BROKEN Bang & Olufsen BeoPlay A2 Portable Bluetooth Speaker - Can I FIX it? 

I’ve had an A2 standing on a shelf for years, completely dead. When I stumbled upon this video and got Inpired to follow your steps. I quite immediately found what was causing the malfunction; the battery connector was loose, causing a complete loss of power. Thanks to your video the speaker now works. Sending a super thanks! Regards!

I just realized why I like this channel so much. When I put headphones on it's an ASMR trigger. The soothing voice combined with the clicks, clacks and various other noises are soothing.

Thank you very much for guiding me through the process of error finding in this special case. I own an A2 and used it until last week - without any problems. All of the sudden it stops working and charging. I thought it was the battery inside and bought myself two 18650, exchanged the old ones and "silly me" expected at least, the A2 back to work again - but it doesn't. Thanks to you, I was able to fix it. Great video and many thanks again - you made my day!!! Keep it up

Just discovered you and you are amazing. Don’t know anything about electronics but I love watching you anyway. Maybe I will learn something. Thank you.

I love how excited you get when you discover something new. The energy is contagious.

Great show I love watching the repairs I’m addicted keep up the good work

Shorting P- to B- is a common way to switch on a bms - you can try it with that little battery when you get the new cells. The other is to supply a current across P- and P+ like you did here.

Another excellent adventure, Vince! And impeccable timing... I've just bought a faulty B&O A1 - which is the smaller model. I doubt it sounds as good as your one, but I'm excited to find out what's wrong with it! 😁

Fascinating video. Never knew BMS was so complicated. It's reassuring that there are safety features built in. There is lots of copy write free open source music that you could use to demonstrate audio equipment. This music is often played on other channels. NCIS music. No copywrite sounds. Edit. Just realised you managed to find some tunes.

Nice fix! I used to have that same model, rescued from the bin at my old workplace after a customer returned it as DOA. I had a bit more luck with mine, after soldering in new cells it just worked right away... But it wasn't nearly as interesting a fix of course :) I was very happy with the speaker, but a bit short on cash so I sold it after a while. I ought to look for another one now, kind of miss it!

I really like when you work on B&O stuff, it kind of always manage to surprise you in a positive way 🙂

My teory is that you open the gate with power from the multimeter. Its a 9v Dc inside of it and can open gates Great channel keep up the good work :)

Well worked on vince,you’ve gone far and beyond what I’d have done without losing my rag.well done for some great effort as usual

The 3 chips on the BMS are MOSFETs. To protect the device they cut-off when the battery voltage falls below the lower cutout voltage. The way these stay turned on is they get a very tiny little charge on their gate which is enough to make them conducting. The gate of a mosfet can also be seen as a tiny capacitor. The difference to a real capacitor is: The gate stays with charge as long as you have a voltage between source and drain.

Thanks mate. Just fixed an A2 Active speaker from the local recycling centre with similar battery issue. I didn´t change any of the batteries, just charged them individually. I love the crisp sound. Keep up the good work :)

Another great watch Vince, I look forward to every 'Trying to Fix' you're one of the few that I watch each new video as soon as I see the notification.

Well done Vince, i like watching how you figure out what the problem is by trail and error. keep up the great work....

When you wondered about some of the components. Generally Qxx means that it will be a transistor. Dxx is indeed a diode (in that 3 pin case it has 2 diodes inside. They can be in common anode or cathode or in series). That rust to me looked to me like copper of the via not having any surfacing.

ive learned so much just watching you fumble around on this channel. thanks for the content Vince, your videos have taught me a bunch!

I picked up one of these from a car boot sale in the same state, after a quick Google it appears to be a common problem, I replaced both 18650 cells (although new battery packs are available) and it then charged & worked fine, pretty good sound, but certainly well overpriced when new!

Great Video again Vince and that trick of shorting out the charging circuit to get the battery's back on line that is handy to know.

Always enjoyable watching you work Vince! You are a true “Sherlock” of fixing!! Keep up the good work 👍

Love your videos man, you have shown me a lot since I started watching you when you were just over 100k subs. From there I started watching others like Phil, Steve, Northbridge etc and now want to try and learn to fix stuff I would normally throw out. Much Appreciated,.

Nice fix, your perseverance paid off. For peace of mind I'd replace the batteries with two new ones of equal capacity.

interesting dual-sided design. the dual opposing passive radiators are common, to boost the bass while cancelling out some of the enclosure vibration, but having actual speaker drivers both sides as well is something I haven't come across before. The bass/mid drivers were moving in and out a lot (and the passive radiators not moving at all) with the enclosure disassembled because they were in an open baffle so there was no air pressure, affecting low frequency output. when you do the sound demo after reassembly I noticed the bass is boosted at lower volume and then is reduced at higher volume - this is the digital signal processor (DSP) applying low frequency equalisation to make the speaker sound "beyond its size" at lower volume.

Amazing as every time, and with the music from RU-vid free library you demonstrated the nice sound impressively - I used Headphones to be even more amazed. Well done ;)

you've done what's called I think is jump starting the battery Vince , I might be wrong , if it is I came across this trying to fix a tablet which was just drained so low that it would not start ... brilliant work as always !!!!

absolutely nice work, vince! in the first place it really looked like this voltage regulator was blown! Awesome, that you just discovered that it wasn't. Will you do a video on rebuilding the battery pack with the new lithium cells and the spot welder? that would be quite nice!

Wish I’d seen this earlier. I have the same speaker that suffered a completely flat battery where the power supply turned on the orange lamp, but when I pressed the power button, the white light would come on when I pressed it, but immediately went off again when I released it. I bought a new battery pack and it all sprang to life. There’s no doubt it’ll only work with a fully functioning battery.

you will need to swap to 2 identical cells or will go out of balance and potentially overcharge the cell with lower capacity and potentially cause fire vince. always replace all cells with identical cells when doing these projects

Great video on process. Yes the battery managements boards are tricky, i have recovered plenty of electric bike batteries and they actually have a chip that corrupts itself when dissconnected from power so even if all cells are rebuilt it will not work unless the chip is replaced. I just recover the 18650 cells as spares for other projects.

I'll admit after watching 20 minutes I skipped to the end to see if you fixed it, then watched the remaining 30 minutes. Felt compelled to know if it was a comedy or tragedy before getting too engrossed. Keep up the good work.

Another great fix. Interesting re the battery circuit been a long time watcher and love the DIY approach and fault finding

What a fix! So simple but so hard to find. So nice.

I love it when you struggle? Best parts of the video

@ 45' 50" I noticed SDA and SCL by the blue and white wires which usually means data and clock as in I2C. I squared C, used for control. You should see the pulses on a scope if it is being implemented.

You are such a pleasant fella and really just seem like a very cool person and your patience and your excitement as when you fix something is pretty alright...I remember your first repair and fix....Im not totally sure if it was a Wii u or some type of Nintendo portable product....It may not of even been your first repair but I think it was like your first fix on a repair that you didn't think you could actually get it working but you did and with you feeling very accomplished with fixing something that you always well remind people to not follow your lead as your just winging it and that you are not a professional within your repairs....I truthfully think you actually are now somewhat a very skilled and patient as hell within the projects that you find to work on and your soldering skills are so good now....this might sound odd but Go figure I don't actually even truly know you but I'm actually proud of you..I know that sounds weird? Maybe l should of quoted it somewhat different?.I'm just confused on what to write sence I'm writing it on a spur of the moment and just went for it. Also your mention on how like when someone comments on how you phrase something different. Why would anyone even question the way you phrase something thats how you pronounce it and that's exactly how you should be pronouncing it or phrasing it.I really don't know how to actually phrase my words in this comment truthfully myself.. .I hope I don't sound weird on how I'm trying to give you a compliment but I think your definitely a cool kat

Getting that battery to switch on when applying power - That indeed was the Lottery Moment,, Cheers to an epic ending,, and a worthy pint of beer should have followed.

Another triumph for patience and skill. Fix or fail, your videos are always fascinating and a source of inspiration.

Bass driver excursion is greater when the cabinet is disassembled because they are not damped by the air inside. This unit seems to have passive radiators (those rectangular ones) that help make the cabinet bigger than it really is.

It Looks more like a WiFi router than a speaker. 😂 A splendid video again though Vince!!

Wow, it sounds so good for the size, incredible. If it was finish in fabric instead of plastic, it would look better, but the sound quality compensates the visuals. For a B&O product, it doesn't look the best, it looks like a tv receiver lol. Nice fix!

Very nice repair. I had a friend that had same exact speaker, but then he dropped it in pool a few years back. It was completely destroyed 🤣. I was thinking to pick up a used one because of how good it was. Thanks for reminding me.

Great fix It amazing that early battery's are failing stop units to operate without battery's connected

Awesome job in fixing this speaker.

Nice job and interesting solution, thanks for your effort. I had the same problem, but in my case I think there's more.. In facts, even if the Beoplay turns on after the BMS reset (I charged the batteries disconnecting them and using an extrernal charger), now when I plug the charger in, the orange led close to the jack keeps pulsing slowly, but after more than 12 hours it's still charging. I'm quite sure that in my case there's no charging at all.

SDA means Serial Data and SCL is the Serial Clock which is for communication between the BMS and the charging chip. If you have an Arduino or a Raspberry Pi you can hook into the SDA and SCL lines and see what actually is communicated between the battery and the charger chip and it may even give you a way to reprogram the BMS or reset it via software instead of doing it the way by disconnecting the battery cells.

Well Done Vince, great fix and amazing little speaker. Mick 👍👏🍻

I was surprised at the quality, and even more surprising is that Bang & Olufsen have stuck their name on this. To be honest, I expected better aesthetics and choice of material from them. Another great video Vince! Cheers.

I got a bose soundlink mini a few years back for $25 with the dreaded blinking red battery indicator that wouldn't turn on and it was the same issue. I was able to resurrect it by swapping cells but it's a pain that it's only inevitable the same thing will happen in another few years. They really should design these portable speakers so that even if the battery dies it will still work when plugged into external power. Either that or just standardize the batteries to something like camcorders use and make them easily user replaceable.

Trully "trail and error" repair :) ... Nice vid as always, Vince.

And the main man is back with another fix it video 💫💫

I have a Bose SoundLink that I traced down to a similar issue. The battery cells are all fine, but no voltage out of the pack. I injected voltage into the main unit and it powered up! Sadly though, I had misdiagnosed the issue earlier for a bad inductor and bypassed it with a bit of solder in place of the inductor and when I powered it up, some smoke arose at the solder bypass. I might still have a working unit, need yet to order the correct inductor. Wish I watched this first!

Good video with good close-up filming. That 'Q5' as Florian described, is clearly blown wide open. You are doing right by checking for any shorted diodes or other components around that circuit. Not sure if you are able to identify the failed MOSFET transistor?

Excellent video! This speaker pumps 2 x 30 watts, as much as my Beomaster 3300 and via Bluetooth! I need one of those.

Good on u Vince, av got one & it’s died & am gutted as travel with work a lot so need to fix. 🤞🏼🤞🏼👍🏆🇬🇧

Watching this video at 28 minutes, I think it makes sense that it won’t power without a properly functioning battery pack, it looks as though it’s using the battery pack as a split rail supply (which many amplifier circuits need). I’ll watch on and see if I’m right.😊

Great job =D It does sound very good from the recording! Lovely bass!

vince i use that same charge board to revive batteries like this but i wrapped small niodemian magnets with copper tape and soldierd my wires to them so i can just stick the magnets straight to the battery works great for me mate .

Hi Vince very nice fix , you did it again 👍

Ace! Great fault finding! Wife has a VW Campervan and something like that would be perfect! Did not know such a thing existed. Would be a change to listening to the stere, or our phones!

I recommend you having a handy Thermal Imaging camera for you to really know what component is heating up, because some components of some sort may only just need a very small amount of voltage for them to heat up every so slightly than the others. I pretty recommend it to you mate!

Beautiful fix as always Vince 👍

I still find it amazing that just a vibrating paper cone can recreate all the sounds of an original recording, instruments and all. All it does is move in one axis, even with physics knowledge it's still a bit magical.

44:21 "wow! They are certainly moving in and out a lot" ! Oooo Vince 😂

@37:00 the BMS will not turn the battery on due to one cell being less than 3V… charge the low cell up to a decent voltage and the BMS will then turn off the protection.

ive watched your channel for sometime and every video is 100% entertaining and so interesting to watch brilliant content keep up the great videos

B&O Play was a sub brand of B&O offering more affordable products to appeal to the masses with a little bit more pocket change to spare. This was at a time when B&O wasn't doing too well. I'm glad B&O Play doesn't exist anymore, personally. It allows them to make some really amazing innovative products which people who can afford it, and can flout the B&O name proudly.

Nice repair, Sounds great!

Really loveing your videos, it's a joy to watch (especially when it's from Denmark 😉)

Nice vid Vince. Be real careful when working around those cells! Trust me!! I also suggest you invest in some MacTac to aid in holding items down while you solder and probe. Watching you struggle with probing and soldering with things that are moving around pains me, LOL. Cheers, from Canada.

Another good video, nice bit of cab jumper wire and few other familiar tools 😆

52:19 A friend of mine has one and it claims up to 24 hours playtime but I think that the playtime you will get out of those batteries is decent enough, grate vid mate!!

Damn this speaker sounds good it legit sounded like you added music into the video and it wasn't playing from the speaker now that's good sound quality.

Very entertaining, always fun to see something brought back to life. Just to correct one area of confusion.... at 39:28 you set your bench psu to 2.9A as the battery is a 2900 maH battery. This is not correct as the two are not related. maH is a neasure of capacity... not current.. a 2900maH battery can potentially supply much more that 2.9A... and with lithiums this could be a lot more than 2.9A. 29000 maH mean it can supply 2.9A for 1 hour (on full charge) or 5.8A for 0.5 hours or possibly 11.6A for 15mins etc... the setting on the PSU is a maximum current limiter (usefull to set if your not sure if there is a short on something.. preventing damage or fire). It is possible to have a circuit supplied by a 2.9Ah battery that needs 5A to work (for example)... and this is fine (battery capabilty assumed), and if the psu was set to 2.9A would prevent a possibly ok circuit from working.. and mislead on a diagnosis.

Thats normal BMS behavior. After changing the batteries you have to power it on via external PSU to remove the kicked in protection. Good you got it working :)

Good Saturday morning to you sir and your family

Very interesting fault. I will definitely try putting the appropriate voltage between B+/- to see if it works if I change some cells in a pack and get no output from it (if it's using a balanced charge circuit).

Hello, nice video, How to reset BMS battery? I changed the batteries, but the flashlight turns off after a while like the original batteries :(

I bought one 2. It is by far the best bluetooth speaker. It has only a 20 minute battery life though at 70% volume. Soooo I made it wider and tripled the battery capacity. 3d scanned the middle alu frame. Printed it and painted it. And it has now 6 18650 cells and can play for more then 1 hour.

What an amazing fix Vince

Working A2's are going for $300.00 on Ebay. You did very well 😃

I have one of those spot welders, make sure you use correct voltage/ amps to power it or you will blow mosfets straight away. There is a mod for it where you add a capacitor to the circuit.

nice job Vince, it does sound good .

1st class video to watch thank you take care kind regards from me kenneth❤❤❤👍

Nice fault finding :) The external power "jumpstart" for the battery circuitry makes me wonder, how many battery packs have been replaced for nothing, if the old ones only needed this kind of "jumpstart" to make them work again.

In the end, did you replace both cells? They need to be about the same capacity if you want to keep them balanced

Great video as always. Thanks for the entertainment!!

The reason the BMS seems to have B+ and P+ shorted (common positive) but P- and B- open circuit is because they are isolating the cells negative via those mosfets. A mosfet is usually used to switch ground instead of positive.

Vince carefully and totally explaining everything and me going......HUH? Still love these vids, 😆

Of course you can fix it! Your a great fixer

It is likely a 4 or 6 layer PCB, which is why there are vias on the surface without connections, they will be connected at the inner layers.

Nice upload The unit reminds me of my Router..................🤠

Glad u got ur BO "body odor" speaker working

super fix :) and really nice fault finding :) so glad you got it working again :)

Good sleuthing!! If I did not know better, the ending music sounds like Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays during their younger years.

once that battery is that low it is best to just replace anyway. The charge / discharge while charging to me seems that its like polarized and funky inside. The best bit of this video for me is the BMS fix. Pretty sure I have a few things I could try this on.

Great video Vince!

in series you have to match capacities, for testing you can just two different ones but as its cycled with non matching battery it can cause it come out of balance.

Great job Vince 👏👏👏👏🥳