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Broken FM Xmitter?

About 14 months ago, I bought something that looked like any of the links below. It worked great, to let me listen to computer audio (such as web-radio) anywhere in the house or even on the car radio. I used it in my bedroom, the bathroom, and the kitchen, on different FM radios.

Left it on most of the time. Last week it broke.

Any chance I can repair it? What should I do?

I've turned it off for a day, then unplugged it for a day. Changed frequencies, adjusted volume, replugged input.

If I open it up, will I see burn marks somewhere? Cold solder?

Is there something I'm missing? (I always feel anything can be fixed.)

(There IS one thing I missed. Do y ou know what it is? But I just checked and it's not the problem.)

With the input volume all the way up, and the volume of the receiving radio all the way up, the radio output is about 1/10th or 1/20th what it used to be. Just enough to know that something is happening. Screen on the xmitter still lights up and displays the xmission frequency.

I'd never tried a mike before, and it's conceivable it never worked, but now, when I plug in a mike and turn its volume all the way up, stand halfway between the transmitter and the radio and yell, no trace of my voice from the radio.

It never felt hot.

They stopped selling my exact thing only 6 months later, but i'm sure the warranty was for no more than a year.

This is the same brand but when I click on my previous order, it says "We couldn't find that page." and it doesn't go here:

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$80 - 10. Still the cheapest. Is that the reason it broke after only

15 months? (Mine was called "Signstek 0.5 W 05B Dual Mode Long Range Stereo Broadcast Home FM Transmitter with Antenna and Free Audio Cable Fashion Black " Return window closed on Mar 4, 2020; Product support window closed on Aug 1, 2020) It gets 4.6 stars on 479 ratings! 90% give it 4 or 5 stars, but so would I have for the first year.

Only one review said it worked at first and failed (after 2 months). None of the other complaints applied to mine.

Do I have an alternative than buying basically the same thing again?

You can see that the first 3 are all the same in terms of size, shape, controls, jacks, antenna.

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$90

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$80 This makes reference to an AUX jack, but from the pictures, plainly they just mean the mike jack. That's fine.

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$99 - 20%

To get back some of the money I lost on the broken one, would it be wrong for me to start my own church?

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$120 Mine was cheaper, I guess because it had no RCA inputs, which I have no use for.

There are more, there were more at the time. Did I make a mistake by buying one that was $10 less than tthe others. $65 instead of 75?

This brings up the same question that I raised with the auto-vacuum-pressure tester, one of which was 33% higher than the other which appeared identical in every way. Are ttwo such things the same thing with different pricing, or do they manage to imitate a good one and yet make the imitation junky? I know t here is no single rule but what is your experience?

Functionally similar, based on knobs and jacks, but knobs are closer to the ends of the panel, it's silver instead of black, and it's twice the price $200. Does that mean it will last twice as long, 10x as long?

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$160

Reply to
micky
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Thanks, for the comprehensive answer, Rod. I read the whole thing but had started this already. Later, I may have a few wiseacre comments on your comments. ;-)

The thing I said I'd left out, the debugging step that I hoped you'd all notice, was that I didn't check the output voltage of the adapter. Maybe it was enough to light the display but not transmit. However it was fine, 12v.

While trying to pick a replacement, I finally noticed that a few of htem were listed as 0.1/0.5W LCD PLL. Even when I saw two wattages, I didn't remember that mine had that too. It took 2 or 3 minutes and it gradually came back to me.

So where is the switch to set the output power. Every knob and switch was accounted for. So let's find a manual. Not so easy.

Finally, googling fm transmitter 0.1/0.5w pll manual gave 53 hits but the 2 I looked at referred to manually scan.

Then in little grey letters I saw one hit was a pdf file.

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This is the $200 one. I still have no other evidence it's better than the $60 one, but one thing it has is that dagoelectronics has a pdf file all about it including instructions!!

Instructions I had completely forgotten, even that they existed. I thought I just plugged it in. In fact, that the instructions are the same as for my cheap one is just a little more evidence they are the same.

I had had power failures before in the past year but it has worked fine the entire time. They didnt' change it from high power to low power. I don't know what did this time.

This is what I was "missing". I'm glad I figured it out before I bought a second one.

Still 3 problems. 1) I did steps 1 and 2 but thought i was done, didn't pay attention to step 3, and it doesn't work. 2) I see that it's set 108.00 so I do step 4, and think I'm done, but it doesn't work. 3) I never yet did steps 5 and 6 and that might come back to bite me, but I did read and do steps 7 and 8, and it seems to be working now!!

Instructions:

Applies to all 2010 V1.2 versions or later with two level power adjustment: High power (H):> 0.5W/500mW(Default); Low-power (L): 500mW; "L" is. the output power

Reply to
micky

It basically has two mics in the one stalk so you get some stereo effect.

Not really, its doing quite a bit.

Reply to
Rod Speed

First, I have a legacy Ramsey FM100B that I built from a kit almost 20 year s ago. It has performed flawlessly throughout that time. Sadly, it is no lo nger made, although they do, occasionally, show up on eBay. Ramsey continue s to support them.

Second, there is a LOT of Chinese Junque out there that is awfully cheap, a nd that is no better than it should be at the price. Those that I have come across have had nice extruded cases, and looked pretty simple. But have no t performed anywhere as nicely as the Ramsey.

Third, I suspect that the unit you have that has failed has done so (in ran k order) because of a connector failure (antenna, power or input), or becau se of a failed critical component - because, did I mention, they are cheap.

Fourth, you will notice that the Rangemaster is "FCC Certified". In the wor ld of Part-15 FM transmitters, that does mean something.

You get what you pay for.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

Reply to
Peter W.

Thanks a lot for this information.

I'm saving the files you posted, and the links, for next time.

I might be able to do that.

Fortunately it wasn't needed this time. you probably saw that it just needed to be reset. I don't know what happened to make it stop working at 0.5W output.

I don't even know when it happened because when the radio didn't get the signal, I would think, Well maybe the computer is not playing anything, and it took at least a week before I went from one room to the other to be sure. I don't remember any power failures, plus there had been short power failures before that didn't interfere with the xmitter working right.

LOL. Good to hear. Maybe mine will last 10+ years also. It works for a radio in every room and outside, and even in the car parked outside, if it's something I don't want to miss. .

Reply to
micky

These things take time.

Yes. I used to clean dirty tv tuners, when they were mechanical. I've replaced a flyback transformer, diodes, and a bunch of other things I forget.

Since I was 9 years old, although all I had then was a wood-burning iron.

At least 6 of them.

Reply to
micky

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