For those of you who have had problems with your Sirius Conductor radio indicating “out of range†I may have located the problem.
My Conductor radio worked fine for two years but began give problems about three months ago. The “Out of Range†notice would show up and I could not reconnect to the radio regardless of what I would do. Occasionally it would begin working again but in a day or two it would stop. I finally resorted to buying another Conductor radio.
The second radio worked fine. No problems with the setup and all worked well when I had Sirius change my account to reflect the new ESN number on the new radio.
Being an engineer I really wanted to know why the radio stopped working. Everything seemed fine. The power light was on, the antenna was fine, but I continued to get the “Out of Range†indication. As I got deeper into looking for the problem I happen to measure the “wall wart†power supply. These things often fail. The output was 5.2 as required but when I looked at output on an oscilloscope, low and behold, the dc voltage had all sort of noise and spurs. Apparently the regulator and switching network had failed. I hooked up the Conductor receiver to another external supply and, bingo! It worked fine. No “Out of Range†indication and the remote unit controlled the radio.
So, if you are experience this problem simply try replacing the small “wall wart†power supply with a new one. Any 5 volt, 1 amp unit with the proper connector should work fine.
My Conductor radio worked fine for two years but began give problems about three months ago. The “Out of Range†notice would show up and I could not reconnect to the radio regardless of what I would do. Occasionally it would begin working again but in a day or two it would stop. I finally resorted to buying another Conductor radio.
The second radio worked fine. No problems with the setup and all worked well when I had Sirius change my account to reflect the new ESN number on the new radio.
Being an engineer I really wanted to know why the radio stopped working. Everything seemed fine. The power light was on, the antenna was fine, but I continued to get the “Out of Range†indication. As I got deeper into looking for the problem I happen to measure the “wall wart†power supply. These things often fail. The output was 5.2 as required but when I looked at output on an oscilloscope, low and behold, the dc voltage had all sort of noise and spurs. Apparently the regulator and switching network had failed. I hooked up the Conductor receiver to another external supply and, bingo! It worked fine. No “Out of Range†indication and the remote unit controlled the radio.
So, if you are experience this problem simply try replacing the small “wall wart†power supply with a new one. Any 5 volt, 1 amp unit with the proper connector should work fine.
