fixing speak and spell

parricide · April 19, 2011, 11:53:57 AM

i am trying to fix my speak and spell.
the problem is it wont power on. i have poked around in the circuit with a multi meter and one thing i noticed is there doesnt seem to be any power in D1 (pic below) on the smaller PCB on the left.

also i havent got 9 resistors, ive got 4!

i am assuming ive got a UK version though which might be different.

i dont really know where to start to go about fixing this so does anybody have any ideas to help?

thank you

Circuitbenders · April 19, 2011, 12:09:01 PM

It'll probably be a problem on the power supply board on the left there. At a guess its the component to the left of the electrolytic cap that looks like a tall transistor bent over, but is in fact probably some kind of voltage regulator. It might be labelled Q1. Good luck finding a replacement.

It occurs to me that someone could make some money selling replacement Speak power supply boards, as its always something on there that dies.

The amount of resistors doesn't matter. Theres something like 10 or 15 different versions of the speak&spell board, all with different numbers of resistors on the bottom right.

Alternatively, try getting it to start up by just shorting the pins where the keypad connector plugs in. I'm not sure which pins it is but two of them emulate pressing ON on the front panel. I'm sure this has been discussed before.

parricide · April 19, 2011, 01:30:35 PM

thanks.
i have got Q1 Q2 and Q3. i probably wont bother replacing it unless i can do it cheap.
i will try shorting the keypad pins. should i just touch the 2 battery wires to the different pins until it turns on? simple as that?

if i cant get this thing going i can always rape it of parts

thanks for the help

Circuitbenders · April 19, 2011, 06:15:00 PM

Quote from: parricide on April 19, 2011, 01:30:35 PM
should i just touch the 2 battery wires to the different pins until it turns on? simple as that?

Good god no, that might well do it more damage.

You don't want to go sticking voltage in just anywhere.
I assume you've actually tried running the thing from an external 6v power supply?

You see the connector in the middle where the keypad connector goes in? On the back theres a row of solder points. Pressing ON on the front panel is the equivalent to connecting two of these points together but off the top of my head i'm not sure which ones it is. With the power plugged in, or batteries in place, try taking a short length of wire and shorting these solder points together. If you find that shorting two of them together makes the thing turn on then at least you know the power supply board is working

parricide · April 20, 2011, 06:41:45 PM

thanks i will try that.
i tried with a power supply and it worked but only once. im not sure what the voltage was but it didnt suddenly die, it worked for a while and after a couple of on/off's. it was after i unplugged it and after a couple of days that it no longer worked. i might have made it worse

i will try that though and see how it goes. thanks

parricide · April 25, 2011, 11:58:02 PM

it didnt work

i am watching a few other speak and spells on ebay at the moment. those things are going for loads of money!

any other ideas though?

Circuitbenders · April 26, 2011, 02:18:12 AM

Its something on the little power supply board. It usually is on speak machines. If you got another one and swapped the power supply boards then i'd bet you anything it'd leap back to life, you'd still be left with a dead S&S machine though.

parricide · April 26, 2011, 09:49:38 PM

i will keep my eyes open for a cheap broken one. as long as its not the same problem

thanks for the help