"CD works great, but the pre-amp keeps displaying an error.
Can you have a look?"
Yeah ... why not...
Connecting up power gives this familiar error message... Something's wrong with the memory checksum.
Undo the four screws underneath and slide off the cover....
Oh gawd ... Thankfully this particular flavor of "Brilliant" is quite reliable...
We need to remove the front panel. Two M3 sliver screws near the front on the bottom, and two countersunk screws, one on each side. Remove the ribbon connector.
Remove the screws holding the shield in place.
Disconnect the next ribbon cable and put the shield to one side.
... and there's the issue. The Varta mempac battery. Green and fluffy! A new one is duly fitted. The unit will still show an error for the first time it's switched on again. Once the memory is written to, all will be well :)If there's any sign of electrolyte leaking on to the board, this must be thoroughly cleaned up with IPA.
The new battery arrives .... I have to say they've upgraded the capacity a bit!!!110Ah .... I think not !
Ah ... 150mAh ... more like it!
And after powering up twice, all is well...
Plenty of in's and out's!
Super.
ReplyDeleteMême PB : err 2 don't panic
Thank you so much for posting this. Just did the exact battery replacement myself on mine and it worked a treat. Saved hundreds of pounds. Dan G
DeleteHi, I like your Manual to repair the Linn Kairn. I tried it too - but somehow my Eprom lost it's data. I am not shure if it lost the memory because of the dead battery. It's an M27C256 with a Sticker on it "AE31-LK2V00-25/11/94". Do you have a Image from a Linn Kairn Eeprom and could send it to me?
ReplyDeletechaos.wg@gmx.de
I'm sorry, I don't. :(
DeleteHello, i have a question about the panic in the screen showed .
ReplyDeleteI had that very sort wail,but also my power green light is out now.is this related to the back up battery problem ??
Thanks for now
Regards Charles
Hi Charles. I think something may have got lost in translation... a "sort wail"? What have you changed or replaced?
DeleteI recently acquired a Kairn Pro which had a new battery installed but when powered on it than goes out, no power at all. I did get the Err 2 message on the first power on. The Kairn worked for an hour than shut off. Now it will turn on and power immediately down, sometimes no power at all. Thanks
ReplyDeleteI have the EPROM dump..... how can I give it to you?
ReplyDeleteregards
I want to thank you with all sincerity for posting these Kairn battery replacement steps. It took me about a half an hour but the preamp has been started...twice...all is well..for sixteen more years, I hope. My Linn Kremlin is giving me an error 2 on startup. Probably the same issue.
ReplyDeleteThe Linn Kremlin ("err2" message displayed) (and Kudos?) tuner(s) battery and replacement process are the same as the Kairn.
ReplyDeleteThank you again.
great advice!!! i replaced the battery for the first time in 27 years. and all was like described. amazing...
ReplyDeleteand thank you
Hello, I need the front pannel PCB of Linn kairn (version with phono) or the schematic of front pannel. Because my kairn is died and many circuit línes are destroyed by the leaking battery. Thank you for your help.
ReplyDeleteHi Andy,
ReplyDeleteReally good, clear instructions for replacing the battery. I've just set up my active Linn Kabers, three LK100s and Kairn pre-amp. The Kairn soon displayed the Err2, don't panic - so I cleaned up the board (some minor battery leakage) and replaced the battery, with no improvement. I them replaced the 10 electrolytic capacitors on the front panel and checked the copper traces and couldn't find any issues. The Kairn now boots up with the Err2 & don't panic, remote and facia buttons all work for approx. 30 seconds, and then locks up. The Kairn is feeding the LK100s and the sound is fine. If I leave it powered up, the remote starts working after approx. 30 mins, but the facia buttons still don't work. Any ideas as to what to check next? The system has been in storage since 1998! I bought it all new, in the UK, but I'm now living in Australia so local knowledge for Linn equipment is non-existent, and I would really like to get it working again. Any help/suggestions would be much appreciated.
Regards,
Mal
Thermal issues like this are almost always electrolytic capacitor related. Start looking at any that are sitting on the 5V rail. If that's noisy the poor micro won't know if it's coming or going.
DeleteThanks for your quick reply, as an update, I realise if I leave it powered for an hour, then the facia buttons also work. I have already replace all 10 electrolytic caps on the front board, so I'm not sure what you mean by the 5v rail? (I'm no electronics guy, just a humble mechanical engineer). Are you now referring to the caps on the main board? By the way my Kairn has the round Brilliant power supply, and I saw your repair of that and tbh I think that might be beyond my capabilities.
DeleteA "rail" is just a term used to define each voltage coming from the supply. Think of it like a mainline "rail"way, with sidings coming off to each component that requires the supply. If you've got that awful round switching supply, that's probably the issue... Take it to a local TV repair place, show them my website, I'm sure they'll do it.
DeleteI will investigate further, thanks so much for the advice, it's a shame Linn had turned their back on so much of their equipment and customer base.
DeleteAfter re-reading your excellent guide on repairing the Brilliant supply for the Karik I bit the bullet, armed with insulated pliers, insulated screwdrivers, insulated shoes and a tinfoil hat, I took the power supply apart. The two large (and potentially dangerous caps) had zero volts across them, but I used a 15W filament bulb to discharge the caps out of an abundance of caution. I may have found the problem. Certainly a problem, there is a yellow cap adjacent to the earth input wire and one of the large caps that has exploded i.e. literally blown apart. It is marked: "0.15 uF X2, 2 x 4700 pF Y". Not sure how easy it will be to find one of these, but at least some progress. Again thanks for your brilliant guide, pun intended, I will donate to the cause shortly. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteExcellent work, and not for the feint-hearted. That capacitor MUST be replaced with an equivalent X2 rated safety component. For testing, however, you can TEMPORARILY leave it disconnected.
DeleteHi Doz, I replaced the safety cap and the four electrolytics in the power supply. Hmmm.. now the power light remains on, but the LED displays Err 2, no scrolling don't panic, and nothing works. If I switch the unit on and off again, the screen is blank. After a while (hours not minutes) switched off the cycle repeats. I checked the polarity and solder joints of the replaced caps, but all seems ok. Any idea what to try next, I'm wondering if Err 2 is not solely related to the battery and maybe something else blew in the brilliant PS?
DeleteHmmm... if it's still showing ERR2, then the checksum is bad in the EEPROM... now we need a copy of a good EPROM, which I don't have. It should be a M27C256. It's the contents we're going to struggle with ... Does anyone reading this have a dump??
DeleteI do have a zip file (from another forum) of ROM type M27C256 file ae31-lk2v00-25-11-94.bin (my EPROM has the date 22/09/94 on it). I have no idea how to load it though. It seems if I leave the Kairn switched on for a couple of hours, then turn it off and on again, I'm back to the Err2 Don't Panic and everything works again back to the default settings.
DeleteFinally got the file loaded on a new EPROM and installed, but I still get the ERR2 and Don't Panic message, so no change, so I guess the original was OK after all. All I can think now is that there must be a damaged trace somewhere on the front panel board.
DeleteHi, every body. I have a Linn Kairn and this one give me an "Err 1". What would be that ? Thanks a Lot.
ReplyDeleteHi Doz, Finally got the Kairn working! (after almost a year) I re-checked the continuity on the traces around the leaked battery, and lo and behold the trace to the ground point had failed in the through-board hole. After soldering a length of wire all works as it should again. Thanks again for your help with this and the Brilliant power supply, which is also fixed now. All the best.
ReplyDelete