Beogram 4004 for the Workshop: Surprise addition of the Beolover Commander Remote Control !

Since the last post for this project I successfully ran some listening tests.  This Beogram 4004 plays records beautifully again so I was ready to reattach the deck panels and listen to more records.

However...I received an amazing surprise...a preliminary version of the latest Beolover 4002/4 Commander Remote Control.

On more than one Beogram 4004 restoration project in the past I was asked by people if the restoration could include the Beolover Commander Remote Control.  Unfortunately the answer was no.  The initial version only supported the Beogram 4002 type turntables. That is now changed as this latest version includes support of the Beogram 4004. There was good reason the earlier Commander didn't support the Beogram 4004 and I will talk about that when I show the installation below.

But first, here is this Beogram 4004 with the deck panels and tonearm cover back in place.

If you look at a lot of our other blog posts of Beogram 4002/4004 restoration projects you will see that installing the deck panels includes the tedious task of adjusting the floating chassis springs.  Both the height of the platter and the centering of the platter within the deck opening can require a lot of iterations.  This Beogram was no exception but I was finally satisfied with the result.

Here is a view from the top. It includes the tools I used to get everything aligned.

Now for the special surprise of the Beolover Commander Remote Control.

The Beolover 4002/4 Commander Remote Control comes with a main board component that has the IR receiver attached as well as an LED indicator for the Beogram speed control panel.  The Commander also includes the Beogram 4004 PCB 8 connector adapter and of course the remote control itself.

Here is a closer look.

The Commander came with its board jumpers set for a Beogram 4002.  I moved the three jumpers over to the Beogram 4004 position as that is the mode I will be using the Commander.

To go along with that mode the Beogram 4004 PCB 8 adapter connector is attached to the main Commander board at the connector marked "to 4004 output board".

Now for the installation.

As I mentioned above, the original Beolover 4002 Commander did not support a Beogram 4004 turntable.  The reason is because the Beogram 4004 turntables have a different wiring harness on the button control panel.  The Beogram 4004 PCB 8 output board has an early Bang & Olufsen remote control circuit that is designed to integrate with the remote control system of the Beomaster 2400.  That remote control integration between the Beogram and Beomaster is a wired connection via pins 6 and 7 of the phono DIN connector. 

While the original Beogram 4004 and Beomaster 2400 remote control functionality is nice, it is limited to Play, Stop, Cue Up and Cue Down.  It has no forward or reverse scanning.

The Beolover 4002/4 Commander Remote Control has Play, Stop, Cue Up, Cue Down, Scan Forward, Scan Reverse and Repeat play. The scanning control also supports slow and fast scanning.

The first part of the Commander installation is to insert the Beogram 4004 PCB 8 adapter connector.

The PCB 1 mounting screw shown below will be used to attach the Commander main board to the Beogram 4004 main board.

The Commander main board connector male pins fit into the Beogram 4004 PCB 1 connector for the button control panel.

The Beogram 4004 button control panel connector for PCB 8 now plugs into the Commander adapter.

The other connector of the Beogram 4004 button control panel harness plugs into the connector on the Commander main board.

The small LED board and harness is installed in the Beogram speed indicator panel.

The Commander system is now installed.

The little IR sensor peeks out from under the trim in the front of the Beogram...ready to detect commands from the remote control unit.

But does it work?

Of course.

Very nice. 
Having played around with the remote control functions of the Beomaster 2400/Beogram 4004 system I can say the added capability of the Beolover 4002/4 Commander are quite a welcome addition.  Highly recommended :-).