Beomaster 8000: Shipping Damage - Return Trip in a Double Box

Finally, it is time for the return trip for the damaged Beomaster 8000 that did not make it back well to its owner. I made the mistake to trust the original B&O packaging and did not insist on double boxing. This did not go well. Some ruffian must have dropped the package and a cracked uProcessor PCB and erratic performance resulted. Furthermore, and I am not sure if this was related to the shipping accident, my fix of the missing control panel lid spring retaining metal clip turned out to be unstable. The Beomaster sent out a piece of shrapnel and the spring broke out. I fixed this with a 3D printed insert. After fixing all this I put the Beomaster in our living room and embedded it into my Beosystem 8000 to test it for a few days to see if there are any intermittent issues. All this went well, and so I decided to try shipping again.

This time, however, I double boxed it using industrial HD packing foam that I cut to size to create a 2 inch foam cocoon around the original B&O box. The HD foam is perfect for slowing down the deceleration during impacts, while giving solid protection.

The outer shell is a double strength 12x24x36 box that I adapted to be 14 inch high to accommodate the additional foam layer on top. Here are a few pictures. I definitely recommend to make this extra effort whenever shipping one of the heavier B&O units. And this Beomaster 8000 definitely qualifies as heavy! The total package weight is about 70 lbs. Like a nice sack of cement, if you ever carried one up a few floors, you know what I mean...;-). If there is no original box available, a 10x20x30 box and some more HD foam is perfect as inner box.

I usually put some cardboard in between the foam layers to add some resistance to penetration:

Putting the Beomaster in:

I put a sheet of polyurethane foam on top to protect the surfaces a bit better:

This original box had some nice spaces to put the cord:

Here comes the double layer of foam on top

And an additional cardboard shield:

Folding the flaps over:

Due to the open area in the center I added yet another cardboard sheet and then about one roll of tape around everything:

And that's it! Let's try this again. I hope this trip goes better! Fingers crossed! May the FedEx man find some Beolove in his heart this time...;-)!

Beomaster 8000: Repair of a Broken Out Control Panel Lid Spring

The last Beomaster 8000 that I renovated came back to my bench after suffering shipping damage on the way home to its owner. There were some broken traces on the uProcessor board and a broken out button PCB in the control panel). After I fixed these issues and put it back together, I set out to write a proud email to the owner announcing the swift return of this Beomaster, this time double boxed. A few seconds after I hit the 'send' button, a loud crack happened and a piece of plastic ricocheted past my head. This is what I found. One of these pieces was located on the other side of my work shop:

First I did not quite understand what happened, but then I realized this part must have originated from the Beomaster that sat on the bench next to me! I looked around and found this situation on the back of the control panel lid:

The spring that opens the control panel had broken out of its plastic retainer and the lid hung limp on its hinges. No more springy opening after pressing the bar. This spring is surprisingly strong, and while the lid is closed it stores the energy needed to open the panel. This energy released creating a projectile.

First I asked around if anyone had a decent condition lid (3D printing still has 'finish issues; it is difficult to produce good lucking parts for exterior repairs), but I came up empty. So I further examined the situation and came up with a low impact strategy to fix it. Dillen of Beoworld.org advised me that the plastic bar that holds the spring mechanism can be slid out to the side of the lid. I opened the Beomaster up again and extracted the lid. Then, indeed, the part easily came out from its groove revealing that it is hollow. This opened up a route to a 3D printed fix. Here is a picture of the part that I had printed on a Stratasys uPrint printer in ABS:

I only had access to white filament, so I had to paint the part black on the visible areas. This part fits precisely into the gap in the plastic part and over the spring:

Fully inserted:

Then it was time to test the part under stress. I slid the bar back into the lid:

Then I put everything back together. Here is a view of the Beomaster from the back:

Not too bad...hardly visible, and if one does not know how it is supposed to look, one could almost think this is how it was designed. The Beomaster went back into my Beosystem 8000 to play with its old friends the Beogram 8000 and the Beocord 9000. I want to give it a few days of testing to make sure the shipping damage has been remedied in a stable way before I ship it out (this time double boxed...this experience demonstrated that an original B&O box is just not enough protection for today's shipping environment.

Beomaster 8000: Shipping Damage Repair II

Today, had a look into the soft FM 'store' button. I took out the control panel and removed the PCB. This is what I found:

Some of the tabs that hold the PCB for the buttons were broken off. The previous owner had removed this PCB at some point and did not understand that it can be slid to the left after lifting the end of the PCB above the blocking plastic protrusion. So he broke the tabs off and re-attached them with the solder iron that he used as a welding tool when he put the board back in...very crafty! Unfortunately, this method does not yield very good bonds, which resulted in structural failure during the shipping accident. The tab that stabilized the PCB beneath the FM store button was missing, resulting in sagging of the PCB when the button is pressed. That resulted in a soft feel when the button was used.

I fixed the issue with a few dabs of heat gun glue essentially replacing the reattached tabs for a more lasting bond. The great thing about this type of glue is that it can be removed with a bit of mechanical force. That way one can get in there again if needed. Here is a picture:

Time to put the Beomaster back together for some testing.

Beomaster 8000: Shipping Damage Repair

A sad moment in Beolover's life! A Beomaster 8000 that I recently restored was damaged during return shipping to its owner. FedEx must have dropped the box off the truck. This Beomaster was even shipped in its original box, but this was apparently not good enough. Double boxing is really worth the effort! So far, I only had shipping issues with single boxed units.

Anyway, upon opening it up and plugging it in, the display looked like this:

The Beomaster also occasionally turned off by itself, when touching the processor PCB...all this suggested some broken tracks on this PCB. And indeed, a close inspection of the board revealed several broken traces around one of the slots for the shield in the PCB...I bridged the affected traces:

And everything started working again:

It is interesting to understand the phenomenon cause by the broken traces. All strobed display digits had a very low intensity. At first I was a bit confused how all of them could be affected at the same time, while the non-strobed segments ran at full intensity. But all cleared up once I realized that the ground connection of both 74247 7-segment decoders had a high resistance. This floated them, and hence they were not able to sink current anymore, and with that the LEDs were all dim.

So far so good. Unfortunately, there is some more trouble: The buttons of the control panel feel unusually tight. They still work, but there is definitely something wrong...