thanks for such a professional video you have probably saved me hours with the layouts, positions, values etc as i have one of these to look at for somebody at work. I'm a bricklayer but i have a diploma in electrical engineering so I'm the one everyone comes to when something needs fixing, which is OK because I love it lol
Watch the brown gunk used to secure the capacitors. I have a DC013 and it gets conductive over time! You can test this with a multimeter. Poke into the stuff on different positions and see what you got. You better clean the stuff of the PCBs to avoid problems in future. (Edit: Never mind, you found the same/similar issue I had in part 2)
+Aaron Hurd Ha! See! Look up the repair for phone replacement on ifixit plus see what tools they sale with the repair kit for your phone. I have some ifixit tools for iPhone screen replacement and they are really good quality tools that I use for other jobs all the time.
+Todd Harrison (ToddFun) Yeah, their replacement on iFixIt wants you to replace the entire LCD assembly, which they charge $180ish for. (In my case, it's just the glass of the screen that is broken.) Motorola will send me a replacement phone for $175, so it doesn't make much sense to replace the entire screen assembly. A friend has a heat gun, the screwdrivers, and plastic tools to pry with, so I just need to find the glass. Looks like a lot of places sell it on eBay for $10-ish. It also looks like separating the glass from the digitizer, cleaning off the old adhesive, and applying the new will be the hardest parts.
BTW, that brown glue stuff around relay and capacitors seems like the one that turns in conductive mass after a while. Worth of checking, I have repaired many old household electronic devices by removing that specific glue around small components like resistors and connectors.
***** Well I for one will be suspect of it going forward and I will be cleaning such brown glue out of anything I repair in the future that is for sure. Wait tell you see part 2, you might not be so supersized but I sure was.
I would of tried a 7805 (as everyone has plenty of them in a spares box) with a couple of silicon diodes in series with the common pin and ground. This would raise the 0v rail up by 1.4 volts. (0.7 volts drop across a silicone junction, so two diodes in series = 1.4v drop) That would of raised the output to around 6.4 volts but the radio would be happy with the extra 400mv! :)
+banjax66 I thought I replied to this when you posted but just in case I will say it again. Great idea! I will have to add that to my bag of tricks. Thanks.
I found this video very helpful and informative, especially the dismantling tips. I have recently acquired a DC011; the radio does not play, and the front panel display does not light up or function. Oddly, at about 9:43 of the vid, the radio is playing but the front panel is blank and the LEDs are out! anyway, I realise that you have since discarded your DC011, but hopefully there are others that may be able to help me. There are no bulging caps, dry joints, or broken traces. With the DC011 connected to the mains (no 18V battery connected), the pwr board works, and delivers 14V DC to the 3 pin connector (CN601) on the main board. The 6V regulator works, but I have a feeling it is not this that powers the front panel. There are no voltages on the 12 pin connector (CN202) that feeds the front panel. It's frustrating as there are no on-line schematics available. DeWalt could at least publish the Test Point voltages. I am trying to work out what the +VCC pin is, so I can trace the circuitry back. I can see one of the CN202 wires is red, but the adjacent components do not concur with it being the +VCC line. I was hoping the electrolytics on the front panel board would give me a clue, but no such luck. Anyway, if any of you guys can help me out, it would be greatly appreciated. It seems a shame to consign such a well built item to the land-fill. Thanks.
Hey ToddFun I have a question. Any idea why my Dewalt DCR028 Bluetooth radio only turns on when it wants to? I opened it up and everything looks good( I understand that doesn’t always mean anything). Any ideas on what I can check for? Thanks for any help and great video!
John Enix Not sure I would paint such a radio. I like the yellow De-WALT colors and it is easy to see when your packing up at night. However, I bet it looks nice in 3 tone black in the right decor.
you are right the yellow is a great look and i did not, not enjoy it. simply had it on my computer desk for a year or two and decided black would flow better
Those KIA regulators are notorious for failure. Use a metal tab substitute and a better brand. Clean off that brown glue, It becomes conductive over time! Good work!
So true. In the second part of this video I do find that brown glue had destroyed a trace which was causing intermittent problems. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Y31GA50q7Og.html
Great repair there Todd. Initially I wouldn't have thought that the regulator would have had problems at 150F, however as it was outputting over 8v something clearly wasn't right with it. Cheers friend John
***** Yes, I was thinking the same after looking up the datasheet on the regulator but it had to go. Not sure how a regulator can start regulating at a higher voltage, maybe internally they are all the same as a LM317 and some internal adjust restore was way out of tolerance do to the years of heat stress being plugged in and regulating 24x7. I didn't know the regulator was going to be driving itself at 100% for 8 years while the radio was off for 99% of the time. Sad design.
***** Regulators do fail, and yes they are basically a generic inside, with 2 polysilicon resistors setting the output voltage. Trim is by selecting sections of resistor and zapping them out in production, to trim a say 3-24V part to fit in a 5% window of say 5V, 6V, 9V and so on. Your one probably had a lot of toasting, and this cooked the die ( 160F case means inside was a lot hotter, and it fading out was the regulator going into thermal shutdown) so it drifted and this can be either way. Lucky for you it only drifted or got very leaky, they tend to fail short circuit. The radio chip would not like to have 18V plus applied to it, they tend to blow at 11V.
My dewalt 18 volt is similar but more basic, but the radio/ charger does not work through the power cord......battery works the radio good though......what is the likely culprit here
Nothing like a good hack to fix something. My LM317 experiments have all led to the resistors going up in smoke. That is the fun of trying to make a adjustable high current or high voltage regulator.
***** Well that is too bad. I have never smoked on before but I have never tried any high current applications using one either. I bet they don't like that.
***** One of my LM317 experiment a few days ago ended up in smoke because it was in the constant current source configuration and I overloaded it, no problem.
Thanks for the video. My radio will find channels on AM but not on FM. Even if I turn it to a known powerful fm station it won’t play the station. Any ideas?
Paused video about 16:30: I noticed that when you measured the voltage regulator voltage, you moved the black (neg) probe rather than the positive probe. What you probably actually measured was the voltage drop across the regulator (Vin - Vout, 14V - 8V), or Vout=6V. I believe the regulator was fine, but worth of replacement for overheating. You've got a short from the 6V source to ground.
Brett Duane jeez louise you're right. What a bone head mistake. Thanks for catching that in the video. I guess I should test that regulator and put it back if its still good.
I'd just order another and install it later - I don't think I'd re-install it if I didn't have to. Its been through 2 soldering cycles and an unknown overheat period. The present regulator is working well enough.
hello @ToddFun, What type of mains transformer does the radio use? what should be its output voltage? I need to replace the mains transformer because it shorted but I don't know which to replace it with.
Hey Todd, I have a quick question. I have the same radio and I’m replacing the power cord. How do I remove that small black plastic clip that holds the power cord in place in the back of the radio?
Hi Todd Nice Video. I have a couple of blown out transistors on the display board. They are Q503 and Q504. Can you tell what the transistors are? Cheers!
I don't think the regulator was acting up. i think you were measuring from input to output when you got the 8.37V. That would be about right with 14.31V input and about 6V out. But I have seen these regulators go bad sometimes with voltages fading out, so it might still have been the culprit.
You are correct. Thanks. I have a follow up video on the repair that finally did fix it. Still working today. I really hate such intermittent faults. www.toddfun.com/2015/06/27/repair-dewalt-radio-part-2-of-2/
I've done no electronic repair but isn't this where you would shoot it with the freeze spray to see if the overheating component was the culprit? I don't have the more expensive tools like the heat sensor you used. Thanks for the video, I have the same problem with mine and hate to throw the thing away.
Todd, great video that was an inspiration for me. Well, at least having the courage to take the front off! Do you know if you can obtain a complete set of black and red wires running from the 2 back-up batteries to the little pub? Mine have corroded badly (light green, looks like a battery leak some time ago). No clock display or memory of stations. Cleaned everything up, but no go. Peter
@@ToddFun Todd, it’s great to hear from you. I was not sure if you’d get round to see my post. I’m afraid making one up is way beyond my capabilities. But thanks for the suggestion anyway. I had a thought earlier that maybe I could find a cheap DC011 on eBay and use the part from it in my radio. I can live without the clock display and station memory. It would be just really satisfying to fix it. Best wishes, and thanks so much for your interest, Peter
Could be one of many issues. I wouldn't even be able to guess them all without getting into it myself. Sorry. I see them on offer up and Craig's list a lot now that everyone changing over to the newer Li-Ion 20v and 60v power pack models. I even changed over to the new dewalt models but that was because I left my garage door open one night by mistake an all my dewalt and some other tools got nipped.
Hi Todd.. I have one of those radios and I would like to get more bass out of the speakers.. do you know if/how that is possible? - I already have better 4" speakers and changed them, but that did not help.. I'm thinking I need to replace something on the board?
hello todd love the video i have a question i have a Milwaukee job sight radio its a v18, im a guy on a very restrictive budget and i was woundering would a jump starter power bank power it. now what i was thinking if i purchased a set of the extra charging cables for it and swapped them for a female power outlet would that work
It all depends on how the radio is designed. If it has has a stupid power regulation circuit that regulates the 18V battery to something 12v or less for the radio internals then a simple 12 volt power bank will work just fine. If there are some built in smarts it might be testing for a given battery pack and will not switch over to the radio power regulation circuits or it might test for a known low voltage on the battery pack and if it does't see the minimum then it will also not switch on the radio. Provided you don't plug in AC outlet and provided you connect the power bank 12 volt positive and negative leads to the correct positive and negative power pins on the battery pack connection wires then it will work fine or it will not work at all. No harm in trying as the power bank is 12v DC and it is designed to expect 18v DC. NOTE: if you plug in the AC line to charge or power the radio while you are still connected to a 12v power bank very bad things will happen!
I have to ask,HOW can anyone work and expect to get anything accomplished without listening to music ?...what type of heavy Rock n Roll is a whole different argument though.
Arnþór Gíslason Well that's a nifty idea. I wonder if a high freq SMPS so close to the radio tuning circuits would be a good idea? maybe with enough shielding it would be fine.
I found 1 of these rugged bastards the other day , & it seems that the on/off/volume switch is bad (a lot of scratchiness & dropouts) you have to find the sweet spot on the pot to make it play. It's a bummer but it works. Is there a way I can get a pot to replace the old one? Any suggestions?
Most of the time you can just take it out and spray the crap out of it with electronic contact cleaner. Let it dry and put it back it. This will clean as well as lube the internal contacts, provided you can get the spray inside a crack or other opening in the pot. I use this stuff, its great: astore.amazon.com/tod0f5-20/detail/B00006LVEU
+Bryan Robin I'm not sure. I would have to do a lot of teardown and testing to get that answer. Why?, are you thinking of building your own charger? The chargers are cheap and normally come with some packs as well as tools as well as I see them on Craig's list and eBay all the time used and cheap ~$6 to $12 a lot of times... Of course what fun is that if you like to build stuff, you would have to get one and test it to be sure you were building it correctly. I do know there is a temp sensor in each pack so the charger is reading that sensor and shutting down or limiting the charge cycle. In fact if you put in in a hot pack it will just blink the code that the pack is too hot to charge and it waits until it cools before it starts charging.
+Todd I have one already. I'm getting 50 volts coming out of the power supply ( charge circuit). Just wondering about the amps. I have other ideas for this little guy. Thanks anyway
When you plug it in do you hear a relay click? you should hear a relay click to switch power circuit over from battery to AC / Charging. If not then it could be bad or it could not be making good contact internally or something that controls the relay is not working correctly.
Hard to tell. Just about anything could be wrong. If you can't do repairs yourself then set it out in the sun to dry good for a week and hope the sun bakes out any moisture and give it a try. Try with AC power and try with just battery power in case one or the other power circuits are still functional.
GeorgeGraves Hi George! They don't build stuff to last more than a few years nowadays. It seemed well enough build I guess but having the on/off switch not turn off power 100% at least after the trans seems a bit lame. Not sure what would have been so hard about doing that and then saving all the endless run time on the relay and regulators. I'm going to be leaving this unplugged from now on.
***** So true. Jeri Ellsworth has a awesome talk about her c64 video game thing she made at how American designs that get sent to China, are then sent to engineers at the plant that specialize on reducing parts counts (like leaving out de-coupeling caps, protection diodes, and what not) to reduce price. Can't find the link to her talk about it. If anyone knows, please post up - it's a interesting discussion for sure!
