inside a Sonos

[Big Aura]

Has anyone ever looked inside a Sonos? My darling son accidentally knocked a zonebridge down a flight of stairs and it's flashing a green light.

It rattled so I took it apart (bought secondhand so not under warranty).

There are two silver coloured, flat-topped (erm) thingies in it and one has broken off.

Does anyone know where it goes?
Also, do I simply solder it back on?

I will try and post a photo in a minute but there doesn't seem to be an obvious way to do this on an android device.

BA

 

[bigboss]

I don't know if this can help you (even though it's for Play:3):

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Sonos+Play%3A3+Teardown/12475

 

[bigboss]

If not repairabe, get another cheap one off ebay. Very soon, you won't need the Bridge at all:

http://blog.sonos.com/news/our-vision-for-rock-solid-wireless-evolved/

 

[Big Aura]

yet again, worring and impressive in equal measures what you have at instant access to (still learning the ropes on the Rancilio Silvia, btw!).

Unfortunately, it's a bit different inside...

How does one upload a picture to the forums that isn't web-based?

Cheers

 

[bigboss]

How does one upload a picture to the forums that isn't web-based?

That's not possible. Upload the pic on Flickr or Google+ etc. and then copy the image url.

 

[bigboss]

yet again, worring and impressive in equal measures what you have at instant access  to (still learning the ropes on the Rancilio Silvia, btw!).

:biggrin:

 

[Big Aura]

Finally managed to sort out a Flickr account. I really dislike how Google+ showed up one day without any real opting-in on my part.

Below is a picture of what the Sonos looks like inside. There are two metal pins with a flat disc on top. One has snapped off. I presume I merely need to solder it back on? But where?! I think it should go in the bottom left corner – there’s a silvery dot about 7mm to the right of the “GG24” writing.

Any other views greatly welcome!

 

[Overdose]

They look like they could be antennae.

One for transmit and one for receive, but I'm not sure. If they are antennae, the soldering them back on would be nigh on impossible to get the central conductor attached whislt at the same time keeping the ground separate.

All this of course, is of these are antennae.

 

[Big Aura]

" central conductor attached whislt at the same time keeping the ground separate"

So I wouldn't be able to simply blob a load of molten lead and then stick the antenna (I think that's what it is too) into it?

 

[Overdose]

It might be possible, but have a close look at the end of the bit broken off and see if it hasn't got a core to it. If it has, then things won't be so easy.

Edit: You will probably need a magnifying glass. x10 should do it.

 

[scene]

Get a replacement zonebridge. You'll never repair that one. You can get a brand new one from Currys/PC World/John Lewis for £32.

Or you could shop around for a secondhand one (fleabay, preloved)...

Re-soldering is going to be more trouble than it's worth.

Having said that. If you can hardwire another component (play / connect) into your LAN, you can live without the zonebridge. I'm trying to shuffle my stuff around to do just that...

 

[Big Aura]

There looks to be a core inside the column. Ahh to be honest, I bought that one second hand from gumtree two weeks ago as my new Play5 wouldn’t stretch to the shelf I wanted to put it on (signal died 1m short, annoyingly!).

And then, when the bridge was broken, the Play5 worked absolutely fine so the bridge is perhaps not needed. But I do like to tinker and teach myself stuff, so I was going to have a go at fixing it if possible. If I did need to buy another one it would slightly annoy me having to buy another one after just a fortnight…

 

[scene]

I love to tinker too... And I'd be annoyed to break something so quickly.

Typical that the Play 5 now just works! I've had that before - used to have a real problem with one of my Play 5s failing to connect every so often. Very annoying. Now it seems to work - I suspect either it's flipped channels or a neighbour has moved their BT Infinity airwave hogger to another part of the house...

 

[The_Lhc]

I love to tinker too... And I'd be annoyed to break something so quickly.

Typical that the Play 5 now just works! I've had that before - used to have a real problem with one of my Play 5s failing to connect every so often. Very annoying. Now it seems to work - I suspect either it's flipped channels or a neighbour has moved their BT Infinity airwave hogger to another part of the house...

Sonos devices can't automatically change channel, so it isn't that.

Sounds more like you had an IP address clash that has now worked its way out of the system.

You've got one wired Sonos device already yes?

 

[scene]

Yes you're right, of course - you have to reconfigure the Sonos to change channels.

Actually, I've got all three of my Connects wired, and none of my Play5s. So I think the bridge is superfluous - just haven't got around to scrabbling around in the cupboard to remove it and re-configure the Sonoses - that's a project for my holidays.

I think the issue may have been signal strength / interference. We got new neighbours who don't have BT Infinity and the problem went away.

(Sorry - I have a bit of an issue with the BT Infinity WAN service that BT are using to create wifi hotspots - in my experience it's a tad agressive and tends to wash out other non-BT wifi...)

 

[The_Lhc]

Yes you're right, of course - you have to reconfigure the Sonos to change channels.

Actually, I've got all three of my Connects wired, and none of my Play5s. So I think the bridge is superfluous

Sounds like it, although you could use it to fill in a wireless blackspot if one of your outlying P:5s is having trouble connecting. The bridge wouldn't necessarily need to be wired to do that though, as long as it's close enough to one of your wired players. I've got two bridges acting in that function (I've got a long house with thick stone walls, so it makes it difficult for the players to create a decent mesh, it's more straight-line hops from one end of the house to the other through doorways and the like).

- just haven't got around to scrabbling around in the cupboard to remove it and re-configure the Sonoses - that's a project for my holidays.

I think the issue may have been signal strength / interference. We got new neighbours who don't have BT Infinity and the problem went away.

(Sorry - I have a bit of an issue with the BT Infinity WAN service that BT are using to create wifi hotspots - in my experience it's a tad agressive and tends to wash out other non-BT wifi...)

Yeah my neighbour has it as well, although it's only detectable at the far end of the house where my Play:1 is, luckily the walls attenuate the signal from that so much it doesn't get through to the rest of the house, I just made sure the Sonos is using a different channel to the BT and it hasn't caused too many issues (it doesn't look like the BT router is using 40MHz wideband channels luckily).

 

[Big Aura]

Epic win for the tinkerer! For reasons unknown, the play5 stopped connecting during some Spanish Guitar tonight (perhaps not its cup of tea). Wouldn't reconnect.

I turned to the broken bridge and tried to join the antenna several times but each time I screwed the back on and reconnected power, I got the blinking green light of failure.

6th time lucky... Unfortunately I connected power before putting the casing back so didn't want to disconnect (as i would need to in order to reassemble) and hope the connection held. Ended up setting the casing on top and wrapping in a single layer of cling film to keep the million spiders in the cellar out of it!

edit: photo...