Radio on battery - not playing

[Pappi]

Hi, even though I have had squeezeboxs for around 12 years It’s not until now I wanted to play music on a radio with battery pack.

No sound, directly if attached power supply it’s starting to play.

The battery bar is full but I guess it something is fishy. Reading in some old posts it should play for some hours but for me 0 seconds

Is it any limits on voltage that it will not play or something around the community firmware (yepp, using these).

Thanks for some clarification.

Br

[agbagb]

Hi, even though I have had squeezeboxs for around 12 years It’s not until now I wanted to play music on a radio with battery pack.

No sound, directly if attached power supply it’s starting to play.

The battery bar is full but I guess it something is fishy. Reading in some old posts it should play for some hours but for me 0 seconds

Is it any limits on voltage that it will not play or something around the community firmware (yepp, using these).

Thanks for some clarification.

Br

Sounds obvious: but have you tried Powering Down - Disconnect Battery - Power Up and Power Down - Reconnect Battery - Power Up ?

A looong time ago I boung a couple of new batteries on EBay and thought I'd bought faulty parts as I got no power. And then, suddenly - they worked. And my post-problem guess was "something inside needed to re-set itself......." Can't recall the battery indicator status in the faffing about.

[Redrum]

you say the battery bar is "full" on the display I presume. Is this the case both plugged in and not?

I don't have a radio handy but somewhere in the settings->advanced->(player info?) it lists the battery %. You could check to see what that indicates as well.

Also, "doesn't play, does that mean doesn't power up, or no sound (screen on, menus work, etc)?

Jim

[Pappi]

you say the battery bar is "full" on the display I presume. Is this the case both plugged in and not?

I don't have a radio handy but somewhere in the settings->advanced->(player info?) it lists the battery %. You could check to see what that indicates as well.

Also, "doesn't play, does that mean doesn't power up, or no sound (screen on, menus work, etc)?

Jim

Hi, yes I was maybe a bit fuzzy in the description.

The radio is working on battery - screen ok, menus is working except no sound when starting a song.

Looking at the battery info in the advanced/power

Volt 12.2v
Vmon1 3.7v
Vmon2 7.3 v


So if I playing a song on battery (no sound), if I attach headphones in the jack I get sound.

If a play a song on battery (- no sound) and then attache the power cord, the sound is starting directly.

Very strange. So it seems the speaker will not provide output on battery only on headphone output.

Maybe the volt figures above can help?

Ps, after around 30min (screen on) on the numbers are:
12v
3.6
7.1

[Redrum]

So if I playing a song on battery (no sound), if I attach headphones in the jack I get sound.

If a play a song on battery (- no sound) and then attache the power cord, the sound is starting directly.

I have seen this before in another thread that I an others were active in. Can't recall the outcome. Let me look around

Jim

edit - here is the thread https://forums.slimdevices.com/showt...-using-battery
same symptoms, unfortunately no resolution, and I was of no help . Maybe you could PM the OP?

[Pappi]

I have seen this before in another thread that I an others were active in. Can't recall the outcome. Let me look around

Jim

edit - here is the thread https://forums.slimdevices.com/showt...-using-battery
same symptoms, unfortunately no resolution, and I was of no help . Maybe you could PM the OP?

Thanks for finding that thread, it is exactly what I have. I have couple of other radios so I will switch the battery just ”because” to see if the battery is ok and can play on the others.

But my feeling is some digging into the pcb board or potentially a factory reset. I will try some stuff. As always usually not an easy solution 😂

[Pappi]

I moved the battery to another radio and that radio is playing with sound so I guess we can conclude it’s not a battery thing

[Pappi]

I moved the battery to another radio and that radio is playing with sound so I guess we can conclude it’s not a battery thing

Did some basic checks and factory reset, just for fun also addes a new battery but no sound. I guess it’s a microcode thing.
As I have other radios and upcoming speaker repair on one boom, another change of VFD and wifi card I will not go in to deep troubleshooting of this radio.

But if somebody will found the solution, please speak up

Br

[Redrum]

Maybe you could try the community firmware https://forums.slimdevices.com/showt...light=firmware

Follow the instructions in Ralphy's first post. Note, I have not tried it, my radios seem to behave.

I think this was started from the radio "bass amp" problem, where, for some reason, the radio would lose low frequencies https://forums.slimdevices.com/showt...ss-amp-problem

A real stab in the dark, but maybe the two issues are related, or another reach, maybe if you switch to community and then back, it might cure your radio. Not likely, but you never know, eh?

Jim

[Pappi]

Hi,

Running the community firmware already but for sure I could try to downgrade and if any change (positive) upgrade again to and verify if ok or not => bug,

[Redrum]

I was thinking about this a little bit, and no breakthrough "ah-ha" but a couple thoughts that might jog someone else's memory, and a few things to maybe try.

So, on your radio:
A) Power supply plugged in:
Headphone not plugged in - radio plays through speaker
Headphone plugged in - speaker off, radio plays through headphones

B) Power supply unplugged (radio on bat):
Headphone not plugged in - radio does not play through speaker (the problem)
Headphone plugged in - speaker off, radio plays through headphones

Is this correct?

1) One thing to try, remove the battery, what happens? (Not sure why I am suggesting this, assume it will play)

2) My thought is, the headphone jack is a 4 contact plug/receptical - right, left, common, switch (receptacle only, senses barrel). The "switch" is used to detect the presence of the headphones, and switch the speaker off/headphones on (unless the headphone R/L/C are always active). The switch is a normally open (NO) or closed (NC). Let's say it's NO, you might think in B) that perhaps the switch is stuck closed. However, with the power supply present (A) this contradicts this.

So, why would the designers have a different signal path and switching for power than for battery? I would guess that there is an energy efficiency to gain on battery that is not needed on line power. The problem is to the best of my knowledge, there is no known radio schematic. Personally I have not had one apart.

Maybe someone else has an idea. Until then I might suggest a couple desperation things:

1) Use some deoxit, or even silicone spray on the headphone jack, insert, twist, remove, repeat
2) If you feel like opening it up (there are instructions here somewhere),see if you can find the wire on the jack that is "switch", should be obvious. See if this changes start if you plug/unplug the headphone
3) Do you have another radio to try swapping out ps, battery, etc? Not sure if you mentioned...(edit, just reread, you do have another radio)

Best I have for now. I have a radio with a battery here if there is something you would like me to test
Jim

Edit - mechanical things are most likely to fail, oxidize, etc. If you felt like opening up both radios to see if the "switched" contact behaves differently, might indicate the receptical. But of course, you could always put the battery in the radio that works!

[slartibartfast]

I was thinking about this a little bit, and no breakthrough "ah-ha" but a couple thoughts that might jog someone else's memory, and a few things to maybe try.

So, on your radio:
A) Power supply plugged in:
Headphone not plugged in - radio plays through speaker
Headphone plugged in - speaker off, radio plays through headphones

B) Power supply unplugged (radio on bat):
Headphone not plugged in - radio does not play through speaker (the problem)
Headphone plugged in - speaker off, radio plays through headphones

Is this correct?

1) One thing to try, remove the battery, what happens? (Not sure why I am suggesting this, assume it will play)

2) My thought is, the headphone jack is a 4 contact plug/receptical - right, left, common, switch (receptacle only, senses barrel). The "switch" is used to detect the presence of the headphones, and switch the speaker off/headphones on (unless the headphone R/L/C are always active). The switch is a normally open (NO) or closed (NC). Let's say it's NO, you might think in B) that perhaps the switch is stuck closed. However, with the power supply present (A) this contradicts this.

So, why would the designers have a different signal path and switching for power than for battery? I would guess that there is an energy efficiency to gain on battery that is not needed on line power. The problem is to the best of my knowledge, there is no known radio schematic. Personally I have not had one apart.

Maybe someone else has an idea. Until then I might suggest a couple desperation things:

1) Use some deoxit, or even silicone spray on the headphone jack, insert, twist, remove, repeat
2) If you feel like opening it up (there are instructions here somewhere),see if you can find the wire on the jack that is "switch", should be obvious. See if this changes start if you plug/unplug the headphone
3) Do you have another radio to try swapping out ps, battery, etc? Not sure if you mentioned...(edit, just reread, you do have another radio)

Best I have for now. I have a radio with a battery here if there is something you would like me to test
Jim

Edit - mechanical things are most likely to fail, oxidize, etc. If you felt like opening up both radios to see if the "switched" contact behaves differently, might indicate the receptical. But of course, you could always put the battery in the radio that works!

When the Radio is plugged in and playing it continues to play with no disruption if it is unplugged so none of this makes any sense to me even though it has affected some users.

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