I’m glad and at the same time not so glad to stumble upon your video. I just bought a sonoclock 650 from eBay where the left most display only displays the bottom most part. I thought it would be a contact issue and an easy fix, but replacing the IC would cost just as much as I paid for the thing and I can find working ones with worse shells at the same price. I got the Sonoclock 210 and it made me fall in love with its cyberpunk look and now I’m just going down the rabbit hole. Edit: I just did some research and it seems like you can probably also use a Tesla SN74LS157 chip as an alternative to the TBD 570.
Its a rabbit hole for sure! You could end up going along to mechanical flip clocks and those are a whole heap of other pain with the drive motors. Useful to know about the alternative chip for the sonoclock, the early led driver ic's are hard to find as you have found and come at a premium.
When the pair came up on ebay I guessed that at worst I would get one good out of two. After seeing the construction inside, the other one should be a good fix too.
Great repair George! Like the fact the radio is very module, no messy wires to get in your way! :) Looking forward to the rebuild on the other. ~Jack, VEG
Jack, for some reason the Germans design things properly. Easy to use, easy to service. Hopefully the other one will be a simple fix but the controls being missing may be a problem.
By George, made to be repaired rather than trashed, sad that most do not have that good quality. So glad you made it work again for many years to come. Have you any Polish rigs? Unitra is a huge Polish electronics company. Dr Cassette made a nice vid of a Unitra system. I haven't seen any in the States, rather rare, but perhaps you might come across some sort of unit. Cheerio, Don
I haven't seen any yet but that really means nothing here. We have a huge Eastern European community in this town and all of the surrounding areas and they bring in a lot of stuff from home. Most of it is younger people though, not guys our age so the stuff they have seems to be up to date. I'm sure I can ask a few locals if they can bring stuff over next time they come back. Politics is getting in the way at the moment though, we don't know if we are part of europe with free movement and trade or not. It means that I have to buy everything now, before the end of March before the border closes and customs hold everything.
I'm coming back to report on my previous findings. I tried everything to get the 650 working, but I think in the end the chip was just gone, and the radio also stopped working. Not worth to get parts when I can get a working one for cheaper. I did manage to fix a Sonoclock 550. What happens with these is that the LED board connects to the IC board with solder, but the solder joints are really weak and end up cracking. Reflowing the joints on the 550 got it back to life. I initially thought the 5-pin (6-pin on the 650) connector was the culprit and exchanged that without fixing the issue. Really cool clocks, but that design flaw is annoying.
Nice video! Just snagged one of these from eBay for 15€ to get rid of the smartphone on the nightstand. Supposed to be fully working. If not, might be a good first project for restauration purposes. :)
@@GeorgeChristofi Sadly the transformer hums a bit too loud for having it next to you while sleeping. I am guessing that this is because the german power grid changed from 220v to 230v after this device was produced, which might put the transformer to operation at its limits.
nice job George,-ihave the older flip clock grundig sonoclock 20b,nice sounding,-but-the clock is not working,its complicated gears and motor mechanism,its stucked, i gave up
Very enjoyable video to watch. I have a 350a, it's indeed really well build even al the plastic clips didnt break and the radiodial light still works. Unfortanatly my transformer makes a loud hum, the kind that they usually make except louder. Not coming from the speaker. Anything I can do about it except replacing?
The transformer hum is usually vibration from the core itself. it might be possible to tighten it up by gentle use of a hammer on the frame that clamps it together. Alternatively, squeezing the frame in a vice may work as well.
That is always the way with older electronics. Plastic is getting brittle and you are more likely to be the second or third person to have had fingers inside it.
Hi George. Great video. I have small colection of old Sono Clock's and one in particular, a sono-clock 31a(1976?) wich is very similar to the model you show in the video, has some problems in the radio section, and the light dimmer sensor doesnt work but that doesnt bother me. I will try to replace the capacitors to fix the humming problem of the radio. Can you tell me wich capacitors(voltages) did you use? Greetings from Portugal and please continue to make great videos.
I tend to upgrade the capacitors at least one voltage rating higher as modern capacitors are generally smaller. If you have 16v capacitors in there it will not hurt to put 25v capacitors into the unit at all. If it is 12v then go to 15/16v... it depends what is more available to you locally. There would be no issues fitting like for like in, so replacing them with the same voltage but you may have to stretch the legs slightly to account for the smaller size. Many thanks for watching my videos and glad to have you on board. Greetings from the UK.
@@GeorgeChristofi I got a sonoclock 350a for my colection and perhaps you can help me. One of the clock switches "uhrzeit" as soon has i cleaned it stopped operating and now i cant set the time. Do you know what could it be? Perhaps something with the cable or the switch itself? Are they hard to fix? Many greetings!
@@frajolas73 It is a standard 70's grade switch so unless it is physically broken you are likely to have either a track break on the pcb or a dirty contact in the unit. When you say 'cleaned it' is that cleaned as in electrically inside the unit or just a dirt removal from the outside?
@@GeorgeChristofi Hi George. I opened the radio to substitute the backlight bulb on the radio side and as some switches were not working very well i used a electrical contact spray to clean that section. All of the switches imediatly start working very well. After several minutes the uhrzeit switch started to fail and then stoped functionig. I clean it again as i found some white residual spots left from the spray. But that button doesnt work anymore. Thank you very much for your help. Greetings!
i got a sono clock 31a the display dont seems to work correctly radio works fine but it dont show the clock just a first 3 - - - then when i press a button a 0 on the 3rd segment shows i can tho set the week and month just fine but setting the clock didnt go well i did not know the radio had a timer then thats why it turns of after a while but sometimes it can be on its just weird to turn on the radio i press schlummber button and its on for a few seconds any idea whats wrong
It has a strange setting method if I remember rightly, I think it needs combinations of buttons. The full service manual for it can be downloaded for free from elektrotanya.com/grundig_sono-clock_31a_sm.pdf/download.html
Hello I found a Sono Clock 31 at the flea market yesterday. in red But the display only lights up dark at full level with the block battery, what could be the reason Thank you
When you say display light do you mean the lamp on the dial face for the radio or the LED segments? The lamp is difficult for the dial face but can be replaced with a white or orange LED. The clock display will need the LED display replacing.
hello, I have an equal radio but does not have the tuning light, how does it turno on? also the lamp may not be good, do you know how many volts it is? thank you
The tuning light turns on when the radio is on. They are very dim on mine too. I will have to try and find a service manual to find the lamp voltage because I fixed mine blind, just following components.
I’m glad and at the same time not so glad to stumble upon your video. I just bought a sonoclock 650 from eBay where the left most display only displays the bottom most part. I thought it would be a contact issue and an easy fix, but replacing the IC would cost just as much as I paid for the thing and I can find working ones with worse shells at the same price.
I got the Sonoclock 210 and it made me fall in love with its cyberpunk look and now I’m just going down the rabbit hole.
Edit: I just did some research and it seems like you can probably also use a Tesla SN74LS157 chip as an alternative to the TBD 570.
Its a rabbit hole for sure! You could end up going along to mechanical flip clocks and those are a whole heap of other pain with the drive motors. Useful to know about the alternative chip for the sonoclock, the early led driver ic's are hard to find as you have found and come at a premium.
Nice repair George, the radio sounds great.
It plays really well. There is certainly enough volume to wake the dead, let alone a heavy sleeper!
Great video George. ...had a Grundig hifi years ago....very reliable.
When the pair came up on ebay I guessed that at worst I would get one good out of two. After seeing the construction inside, the other one should be a good fix too.
Great repair George! Like the fact the radio is very module, no messy wires to get in your way! :) Looking forward to the rebuild on the other. ~Jack, VEG
Jack, for some reason the Germans design things properly. Easy to use, easy to service. Hopefully the other one will be a simple fix but the controls being missing may be a problem.
Nice looking and sounding radio! Enjoyable video. 👍👍
Thanks Bob. I did like the design and ease of service.
Good well done. Still got to take my 70s clock radio apart and change the filter electrolytic. Turning the radio on resets the clock, lol
Sounds like a good project for a video!
Nice radio,and great fix. Good thing you had two of them for good part:>)
I'm hoping the second one works too but if not, it should be a good fix.
By George, made to be repaired rather than trashed, sad that most do not have that good quality. So glad you made it work again for many years to come.
Have you any Polish rigs? Unitra is a huge Polish electronics company. Dr Cassette made a nice vid of a Unitra system. I haven't seen any in the States, rather rare, but perhaps you might come across some sort of unit.
Cheerio, Don
I haven't seen any yet but that really means nothing here. We have a huge Eastern European community in this town and all of the surrounding areas and they bring in a lot of stuff from home. Most of it is younger people though, not guys our age so the stuff they have seems to be up to date. I'm sure I can ask a few locals if they can bring stuff over next time they come back. Politics is getting in the way at the moment though, we don't know if we are part of europe with free movement and trade or not. It means that I have to buy everything now, before the end of March before the border closes and customs hold everything.
Loved the repair Sir.
All my best.
Bobby
Glad you liked it. The video was a bit longer than I thought it would end up but I didn't want to cut anything important out.
@@GeorgeChristofi I am happy you didn't shorten it I enjoyed it all. Awesome trouble shooting. Thank you for the reply.
All my best.
Bobby
I'm coming back to report on my previous findings. I tried everything to get the 650 working, but I think in the end the chip was just gone, and the radio also stopped working. Not worth to get parts when I can get a working one for cheaper. I did manage to fix a Sonoclock 550. What happens with these is that the LED board connects to the IC board with solder, but the solder joints are really weak and end up cracking. Reflowing the joints on the 550 got it back to life. I initially thought the 5-pin (6-pin on the 650) connector was the culprit and exchanged that without fixing the issue.
Really cool clocks, but that design flaw is annoying.
Was your display dark?
Nice video! Just snagged one of these from eBay for 15€ to get rid of the smartphone on the nightstand. Supposed to be fully working. If not, might be a good first project for restauration purposes. :)
Nice one! They are nice units for sure
@@GeorgeChristofi Sadly the transformer hums a bit too loud for having it next to you while sleeping. I am guessing that this is because the german power grid changed from 220v to 230v after this device was produced, which might put the transformer to operation at its limits.
Nice work George.
Many thanks Stan. I love it when something works again properly.
Wow, might look out for one of these! Love it!
They are great clocks. Much nicer than standard digiclocks
nice job George,-ihave the older flip clock grundig sonoclock 20b,nice sounding,-but-the clock is not working,its complicated gears and motor mechanism,its stucked, i gave up
Very enjoyable video to watch. I have a 350a, it's indeed really well build even al the plastic clips didnt break and the radiodial light still works.
Unfortanatly my transformer makes a loud hum, the kind that they usually make except louder. Not coming from the speaker. Anything I can do about it except replacing?
The transformer hum is usually vibration from the core itself. it might be possible to tighten it up by gentle use of a hammer on the frame that clamps it together. Alternatively, squeezing the frame in a vice may work as well.
@@GeorgeChristofi Thanks I will try that. It looks like someone had a go with it before but I don't know how long ago.
That is always the way with older electronics. Plastic is getting brittle and you are more likely to be the second or third person to have had fingers inside it.
Where can I find a replacement for the FCM7010 IC? Could not find it anywhere.
Hi George. Great video. I have small colection of old Sono Clock's and one in particular, a sono-clock 31a(1976?) wich is very similar to the model you show in the video, has some problems in the radio section, and the light dimmer sensor doesnt work but that doesnt bother me. I will try to replace the capacitors to fix the humming problem of the radio. Can you tell me wich capacitors(voltages) did you use?
Greetings from Portugal and please continue to make great videos.
I tend to upgrade the capacitors at least one voltage rating higher as modern capacitors are generally smaller. If you have 16v capacitors in there it will not hurt to put 25v capacitors into the unit at all. If it is 12v then go to 15/16v... it depends what is more available to you locally. There would be no issues fitting like for like in, so replacing them with the same voltage but you may have to stretch the legs slightly to account for the smaller size.
Many thanks for watching my videos and glad to have you on board. Greetings from the UK.
@@GeorgeChristofi I got a sonoclock 350a for my colection and perhaps you can help me. One of the clock switches "uhrzeit" as soon has i cleaned it stopped operating and now i cant set the time. Do you know what could it be? Perhaps something with the cable or the switch itself? Are they hard to fix? Many greetings!
@@frajolas73 It is a standard 70's grade switch so unless it is physically broken you are likely to have either a track break on the pcb or a dirty contact in the unit. When you say 'cleaned it' is that cleaned as in electrically inside the unit or just a dirt removal from the outside?
@@GeorgeChristofi Hi George. I opened the radio to substitute the backlight bulb on the radio side and as some switches were not working very well i used a electrical contact spray to clean that section. All of the switches imediatly start working very well. After several minutes the uhrzeit switch started to fail and then stoped functionig. I clean it again as i found some white residual spots left from the spray. But that button doesnt work anymore. Thank you very much for your help. Greetings!
i got a sono clock 31a the display dont seems to work correctly radio works fine
but it dont show the clock just a first 3 - - - then when i press a button a 0 on the 3rd segment shows i can tho set the week and month just fine
but setting the clock didnt go well
i did not know the radio had a timer then thats why it turns of after a while but sometimes it can be on its just weird
to turn on the radio i press schlummber button and its on for a few seconds
any idea whats wrong
It has a strange setting method if I remember rightly, I think it needs combinations of buttons. The full service manual for it can be downloaded for free from elektrotanya.com/grundig_sono-clock_31a_sm.pdf/download.html
Hello
I found a Sono Clock 31 at the flea market yesterday.
in red
But the display only lights up dark at full level
with the block battery, what could be the reason
Thank you
Hi. I have a sono clock 1000, it works perfectly but the display light is very low. Do you know what to do to fix?
When you say display light do you mean the lamp on the dial face for the radio or the LED segments? The lamp is difficult for the dial face but can be replaced with a white or orange LED. The clock display will need the LED display replacing.
Thanks. I mean the backlight of the clock display
hello, I have an equal radio but does not have the tuning light, how does it turno on? also the lamp may not be good, do you know how many volts it is? thank you
The tuning light turns on when the radio is on. They are very dim on mine too. I will have to try and find a service manual to find the lamp voltage because I fixed mine blind, just following components.
@@GeorgeChristofi hello, thanks for the answer, I will try with a 12v flashlight to light a little 6v, then I give feedback
@@miguelbaia2386 I have just found the full service manual on elektrotanya and it states that the lamp is a 12-15v 30mA light.
@@GeorgeChristofi thanksssssss