Vita Audio / Ruark R1 Mk1 Radio - No Sound

[MelJ]

Hi All,

I bought this unit in non working condition described as "does everything but no sound". It sounded like a final amplifier problem so I thought it would be any easy fix. There was indeed a final amp problem due to some bodged repair work in this area and this was easily fixed. Disappointingly the unit still wouldn't work because no audio signal was getting to the final amp (TDA7266). The Gyro-1122 DAB unit feeds a PT2314 audio processor and then to the TDA7266. The Gyro-1122, the LCD display and the PT2314 communicate via the I2C protocol. I had no previous experience with I2C but a bit of homework to find out the basics and some searching to find the I2C address for the PT2314 (fixed at 10001000) and I was able to make a start. Some probing of the PT2314 I2C clock and data lines revealed that both lines seemed to be behaving as expected but the PT2314 was not acknowledging I2C requests. The PT2314 had to be replaced. I can only guess that the PT2314 failure was due to the bodged repair job around the TDA7266 shorting its outputs so it's probably not a typical failure in these units. 

The original PT2314 chips are readily available in the UK but are very expensive. The newer (and fully compatible) PT2314E version is readily available from China cheaply but make sure you use a reputable supplier. The replacement of the 28 pin chip was straightforward, despite my initial trepidation!

The Ruark now works perfectly so it's a repair that's worth taking on. The R1 Mk2 uses the same audio chip and final amp but the DAB unit appears to be different. More details about the diagnosis and repair can be found in my posts on the UK Vintage Radio Forum.

Cheers
Mel

[rh100605]

Mel,
To make it clear to other readers, the R1 Mk1 radio cannot receive DAB+. This results in stations being tuned but no sound.
This would seem to be a fault similar to the one described in your post but is not.

The R1 Mk1 uses the Gyro 1122 DAB module and vAN 1.0 flash code in a parallel flash chip. It has a 2x16 LCD parallel connected LCD type 1602 E

The R1 Mk2 with a larger custom  SPI LCD uses either the FS2027 DAB module or the later Gyro 1128 DAB module with 25 series flash memory and vAN 1.2 code.

The 1128 DAB module is used in the R2i and R4i. All receive  DAB+ stations

In case readers think a flash code upgrade may allow the Mk1 to receive DAB+, the hardware differences between the Mk1 and Mk2 make using the 1.2 flash code in a Mk1 to receive DAB+ impractical even if the processors were the same..