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
You might want to look at my thread in the General Forum as a starting point!
After some advice on a workaround (getting the TV to think it's connected to a VCR)..... which would probably allow everything to work in a conventional way (but no permanent recording/ buffering), I decided to have another go at how the manual says it should be done. As Guy says in the original thread, the IR blaster should be connected to the HDR1. To cut a long story short, I followed the manual (VTAPE- green button- HDR1's own menu- CONNECTIONS- STB- select box- store/GO).
Everything OK except no signal to the STB again (but connections menu not now greyed-out and the STB option on screen (VTAPE/ yellow button).
Decided to play around and check all connections again. Then found an occasional successful connection if I slightly pulled-out the IR mini jack and pulled it to one side. Success I thought- loose mini jack so just tape it in position once a connection is found. But no such luck, I simply could not hold the mini jack in a position to keep the signal reaching the STB.
Question: having looked at the HDR1 service manual, the possible failure of the IR mini jack socket is not covered and it isn't clear whether it is repairable or whether a replacement module might be needed. Has anyone opened an HDR1 ....... is the mini jack socket obvious and potentially repairable, or should I either take the HDR1 to B&O, or even bite the bullet and buy another box for under £100?
Graham
Opened the HDR1 this morning.
The mini jack socket appears to be a tiny plastic unit with two miniscule soldered legs underneath it holding it to the main PCB2 AV Board.
I am guessing that unless there is a poor connection inside the socket, moving and pressing on the jack plug has had the effect of making or breaking a poor connection between the socket and PCB2. It looks to be way beyond my speaker capacitor soldering skills, but any advice appreciated.
Me again!
If it's simply a dry solder joint (can you see a break in the solder when you wiggle the socket?) then simply heating the solder until it melts and then allowing it to reset should cure the problem - you could carefully add a little more solder.
Failing this, given that you have diagnosed the fault you should be able to take the HDR (in its disaasembled state) to a friendly AV repair shop and ask them to fix, either by resoldering or fitting a new socket (making sure it is exact size so as to allow access through case. Shouldn't cost much.
Another thought - have you ruled out a fault with the jack plug (rather than the socket)? These often fail, especially if people have been pulling the plug out by the wire rather than the body of the plug. This would explain the intermittent fault.
I am not sure of the IR voltage/polarity, but you should be able to check by connecting a small battery to the plug connectors and viewing the IR transmitter with a camera phone.
Hi Guy,
I've ruled out the jack plug as I have got two different IR blasters, one of them brand new, and get the same result with both.
The soldering issue is that the socket is such a small component and it looks just about impossible to solder or resolder because the (just visible) connections between the board and the socket unit look almost inaccessible. I am now beginning to understand why there is such little repair work reported on the forum for the more modern units. All the components on the PCB are so small that they are obviously assembled by machine and cannot be repaired afterwards by conventional soldering.
I am either going to get a replacement second hand (assumed cheaper than asking B&O to replace a module in a unit they originally sold for £950!) or I am going to forego the HDR buffering and get it to work like the old VCRs with the STB controlled from the TV.
After much fiddling about I've managed to get the jack plug into a position where the signal is successfully transmitted, so I am now going to leave well alone for as long as possible.