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COME INTO THE LIGHT

FAULT REPAIR ON BLAUPUNKT VERONA CR 43

Words and photographs by Neil Lamb & Andrew Lamb

Do you find yourself putting your cassette units which often leads to an hand over the LCD display of expensive purchase to replace. With time the radio to try and see what on my hands, I had been meaning to get radio frequency you are tuning round to repairing my unit in my E30; to? It’s a common fault with vintage radio now I have the time! The first step is to remove the stereo from the vehicle and get it on the bench. By prising the radio’s top cover off you can find the LCD back light mounted in its shroud. This is a filament bulb held in the mount by a yellowish rubber fixing piece. This rubber piece gives the display its distinctive yellow/orange colour. The filament bulb is connected to the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) by two small black wires. After removing the bulb from the rubber fixing piece, you can see the

broken filament inside the bulb. Thinking ahead and not wishing to carry out this repair more than once, the thought of replacing it with an LED came to mind. An LED uses much less current and produces far less heat, along with lasting a very long time and providing a cleaner light.

Connecting a multimeter to the two black wires showed that the supply from the radio was 12VDC, and so the hunt for a 12V LED began. The LED strip lights commonly used on contemporary kitchen units can be found in 12V versions. Most of these are easily cut into short one-inch pieces and soldered onto the two black wires. The most important thing is to ensure you get the polarity correct.

The diagram on the PCB board shows a rectangle with the corner cut off, the wire connected to the board nearest the cut corner is the positive. Now it is a case of placing the short LED strip inside the mount and securing with a small strip of double-sided tape.

The radio is now ready for the big turn on, and voila, you can tune into a station without guessing where you are on the dial! We may have lost the original orange glow of the radio, but we have a more reliable unit that will last far longer...

A quick question to Concours enthusiasts – many will have noticed that the unit in question is a 1994 model radio cassette. My E30 is a ’90 model, what would it have been fitted with out of the factory?