Resurrection of a Bose SoundDock iPod dock


I'd like to begin this blog by sharing something both useful and nerdy. Something about music and science and perhaps environmentally conscious at the same time...

Well, I was given a broken Bose SoundDock a while back.  It went "shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"-(silence) when turned on.  The "sh" noise lasted only a few seconds.  No music, no sound once it fell silent.  Given the option to fix it and keep it or throw it away, I figured it might be worth fixing this beast (priced at ~$230, but worth nothing as delivered).

In this first post, I'll tell you about how I turned this trash into treasure.

Patents

Incidentally, while I was reading the label to figure out what this Bose product was officially named, I couldn't help noticing U.S. PAT. NOS 7,277,765 and D514090 on the bottom.  Thanks to Google's great Patent Search, I could have a good laugh at the bullshit contained in these documents.

The second one, "Sounds system for portable music player," is a design patent and makes just a brief claim:

The ornamental design for a sound system for portable music player, substantially as shown and described.

It contains several figures which I suppose secure Bose's design IP, including FIG. 1 shown above.  Such short claims do not seem unusual for design patents, such as those for this popular beverage maker, hideous but somehow unique grand piano designs 1 and 2 (good one Zeiser, Mr. Von Rohl will be really upset he didn't think of that!), and the curved body of cheese made of offset slices of cheese... yeah.

The first patent "Interactive sound reproducing" contains a little more content.  Its abstract describes something about an audio system that attaches to a computer...

ABSTRACT
An audio system attachable to a computer includes a sound reproduction device for producing audible sound from audio signals. The sound reproduction device includes a radio tuner and a powered speaker. The audio system further includes a connector for connecting the sound reproduction device with a computer. The computer provides audio signals from a plurality of sources, the sources including a computer CD player, digitally encoded computer files stored on the computer, and a computer network connected to the computer. The sound reproduction device further includes control buttons for controlling at least one of the computer CD player, the digitally encoded computer files and the computer network.
Let's see if this makes sense with what I know about the SoundDock:
  • "attachable to a computer" > you can stick your iPod onto its connector, I guess.
  • "producing audible sound" > not anymore!
  • "includes a radio tuner" > not that I'm capable of finding.  You?
  • "powered speaker" > check.
  • "connector" > iPod connector, yes.
  • "audio signals from a plurality of sources" > yes but not the CD source (thanks for killing the CD, Apple).
  • "control buttons for controlling at least one of the computer..." > it seems to me like there are only volume buttons.
Well, those patent claims are dubious... but so is the functionality of their product!  Ok ok, on with fixing it...

Diagnosis

The first step when trying to fix electronics is to open them up and check for things that look broken.  Pretty obvious, but you should be aware of this: electronics run on smoke -- they will continue to operate normally until they have released all of their smoke.

The telltale signs of smoke leakage were obvious on the main board in the bottom of the unit:


The affected IC was made by International Rectifier and probably does some power reg function or other.  At any rate, the part number was totally burned off and rendered unreadable.

My guess was that the big computer-y looking chip with the bajillion pins on it did something smart and complicated and that I would have very little hope of fixing this board.  This computer-y chip probably talked to the iPod and allowed the control of its volume output or something relatively useless with regard to basic audio amplification functionality.  I thought that somewhere deep down in this SoundDock, there would have to be some simple amplifier whose workings I could understand and whose analog input I could just highjack.

Pulling off the front screen and unscrewing the heat-sink panel that lies between the two speakers, I found the board with the power amplifier on it.

The amplifier is a Philips TDA8922 2x 25W Class D power amplifier.  (Class D amplifiers achieve high efficiency using a neat pulse width modulation scheme)

Consulting the Data Sheet for the TDA8922, I noticed that pin 6 was a "MODE" pin used to select standby, mute or operating modes.  This is a common feature in Class D integrated circuit amplifiers since it allows them to be turned on/off by some control voltage to save on standby power.  I looked for the existence of a "MODE" pin because the "shhhhhhhhhhhhhh"-(silence) behaviour tipped me off: the power amplifier was clearly not broken (it made a "shhhh" sound), but something might be turning it off -- perhaps the smokey computer-y circuit discussed above.

Holding an oscilloscope to pin 6 showed that the voltage was around 5V while "shhhhh" came out, and then it dropped to 0V.  The MODE pin controls three regimes of operation:
  • Standby 0V - 0.8 V 
  • Mute 2.2 - 3 V
  • On 4.2 - 5.5 V (maximum voltage tolerated by MODE pin = 5.5V)
The strategy I had in mind for fixing the SoundDock by this point in the diagnosis was
  1. Remove the connection to MODE pin 6 and allow it to be controlled manually by a switch (i.e. force the amplifier into the operating mode)
  2. Figure out where the analog (music) voltages are in the circuit board and make them accessible by a connector.

Fixing it!

Mode Pin

I checked if forcing the MODE pin to be "on" helped by constructing this voltage divider to provide 4.9 V to pin 6.


The input impedance of pin 6 seems to be on the order of 5.5 kOhm = 5.5 V (max input voltage) / 1 mA (max input current).  The Thévenin Equivalent resistance of the above circuit is 0.36 kOhm (if I calculated it properly), so it should be able to supply enough juice to drive pin 6.

Here's what the resistor divider test apparatus looked like.


The red wire connects to pin 6 (the leg of pin 6 was ripped up with the help of a soldering iron and some tweezers so as to be disconnected from the original printed circuit board signal).  The resistors connect to +18 and 0V pads that I happened to find nearby (see description of J601 later on).

With the resistor divider in place to force the amplifier to be "on", I touched audio input pins 4/5 and 8/9 with some tweezers -- sure enough the amplifier clicked and buzzed, so it worked.

Finally, I transplanted this resistor divider near the power entry on the main board and took the red wire 4.9 V output and connected it via a switch (shown later on) to pin 6.  (if you want details on how to do this, let me know and I'll take it apart again and take extra photos... I'd feel honoured if you were interested in it)

Audio connection

The Philips TDA8922 has analog inputs on pins 4/5 (+/- in) and 8/9.  5 and 9 seem to be referenced to the circuit ground, so effectively, we are looking at connecting audio signal to pins 4 and 8.

These audio signals travel from the main board (with the fried chip) to the power amp board (seemingly working) through a flexible flat cable.  The connector on the main board is J601, for which I have mapped out the following connections:


After identifying locations on the main board corresponding to the L audioR audio, and ground signals shown above, I soldered some wires to them in order to inject some audio from a 3.5 mm headphone jack to be added to the front panel.  Here, blue = LEFT, red = RIGHT, black = GROUND.  Note how I cut the printed circuit board traces for the original L and R signals coming from the computer-y chip... follow from the point at which the wires are soldered and move slightly to the right - the traces are cut using a sharp knife.


The Result

Here's a view from the bottom of the modified SoundDock:
On the left, you can see a switch which manually sends 4.9 V to the MODE pin of the Philips TDA8922 to put it in "on" mode.  This is useful so that the speaker system can be turned off when plugging/unplugging things from the audio input to avoid loud clicks.

On the right, I have installed a 3.5 mm headphone jack which brings the left, right, ground (BLUE, RED, BLACK wires) to the places you saw above to inject audio signals into the circuit board.

The front panel of the BOSE unit had just enough room under the base to accommodate the new switch and jack... almost like it was built for this in mind ...

Final Notes

It's been working perfectly well for the last 4 months.  It's worth noting that the original iPod docking connector still works for charging, but since I disconnected the audio connection from the computer-y chip, it can't play audio through that connector anymore.  Another issue is that there is no volume control - you must be able to set the volume on the device you're connecting to it (a minor hassle).

One could consider wiring up the analog L and R audio pins from the iPod connector to the same place I showed above for the 3.5 mm jack.  This would allow for full music playing functionality via the attached iPod / iPhone - but you'd still have to set the volume on the device itself.

So far, I've found the 3.5 mm jack to make this unit more useful than it was originally designed to be:  I can plug in a laptop or iPad or other analog audio source now!

In the future, I might venture into adding a volume control knob on the front panel.

For now, I hope this helps you save a few tons of COemissions by giving new life to that decent sounding but completely broken SoundDock you might have lying around.

Comments

  1. Replies
    1. Excuse me sir, I would love to be taught by you some way so I can fix things like you, you're the man!!

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  2. I have a bose sounddock series 1 and the ipod dock pcb brike, im having trouble setting up this modification can u please show me more details on were to solder the resistor divider and power switch and im also having trouble finding were the aux inpur will be soldered on too? Can u please show me more details and steps on how to do this?

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    Replies
    1. Hi, sorry I never saw this until now! For the resistor, see the details of J601 pins and you'll find the +18V and ground there. Anywhere you can pick up the +18V power and a ground will be fine for the divider as pictured. The switch can just interrupt the signal to Pin 6.

      For audio, see J601 as well. You just need to pick up L, R, and ground somewhere on the board. Find the L and R from J601 and trace them out on the board-- you can solder to them wherever convenient.

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  3. Hi William,

    Also received a broken sounddock similar to yours but it was exposed to rain before I received it.

    Am new to electronics repair so would appreciate any tips specific to the sounddock. Also if interested I can send you photos.

    To date I have taken it completely apart and am now checking for water damage.

    Thanks

    Ken

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    Replies
    1. Yikes... water .... I have no idea what you're in for ;) good luck

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  4. could you recommend a suitable pot for the volume control,thanks

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  5. Thanks a lot can you please tell me what kind of resistors did you use thanks

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  6. Hi William,

    The "affected IC" is a F7103 (from IR, you're right).

    Mine doesn't seem to be out, but the pin 6 voltage also dropped to 0 volts quickly (I can hear music during les than 1 second).

    Is there something else to check on the board to determine any other failure ?

    Thanks in advance

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    Replies
    1. Ok I found it :

      As you can see here [http://pinouts.ru/PortableDevices/ipod_pinout.shtml], pin 18 of the Apple 30-pin connector is the HPD "Hot Plug Detect" port which provides 3,3V to power ON the SoundDock.

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  7. Terrific writeup! It's been quite some time since you posted it, but do you happen to know whether the small pcb that contains the ipod connector is necessary for the unit to function? I intend the transplant the internals to a custom wooden box.

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  8. Hi,

    You can forget the resistor divider and find 5V directly on the board.

    Provide voltage to the MODE pin is only recommended if your 7103 chip is out, try to search "sounddock pin 18" on Google.

    The iPod connector PCB is useles, mine doesn't have it.

    I also didn't cut the printed circuit board traces and I didn't rip up the pin 6, and everything goes well.

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    Replies
    1. Hi, please can you explain how? Thanks

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    2. Hi
      I have a type B sounddock series I with faulty docking board. How can I hack the main board for aux input. I mean can I use this without that docking board?
      Unit power on with beep sound without the docking board. But when I connect the docking board connector ribbon, its with shhhh sound

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  9. If that is the case, can the main board be omitted? And by that I mean the board that connects to the 4-pin power supply. Ideally I'd like to have the main philips amplifier board, speakers, and an aux input for the build.

    Perhaps even add a potentiometer to control volume if you can instruct me on where to put it.

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  10. Hm, that's a good question.

    Maybe you can try to inject power supply and audio inputs directly by the flex cable (J601, as William Paul mapped it).

    About the potentiometer, it seems to be easy, take a look here : http://tinyurl.com/qd85lze

    Dx.com products look cheap and clean.

    Keep us updated !

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  11. Although no big progress, i was able to get audio with the steps on this page. Everything still works as it should which is great!

    Next step is to try and bypass the secondary board. That way I can transplant it to run off of 5x18650 laptop cells.

    Will report back.

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  12. hi

    i did the above process, the input from 3,5 is not working unless i keep iopd on the dock, if i remove the music stops.

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  13. hi

    also if i supply 4.9v to PIN 6 then the dock is muted, so in order to play music i have to disconnect the resistors.

    is there any other way to stimulate the connection of ipod to dock so that the input from 3.5 woks like another amplifier.

    pl help. i have already spent a lot of time and still cannot achieve what i need.

    tx

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    Replies
    1. Your PIN 6 seems to behave oppositely to what normally happens... I'm really not sure what to recommend :( sorry...

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  14. The pins are epoxied in, but I hope these images help.

    http://i66.tinypic.com/2wcjimb.jpg

    http://i64.tinypic.com/o6a04y.jpg

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  15. Hi Marti,

    Can u please tell me if still remember the transistor ID that also been burnt. I also got the same issue. Thanks a lot

    Dexter

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    Replies
    1. Something by International Rectifier but it wasn't legibile

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    2. Further up, Marti Brown said:
      The "affected IC" is a F7103 (from IR, you're right).

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  16. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  17. Hi, good guide for audio aux. Is there a way to regulate a 5v USB power supply from this? I'd like to power a Chromecast audio directly from the Bose unit. Thanks

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    Replies
    1. There is probably a 5V rail supplied somewhere in the original ipod dock connector... I didn't search for it... (maybe look up those connector pinouts)

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  18. How does it sound now in comparision with an original sounddock with working DSP?

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    Replies
    1. Good question! I actually got this unit from my mother in law after it broke.. :P ... so not sure... It sounds good enough that I'd believe that's how it was designed to sound, but I really don't know how much the Bose engineers would have tweaked things in their DSP that I bypassed.

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  19. I've reading this and other articles and have been thinking about modifying my faulty Bose Sounddock Series 1 A to use a "12V LED Bluetooth Stereo MP3 Player Decoder Board which has SD/USB/AUX/FM plus Remote Control" these boards are only a few Dollars on ebay. The 12v can come from Firewire pin on the ipod dock. I would ideally like its output (L, R, GRD) to go directly to the Amp board and bypass the DSP processor board. Have you any thoughts?

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  20. Good write up and more info than I could ascertain from elsewhere! I had a broken SD come to me with the DSP board as the main suspect. None of the people (Invebo or eBay) would provide any clues as to the root cause. However, using your pin-outs and some other info for an aux-in elsewhere I was able to check the analogue audio in and bridge it to the amp which worked. Your board appears to have a different layout and components so suspect it is 'Type B' unlike the one I have which is 'Type A' - after a bit of probing I couldn't see any output but I was then trying to test the capacitors (no obvious leakage) and using a 'scope somehow the board burst back into life! So I think the cause may have been a dry joint on one of the electrolytic capacitors which prevented the DSP chip and associated Codec chip (WM8734 in my case) talking to each other to turn the digital side of things on. The whole thing seems to be functioning again now! Thanks again for publishing your findings - it would have been a needle in a haystack otherwise!

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    Replies
    1. Can you still remember which capacitor where you checked which brought your SD back to life? Is it the one connected to the Mode (Muting) Pin that goes to the Power Amp section? Would mighty appreciate if you share the solution. I've been struggling to fix mine : I have 3 & only one is working. Thanks & hopefully you can still remember after more than 2 years

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  21. I have a unit that had been junked.It does not have the power adaptor or the 2x2 4 prong connector.
    Any suggestions on how I could improvise, other than buying a $50 replacement.

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  22. I've modified my Sounddock for use as a PC speaker unit, but without adding resistors to provide the necessary pin 6 enabling voltage. A track cut on the main PCB is all that is required. If anyone wants a photo of the cut you can hopefully contact me on my Blogger link.
    Two more track cuts allowed me to connect an audio input lead with a 3mm std jack to plug into phones, PC etc

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    Replies
    1. Hi, I would realy apreciate if you could post the photos.

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    2. I´ve sent you a hangouts invite.

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    3. I am interested too. I got one laying around.

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    4. « contact me on my Blogger link »
      So we need to ;)

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    5. I'm also very interested. I've sent you a hangouts invite as well.

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    6. Here are a couple of photos
      https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ekidgb5amdtsk5d/AABpbOVKy7MoNyqVWWSbxTEga?dl=0
      Left & right input cables, ground to pin 3, note track cuts near where the L&R inputs terminate.

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    7. Thanks George. The first picture shows the L & R audio tie in and the second one shows the combined audio ground. However, you stated "without adding resistors to provide the necessary pin 6 enabling voltage". You don't show how you provided this voltage. Maybe your voltage is already +5V and your board does not have this problem? Please explain and thanks again! Dave

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  23. Geo, please send a photo. I'd like to do the same.

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  24. Please send a photo, thank you

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  25. I need to fix my Sounddock Gen 1 as the logic board died. If anyone is interested, here are the full pin definitions for the ribbon between the logic board and the amplifier board:
    1 SGND
    2 IN1
    3 SGND
    4 IN2
    5 SGND
    6 MODE
    7 IR
    8 IR
    9 -18V
    10 -18V
    11 -18V
    12 -18V
    13 GND
    14 GND
    15 GND
    16 GND
    17 +18V
    18 +18V
    19 +18V
    20 +18V

    Where SGND(signal ground) = GND
    MODE is connected to the mode pin (pin 6) on TDA8922 through a passive low pass filter.

    You only need the amplifier board for the entire thing to work with a 3.5 mm analog input.

    Have fun.

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  26. Hi William, I'm very interested on how you repair this sounddock, if you don't mind could you please send me some detailed photos on how you repair this speaker?
    Thanks in advanced

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  27. The socket that the plug goes in came out of the unit with the plug. There are four wires inside the hole. Can this be reattached?

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  28. I know this is an old post but wanted to add my 2 cents on this subject. I to recieved this sounddock but it only had the amp board, nothing else but the case. I searched and searched for some way to get this going and cane to your post. I researched everything said, posted links, and combined it all together to get a working tda8922 amp. I used laptop charger and old power wheels aux plugin as it's only rated for 5 volts wired in batteries to that and grounded everything as referred and I have a working board. Just wanna say your work does help people and its appreciated long after the fact.... if you ever get this lol. Keep up the good work and thanks

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    Replies
    1. I too have successfully refurbished a couple of sounddocks using only the amp but I used the original PS to supply the +18V and -18V. The +5V is supplied using a voltage divider on the +18V as described above. The disadvantage here is needing the original PS. Assuming your laptop PS outputs a single DC voltage (big assumption), can I imply that you are operating the amp using different voltages? Please expand on your "used laptop charger". Thanks!

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    2. The Bose power amp was designed foe dual voltage rail operation. There is now way of using a laptop power supply without heavy modidication on the power amp.

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  29. I am now in the process of repairing the Sound Processor Board of the Bose Sounddock original. I will publish the result once I successfully fix mine

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    Replies
    1. Did you manage to fix the DSP board as this would appear to be a common failure point. Some suggestions appear to hint it maybe due to F7103, does anybody have a circuit diagram for this board.

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    2. Not yet..
      Can you tell me what or where is F7103?

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    3. I have since modified 2 units with a new bluetooth module & amp. I have disconnected the non-functional Processor Board & the original amp. I now use a laptop power supply instead of the original Bose dual-rail power supply

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    4. There is clearly a common problem with is board and must be relatively easily to fix as the repair charges are quite low. If I had a circuit diagram I might be able to work it out. F7103 is the one shown blown in the early part of this thread.

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    5. Mine did not have that part blown. According to that British guy on YouTube who repairs this for about $50 it needs to be reprogrammed (?)
      I still have to tinker with the muting pin circuit.
      I'm also looking for the schematic diagram of this unit
      Cheers

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    6. Its hard to know what the fault is it could be a firmware problem or hardware. In carry out some tests on both good and bad processor boards the 12v firewire voltage is close to 16.5v which is way higher and this would suggest a regulation problem somewhere.

      There is a mod to switch the processor board on by connection a 2kohm resistor between the firewire voltage and the 3.3v pin to fool the processor board to switch on assuming that there is an ipod plugged in. When I check the voltage on the 3.3v pin its closer to 12v which is not good.

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    7. In addition to my comments earlier to get the correct voltage of 3.3v on Apple Pin 18 (apple pin notion not Bose which is different) and the firewire rail I found I needed a 400Kohm resistor to get around 3.3v which is way higher than all the youtube video's suggesting 2Kohm. I'm not sure of the relationship between the 3.3v "switch on voltage" and chip F7103, shown blown in an earlier post, but this could be the reason the 1A processor board is failing.

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  30. This was a great help, thanks. I found an old series 1 Sounddock that was being thrown out, some years ago. I followed that Matt guys hack to give it an aux input and it worked. We have no Apple gear in our house, none whatsoever. I wasn't going to go to the hassle of importing another processor board when it quit after a while, I am all against that kind of built-in obsolescence. I followed this article and hacked the 5,5v onto the amp pin 6 from a point on the processor board, and then identified two solder pads on the amp pcb that I could attach left and right signal wires.....a switch to switch the 5,5v on or off and its working again perfectly.....keenly awaiting the result of the Sound Processor Board repair mentioned above. Amazing that this blog from 2012 still has legs seven years later. Thanks, William Paul..

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  31. I changed the damaged cable from the amplifier to the dock, my dock recognises the cable, the other cable charges the ipod
    But the sound output is very muffled, any pointers how to fix it?
    I can hear the sound playing from it, but at a very feeble and muffled way. Is the board damaged? Is the

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  32. Can u help me how to use Bose soundock series 1 amplifier with other pre AMP. my soundock pre amp side was broken. @William Paul could u pls give me a guide - mail2rukshan@gmail.com

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  33. Hi Will. Please advise do I need the resistors or can I just power mode pin 6 with a 5.5volt from the main board? And what resistors do I need to use. TIA

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    Replies
    1. So if we apply 5v on pin 6 would that "unmute" the Power amplifier board or the Processor Board?
      Which pin 6 are you referring to?
      Clarification would be appreciated

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    2. Pin 6 on the power ic as above.

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    3. Pin 6 of the TDA8922 chip in fact.

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  34. 1st comment of 2020! This is the only self-help SoundDock repair info I can find on the WWW. Well done and thanks the author WP. Now where did I put that broken SoundDock all those years ago.....?

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  35. i have bose sound dock and dont have a power supply. can you please advise me if posible to use old laptop power supply by serries so tha i can have 18v+ 0 -18v thanks a lot...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No you cannot do that
      There's plenty of original power supply for your SD at eBay

      Delete
  36. so i can make a power supply used regular transformer with 3 wire 12 0 12 with rectifier and cap as a normal dc power? so that i can get +18v 0 -18v supply.

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  37. For the power supply try using a couple of old HP inline bricks. They put out about 18VDC and can be found in thrift stores for a dollar or two. Cut off the coaxial DC power connector. Test with a meter to determine which wire is (+) and (-). Tie the (+) output of one brick to the (-) output of the other brick. You now have common. The free ends of the other output wires are now your (+)18V and (-)18V.

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    Replies
    1. so i can use old laptop power suppply hp 18 volts. i will used 2 ppcs so that i will +18 0 -18 volts dc. actualy i want to use it as a ppower supply of my old bose sound dock series 1. because the power supply adadpter is very expensive.

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  38. Wilson - you can try that, however, unless you put some filtering on the DC output you'll probably get some annoying hum. Make sure the transformer is good for at least a couple amps, is fed into a full wave rectifier (four diodes) and use large capacitors (well over 1000 uF) so the average output voltage will ride closer to the peaks when the amp is running loud (drawing lots of current)

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  39. Also - the data sheet for the amp chip shows it can operate from +/- 12.5V to +/- 30V, so you might be able to get away with running it from a lower voltage (depends on the voltage requirements of the other circuitry). However, you won't have the output compliance the higher voltage affords, so it will clip at higher output levels and sound distorted

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    Replies
    1. can you please tell me is the bose sound dock series 1 dual voltage supply? i am not sure about the meaning of +18/-18.

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    2. They use a Center tap style or called Dual or Split power supply for the SoundDock series I, II & III hence the need for +18vdc | GND | -18vdc

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    3. thank you very much now i know what power suppply i will make.
      i will try now regular transformer with ceter tap 12 0 12 ac but not enough to produce 18v.

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    4. Sorry for the very late reply...It is much cheaper just to actually buy the original Bose SoundDock Power Supply available at eBay than build one yourself.
      I was about to build one but the build cost is just about the same as the original ps!

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  40. I am little bit confuse about wich pin in the bose board is the 18+ positve can any one tell me plase.. thanks

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  41. thank you very much this was a big help and my 3 bose sound docks are working fine with a hack auxiliary inputs. can any one post how can i get 5v so that i can put usb for bluetooth adapter

    THANKS AGAIN

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  42. Hi, I have 3 Sounddock 1 which have the same problem. Will try to do the mod and will be great if I can add in bluetooth.

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  43. Here is a new video on YouTube about adding Bluetooth & Aux/Line In on your Bose SoundDock original ====> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PZlmAzyxwk&list=LLcBPQ3penSsCQHS643pIE9g&index=3&t=0s

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  44. I'm still struggling mentally which part in the Processor Board failed rendering the Mute mode of the Amp module not to function. The easy solution is simply apply 5vdc on Pin 6 of the Audio Power Amp ic TDA8922 at the Power Amp Board. However the problem seems to be at the Processor Board.
    Any one here yet found the parts that failed? A switching transistor perhaps or a leaking capacitor?

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    Replies
    1. I now have 5 Sounddock Series 1 A all with processor board faults does any body know how to repair these? As a side I've now fitted a bluetooth, USB, TF, FM module to a working Series 1, I bought the module off ebay for £3.50 there are various different supply voltages units available. For Series 1A 12V firewire supply used and for 1B 5V used.

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  45. I hope William Paul is still around to answer. My question is respecting the 4 pin Molex on the Ipod Bose dock 1. Can you please tell me which pins of the 4 pin power molex ar which? I picked one up without a power supply. I have an alternative power supply and and individual connectors but I have no idea what to connect where. Two must be power and two ground?

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    Replies
    1. The Power Supply you need is dual or split rail type : -18v +18v GND
      A typical +18v & GND will not work

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    2. Here is the diagram :
      https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/164572/Solder+DC+in+directly+to+the+connector+board+of+Bose+Soundlink+1

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  46. Im trying to do a 3.5mm mod atm but failing to find the corresponding points to 19 & 20 of the ipod board on the DPS board that the pins run to. Getting a stronger solder point to say a resistor or capacitor would allow for a much easier mod.

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    1. there is a YouTube video which shows where to solder the Aux Input at the Processor Board (instead at the Docking Board). I have done it & the push button volume control still works. Too bad I can't post a photo of the mod I've done on mine

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    2. Good day can you please send me link in youtube ao that I can do it also

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    3. All the youtube video's suggest a 2Kohm resistor to supply the "switch on" voltage of 3.3v to pin 18 but my experience so far has been to get 3.3v the resistor needs to be around 400Kohm. I'm not sure why 2Kohm was suggested but I would be interested to know other peoples experiences.

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    4. Update. There are 2 different types of Sounddock 1 called A & B. Sounddock 1A has a firewire charging voltage of 12V for early ipods and 1B has a 5V charging voltage for later ipods. Both models look the same and you can only tell the difference from the serial numbers. Iaw the Apple pin notation pin 18 (Bose pin numbers are different) is a pin providing an ipod output of 3.3V to switch the Bose on when the ipod is plugged in (same both early and late versions). I'm not sure where or how the 2Kohm resistor was determined in the above video. From my own experience for Version 1A to drop the 12V wirewire voltage to 3.3V the resistor needed was 390Kohm. A 2Kohm resistor sends nearly 10V down thw 3.3V rail!. Form version 1B to drop the 5V charging voltage down to 3.3V the size of resistor is 6.75Kohm.

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  47. Hey guys. I picked up one of these docks at a thrift store. Working great. My plan is to install a google home Mini into the dock or to install this dock in my kids power wheels. Thoughts tips....

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  48. Hi, I have did everything as per the original post here, the only issue I am facing is, I need to have iPod docked on the dock station only then it takes input from AUX.

    Please suggest a hack to fool the SD that iPod is already connected.

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    1. Read by comments on the 28th January 2021

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    2. I did tried that as well, By shorting pin 19-20 with 2k ohms resistor, but din’t help.

      Could it be because I followed the original post. And directly provided the input on the main board and cut the input to y-chip

      The original post doesn’t say if it ever worked without a iPod or not.

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    3. What version of Sounddock do you have and did you read my comments of the 28th January; a 2k ohm resistor is far too low. I dont understand about cutting input to y-chip?

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    4. My SD serial number is: 049868983500447AE

      Most of the posts and videos that I saw used 2k resistor.

      This part of the blog post.
      After identifying locations on the main board corresponding to the L audio, R audio, and ground signals shown above, I soldered some wires to them in order to inject some audio from a 3.5 mm headphone jack to be added to the front panel. Here, blue = LEFT, red = RIGHT, black = GROUND. Note how I cut the printed circuit board traces for the original L and R signals coming from the computer-y chip... follow from the point at which the wires are soldered and move slightly to the right - the traces are cut using a sharp knife.

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    6. I think from memory your sounddocks serial number makes it a 1B (which you will need to check) if it is then you will need to connect a 6.75K ohm resistor between the 5V rail and the 3.3V rail. There is no 12 volt rail on the 1A so 2K ohm resistor wont work. 1B connections to the DSP are different, the 5 Volt rail pin is hard to solder too so scrape part of the insulation off the track and use that.

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    7. I figured out. This is 1B version. I’ll check with 6.8K resistor. Hope that works.
      Also, Can you please let know the where to solder this two points exactly on mainboard (as i want to get rid off the ipod dock)

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    8. Sorry I cant remember pin numbers as its been awhile since I've done any 1B's. They are relatively easy to find, do a google search of apple pinouts and take it from there (5v input and 3.3v output). Just remember Bose pinout numbers are different than apples. When you get the answers Post it on this site to help others.

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  49. good day every one i had done 4 units of bose series 1 putting 2k resistors i did not cut any cicuits just soldered the jumper 2k resistor. now i can use both my ipod classic 30gb and aux one at a time. ijust search in youtube bose sound doc series1 aux hack. its so easy to follow.

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  50. Hey. Do you know if I can somehow hook my Denon DRA-395 radio/receiver to my Bose SoundDock? I'd like to be able to listen to the radio. Thanks!

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  51. went throught the full Blogger registration just to leave a message here to say what a great article .
    Without any background in electrocnics , I manage to followed the guide here and revive the Sound Dock Series 1.

    However the hassle to go through it with existing hardware seems not worth the time . Still no bluetooth. I have another unit that i retrofit with a bluetooth amplifier .. one of those TPAxxxx with 18v adapter. I can't tell the differences in term of audio quality.

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