Be Excellent To Each Other

So today I bought a functional Bose Waveradio/CD. It's the third gen model and about nine years old.

Apparently it all works perfectly apart from the CD player. According to the seller it's temperamental and he's tried cleaning the laser to no avail. It turns out that I simply need to order one of these.

http://www.donberg.co.uk/catalogue/audi ... _100s.html

Now I've tinkered with and replaced lasers before, but there is one thing worrying me. Apparently there are solder points on it that prevent the laser from static damage and you have to remove them. Has any one had to do this? if so what does it entail? I've got a solder iron and I found some advice on it that says to ground yourself and then unplug the solder iron before using it to prevent any static. Only very expensive solder irons have static protection built in apparently.

I doubt I will ever even play a CD in it as I just want it for the AUX socket. My amplifier packed up recently and I have less space than I used to so it would be nice to plug my PC in and use it for sound output

Given these things are made by children in the second world, I doubt there's any major issues in needing expensive technology with a straight swap. For £11, if it doesn't work and you don't need it anyway, there is no real loss, is there? I used to regularly repair massively high ampage electronic equipment with improvised tools and it never killed anyone, least of all me, and I'm no Joans. The whole "electrical equipment and static" thing is mostly spu about by highly strung people wanting to sound like they know what is going on anyway. I haven't bricked anything I've stuck into a computer and never nothered with static band or any sort of things like that.MTFU and do it.

Yeah I guess you're right haha.

I've replaced the pickup in a Sega Saturn before, and in a PS1. Only thing I am worried about is fucking it with static from the solder iron. The best bit of info I could find on it was in Engrish and it made hardly any sense.

It's a £12 replacement part. Have a go at it. Stop worrying about static. You're not building a space shuttle. Nobody will die as a result of it.

Well I've found a decent close up pic. It seems there are three solder shorting blobs to prevent the static, and from the information I have found (which is very thin on the ground) you simply remove the one that's been removed on the existing pickup.

So panic over, I shall order that tomorrow

Don't bother then.

That's what I keep telling myself but the urge to fuck with it is strong lol. I paid £90 for it and it is completely mint without a single mark. Fixed they sell for £200..

Well I just phoned Bose and tbh I'm incredibly impressed.

Firstly their tech support/repairs phone number is 0800 which is rare these days. Secondly it's UK based support, and thirdly they charge a flat rate of £79 which includes return shipping to repair any fault so long as parts are available.

So basically you could send in a completely knackered wave and they would completely refurbish it for a flat rate of £79.

A UK based laser is going to cost me around £29. So they're charging £50 on top of that to completely fix the unit and return it.

Given I only paid £90 for it (and the shell is absolutely spotless) then it would set me back a total of around £170. They sell for upward of £200 on Ebay.

Sorted !

Chicken!

hah ! I concur though, I definintely make bock bock sounds.

It's two things that have me scared. Firstly you need to remove ribbons and my track record with ribbons isn't so hot. I'm a clumsy bastard and I've managed to rip quite a few. Then there's this whole "desolder a lump to release the laser from it's static safety position". From what I can make out if you use a cheap soldering iron they are loaded with static. Touch that to the pickup and it basically destroys it, completely throwing it out of alignment.

I'm still back and forth tbh. I just bought a precision screwdriver set, and, managed to find this.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SF-P100-13P-O ... 3cc691ea5a

Which is obviously no money at all. So I may still pluck up the courage to go for it