 swap-meet find nearly three years ago. Last year, a friend of mine sent me a Beocord 8002 he had lying around for the cost of shipping (suffered some damage during the journey, which has been repaired). Earlier this year, my eBay score happened, netting me a Beomaster 6000 and another Beogram 8000 (both non-working) for all of $70. Now, I've completed my collection of 8000 series components with this latest find. All I need to track down now is a pair of Beovox MS150s or equivalent; I have yet to see any B&O speakers for sale in my area, but who knows.
I agree, the Beovox MS150 would be a nice addition to a 8000 line-up!! Hope you will get some soon.
Ah ok well start by checking the reset circuit - there is a critical adjustment here. Also check the 5V power supply and associated capacitors.
AdamAnt316: Thanks for the reply. Thus far, I'm not sure to what extent the display is working. I plugged it in (without any speakers connected), and the case seems to be more along the lines of the unit refusing to come out of standby mode. When first plugged in, the decimal point on the leftmost display was the only one lit, though the MANUAL light was also lit. Toggling the manual/automatic switch had an effect on it, as did moving the stereo/mono switch for the MONO indicator. Pressing the buttons on the front panel had no effect The tuning meter registered a solid '2' regardless of how the tuning knob was moved. I unplugged it and plugged it back in, but since then, the only sign of life is the aforementioned decimal point, as the other lights (as well as the meter) now do nothing. Any ideas? Thanks in advance! -Adam
Think they are HP's but would have to check. You need something that emits a similar wavelength to the originals, about 650nm or so.
I used the LUMEX SML-LX0603IW-TR type which has 635nm at a 2V turn on voltage. This worked pretty well, but they are very slightly warmer in tone than the original ones, even after brightness adjustment. What is strange to me is that the original LEDs turn on at about 2.3V yet have a longer wavelength. One should think that a longer wavelength implies a smaller band gap, and consequently, a smaller turn on voltage. It seems that 660 nm LEDs nowadays all have turn on voltages in the 1.7-1.8V range...maybe they have a much higher photon yield, and therefore need less voltage to start emitting...
It would be great if you could look up what LEDs you used...I am very curious...;-). Also of interest would be how you adjusted the brightness. I changed the voltage divider around R15. That allowed me to drive the display supply down to a low enough voltage to yield an appropriate brightness. But there is a limit to that since this also affects the keyboard strobe voltage, i.e. I am not sure if one could use 1.7V LEDs with this approach....
I simply use resistors on the cathodes to drop the voltage, as I had concerns with lowering the supply for reasons you suggested above.The resistors replace the cathode pins in the displays leaving the original common anode pins intact.
The result was almost identical to the original - Hard to tell which is new & old I think...
Once completed I had two 8000's side by side and no family members could tell the difference!
I think the fact the LED's are fairly early examples alone can account for the lower light output, not to mention the fact they are at the far end of the red spectrum where our sensitivity drops off quite sharply. Saying that, these replacements certainly were bright when supplied with the same current as the originals!
I guess the advantage of lowering the scan voltage is that it may get rid of the ghosting present in some of the segments (mostly, the balance display, visible in dark conditions) but as this is apparent in un-modified 8000's I figured there was little point in worrying about it.
By the way the picture above is slightly saturated which doesn't give an absolutely true representation of the colour / intensity. BTW, The new is on the left.
Nice job!! I didn't want to replace the entire array of cathode resistors, that is why I went for the supply voltage. Indeed, a nice side effect is that the supply voltage approach does get rid of the ghosting in the balance display (and also in one of the digits of the frequency display). Out of interest, what resistor values did you use for the cathodes of the strobed and constant segments?
I actually left all the original resistors too ;) Just replaced the actual display pins, so the new resistors sit between the two boards. Think it is about 1k, so quite high!
How cool is that!!! What a bold idea! There is just no limit to creativity!
I should point out anyone trying this must exercise a great deal of caution as the tracks are very delicate and the pins don't come out very easily! Can't remember why I chose that route, but there was a good reason I am sure!
Yes, caution applies!...the use of a professional desolder gun is highly recommended for removing the displays!