Cambridge Audio GO for £25 on eBay | What could go wrong?

I picked up this GO V2 bluetooth speaker for £25 inc. postage. It was sold as faulty, with no power.
Sure enough, it was accurately described, and didn't turn on. What they neglected to mention is that someone with fat fingers had already been poking around inside it...
Let's see if we can get it working again...
Hope you enjoy!
Steve
PS. I'm not an expert in repairs at all. I do this for fun, and it may not be the best or safest way to go about repairing broken stuff. I'm pretty good at melting plastic though. Please don't copy me - I'm an idiot.
SUPPORT ME on PATREON: bit.ly/ssf-patreon
ONE-OFF DONATIONS: www.paypal.me/...
MERCH: stezstixfix.com
AMAZON WISH LIST: bit.ly/ssf-wish
SUBSCRIBE HERE: bit.ly/ssf-sub
FOLLOW ME on Facebook: bit.ly/ssf-fbook
If you want to make a device donation to the channel, please use the following PO Box. PLEASE NOTE that this is not a repair service, and all items are non-returnable.
PO BOX ADDRESS: StezStix Fix?, PO Box 415, BOLTON, BL4 4AZ
Please only use this service if you are a UK resident and using Royal Mail, otherwise they'll probably lose it.
Some of the magic things I use to break stuff;
My soldering iron: UK amzn.to/2Isf360 US amzn.to/3dfq8Xe
My hot air station: UK amzn.to/3kPxaBQ US amzn.to/3xo0SoM
My microscope: UK amzn.to/2VP3msU US amzn.to/3DmDgED
My desoldering gun that goes "moo": UK amzn.to/3HHt73P US amzn.to/3QHJOkb
My multimeter: UK amzn.to/2LjBgnN US amzn.to/3qEiSHy
My blue mat: UK amzn.to/48ZgkI8 US amzn.to/3LcZUkI
Filming equipment;
My camera: UK amzn.to/38IdR7s US amzn.to/3BiwyNg
My 2nd camera: UK amzn.to/3Rfjn6U US amzn.to/3BGOB1i
My microphone: UK amzn.to/3rCriPc US amzn.to/3QJwWtS
VOS's mic: UK amzn.to/3pz2c1L US amzn.to/3Lc7aO1
Links are affiliated where possible to help support the channel. Nice.

[@StezStixFix]

Stupid Spoiler Saver... Nothing to see here.

[@bufordmaddogtannen]

Stupid crack. I was expecting you to use solder braid to repair the larger tracks though...

[@andrewgrant6516]

The comment displayed on the bottom left is the one after the pinned comment, so I'm not sure you're avoiding any spoilers.

[@emmettturner9452]

Use hot melt on the crushed domes. Once cool, pop the dents and release with rubbing alcohol.

[@ShouldHaveBeen]

​@@emmettturner9452There are better ways and using a vacuum with low suction is an industry standard.

[@eightbitriddle]

found this exact speaker in an ewaste bin and it was broken in the exact same way. the battery did in fact come that way originally

[@zorko8920]

"I don’t know what I’m doing and I am an idiot", spoken like a true professional. Thank you Steve 🎉 that is now my new moto in life.

[@graham9642]

He needs to put that out on a T=shirt

[@Satwamassive]

"These batteries are quite dangerous.....but I don't care" 🤣🤣

[@scottbaylo]

I’m also in the “self proclaimed stupid idiots club for moronic jerks”, and I’m always surprised whenever I find someone who openly admits that they’re dumb… not sure if this is even a genuine admission, or just self deprecating humor? But if it is genuine, we really need to get this group going… maybe weekly meetings are in order?

[@johnny_fomo]

Beware anyone who declares themselves anything else

[@VenturiLife]

The more you know, you realize the less you know.

[@thadofalltrades]

The vacuum to mostly pull out those domes was quite ingenious

[@main_rouge]

it's a well knows trick (you can also just use you mouth and go "pop") but I highly recommend to start first with some adhesive tape, much less destructive and usually gives better results In his case though tape probably wouldn't be enough with how damaged they were

[@simonupton-millard]

I will have to remember that trick, I am guessing the previous owner was a teen who hated treble just wanted the bass

[@ettcha]

😂 My mind was blown! But I imagine using your hand to control suction is critical to avoid ripping the domes off (some vacuums have a function to reduce suction force but that might still be too much)

[@ShouldHaveBeen]

As soon as a tweeter gets crushed in like that then the true audio quality is compromised. While I highly recommend pulling the membrane back out as opposed to just throwing it away or spending money on new tweeters. The tweeter can never be same. It's worth spending money on new tweeters if it's an expensive/high quality speaker. Using a vacuum is the industry standard as it doesn't leave residue and no direct contact needs to be made.

[@RennieAsh]

Vacuum is ok but sometimes you need more stick. Like blutack, or "alien tape" . But need to know how much force you can use

[@marcbastien6054]

Bought mine in 2014, it kinda died during the pandemic, so I changed the batteries , put in 3000 mah batteries, just enough space for them and the unit is running great since then! Still my everyday radio and bluetooth speaker . By the way, your tweeter repair skills are impressive!

[@DamajaCJ]

Any info/link on the battery you got as replacement pls? 🙏🏼

[@benwinter2420]

Spring is coming For I smell the stench Of a new flu campaign Kochs postulates Lacking

[@thedadbodbiker]

When I need to bridge a broken board like that I typically use solder wick fully saturated, bridges easier and is very strong 👍 brilliant content as usual 👌

[@kaelin000]

I *KNEW* there was a use forr that stuff :P

[@incub8]

YES! 💯 Solder wick -- I have done something similar in the past.

[@andreaseinsiedler3538]

i also use small solder wick to repair smd level traces and once saved an transformer where the lead broke near the winding with a piece of solder wick too

[@RichardMartinke6rji]

Yeah, solder wick works good!

[@Wardyworlds]

I have a track repair kit, it's just loads of various width copper tracks coated in solder, just tin the damaged track and put the repair track on, job done in seconds and barely noticeable apart from the green resistance fluid being a darker green than the resistance coating on the PCB.

[@jochenrudiger]

Someone may please explain to me why I enjoy watching this guy fixing different stuff so much. It is the kind of education I really enjoy, entertaining and always interesting. He makes me want to learn fixing stuff. You and thecod3r are the two repair channels I really enjoy. Best wishes from Germany.

[@Okurka.]

I may explain to you why you enjoy watching this guy fixing different stuff so much. Because it is the kind of education you really enjoy, entertaining and always interesting.

[@vernonzehr]

Another channel on KZbin showed a movie called "The Brain". An increasingly popular TV show brainwashes its viewers with a giant living brain. I am almost certain something similar is happening here.

[@jochenrudiger]

@@Okurka. You may be correct. Cheers, mate. 🍷

[@Martyn-ey9lw]

An excellent repair channel well worth watching is "Buy it Fix it"

[@theblackswan84]

i enjoy it cause he's adorable to me. I know nothing of electronics. But everytime i learn something with his way to fix it with trial and error. He has a lovely humor and positive attitude. i believe lots of people watch even if they don't understand electronics.

[@KonjonoAwesome]

Protected lithium ion cells will shut off the battery's output when the pack voltage drops below a certain voltage. That board in the battery pack probably has a battery protection IC on it that disconnects the battery below 9 volts or so. You have to apply a charging voltage above a certain level to reset the protection circuit.

[@paulsengupta971]

I came here to say this. The battery is probably fine for that reason.

[@bfelten1]

@@paulsengupta971 Me too. The zero reading on the cable showed that the protection circuit worked well, it didn't even leak enough current to get a multimeter reading, which means that it could have been connected for years without being destroyed. The USB charger voltage was far from enough to overcome the protection. Once the proper voltage was applied it took off from the protection voltage very slowly, so with some patience, at least two hours with one amp charging, it'd been up and running as new. Total wasted effort...

[@MikeSchmidt969]

@@bfelten1 As was your post, considering the one you responded to explained all of that more concisely.

[@Flodis]

Came here to say this. I was almost shouting at the screen when he started taking the battery apart!

[@stinkycheese804]

@@paulsengupta971 Except no, "probably" isn't good enough when the potential alternative is a fire. The protection boards on Li-Ion packs don't just cut off at a certain voltage on a whim, on the contrary the manufacturer would love to have longer runtime at no addt'l battery cost if all they had to do was let the voltage drop more before the cutoff point. It's a pretty universal thing, battery protect for Li-Ion packs and trust me that you do not know better than the engineers who put these protection circuits into ALL safely designed implementations - safely until someone ignorant, trys to bypass that and recharge cells that are discharged too low and damaged as a result.

[@JS-bf9dw]

I have only the highest admiration for people who can fix things. Subscribed!

[@sbarncar]

it's the process of elimination.

[@NackDSP]

What a dishonest seller to pull the grill off, smash the tweeters in and then hide that damage under the grill. Some people are just crap. Great video.

[@Cyba_IT]

Exactly what I was thinking man. I bet they took it apart trying to fix it, saw the board was broken, pushed in the tweeters in in frustration, put it back together and sold it. Pretty scumbag thing to do really.

[@nrml76]

@@Cyba_IT In fairness to the seller, they made it very clear it was not working and not easily repairable.

[@stinkycheese804]

Dishonest? Probably it was just grabbed ham-fisted while being taken apart previously and someone's finger pushed them in accidentally, then they saw no need to try to bother doing anything about it because it was sold as broken. If the seller had instead taken a picture that showed the two tweeters without the dents, that would have been dishonest but otherwise, there is no expressed condition factor for anything on a product stated as non-working.

[@Brainwave36]

Nicely done. I love finding discarded electronics and bringing them back to life. I always learn something new with videos like these. I gave my old Cambridge works 5.1 surround sound system to a friend and it's still going strong after twenty years. He built himself a micro-home, so it fits perfect for the space that he has.

[@showshow_biz]

HI. Great video. May I sugest the following in your bag to tricks. 1. Use detal floss or string to saw throught the adhesives joing the battery cells. Put some grease on the string to keep the adhesive from sticking back together after the string passes. 2. Use wires on all the repaired traces for added streagth. 3. The battery protection board ususally will disconnect the battery cells from the power out to keep the cells from going too low and may not fully charge the individual cells to maximize the cell life.

[@SianaGearz]

Yes braided wire or a piece of wick for wide traces gives a ton of strength.

[@stinkycheese804]

@@SianaGearz No, there is no reason to choose braided wire or wick, zero benefit over just taking a piece of solid core wire, tapping it a bit flat with a hammer or vice/press, and soldering it on if you don't have copper sheeting to emulate the original track profile. It will not only carry more current, and need less solder, but also cost less and be far more commonly available as scrap material.

[@stinkycheese804]

Except there was no reason nor benefit to separating the cells in the first place, just another bungle in this repair.

[@SianaGearz]

@@stinkycheese804 I'm not going to spend time and effort hammering solid core, no. Wick is always at hand and is cheap enough, as is solder, and i don't care about a handful cents here and there. Current carrying is also not worse if you use enough material. Like, you look at the PCB and it's 1oz or 2oz and you're basically boosting the current carrying capability anyway no matter what you add on top.

[@mangosweet4971]

I was an electrician several decades ago and its fascinating the way things have changed and the way you repaired the printed circuit was really fun to watch. Well done.

[@whodatdere1]

Great lil patch job! Usually for jobs like this I will use the baking soda and super glue trick. I will then use wire and solder wick to bridge the tracks to make sure it is rigid. My concern is where there are jacks there is pressure, it is key to make sure you build up the area behind or around to make sure there is minimal flex in the pcb.

[@bikeanddogtripsvirtualcycling]

cambridge audio, marantz and technics - all a part of my life in the 90s. oh b&w and kef for the speakers.

[@JViello]

Best decade known to man...

[@theowinters6314]

That fix on the board is very clean, far better then I could have done. Well done there. I'm betting that break is because of both an over tightened screw, and the force needed to plug the power jack in as it's right next to break. So maybe be a bit careful with plugging the jack in.

[@eightbitriddle]

foun this exact speaker in an ewaste bin and it was broken in the exact same way.

[@richards7909]

I wonder if it fell and landed with the power cable in as it’s not supported around that area it seems.

[@jd_railfan]

over tightening is possible. my nephew got a computer (from a online seller) that only lasted around 2 weeks. go and find out the motherboard didn't work anymore because the cpu cooler was way too tight on the socket. put the cpu in a different motherboard and it worked just fine.

[@stinkycheese804]

I was thinking it was craptacular. How to do it differently? 1) There was no need to remove that much coating over the traces, 1/2 as much length would have been fine. 2) There was a benefit to instead, use a fine sandpaper, fiberglass pen, or abrasive polish to ensure that all the coating in that area was removed, instead of digging down deeper into the copper trace with the rotary bit. 3) It was misguided to bridge the crack with solder instead of tacking down a flattened solid core piece of wire, or copper sheeting if he had some. Current carrying would be higher and the fortification of the joint better. 4) The cracked area including into the remaining gaps, should have been repaired with epoxy so it was no longer fragile, then after the epoxy has set, can counterbore a hole into the epoxy for a replacement screw to match that counterbore. This is not only theory but practice in the very many similar repairs I've done. Further if you find that plugging in the power plug causes excessive stress, if the stress is only on the socket then put a bead of epoxy around it. If it is stressing the whole board then substitute an added panel mount jack in a hole you put in the chassis and air-wire that to the PCB.

[@Etcher]

@@stinkycheese804 I'd say you're a smash hit at parties

[@habsom1406]

....."....inside my heart 💓 maybe breaking, but the shoe size 11 must go on!" Great work that technician, recovered that speaker from the grave, gave it life again👍.

[@PrinceXTC86]

It's bloody incredible what ideas you come up with in order to fix stuff, Steve. Massive kudos!

[@Mrch33ky]

If you put a towel or a nylon over the end of the vacuum it works very well for tweeter repair. It won't pull the tweeter material through the end of the hose if that is a concern.

[@ianhaylock7409]

15:21 Nice! You replace the standard zip ties with the audiophile grade black zip ties. Going to have much sweeter transients now.

[@andrewgrant6516]

Please explain.

@@andrewgrant6516 It's a joke about all the crazy "audiophile" stuff that is on the market.

[@harpingon]

Don't tell Russ.

[@PorchBass]

Needs a £100 kettle lead to really give best reproduction

[@UpInSmoke54]

But did he use zip ties with metal locking tabs those are even better for sound quality!!! 😅

[@markianclark9645]

Steve..use strong double sided foam tape..the best is No More Nails on a Roll..carefully attach it to the tweeter dents and pull gently..i used that method on a pair of speaker cones with centre pressed in..practice first on an old crap speaker

[@spinnerpete]

I wrap electrical PVC tape around my finger sticky side outwards, Then pick at them until I get the crush out.

[@laszlomarktoth7492]

Before use ducktape use the heat gun, then pull gently out the domes, when pulled out use again the heatgun to remove the bendings from the domes. Then will looks good again.

[@ShouldHaveBeen]

While it's better than leaving it or spending money if it's not an overly expensive speaker. The true audio quality is compromised when a tweeter membrane gets crushed. The audio quality is dependent on the structural integrity of the membrane remaining intact.

[@laszlomarktoth7492]

@@ShouldHaveBeen yes, if you have replacement. Anyhow this is plastic and moderate amount of heat reforming the dome like original

[@ShouldHaveBeen]

@@laszlomarktoth7492 One has to be very careful using heat as it can further compromise the structural integrity. It can even deform the membrane even more. That method shouldn't be attempted by the novice repair person on something without accepting that more damage could be done. As an audio engineer I've even seen other professionals mess that procedure up plenty of times. A low suction vacuum is the preferred industry standard.

I wonder if the battery would have come up to full charge if you had just left it plugged in longer. Your external board charged it at 1A, but the internal charger may use a lower current and take a few hours to fully charge the battery. All in all, well done!

[@Zagroseckt]

At a 0v charge the controler was pulse charging curent draw would sag the14v to 10 and 20 min was no where near long enough to do the recondition cycle. when one of those packs gets that low it's a slow pulse charge till the battery is above 30% in most cases. so ya i was thinking the same thing. he didnt give the circuit time to do a recovery charge. Wich i am impressed that that thing has a pulse mode. Most protection circuits dont try to bring it back they just see less than x volts and stop any further charging for safe fail. You realy have to watch curent draw during that first 5-10% thats where you can form shorts or cause brakedown from heat.

[@WhiteDieselShed]

@@Zagroseckt Same with the TP4056 boards. People said they do not charge if the battery voltage was too low but they probably did not leave them long enough because they do put out a tiny voltage over time to slowly raise the voltage to one where it can be charged properly. Just takes time.

[@kayleas5328]

also he charged the batteries individually then said 'it's not charging the batteries is it' after putting the battery pack back in to the speaker

[@rich1051414]

@@WhiteDieselShed From what I understand, this is a bug and a feature. The chip will randomly wake up, see something asking for a charge, try to charge, see the battery voltage is too low, and then shut down again. I don't think it's intentionally doing it, but it's behavior is acceptable to recondition a cell anyway.

[@rosskj9187]

Battery is knackered at 0v, electronics engineer here, even if you could get voltage it's capacity is negligible at that point sorry

[@BrentBlueAllen]

Zip-tied before testing? Someone was mighty confident in their repair

[@alldjp]

The low battery reading is typically normal when charging a depleted battery. You won't get the same reading when the supply voltage to the battery is not under load. Once a battery is connected, the supply voltage drops while the charging circuit runs on constant current, and the voltage will slowly increase. With that being a 3S battery, and depending on the cells, BMS, etc, the lower voltage cutoff can be close to 9V and the full charge voltage can be around 12.6V. Just something to keep in mind before you go dismantling battery packs in the future. haha! But great video and really enjoyed the music track!

[@vernonzehr]

I am shocked and dismayed that people skip the rap in the beginning. That music pulls me into the world of this channel. Without it, I'm not emotionally prepared to experience the full restoration or failure of the content.

[@RennieAsh]

The rap would be fine but it's just weird to me when you're singing what you'd normally be speaking in a random video lol

[@mrshaw3794]

If you have been to see John Otway live at a gig, then you will appreciate how good rapping Steve is. 😂 No offence John.

[@CosmicChicken34Official]

Its crazy to see how youve gone from a beginner to this repair. really awesome to see Steve!

[@Akstergrind]

I’m completely in awe of anyone who can do stuff like this!

[@Akstergrind]

Yep, so impressed was I with that fix that I’ve subscribed to your channel! Wow, if that was me I’d’ve taken one look at that mess inside it and lobbed it straight in the bin…which is probably indicative of the throwaway culture in which we exist these days. Anyway, thanks for the video. I’ll now freak myself out still further by watching a few more.

[@SisilKabir]

I absolutely admire your tenacity and determination to get that speaker fixed, even when faced with odds that almost made you give up! Subscribed!

[@somborn]

Little children are phantastic for high end audio equipment 😂😂😂

[@firstnamelastname9631]

I was looking for a brake after watching 2 episodes of Fallout back to back and this came up on KZbin. Thoroughly enjoyed it. I never thought that watching someone fix electronics could be so enthralling, something to do with the pace and your voice. Back to Fallout.

[@Poweruser75]

Super duper, Buddy! You're such a good hearted guy and well learned. I don't comment enough, I know, and I wish you all the best success in everything you do :)

[@placebomessiah]

I love how we both have the "I must take a picture of this before I ruin it" mentality

[@mrfitz96]

You ask "who does that"? Well since you asked, a 7 year old daughter does that to my Mordant-Short 442s.

[@kevinabalo]

Bless her ..

[@snafu2350]

..but only once, right? ;)

[@mrfitz96]

@@snafu2350 actually I don't really know, because she was sold for medical experiments shortly afterwards.

[@vinceofarrell2765]

...and my grandchildren did it to my KEF Reference 103s after the nasty foam covering the drivers disintegated into black dust on the carpet.

[@SMarcey]

I bought a Bose Soundlink 2 from an online charity shop, an that model speaker came out more than 10 years ago. The battery still not only works, but still works pretty darn close to original spec. I dont know how cause the thing was clearly well used. thankfully its very easy to replace the battery on it and because Bose is such a big brand and the speakers were expensive when they came out people have an interest in maintaing them, so you can still find new battery replacements online. Not from Bose but still, fresh battery cells in the correct configuration to fit the speaker is pretty incredible. I hope to have this little beauty a good long time. I love your videos because it shows people that these devices dont have to go in a bin after a few years and that we need to do whatever we can to keep them out of landfills.

[@vibaek78]

Not a complete mess, especially considering the big black blobs next to your homefix. I wish I had your skills. I love your hits (and misses too)

[@madMARTYNmarsh1981]

I have found Shark vacuum cleaners to be very good for repairing pushed in tweeters. They have a variable setting on the nozzle handle, so you can apply varying suction directly.

[@JohnMehew-y4i]

I'm actually watching this video whilst listening to the audio on my Go V2, which is still going strong with the original battery. For your info, the LED above the power jack should be Green when fully charged and Orange when charging. Not sure about the flashing, I've never seen mine do that.

[@Eric-xj4qj]

Using a vacuum cleaner for those tweeters was actually a pretty brilliant idea!

[@Rocket_Try]

Yes, the last time I had to fix those, I hotglued a matchstick to it, pulled them out and loosened it with some IPA after. But Steve's fix is much more elegant.

[@sismofytter]

It's a classic way to do it in the hifi community

[@benbocc1549]

I used a plunger on bigger ones before... worked great 😂

[@billmarsh1971]

Oldskool. When you have kids and speakers you know what to do without hesitation

[@Rocket_Try]

@@billmarsh1971 exactly what I thought, "Who would do that?" "Yeah, children. They are cute, but death to your speakers." 😀

[@-Tidgy]

I think that anyone that opens electronics without any experience or care (as shown here) should be jailed for a short period. Absolutely disgraceful to see those tweeters pressed in like it was handled by some 3 year old.

[@Lynsky24]

Jailed😅😅. What are you, 3yrs old.

[@-Tidgy]

@@Lynsky24 add a 0 on the end of that.😂 I just care about audio equipment, what's the matter with that

[@craigclemmens6353]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@lesjones5684]

Hey there 😂😂😂😂

[@lesjones5684]

Can you dig it 😂😂😂😂

[@technoman9000]

Nice fix! I enjoyed seeing the giant blobs of solder being applied.

[@ProfilProfi]

"These batteries are quite dangerous... but I don't care." that level of self-esteem!

[@iPeel]

The board in the battery was a Battery Management System ( BMS ). The BMS did its job and shut off when one cell reached a low voltage state to protect the battery which is why it was reading absolutely nothing on the DVM. As soon as you plugged the PSU in after the repair it woke the BMS which enabled discharge again and started charging the battery.

[@ScottMadeAThing]

"Hmm? Hairy flux." :D

[@Boogie_the_cat]

I went to school with a Harry Flux. No But my mom had a Harry Mystery in her class in highschool. No comment.

[@P5YcHoKiLLa]

Rumour is that was Steve's nickname in High School (GMM Joke)

[@gentle285]

You went the extra mile to repair it! Loved every second of this! Great work!

[@magicaardvark1]

Felt a certain tightening of the sphincter when you started taking that cell pack apart. Lithium cells contain FIRE! Balls of steel mate! Thanks for the great vid!

[@Nightykk]

Was definitely missing the 'explosion containment pie dish' there 😅

[@alan4yt]

Love the jingle lyrics. Repairs are always a detective case. The actual repair is only a small part of the overall work. Well done, mate, should be a detective constable.

[@croolis]

The board in the battery has a cut-off when one of the cells falls below a pre-set voltage (usually 3.2v) - that is why you had 0v on the output. The cut-off is re-set the moment you try to charge them. The board is also probably a top balancer and should bring up the cells to an equal max voltage of about 4.1v before cutting charging.

[@HarryWho102]

I found the best way of getting the dome tweeters back to resembling a dome, was to get a small ball of "Blue Tack" and dab onto the dome and pull it back in to shape. Also works when the dome in mid range and bass drivers speakers have been pushed in.

[@TheMdog8]

I've just subscribed because you MAKE A SONG FROM YOUR PATREONS!?!?!!? THAT IS FRIGGIN AMAZING!

[@oliverpolden]

I love it when you find an obvious fault. I was doing the good old power check and found no voltage coming out the other side of a switch. Sure enough, fixing the switch and my device was working again. I've also found that it seems devices have a slow charge to bring low voltage batteries back. It can take some time before the device will turn on and charge normally. Always worth charging something for a few hours before binning the battery.

[@awhisperinthewind4253]

always been a Cambridge Audio fan, decent Hi Fi for a reasonable price

[@MrRecorder1]

For structural integrity of the board, you can try gluing a washer on top (and back) of the broken screw-hole. That improves structural integrity to the screwhole so that you can reuse it without accidentally cracking the board or just relying on the adhesion of the tracks and big solder blobs...

[@JerryCrow]

Cool, appreciate people with steady hands :)

[@davidleiper1]

How this popped up on my feed I’ve no idea. However it’s a tremendous video and you have a new subscriber. Cheers

[@CharlesStawell]

really cool that it didn't end up in landfill - we need to get the next generation into PCB repair so much good stuff gets thrown out for little reasons

[@retrocomputinggrotto]

1 less thing going in the WEEE (eWaste) so that's always a bonus! Great repair video :)

[@Beamish32]

I've never watched one of your videos before but you got me with 'everyone knows that Eric is Bananaman'. I'm old but loved that reference. Never saw him in Nutty but I still have copies of The Dandy with Eric in. Can't believe that someone damaged the tweeters

[@kimzg1224]

You can try and use solder wick when bridging large traces like that. Gets a bit stonger. Like rebar in concrete. Great video as always!!😊

[@TheMustaros]

Your videos are good, don't stop what you're doing, greetings from Hungary.

[@slaphead2965]

Who'd have thought you could fix your tweeters with a vacuum cleaner! 😮 Great repair btw 👍

[@aisforrebel9310]

Use some hot glue on a q-tip to pop those tweeters back out, alcohol will remove the glue without damaging them.

[@rj7855]

You didn't get any voltage out of the battery pack because the over discharge protection circuit had cut the output, by (after repairing the pcb) applying a charge voltage for a while the pack was above the cutoff voltage so output was re- enabled

[@scaleop4]

yea and that was bugging the hell out of me. there is nothing wrong with that battery. as you said, it will cut at at around 3 volt ish its normal lol

[@Dave062YT]

Amazing job and the sound quality comes over on video too .Well worth the time ,fantastic repair

[@wesjb94]

Nice fix Steve. I like when they go so well and we see a good working product!

[@vandal968]

When recovering very dead lithiums it's not unusual for the voltage to rise and drop like that. I think when it drops it's because additional areas of the cell are coming alive and pulling the overall voltage down. You'll usually see those voltage drops accompanied by an overall increase in current drawn from the charger. Good job on the repair.

[@RichardKuivila1947]

WOW ! 6 minutes of removing Screws ! Tanks !

[@VinceLammas]

First time Ive come across your channel (unusual content for me) but I reallly enjoyed watching your repair activities.

[@TigraWatanabe]

I would suggest to use an fiberglass Pen to clean up Circuit Boards, a Dremel can maybe cut to deep and a Fiberglass pen keep the surface smooth.

[@NoferTrunions]

After doing a number of wire splices, I started soldering the end of the wire first and then cut to length. I really like your microscope!!!

[@sigma-zero]

Another great video and I am learning all the time. I have been in electronics/electrical from school and you make me realise how little I know. Thanks for making me feel inferior as I was starting to think i was good at this stuff.

[@TheComputec]

Hi First time watching any of your videos. I love it my friend ! I work in IT recycling in the UK for a large ITAD (IT asset disposal service) and you would not believe the amount of AV kit we end up tossing because it isn't commercially viable to repair, yet we all know what a horrible environmental cost there is to behaving in such a wasteful way I try to save and fix as much as I can, mainly for the sense of achievement when you get the left hand amp stage of a nice Denon AV receiver working just by swapping out some simple surface mount components... It's going to get harder and harder to do so in the coming years as we see more and more multi-layer boards, but such is life... In the meantime your videoo(s) look like my kind of thing. I'm sure i'll pick up a few tricks and tips. You've earned my sub

[@MachineChrist6]

I build and fly drones and have made a few battery packs and Watching you solder and use metal tools on those batteries has me screaming inside. I've had a few pop on me and it's the scariest thing ever.

[@alanpartridge1385]

Really interesting. Vacuuming the tweeters was ingenious!

[@TIPP_X]

Always calming to watch u fix things

[@DumfriesDik]

I have a Cambridge Go and love it. It was interesting to see the inside, thank you.

[@233kosta]

That climbing and dropping thing... If you put a scope on the terminals instead of a mult-eye-meter (or whatever the yanks call them), you'll see pulsing voltage. That's because the charge controller has to cut off the charging current to take a measurement of battery voltage. Most feedback controlled chargers woll do that. Using my bench PSU on the other hand is an open loop process, relying on the voltage and current limiting circuits to ensure no overcharge. I've never seen any document pointing out a technological (i.e. chemical) advantage of either process, but from an engineering point of view, it's much easier to miniaturise the feedback-controlled circuit, it cuts down the component count by virtue of not needing current and voltage regulators like a bench PSU.

[@livefreeordiehardkor]

I like the way that you do your patreon supporters in your videos. It's really neat how you do them and I really do like the timer so we know how long to skip ahead.

[@DAVEDigitalandVinylExpert]

Bravo. With the tweeters like that and the broken board I would have given up. You did an amazing job.

[@Etcher]

Who else thought he was just going to bin the battery? What a dude!

[@DetectiveMagnotta]

Must admit you are giving me inspiration and the itch to do things like this on stream as been repairing friends stuff for many many years. Tho without the singing as no one wants to hear me sing XD

[@FunAllDayLong4353]

I bought a Cambridge Audio A1 amp for £27 - working fine!!! 👍😁

[@jonathanrees3765]

Use wire for all the tracks. Tin wire and tracks before soldering - easier. Glue after soldering and joining the tracks - use superglue which will wick into the fibreglass and make as strong bond. Don't want to solder after superglue as it gives off horrible fumes. On wider tracks use multiple wires. Wire you used is perfect for the job.

[@theantipope4354]

Buckled domes like those tweeters can usually be popped out with suction, eg; with a vacuum cleaner or even your mouth. Tip: I use solder wick to repair broken traces on cracked boards as it adds a lot of mechanical strength to the repair, which is particularly important on boards like that one, where they're cracked right across, & include a mounting point like that screw hole. You didn't give that battery much of a chance. Li-Ion cells get damaged if they're discharged too heavily. IIRC, the minimum is a couple of volts per cell. Nonetheless, there's no harm in giving it a good attempt at a recharge, but you'd need to leave them charging for a couple of days. Personally, I'd cut the cells out of the battery & put them in a dedicated per cell charger for a day to see if they're recoverable. BTW, with a managed battery like that, you need to check the voltage on each cell at the terminals, NOT at the output terminals of the control board!

[@lancerumbolt]

Stick tape on them and pull on the tweeters, used to have to do all the time when my boys used to push the tweeters in!

[@TheDainerss]

Cool tip the next time you need to repair a broken board like this. Save the trimmings of through hole components like resistors and place them across the two connections you made with the grinder and solder that on. The component legs will add additional stability to the repair.

[@233kosta]

Since no VM is perfect, a neat cheat to balance the cells exactly is to get them close on the VM (around 3.6-3.7 each, ±0.05V), then wire all three in parallel and charge them some more (say up to 4V). You'll want your voltage limit set to 4.00V and you should then wait for current to drop to 0.00A. At that point, all three will be charged to whatever 4.00V actually corresponds to on your bench PSU (mine reads low, so 4.1V goes from 4.100 to 4.199). Then when you wire them in series, they'll remain balanced-ish. Tool batteries include balance circuits, but I don't think this speaker does, so it helps to balance them properly before reconnecting.

[@beavis6363]

Neat trick with the vacuum cleaner on those tweeter domes. I'm pretty clever but would not thought of implementing this. I'll have to stash this general concept away, it might come in handy. My thoughts went to glueing in replacement domes. Solid as always dude.

[@emmettturner9452]

I just use hot glue. Dab it on, pull, release with isopropyl.

[@beavis6363]

@@emmettturner9452 I get it. Damn, that's pretty good.

[@ShouldHaveBeen]

​@@emmettturner9452There are much better ways.

[@Giitzerland]

I use a Cambridge Audio PC speaker+sub set for the last 15 years, it sounds great! It better, new cost was not friendly! ^^

[@Boogie_the_cat]

The kind of person who saves the original box, but gives the tweeter to their dog\infant to play with is a unique type of human(oid) The vacuum tweeter fix is exactly what i would have done. Nice bodge

[@johnhampson7]

Came across this video by chance this evening, thoroughly enjoyed it so I'm going to stick around and watch the rest. thank you.

[@yeroca]

Since the cells were in series, you could have measured their individual voltages without disconnecting them. You could even charge them individually as long as you have access to the individual terminals.

[@keltoi30]

I am patting myself on the back, because i thought of pulling vacuum on the tweeters before you mentioned it in the video :) Great work on the tracers/board repair and keep the hobby going please. I like fiddling around with stuff myself sometimes that in no way would be worth fixing if being paid to do it ( hope that makes sense )

[@discipleoftheword1785]

Dear Mr. StezStix Your music taste it delicious in a sense of an aspiring chef who is currently working as serving staff in the music world Planet Funkitron. Your bringing dishes that woft inductant vibrations that cause my imagination to transport my jam to higher levels. I can tell you are on par by far from afar funky lard. Good God, bringing something to bar. Like bringing sand out to the beach but buffing every single piece. At ease. At least fixing un pixie holding green some times other color boards sucking tweeters with a cord. I can dig it. Brother That Whitchita Slim instrumental was right on time.

[@SillyOrb]

Congratulations Steve, you're officially "someone with excellent speaker repair experience" now. 😄 Cheers.

[@johnwelch2224]

i dont think its a mess fantastic job

[@metalgjohn4462]

Not sure if it was mentioned, but using soft stick gift tape on crushed speaker domes pulls them out nicely 😊 great video thanks

[@baz69er13]

Enjoyed watching that, you did a great job in repairing it & I would leave it as it is & use it, possibly replace the batteries if they deteriorate, like the use of the black marker at the end to touch up the front grill etc......

[@Cybertruck1000]

Good video. It's as if you swim in the same pond as Big Clive. Can't be a bad thing.....

[@Frizan]

Quality job as usual Steve! Loved this one

[@misterbonzoid5623]

Children do that with big speakers if they are allowed to. I once caught my eldest son (as a toddler) sticking a long thin thing through a grille over a 15" 300W RMS Beyma driver with 4" voice coil. I stopped him just in time.

[@dansmith9406]

The reason the voltage dropped from 10.4 to 10.3 is the charging circuit board in the device was trying to balance the battery voltage in each cell. You should have left it to charge for a few hours and im sure it would have reached its full charge voltage of 12.6v