Not sure if this is the best area for this thread, but here we go.
My pre-out section on my car stereo recently stopped working. There are three (front, rear, sub)
Rear and sub can be turned off via the software in the menu, but front should be always on. I tested all three to be completely silent. Nothing changed. Everything else works perfectly.
I took it apart for a visual and a few basic probes, but nothing popped out at all.
I am still awaiting a new bench power supply and microscope, so I wasn't able to scope it yet.
Just in case the software got a glitch I did a power drain and factory reset.
Back traced a small bit, there are three opamps then back to a volume control IC, then some traces seem to go back to a dsp chip.
Since Alpine's rep companies in UK won't even acknowledge emails, have no contact number anymore, and Germany didn't answer either, it looks like I'm on my own.
When I do finally get some new tools, I'm gathering ideas on how to proceed. The unit as a whole is pretty complicated and spread between 3 pcb's, but I'm thinking this issue would be contained in this board as the others seem to house the hdmi, usb, and CANBUS interface. The amplifier circuit is working, so I was thinking of tracing both of the paths back to where they meet as, unlike a traditional amplifier, there is no physical input to trace from really. Then taking a signal generator and scope to try and trace it back. I'm still not very adept at following signal path without points a AND b.
Just wondering if you lads had any advice or ideas.
The SMD components go as small as 0402 size and there are many unlabeled larger ones as well which poses an issue. Even the labeled diodes I can't find info on, so it's hard to tell what they should even be reading. At least I can identify the IC's.
My pre-out section on my car stereo recently stopped working. There are three (front, rear, sub)
Rear and sub can be turned off via the software in the menu, but front should be always on. I tested all three to be completely silent. Nothing changed. Everything else works perfectly.
I took it apart for a visual and a few basic probes, but nothing popped out at all.
I am still awaiting a new bench power supply and microscope, so I wasn't able to scope it yet.
Just in case the software got a glitch I did a power drain and factory reset.
Back traced a small bit, there are three opamps then back to a volume control IC, then some traces seem to go back to a dsp chip.
Since Alpine's rep companies in UK won't even acknowledge emails, have no contact number anymore, and Germany didn't answer either, it looks like I'm on my own.
When I do finally get some new tools, I'm gathering ideas on how to proceed. The unit as a whole is pretty complicated and spread between 3 pcb's, but I'm thinking this issue would be contained in this board as the others seem to house the hdmi, usb, and CANBUS interface. The amplifier circuit is working, so I was thinking of tracing both of the paths back to where they meet as, unlike a traditional amplifier, there is no physical input to trace from really. Then taking a signal generator and scope to try and trace it back. I'm still not very adept at following signal path without points a AND b.
Just wondering if you lads had any advice or ideas.
The SMD components go as small as 0402 size and there are many unlabeled larger ones as well which poses an issue. Even the labeled diodes I can't find info on, so it's hard to tell what they should even be reading. At least I can identify the IC's.
