Intempo PG-02 DAB Radio Repair (dead, crackling sound, no power, faulty)

[add595]

Hi all,

Just a quick write up about what I suspect is a common failing on these portable DAB radios. I have two of these and both suffered the same fault, and know of someone who binned one after it died

I was surprised that trying to find any information about this on the interweb comes up blank, so I thought I'd do this brief write up here in the hope that people will stumble across it and find it useful.

One of the radios was working fine one day and then when I came to use it the next, it was completely dead. The other had a crackling noise in the background of the music for some time and then also died one day randomly.

Took the back off and surprise surprise, 4x bulging and leaking capacitors.

There are 3x 470uF 16v caps (circled red in pics) and 1x 2200uF 25v cap (circled yellow) that were bad. Both radios had the 1.6A 20mm glass fuse blown also. The caps fitted to both were branded 'KSC' and '-40 to +105 degrees C'.

I replaced the caps with some Panasonic FR series caps (105 deg.), they were the cheapest branded caps I could find and I think are suitable - they work fine so far anyway - I am sure someone will mention some alternatives if I am wrong! There was also quite a bit of electrolyte on the PCB that I cleaned off before fitting the new caps.

The 2200uF Panny cap I used as a replacement was quite a bit taller than the original cap and would not fit upright, as you can see from the pics I fitted it laid down with a dab of hot glue to secure it. I would be surprised if the original cap was actually rated correctly as it was the same diameter as the Panny replacement but was approx 10mm shorter!

Both radios are now working fine again with no crackling. I have currently got 1a fuses fitted until my replacement 1.6a ones arrive!

The three old 470uF caps measured around 410uF and the 2200uF measured 1250uF.

Please see pictures.

Hope this helps someone!

[stj]

Re: Intempo PG-02 DAB Radio Repair (dead, crackling sound, no power, faulty)

pany FR are the best you can get.
good first choice!!

the reason you dont find much on the web is that DAB is not liked.

it was invented bty the BBC to take back control from radio pirates.
it's expensive, and they tried to market it in other country's very poorly.
personally i have no interest - i like pirate stations and hate what's on DAB.

2 interesting things of note.

1: it's already obsolete - in europe-main they now use DAB+ that uses a better audio codec.
2: pirates have already managed to build working DAB encoders but not bothered transmitting with them because of the limited number of people who could listen.

[add595]

Re: Intempo PG-02 DAB Radio Repair (dead, crackling sound, no power, faulty)

Thanks stj, good to know my choice of replacement caps was a good one. I did a bit of research and they seemed like the ones to go for, but it's good to actually hear it from someone knowledgeable!

I am not a huge fan of DAB either. I've read about all of it's negatives (there seems to be a lot!), and I remember when I first got hold of a half decent DAB tuner (Technics ST-GT1000) and being shocked at the huge step backwards (from FM) in terms of sound quality!

On the plus side for me personally, there is a few stations I quite like and enjoy listening to whilst I'm in the workshop - even if the audio quality isn't the best.

As far as I know DAB+ isn't planned to be broadcast here in England, UK, which is a shame.

[stj]

Re: Intempo PG-02 DAB Radio Repair (dead, crackling sound, no power, faulty)

if DAB+ was broadcast everybody would need a new radio, it's not backwards compatable.

not that that would stop them, the government screwed everybody 2 times on digital tv so far.
first they mandated that all boxes should use 2k encoding if i remember right, where all the boxes in europe supported both 2k and 8k.
then they went 8k a few years later - and made all the nokia 9850T's unusable among others!!!

then they let the BBC encrypt the EIT table on the HD broadcasts so decent boxes from europe couldnt tune anything in - you had to buy boxes from company's that had done a deal with the BBC for the algorythm.

to sum-up, the u.k. government and BBC / Crown-Castle are scum and will betray everybody at every chance.
so i wouldnt be surprised to see all these DAB tuners in the bin in a year or 3 because they suddenly went DAB+

personally i dont give a fuck, i watch only European tv using an open-standards sat receiver running Linux.
i dont care what they do, i dont watch their shit, nor do i listen to it.

[Longbow]

Re: Intempo PG-02 DAB Radio Repair (dead, crackling sound, no power, faulty)

Glad you found the satisfying faulty capacitors. With most automotive radios you can count on all manner of loose connections. Vibrations during driving as well as temperature cycling are hard on the pc boards. Have a close look when you check your radios.

[stj]

Re: Intempo PG-02 DAB Radio Repair (dead, crackling sound, no power, faulty)

"automotive radios" ???
that's a kitchen-table radio!