Hello forum. I've recently been given a Yamaha TSX 120 DAB radio and ipod dock. Its working well however when put on standby its using 6.3 watts. The manual states less than 1 watt on standby. I measured this with a plug in monitor which seems accurate with other items. In use it uses around 7.5 watts. Firstly has anyone who owns a similar radio also got a plug in monitor to check if this is normal with this unit? In the first half a second of connecting to power the monitor shows 0.3 watts which I suspect is what it should use but something is switching it to be almost fully powered. I've searched the manual for eco modes and there are none. The display is slightly dim which I understand is a common fault with these units, could the components which fail causing the dim display be affecting standby power use?
I took it apart yesterday mainly to clean under the buttons under the top panel which are impossible to clean properly without dissembly and to look for anything looking wrong. The radio appears to have been stored in a shed and had both live and dead insects inside it, many cobwebs and areas of spider turds. I cleaned out as much as possible and cleaned the circuit boards I had removed from the top panel. The remaining two boards in the lower part of the unit weren't removed but were cleaned as much as could be reached. They looked very clean. Can dead insects or spider turds affect standby use?
I'm a complete electronics amateur so please excuse any errors.
I have asked on another forum, badcaps, because I couldn't remember the name of this one. No replies there yet.
I took it apart yesterday mainly to clean under the buttons under the top panel which are impossible to clean properly without dissembly and to look for anything looking wrong. The radio appears to have been stored in a shed and had both live and dead insects inside it, many cobwebs and areas of spider turds. I cleaned out as much as possible and cleaned the circuit boards I had removed from the top panel. The remaining two boards in the lower part of the unit weren't removed but were cleaned as much as could be reached. They looked very clean. Can dead insects or spider turds affect standby use?
I'm a complete electronics amateur so please excuse any errors.
I have asked on another forum, badcaps, because I couldn't remember the name of this one. No replies there yet.
How did you measure the power taken in standby? There can be quite large errors in mains power metering, for instance a power meter good for a range from 0W to 2kW might have an error of 10W across the board...
I used a plug in meter which I understand isn't calibrated or checked however similar items, two Pure radios and a Sony radio give measurements as expected, below 0.5w in standby. If the meter is inaccurate would it only be inaccurate with this Yamaha?
I don't really understand power factor, showing power being used which isn't really being used? I have noticed on this unit the top gets warm when its in use but it is equally as warm when on standby which suggests the energy is being used and its not an anomalous reading.
Well perhaps the manual is wrong then - or there is a problen with the unit. Many small PSUs have poor power factor (ie they look capacitive or inductive to the mains, and just measuring current consumption doesn't give a correct measure of power consumption).
Resolved. On youtube there's a fix for a failed screen on a TSX 130, same thing but with a cd player. I asked if the author of that video could measure their power use which they very helpfully did and also explained to put it into standby I needed to hold the power button for 3 seconds. When in actual standby the screen is now dark and its using 0.2w. No idea why it has on, off and standby. When "off" it uses 6.3w compared to 7.2w when in use for no benefit. Presumably this was to accommodate the one watt initiative which was being introduced when this model was released.