Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 16 of 23

Thread: I'm feeling rather pleased with myself..

  1. #1
    Sublime HEXUS.net
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    The Void.. Floating
    Posts
    11,819
    Thanks
    213
    Thanked
    233 times in 160 posts
    • Stoo's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Mac Pro
      • CPU:
      • 2*Xeon 5450 @ 2.8GHz, 12MB Cache
      • Memory:
      • 32GB 1600MHz FBDIMM
      • Storage:
      • ~ 2.5TB + 4TB external array
      • Graphics card(s):
      • ATI Radeon HD 4870
      • Case:
      • Mac Pro
      • Operating System:
      • OS X 10.7
      • Monitor(s):
      • 24" Samsung 244T Black
      • Internet:
      • Zen Max Pro

    I'm feeling rather pleased with myself..

    I've got a little micro hi-fi system on my desk here which I use to play the audio from my PC through, but it's over 10 years old now, and the volume knob stopped working properly..

    Rather than being a nice smooth scale up and down with values of 0 to 50, it turned into the equivalent of a random number generator, which is *really* handy at night when you want to turn the volume down, and it goes right up to full, wakes half the street up, and leaves my ears bleeding..

    Not ideal, as you can imagine..

    Now, given the state of consumer electronics these days, I had little to no hope of ever getting the thing fixed, but I thought I'd give it a go anyway, on the assumption that it was probably a dodgy potentiometer, which with any luck I could get a replacement for, getting to it would probably be another matter though.

    To my surprise the JVC UX-1000 is a surprisingly well built bit of kit, with it coming apart in a PC style way - take the screws out of the back, release the side panels, undo a couple of cables and take the front off..

    This all comes apart okay, and I get to the front control board, and sure enough, there's the "pot", in the middle of the board, and luckily it's not a surface mount component, so out comes the soldering iron, and various apparatus.

    After I freed it from the board I hooked it up to my Dad's old analogue multimeter to check out how knackered this ALPS 740N "pot" was. As I turned the shaft of the "pot" around, the multimeter needle did the equivalent of a squirrel on speed at a rave, bouncing around all over the place.. Not good I thought..

    Dad had a look too, but he had the sneaky suspicion that this wasn't actually a potentiometer, but a rotary pulsing switch.. Oh bugger I think, where the heck am I going to get a new one of those to fit?

    So while I'm googling for a replacement to no avail, I undo a couple of little clips on the switch, and the whole mechanism comes apart..

    Into three nice big bits, and not firing a myriad of tiny components everywhere! Result!

    So I clean up the switch contacts and surfaces up with a bit of cloth, put it all back together (which was also a surprise), and tested it on the multimeter again..

    Yup, it now pulses at a regular interval with a constant turn of the shaft.. Cool Beans!

    I then solder it back onto the board, and reassemble the hi-fi..

    No bits left over!

    Plugged it in, and turned it on.. It didn't explode!

    Connected it up to the PC, and behold, sound came out, and the volume worked!

    Feeling quite smug, I then looked at the display.. which now resembles digital vomit, displaying random things with each button press..

    Nuts!

    Oh well, I'm not chancing it again, at least the volume works now
    (\__/)
    (='.'=)
    (")_(")

  2. #2
    Does he need a reason? Funkstar's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Aberdeen
    Posts
    19,874
    Thanks
    630
    Thanked
    965 times in 816 posts
    • Funkstar's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Gigabyte EG45M-DS2H
      • CPU:
      • Intel Core2Quad Q9550 (2.83GHz)
      • Memory:
      • 8GB OCZ PC2-6400C5 800MHz Quad Channel
      • Storage:
      • 650GB Western Digital Caviar Blue
      • Graphics card(s):
      • 512MB ATI Radeon HD4550
      • PSU:
      • Antec 350W 80+ Efficient PSU
      • Case:
      • Antec NSK1480 Slim Mini Desktop Case
      • Operating System:
      • Vista Ultimate 64bit
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell 2407 + 2408 monitors
      • Internet:
      • Zen 8mb

    Re: I'm feeling rather pleased with myself..

    nice one!

    My mum used to freak out when i started doing things like that. She is used to my dad having a go and nothing ever working again

  3. #3
    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    I'm a Jessie
    Posts
    35,157
    Thanks
    3,105
    Thanked
    3,138 times in 1,916 posts
    • Zak33's system
      • Storage:
      • Kingston HyperX SSD, Hitachi 1Tb
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Nvidia 1050
      • PSU:
      • Coolermaster 800w
      • Case:
      • Silverstone Fortress FT01
      • Operating System:
      • Win10
      • Internet:
      • Zen FTC uber speedy

    Re: I'm feeling rather pleased with myself..

    Quote Originally Posted by Stoo View Post
    So I clean up the switch contacts and surfaces up with a bit of cloth, put it all back together (which was also a surprise), and tested it on the multimeter again..

    Yup, it now pulses at a regular interval with a constant turn of the shaft.. Cool Beans!

    I then solder it back onto the board, and reassemble the hi-fi..

    No bits left over!

    Plugged it in, and turned it on.. It didn't explode!

    Connected it up to the PC, and behold, sound came out, and the volume worked!
    WELL DONE...you deserve to feel smug

    and you've saved the environment cos you aint gonna buy a new stereo now

    Quote Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
    "The second you aren't paying attention to the tool you're using, it will take your fingers from you. It does not know sympathy." |
    "If you don't gaffer it, it will gaffer you" | "Belt and braces"

  4. #4
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Milton Keynes
    Posts
    1,452
    Thanks
    56
    Thanked
    47 times in 45 posts

    Re: I'm feeling rather pleased with myself..

    Quote Originally Posted by Stoo View Post
    No bits left over!
    Now thats the impressive bit

    Thats the one major problem with pots & switches, they can get clogged up with dirt and stop working correctly. Its one reason why i have a can of switch cleaning lubricant for these instances. Works wonders and saves lots of time.

    Quote Originally Posted by Zak33 View Post
    and you've saved the environment cos you aint gonna buy a new stereo now
    Its also saved him some pennies as well

  5. #5
    Sublime HEXUS.net
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    The Void.. Floating
    Posts
    11,819
    Thanks
    213
    Thanked
    233 times in 160 posts
    • Stoo's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Mac Pro
      • CPU:
      • 2*Xeon 5450 @ 2.8GHz, 12MB Cache
      • Memory:
      • 32GB 1600MHz FBDIMM
      • Storage:
      • ~ 2.5TB + 4TB external array
      • Graphics card(s):
      • ATI Radeon HD 4870
      • Case:
      • Mac Pro
      • Operating System:
      • OS X 10.7
      • Monitor(s):
      • 24" Samsung 244T Black
      • Internet:
      • Zen Max Pro

    Re: I'm feeling rather pleased with myself..

    Than I had 1/2 a bottle of wine with my BBQ
    (\__/)
    (='.'=)
    (")_(")

  6. #6
    Super Tanker Driver hitman67's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Nr Kendal, LA6
    Posts
    1,328
    Thanks
    36
    Thanked
    23 times in 13 posts
    • hitman67's system
      • Motherboard:
      • AsRock Something
      • CPU:
      • AMD 64 x2 4200+
      • Memory:
      • 1GB DDR Dual Channel
      • Storage:
      • 200gb Samsung Spinpoint
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Nividia Go 6100
      • PSU:
      • ColorsIT 400w
      • Case:
      • ColorsIT Cool Case
      • Monitor(s):
      • Compaq 15" TFT
      • Internet:
      • 1mb Broadband

    Re: I'm feeling rather pleased with myself..

    JVC are good systems - I have an FS-SD770R doing the exact same job here with my PC.
    [: O |=====|O :] Beyond Fashion Since 1948

    Quote Originally Posted by XTR
    Ford Focus - I’m a boy-racer disguised as a sensible office worker at the weekends I'm a curry monster!!
    Correct apart from the working part

  7. #7
    Don't feed the trolls... tiggerai's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Milk & Beans
    Posts
    9,286
    Thanks
    271
    Thanked
    479 times in 313 posts
    • tiggerai's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P
      • CPU:
      • AMD PhenomII 955BE
      • Memory:
      • 4Gb Corsair XMS DDR3
      • Storage:
      • Lots
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Sapphire X1950XT
      • PSU:
      • Hiper Type-R 550w
      • Case:
      • Antec lovely black thing
      • Operating System:
      • Windows 7
      • Monitor(s):
      • 2x 20" widescreen
      • Internet:
      • Pipexpants

    Re: I'm feeling rather pleased with myself..

    Stoo, do you wannna come and do mine too?

    my old skool aiwa is still going strong apart from the volume control is dodgy as described!

    will either go up, or down... never both ways

  8. #8
    o|-< acrobat's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Posts
    1,754
    Thanks
    225
    Thanked
    75 times in 58 posts
    • acrobat's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Gigabyte DS4 965p Revision 2
      • CPU:
      • E6600
      • Memory:
      • Corsair 4gig DDR 800 (C4)
      • Storage:
      • two 320gig Seagate Barracudas, and one 750 gig Seagate Barracuda (7200.10) and a 750gig same brand.
      • Graphics card(s):
      • 8800GTX
      • PSU:
      • Corsair HX 620
      • Case:
      • Akasa Eclipse 62
      • Monitor(s):
      • Apple Cinema Display 20"
      • Internet:
      • Virgin Media - Slow, expensive rip off, Indian customer service. Great choice eh? :C

    Re: I'm feeling rather pleased with myself..

    Nice My stereo is an old CD/Radio/Tape -to- Tape deck/ all built together in a nice stereo. But its probably almost 20 years old now... and I'm such a cheapo, that everything on it is broken apart from the radio... and yet I still use it

    So the cd is broken but I just use my PC. The tape to tape is broken but I don't use tapes anymore. And the speakers are broken, so I've plugged in a little pair of old PC speakers to the headphones output which works as speakers. So is basically just a big 2 foot by 2 foot radio.

  9. #9
    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    17,164
    Thanks
    803
    Thanked
    2,152 times in 1,408 posts

    Re: I'm feeling rather pleased with myself..

    Yup it wasn't a "rotery encoder" but if it was one of these, its easy to see if its broken, as the pattern would go from high Z (impedance, ie disconnected) to low Z (ie ~0 ohms). And it would have at least 4 terminals rather than 3.
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

  10. #10
    Sublime HEXUS.net
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    The Void.. Floating
    Posts
    11,819
    Thanks
    213
    Thanked
    233 times in 160 posts
    • Stoo's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Mac Pro
      • CPU:
      • 2*Xeon 5450 @ 2.8GHz, 12MB Cache
      • Memory:
      • 32GB 1600MHz FBDIMM
      • Storage:
      • ~ 2.5TB + 4TB external array
      • Graphics card(s):
      • ATI Radeon HD 4870
      • Case:
      • Mac Pro
      • Operating System:
      • OS X 10.7
      • Monitor(s):
      • 24" Samsung 244T Black
      • Internet:
      • Zen Max Pro

    Re: I'm feeling rather pleased with myself..

    Nope, three terminals, but it did it did flip from open to closed circuit as you describe when the switch shaft was rotated. Rotate it quickly and it pulses (obviously).

    It certainly wasn't a potentiometer.
    (\__/)
    (='.'=)
    (")_(")

  11. #11
    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    17,164
    Thanks
    803
    Thanked
    2,152 times in 1,408 posts

    Re: I'm feeling rather pleased with myself..

    hmm normally they have grey code using 2 signal lines. :S oh well
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

  12. #12
    Sublime HEXUS.net
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    The Void.. Floating
    Posts
    11,819
    Thanks
    213
    Thanked
    233 times in 160 posts
    • Stoo's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Mac Pro
      • CPU:
      • 2*Xeon 5450 @ 2.8GHz, 12MB Cache
      • Memory:
      • 32GB 1600MHz FBDIMM
      • Storage:
      • ~ 2.5TB + 4TB external array
      • Graphics card(s):
      • ATI Radeon HD 4870
      • Case:
      • Mac Pro
      • Operating System:
      • OS X 10.7
      • Monitor(s):
      • 24" Samsung 244T Black
      • Internet:
      • Zen Max Pro

    Re: I'm feeling rather pleased with myself..

    I did try to google the part (ALPS 740N), but Samsung have thoughtfully named a monitor with that exact code..

    Heh, found it, or at least it's distant cousin, twice removed..

    http://www3.alps.co.jp/cgi-bin/WebOb...3&varietyId=12



    3 signal pins, and two solder lugs to secure it to the pcb
    Last edited by Stoo; 26-08-2007 at 08:35 PM.
    (\__/)
    (='.'=)
    (")_(")

  13. #13
    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    17,164
    Thanks
    803
    Thanked
    2,152 times in 1,408 posts

    Re: I'm feeling rather pleased with myself..

    of course it is, i'm been retarted and thinking of the optical type (or powered).
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

  14. #14
    Sublime HEXUS.net
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    The Void.. Floating
    Posts
    11,819
    Thanks
    213
    Thanked
    233 times in 160 posts
    • Stoo's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Mac Pro
      • CPU:
      • 2*Xeon 5450 @ 2.8GHz, 12MB Cache
      • Memory:
      • 32GB 1600MHz FBDIMM
      • Storage:
      • ~ 2.5TB + 4TB external array
      • Graphics card(s):
      • ATI Radeon HD 4870
      • Case:
      • Mac Pro
      • Operating System:
      • OS X 10.7
      • Monitor(s):
      • 24" Samsung 244T Black
      • Internet:
      • Zen Max Pro

    Re: I'm feeling rather pleased with myself..

    *nod*

    When I had it apart, it looked a bit like this:



    The rotary bit was attached to the shaft, then there was the metal contact frame, then a plastic bit to hold it all together..

    I presume it just got a bit grimy after a few years and interfered with the contacts, which cocked up the decoder sequence, confusing whatever was controlling the volume
    (\__/)
    (='.'=)
    (")_(")

  15. #15
    Senior Member Andy3536's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    Kent
    Posts
    2,355
    Thanks
    164
    Thanked
    194 times in 135 posts
    • Andy3536's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Gigabyte GA-880GMA
      • CPU:
      • AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 95w @3.8
      • Memory:
      • 4GB Corsair XMS3 1600MHz
      • Storage:
      • 1T WD
      • Graphics card(s):
      • ATI 4870
      • PSU:
      • Corsair 750
      • Case:
      • Antec P-182

    Re: I'm feeling rather pleased with myself..

    Good job, take it apart again, it's probobly just a connector knocked out for the display.

    Should i also be smug doing a similar thing 5 days a week

  16. #16
    Flat cap, Whippets, Cave. Clunk's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Posts
    11,056
    Thanks
    360
    Thanked
    725 times in 459 posts

    Re: I'm feeling rather pleased with myself..

    I've been trying to resist, but has anyone else noticed the vast amount of double entendres in this thread?
    Quote Originally Posted by Blitzen View Post
    stupid betond belief.
    You owe it to yourself to click here really.

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. Weird feeling
    By Merlin4458 in forum General Discussion
    Replies: 15
    Last Post: 07-11-2005, 12:36 AM
  2. Replies: 13
    Last Post: 19-08-2005, 11:20 AM
  3. Feeling hot hot hot!
    By rajagra in forum General Discussion
    Replies: 15
    Last Post: 29-05-2005, 06:53 PM
  4. The little things in life that make you strangely pleased
    By megah0 in forum General Discussion
    Replies: 44
    Last Post: 17-04-2005, 03:33 AM
  5. You know that feeling?
    By malfunction in forum General Discussion
    Replies: 11
    Last Post: 23-05-2004, 07:01 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •