Faulty "BEATS" Pill | Can I FIX It?

This Beats Pill belongs to a viewer called Adam. It died on him and he had to buy a replacement from Facebook Marketplace, however the replacement doesn't work either! So he's kinda been scammed.
Let's see if we can work out what's wrong with this one, and then look at the replacement one in the next video...
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.
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[@PtrJns]

Totally a genuine Beats device. Dr Dre's actual voice!

[@pabloestafez6830]

@@PtrJns Yh he does sound a little different but thats probs coz.....things just ain't the same for gangstas....times are changing, young n*ggaz is ageing🎵🎶😎🤣

[@danp101]

Q3 is responsible for grounding pin 1. That's a general purpose npn transistor. Either Q3 is faulty or it doesn't resceive a positive supply on it's base to turn it on. Leaving the amps allways on will drain the battery faster because they will draw current even when not playing music if the device is on

[@hugegamer5988]

The audio amp pulls 6.5 nominal to 12mA max with no output (from the data sheet). So whenever the circuit receives power it’s now always on. It might be a problem depending on if this draw shuts off or not. Guessing it does when the device is off but not in standby when nothing is being played and it’s on. So maybe this will shorten its battery life only if it needs to sit doing nothing while on, but if it’s on and away we go full till it’s dead maybe no change.

[@danisaac]

Agreed the sleep pin is obviously controlled though the transistor for power saving reasons, It’s a shame he didn’t go a bit further to find out why may have been very simple to get it fully functioning correctly. It could possibly over discharge the battery beyond recovery if left stored for a while.

[@mediterraneanmudcake6570]

Could the bit of solder that was left on ,be grounding something

[@gsrangelmon]

But he Grounded before the resistor and still didn't turn ON. So changing the transistor still wont turn on the amp ?

[@danp101]

@@gsrangelmon that's a 47k pull up rezistor, needed by the transistor. If you watch closelly, the pin 1 goes to the 47k resistor and also goes to the Q3 collector (midle pin). The path it's covered with writings but it's there. I paused the video and it's def going from pin 1 to the 47k resistor and Q3 collector. That's a pretty standard configuration, not only in battery powered devices but also in standalone amps. With minor modiffications but the principle is the same. When energized Q3 will pull down pin 1 to ground, when not, the 47k resistor pulls it up and so the amp goes to sleep mode. Grounding before the resistor has no effect.

[@calvee1100]

The Asian lady speaking broken English is the best feature of this speaker! 😂

[@pabloestafez6830]

You mean Chinglish???😅😂

[@toddslaughter8097]

Sounds kinda French to me.

[@chongtak]

@@toddslaughter8097 You need to change your speakers or consult an otolaryngologists .

[@gmcnewlook]

@@toddslaughter8097 yes especially the emphasis on pair 😂 it sounds like a French woman saying pear

[@dreamcazman]

I'm sure it was Chinese, but almost sounded a little German too. 😅

[@jme_a]

That Bluetooth voice is comical, it's like satire 😂

[@mirabilis]

And it's it feels likeused in like half of every chinesium Bluetooth speaker .

[@rj7855]

I've a cheap Chinese alarmclock- Bluetooth speaker with exactly the same voice

[@CDRaff]

It sounds like the Trade Federation guys from Phantom Menace.

[@jayson8372]

It is almost liked they tried to be as stereotypical as possible.

[@jme_a]

@@mirabilis it must be the CCP approved voice for electronics 🤣

[@Ariannus]

The real Beats Pill doesn't have a TransFlash / MicroSD slot. Definitely a counterfeit.

[@harrysmbdgs]

They also don't have a backwards Bluetooth symbol!

[@CasualSpud]

Probably a generic board... my headphones have a tf slot for some reason

[@Ariannus]

@@weniard Yeah, I typed the comment before I got to that part of the video.

[@309electronics5]

​@@CasualSpudChinese manufacturers are lazy and not unique. Its likely a mass produced board with default firmware

[@JasonWW2000]

@@309electronics5 What you call lazy and not unique, I call efficient. Lol

[@JackDangerous]

"de bloochoos dewais is really to pall" "de bloochoos dewais is conectida successfulley" Yep, sounds legit to me!

[@gmcnewlook]

De Bluetooth device is ready to PEAR

[@jansenmccloud]

"to bluedjuice doowise is really chew pair"

[@Okurka.]

That's lacist!

[@FragrantVagrant69]

I wonder if that piece of solder was a makeshift ground connection to thr diode done at the factory, and it came loose and introduced the original fault?

[@trevor245]

It was connected to the ground wire so I think that has to be it.

[@jerobins]

This. That piece looked like it had been connected to the board at one point.

[@Dukefazon]

You inspired me a lot to pick up my old projects that I left. I repaired a Neogeo Pocket Color that suffered heavy battery leakage, repaired a bricked PSP Street, fixed a red line fault on a GBA SP and fixed 3(!) GBAs today! (I mean only the 3 GBAs were today's result, 2 needed polarizer replacement and some deep cleaning and rubber replacement). It's sooo satisfying to be able to repair broken stuff!

[@Fuzzy-88]

American here; I enjoyed the 'sodder' attempt 🇺🇲🤣💙

[@Boogie_the_cat]

Naïve American here: my electronics teacher told me the "l" was silent. I can't trust anyone anymore. Is water really gluten free ? Is air sugar free ? Are my sneakers really a low-calorie food ? Toenails don't keep growing after death, it only appears so due to surrounding tissues shrinking ! Damnit, is my whole life a lie ? PS: as an American from California, I have a hard time remembering to say "butter". It usually comes out "budder" and it took a British cooking show guy to make me realize I was saying it wrong. Who can I trust anyone, if I can't trust myself? Vote Quimby

[@Okurka.]

Bolder. colder, folder, holder, molder, polder, sodder.

[@shanethrelfall416]

Aluminium

[@mbob4337]

I bet people were like it sounds too much like soldier. Let's just steal UK's sod curse instead. ​@@Okurka.

[@markusfritze]

Shutdown could also be a power saving measure. So shortening it will work, but the battery could drain quickly even if there is not audio playing.

[@markusfritze]

Yes, the spec states that "SHUTDOWN" is used to reduce power consumption.

[@jme_a]

@@markusfritze I mean, that's one way to save power... turn it off 😂

[@theDude9750]

so there probably is some transistor somewhere switching the shutdown

[@jameslawrence8734]

@@theDude9750 Probably the little three legged thing on the other side of the 47k resistor. I'm guessing that is the failed component. It is certainly where I would've gone and where I expected him to go since he's better at this than me by far.

[@hugegamer5988]

@@jameslawrence8734 it looks like a transistor used to level shift the shutdown pin. It could have failed or that pin on the chip itself could have failed.

[@watchingdanny]

Apollo 13 came back home with nothing but improvisations and bodges. If it works, it works my friend. Great job.

[@sandicarobert8510]

🍻

[@infin1ty850]

I mean, Beats is cheap Chinese junk at this point, so it could very well be authentic, lol. Love these speaker videos because they definitely make the hobby look more accessible.

[@kailumgg7736]

It isn't authentic but yes beats is not very good

[@michaelredman7451]

And after apple bought them they became horrible. I have a pair of beats ear buds before apple and after apple and the quality before was way better than after apple bought them out. Apple sucks!!

[@kailumgg7736]

@michaelredman7451 yes they are truly awful

[@rimmersbryggeri]

The shutdown is possibly connectd to the breaker in the audio jack so that it turns of bluettorh audio when a plug is connected. I would still hunt that resistor and the circuitry before it to make a "proper" repair. Also you probably need to bodge both channels to make borh work since there were 2 amplifiers. Thats probably what the mosfet before the amplifier is for to that is what probably should be activted by the ground signal from a preamplifier or some other chip (Bluetooth sound device and jack etc).

[@darkstatehk]

That neck movement at the end was hilarious 😹

[@PhilHoganPhotography]

Thanks for saying hello at the classic car boot, Really made my day great to meet you. :)

[@JeffreyGroves]

My uninformed hypothesis for the red one is that transistor switched on the connection to ground for whatever reason. Perhaps replacing that transistor will help it to work as designed?

[@theDude9750]

I had the same dumb idea

[@aallan646]

Wow yeah right 100% genuine! Honest 😅 the beats pill there must be thousands of these fakes around .

[@digitalgord5694]

I love it when Steve drops into his North American Accent. Solder.

[@Bloke-in-Stoke]

Level 10 bodging skills, you'll go a long way. Does remind me of my TV repair days back in the 90's. One of our field engineers was loving know as "Bodger". Happy memories indeed. Cheers 🍺

[@gearamihai2782]

The shutdown pin is used when the speaker is off the amps don't consume the battery when the device is not running

[@ssgeek4515]

It's like me attempting to repair stuff at my repair cafe meeting 'get it working at all costs' superb sir

[@lspudpage]

Super win.. Much better than when it left the factory.

[@jansenmccloud]

"to bluedjuice doowise is really chew pair" 😂 i love it

[@ralphj4012]

Good workaround. Not sure if you tried a reset (hold down the b button for at least 10 secs), there is a mute function output on the main IC which drives the shutdown pins on both the audio ICs.

[@stefanegger]

Good that you found that out, but I guess since both channels are affected, something connected to both those lines died, it would be been nice to see a proper attempt.

[@mtshark7]

Nicely done Steve!😊

[@ISquishWorms]

You crack me up, I love your humor as it is right up my street. If that makes any sense. 😁

[@samwilliamson_74]

Love the bodge fix; and it’s perfect that it works but we don’t quite know how or why.. Interesting outro music; future boy

[@kurosumomo]

maybe that rogue solder thingy, was actually grounding something, and it got disconnected ?

[@jonathanmartin3375]

Any landing you walk away from is a good landing. And likewise, any repair that fixes the item is a good fix!

[@RetroSaviour]

The legend that is 🙌 massive fan you got me into repairing consoles too! 😊

[@Blitterbug]

Putting TF (TransFlash) on devices is very Chinesium, you're quite right there. A UK/US big name device would have MicroSD or simply SD, as you pointed out. TF is an old term here in the West and hasn't commonly been used for over 15 years.

[@AHotHabanero]

Definitely not an authentic beats pill Love your videos, keep ‘em coming 👍🏽

[@DrPeterVenkman383]

I love this.... Brilliant.Great success 😂😂

[@pds8475]

The line you shorted to ground looked to be going to Q3. Q3 would go to a chip possibly through a resistor or straight to the pin of the chip. One pin of Q3 would be connected to the line you shorted to ground, another pin should be connected directly to ground and the last pin should go to the chip. This would be to tell the "Beats" to shutdown when it's not being used. Q3 could be faulty, A resistor on the line may be OC, a smoothing cap on the line or around the chip could be SC or the chip may be faulty.

[@joelkist6493]

You have a transistor operating as a switch; that should be to conserve power when no music going to the speakers. BATTERIES will be draining faster your way.

[@epsilonzero77]

That voice is in soooo many crappy BT devices. My niece was gifted an all in one karaoke mic and that voice is all it did. 😂

[@309electronics5]

Almost all these products use the JieLi ac69xxxxx family of chips which have a sdk and some default configurations so they likely are too lazy to compile their custom firmware so they stick with the JieLi provided firmware

[@daveka5451]

Great video. A complete bodge discovered completely by accident. Rather be lucky than good any day!

[@wisher21uk]

Brilliant bodge there Steve 😂 captain bodge to the rescue! 😊

[@Snowsea-gs4wu]

I have a similar Beats counterfeit and I think that sticker is meant to be removed, LOL! 😂 Thanks for the video Stez!

[@amaiorano]

My guess is that the shutdown pin is pulled up when aux input is connected. Maybe the fault is on the aux input.

[@barryram2605]

the blue toot devis is leady to pail, definitely genuine beats I would say.

[@Okurka.]

That's lacist!

[@KrispyBizcut]

The way I look at it, if it's fixed it's a good repair!

[@neilgoward5632]

I have a BOSE version of this, LOL the TEXT Spoken in Chinese English is the BEST! turn the Volume up to MAX and it says "THE VOLUME IS THE BIGGEST!" I also have AUX input, TF CARD and USB A SOCKET ports, The Micro USB Charging PORT disintegrated on mine, ended up having to put a USB A Connector on a Lead to be able to charge it HAHA! Still works after 10 years.

[@ninaevans4501]

You also removed that funny little piece of conductive wire in the early few minutes of your video. Maybe if you resoldered the loose end back to the ground of the nearby connector, it would have worked as designed?

[@FiveStringCommando]

1:15 I have a generic-branded version of this that was purchased from Five Below in the US (used to be everything is $5 or less). Exactly the same except for the branding.

[@dodgydruid]

Got my awesome Nektar MIDI keyboard now, refuses to connect to Cakewalk but have settled on MPC Beats for the moment for synth stuff and Piano Time for piano doings, quite a decent keyboard with the USB doing power as well as data so no huge snakes nest of wires and has a nice full size feel which is what I wanted :) It is more a DAW orientated board as most its functions are confined to a few onboard buttons but a decent DAW expands it into endless stuff.

[@wallysprint]

17:50 Really feeling the groove XD

[@ke30pete]

That bit of solder you removed at the begining, was it doing the same as the wire you put in maybe? it looked a similar shape too

[@krisbalt2543]

which type of wire are you using when you repair damaged / broken PCB traces ??

[@sydneymartin952]

Great videos sir. I was wondering have you ever fixed an Xbox one controler and if so what would I find it under. I have one with a faulty headphone jack. I would send it to you but postage from USA to you is way more then controllers worth. Thank you for the awesome videos and keep up the great work

[@willrobinson7599]

That red one deff a cheap Chinese knock off 100% Great video as usual

[@kurosumomo]

it's from the same factory as the genuine one.

[@lucianofz788]

hi Steve, what tpe wire do you use, thx big hug From portugal

[@MrTootoot22]

every vid a nice little bet by StezStix love that happiness every time .

[@Jimmy-Jaffa]

Will this not continually draw power?

[@cheplays2482]

It would also be wise to do a stereo test to ensure both left and right channels aren't playing through either speaker (you wouldn't want to accidentally make the device mono).

[@walter9724]

Steve you need to make T-shirts saying "LETS GET THIS UNDER THE MICROSCOPE !" and one saying "SOLID" I definitely would buy one 😁👍

[@akobifan5428]

Just found your delightful channel. It's a smorgasbord of trials ,tragedies and triumphs that are entertaining and a good life lesson. I think you've invented a new music genre "Dad Techno Rap ". So bad it's almost good 😂 Be well, stay safe Peace Out ✌️

[@RFX01]

Be aware that some amplifier ICs might die if they are run without a speaker connected to it. This one seems like it doesn't have this issue, but I know I've personally killed an amplifier like this, so it's best to avoid running it without a speaker just to be on the safe side. Might seem like a bit of a design failure, but in integrated devices like this the amp and speaker should theoretically never be apart, so it may be considered acceptable if the amplifier breaks when no speaker is connected.

[@TheCustomFHD]

I saw a J6/Y6 there.. they often go bad as I've seen in your videos.. some else mentioned Q3, so.. might wanna check, else the battery might drain in standby or even when off

[@OsPasteisdeNataOriginal]

Steve, are you OK? I wait for the weekend video, but you didn't upload nothing. *Hugs from Brasil*

[@TheDonk_Music]

Quite new to channel... whats with the Gordan the Gopher pop ups?

[@pedromimoso8804]

Captain Bodge saves the day! 😁

[@juliannicholls]

That's exactly the same voice that is in my Betron BT speaker.

[@phazonclash]

Sketchy repairs are the best 😂

[@ronny332]

Q2 seems to be used like a switch. if the ground is missing on U5 it's surely in the path of Q2. And the 47k resistor is to protect the input from direct contact to ground. I have my doubt that bridging is the right way.

[@fenman1954]

I have the identical red speaker but it is branded Akia

[@tirokopita]

Nice.

[@MEGAMIGA]

That Pill is a nice dewice! 😁

[@fueledbyregret]

That red one is a counterfeit. Apple (who own Beats) would never label their products so cheaply 😂

[@Uncletom9590]

I've been watching your videos and they are really good, I enjoy watching them. The content you make inspires me to start doing electronics myself, but what keeps me back from starting is the fact I have nothing, no tools or equipment. But I am determined to start and I think I need to know what equipment I need to start, and buy these things in a slow way and start in a primative way. Could you direct me to a great place, link me, to a place where i can start... thanx.

[@AJDRAGON01]

I wonder if that diode is still any good, it looked a little burnt on one side, and it may have taken out a resistor.

[@GarbageGamerz]

XD that Bluetooth voice has been making the rounds in the Meme world lately funny to hear it here LMAO

[@mikebowers7161]

That was painfully like looking in a mirror… with the exception that you actually manage to fix stuff whilst bodging. All I do is break things a bit more

[@magnetite028]

Saw your original Xbox thermal paste cleaning and I heard stuff called Contact Cleaner softens the old paste. Interesting or maybe not. It is rumoured to be safe on electronic s.

[@tecnicoemeletronica]

Q2 transístor issue probably, mute transístor

[@danieldai1000]

We need a video of all your speakers playing your rap all together!

[@akittsy]

Was the bit of solder you took off grounding something

[@fu1r4]

8:30 An easy way to test a speaker is to connect a 1.5 volts battery to it. You will then hear if they are working 🙂

[@pokepija]

is that stereo or is it the same mono coming out on both speakers???

[@ericpode6095]

At 5:10 the diode the piece of solder was touching looks cracked. I know that shouldn't effect the amp but you don't know what other damage may have been caused.

[@bflat99]

I was doing some prototyping with bluetooth modules. That voice prompt was the exact same as the HiLetGo M18 module. It's definitely not a legit speaker system.

[@309electronics5]

That module also uses the JieLi chips like this "beats" speaker does. Also likely default firmware because of laziness

[@fouroakfarm]

Measure the battery draw. Im guessing its drawing continuously now with the bodge

[@isitPC]

(Kaltern) I'm thinking the SHUTDOWN pin is designed to mute the sound. If it is grounded, the mute turns off. Is there a mute option/button on the speaker, and is there a broken connection perhaps? After all, one dodgy looking bit of excess conductive material could mean more shoddy work... If there IS a mute option, because you never touched the other amp chip, I would expect that to be muted if you find it.

[@StezStixFix]

Very good call!

[@jme_a]

What a good shout, I was pleading with Stez to look at the plastic body and/or some online images to see what buttons were what!

[@tyronenelson9124]

That makes no sense, why would that pin be labelled SHUTDOWN if it was just to mute the amplifier? infact the SHUTDOWN pin is used to start up the amp when the main processor switches on being as the VCC is always present to the amp.

[@jaketzi8816]

I did hours of fault finding to my home theatre amp just to find out that mute was on. Old style push button and i am sure i didn't push it on, luckily i don't live alone so there is plenty of whom to blame.

[@isitPC]

@@tyronenelson9124 My thinking is, being a cheap Chinese knockoff, that they just used that as an easy way to tun the amp off, rather than mute it properly.

[@rsuryase]

what app are you suing to play the royalty free music?

[@shanethrelfall416]

Straight outta Turkey 🇹🇷

[@plan7a]

Additional Comment: I guess you did put solder mask in (off camera) before putting it together? Or did you?❓

[@mightywiz]

You just wired the amps on full time. Now it will just drain the battery when not in use. you need to check the transistor that turns the amp on/off. Google testing transistors with multimeter diode test.

[@bongomanabc]

By grounding the enable pins, those amp chips are probably always on and draining the battery. Better than it not working though I guess.

[@hugegamer5988]

The audio amp pulls 6.5 nominal to 12mA max with _no_ output. So whenever the circuit receives power it’s now always on. It might be a problem depending on if this draw shuts off or not. Guessing it does when the device is off but not in standby when nothing is being played and it’s on. So maybe shorten its battery life only if it needs to sit doing nothing while on.

[@PaulSC1985]

Well done 😂

[@Dukefazon]

9:55 - You should get a basic, a very basic handheld oscilloscope. It's amazing what those cheap oscilloscopes can do now, you don't need any fancy bench scopes, just something to be able to verify AC, video signals or sound waves in this case. I got a 120 Mhz one, the model number is DSO1511G and it helped me already with some debugging.

[@harpingon]

The one that Adrian Black uses seems pretty good for the price. I forget the model

[@RG-jc3td]

Hey brotha, I saw you fix a psvita a few years ago. I was wondering if you would be able to fix mine? It’s in the exact same condition as the one you fixed… I’ll gladly pay 💰

[@bazzaar1869]

Bodge-tastic episode!

[@Bley_12]

is the TF for transflash for like an SD card?

[@donvito1973]

It looks to me like R15 is pulling the pin up to +V, and the transistor Q3 pulls it down to Gnd on demand (and the trace then winds its way off to the other amplifier chip to wake that one up too).

[@tillharbaum1166]

Also having the Amp now enabled permanently may drain the battery while powred off. It might be worth having another look ....

[@donvito1973]

@@tillharbaum1166 Absolutely, they only put components on the board when they're actually useful.

[@root42]

I think Q2 might do the pulling. It's a MOSFET. often used in such switching applications.

[@donvito1973]

@@root42 No, the fat trace is the +V, it goes around to pin 6 on the amplifier chip.. and that transistor is on the far side of the pull-up resistor.. the J6 npn transistor is on the signal side of the pull-up.

[@joehair4220]

This comes from the derivative of Pompeii about the ground fault Interceptor where you have a 473 R resistor and they found this to be a what do they call that a recall

[@CallumFaulds1]

When you removed the bit of wire at the start of the video, it looked like the zener diode was cracked. That may have something to do with the failure.

[@Okurka.]

That's not a Zener diode; that's a regular glass diode, probably a 1N4148.

[@crunchyfrog555]

I've always wante d to know if my bluettoth device is really Chupel.

[@dom1310df]

TransFlash (TF) is the old (>20 years ago) name for MicroSD when it was a SanDisk specification prior to adoption by the SD Card Association. I guess China still uses the TF name out of the same sense of nostalgia that leads them to copy the Routemaster bus.

[@CoPoint]

The reason for the Chinese keeping the 'TransFlash' name around is money, plain and simple: to be able to stick the official 'MicroSD' name and logos onto a device, you have to pay a license fee (I dimly remember reading, ages ago, about a fixed base price, on the order of a few ten thousands of dollars per device design, plus a certain amount for every specimen made...), and for some el-crappo cheap things, those costs would be almost higher than the device itself 😂 - TF is the same, for all intents and purposes, only without the possibility of ending up with a monstrous lawsuit (seems like even the Chinese have their limits in that regard 🤷‍♂...), and for 'free'...