• Unold Backmeister difficult to switch on

    From Wu Ming@wu.ming2@icloud.com to sci.electronics.repair on Sun Mar 1 09:21:20 2026
    From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.repair

    Hello,

    Bought second hand one year ago but according to serial code plaque
    fabricated 11 years ago. My bread making Unold 8695 delivered good bread
    for more than one year now.

    Beginning with last week begun not switching on immediately. One minute
    delay became one hour today. Text on the small display is clearly dimmed.
    Last week reset itself twice along the program. Eventually being able to complete.

    Producer amazingly has a spare rCLpower control boardrCY. But sales ended in 2020 and part may be even older. I am not sure it would solve.

    I was thinking it may be an old capacitor. But I am not very good at electronics. Suggestions? Thanks for sharing.
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  • From Chuck@chuck23@dejanews.net to sci.electronics.repair on Sun Mar 1 10:15:25 2026
    From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.repair

    On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 09:21:20 -0000 (UTC), Wu Ming <wu.ming2@icloud.com
    wrote:

    Hello,

    Bought second hand one year ago but according to serial code plaque >fabricated 11 years ago. My bread making Unold 8695 delivered good bread
    for more than one year now.

    Beginning with last week begun not switching on immediately. One minute
    delay became one hour today. Text on the small display is clearly dimmed. >Last week reset itself twice along the program. Eventually being able to >complete.

    Producer amazingly has a spare rCLpower control boardrCY. But sales ended in >2020 and part may be even older. I am not sure it would solve.

    I was thinking it may be an old capacitor. But I am not very good at >electronics. Suggestions? Thanks for sharing.
    Probably one or more electrolytic capacitors. Do you have an ESR
    meter?
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Wu Ming@wu.ming2@icloud.com to sci.electronics.repair on Mon Mar 2 02:10:08 2026
    From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.repair

    Chuck <chuck23@dejanews.net> wrote:
    On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 09:21:20 -0000 (UTC), Wu Ming <wu.ming2@icloud.com
    wrote:

    Hello,

    Bought second hand one year ago but according to serial code plaque
    fabricated 11 years ago. My bread making Unold 8695 delivered good bread
    for more than one year now.

    Beginning with last week begun not switching on immediately. One minute
    delay became one hour today. Text on the small display is clearly dimmed.
    Last week reset itself twice along the program. Eventually being able to
    complete.

    Producer amazingly has a spare rCLpower control boardrCY. But sales ended in >> 2020 and part may be even older. I am not sure it would solve.

    I was thinking it may be an old capacitor. But I am not very good at
    electronics. Suggestions? Thanks for sharing.
    Probably one or more electrolytic capacitors. Do you have an ESR
    meter?


    Unfortunately I do not have an ESR meter available. I know a hw repair shop though. One limitation I could foresee for who may help to assess is
    control board is not easily accessible. Could be seen here: https://youtu.be/0L87CWmkXCI

    I actually used the video above as guide to replace the transmission belt
    of this machine before. It was obviously not designed for easy disassemble. Most painful part is re-assembling it.

    Few more tidbits. Yesterday I kept the machine connected to the mains for
    two hours before actually using it. One hour and it finally went on. One
    more I loaded it and went through the program without a hitch. This unlike
    the previous occasion when I operated it only minutes after switching on
    and had to be re-started twice.

    Also I mentioned yesterday text on the small display was quite faint right after switching on. It was sharper and easily read by the end of the
    program.
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  • From Wu Ming@wu.ming2@icloud.com to sci.electronics.repair on Wed Mar 4 03:31:34 2026
    From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.repair

    Chuck <chuck23@dejanews.net> wrote:
    On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 09:21:20 -0000 (UTC), Wu Ming <wu.ming2@icloud.com
    wrote:

    Hello,

    Bought second hand one year ago but according to serial code plaque
    fabricated 11 years ago. My bread making Unold 8695 delivered good bread
    for more than one year now.

    Beginning with last week begun not switching on immediately. One minute
    delay became one hour today. Text on the small display is clearly dimmed.
    Last week reset itself twice along the program. Eventually being able to
    complete.

    Producer amazingly has a spare rCLpower control boardrCY. But sales ended in >> 2020 and part may be even older. I am not sure it would solve.

    I was thinking it may be an old capacitor. But I am not very good at
    electronics. Suggestions? Thanks for sharing.
    Probably one or more electrolytic capacitors. Do you have an ESR
    meter?


    What is the useful shelf life of electrolytic capacitors? I was wondering
    if the - potentially already old - replacement board offered by the
    producer would be a suitable replacement. Or fixing the existing one would
    be the better option.

    IsnrCOt about total cost but about keeping something useful working for much longer. I could buy a new one for marginally more than fixing it.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From liz@liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Liz Tuddenham) to sci.electronics.repair on Wed Mar 4 10:20:36 2026
    From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.repair

    Wu Ming <wu.ming2@icloud.com> wrote:

    Chuck <chuck23@dejanews.net> wrote:
    On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 09:21:20 -0000 (UTC), Wu Ming <wu.ming2@icloud.com
    wrote:

    Hello,

    Bought second hand one year ago but according to serial code plaque
    fabricated 11 years ago. My bread making Unold 8695 delivered good bread >> for more than one year now.

    Beginning with last week begun not switching on immediately. One minute
    delay became one hour today. Text on the small display is clearly dimmed. >> Last week reset itself twice along the program. Eventually being able to >> complete.

    Producer amazingly has a spare rCLpower control boardrCY. But sales
    ended in 2020 and part may be even older. I am not sure it would solve.

    I was thinking it may be an old capacitor. But I am not very good at
    electronics. Suggestions? Thanks for sharing.
    Probably one or more electrolytic capacitors. Do you have an ESR
    meter?


    What is the useful shelf life of electrolytic capacitors?

    Sorry this isn't more helpful but - it varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, from type to type and from application to application.
    Sometimes their working life is specified at certain temperatures, but
    the relevant literature is not always available and shelf life is hardly
    ever mentioned..

    A capacitor that might last indefinitely as a decoupler in a pre-amp
    could fail rapidly if it were in a power supply with high pulse
    currents. Even if it started to fail, as a pre-amp decoupler it could
    degrade quite badly before any drop in performance would be noticed,
    whereas, in other parts of the circuit, any leakage would result in
    "noisy pots" or some other very obvious symptoms.

    Furthermore, a manufacturer with a good reputation might have an
    occasional dud batch or may be take over by bean-counters and start
    producing 'value-engineered' rubbish without any visual change in the
    product. It would only be much later, when things began to go wrong,
    that their reputation would be lost (and by then the bean-counters would
    all be retired with fat pensions).
    --
    ~ Liz Tuddenham ~
    (Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
    www.poppyrecords.co.uk
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Wu Ming@wu.ming2@icloud.com to sci.electronics.repair on Wed Mar 4 11:20:18 2026
    From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.repair

    Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Wu Ming <wu.ming2@icloud.com> wrote:

    Chuck <chuck23@dejanews.net> wrote:
    On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 09:21:20 -0000 (UTC), Wu Ming <wu.ming2@icloud.com
    wrote:

    Hello,

    Bought second hand one year ago but according to serial code plaque
    fabricated 11 years ago. My bread making Unold 8695 delivered good bread >>>> for more than one year now.

    Beginning with last week begun not switching on immediately. One minute >>>> delay became one hour today. Text on the small display is clearly dimmed. >>>> Last week reset itself twice along the program. Eventually being able to >>>> complete.

    Producer amazingly has a spare |o-C-Lpower control board|o-C-Y. But sales >>>> ended in 2020 and part may be even older. I am not sure it would solve. >>>>
    I was thinking it may be an old capacitor. But I am not very good at
    electronics. Suggestions? Thanks for sharing.
    Probably one or more electrolytic capacitors. Do you have an ESR
    meter?


    What is the useful shelf life of electrolytic capacitors?

    Sorry this isn't more helpful but - it varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, from type to type and from application to application. Sometimes their working life is specified at certain temperatures, but
    the relevant literature is not always available and shelf life is hardly
    ever mentioned..

    A capacitor that might last indefinitely as a decoupler in a pre-amp
    could fail rapidly if it were in a power supply with high pulse
    currents. Even if it started to fail, as a pre-amp decoupler it could degrade quite badly before any drop in performance would be noticed,
    whereas, in other parts of the circuit, any leakage would result in
    "noisy pots" or some other very obvious symptoms.

    Furthermore, a manufacturer with a good reputation might have an
    occasional dud batch or may be take over by bean-counters and start
    producing 'value-engineered' rubbish without any visual change in the product. It would only be much later, when things began to go wrong,
    that their reputation would be lost (and by then the bean-counters would
    all be retired with fat pensions).



    Well written and thanks.

    Any hint from my previous posts about why I am experiencing described
    faults? Delay at powering on expanded from a minute to an hour after only
    two use cycles.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From liz@liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Liz Tuddenham) to sci.electronics.repair on Wed Mar 4 11:58:56 2026
    From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.repair

    Wu Ming <wu.ming2@icloud.com> wrote:

    Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Wu Ming <wu.ming2@icloud.com> wrote:

    Chuck <chuck23@dejanews.net> wrote:
    On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 09:21:20 -0000 (UTC), Wu Ming <wu.ming2@icloud.com >>>> wrote:

    Hello,

    Bought second hand one year ago but according to serial code plaque
    fabricated 11 years ago. My bread making Unold 8695 delivered good bread >>>> for more than one year now.

    Beginning with last week begun not switching on immediately. One minute >>>> delay became one hour today. Text on the small display is clearly dimmed.
    Last week reset itself twice along the program. Eventually being able to >>>> complete.

    Producer amazingly has a spare |o-C-Lpower control board|o-C-Y. But sales
    ended in 2020 and part may be even older. I am not sure it would solve. >>>>
    I was thinking it may be an old capacitor. But I am not very good at >>>> electronics. Suggestions? Thanks for sharing.
    Probably one or more electrolytic capacitors. Do you have an ESR
    meter?


    What is the useful shelf life of electrolytic capacitors?

    Sorry this isn't more helpful but - it varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, from type to type and from application to application. Sometimes their working life is specified at certain temperatures, but
    the relevant literature is not always available and shelf life is hardly ever mentioned..

    A capacitor that might last indefinitely as a decoupler in a pre-amp
    could fail rapidly if it were in a power supply with high pulse
    currents. Even if it started to fail, as a pre-amp decoupler it could degrade quite badly before any drop in performance would be noticed, whereas, in other parts of the circuit, any leakage would result in
    "noisy pots" or some other very obvious symptoms.

    Furthermore, a manufacturer with a good reputation might have an
    occasional dud batch or may be take over by bean-counters and start producing 'value-engineered' rubbish without any visual change in the product. It would only be much later, when things began to go wrong,
    that their reputation would be lost (and by then the bean-counters would all be retired with fat pensions).



    Well written and thanks.

    Any hint from my previous posts about why I am experiencing described
    faults? Delay at powering on expanded from a minute to an hour after only
    two use cycles.

    I am not familiar with the product but that time-scale suggests
    something like a memory battery or super-capacitor needing to charge up.
    Does it have a memory battery?

    If it hasn't got a battery, then a failed electrolytic capacitor would definitely be my next suggestion.
    --
    ~ Liz Tuddenham ~
    (Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
    www.poppyrecords.co.uk
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Chuck@chuck23@dejanews.net to sci.electronics.repair on Wed Mar 4 12:32:24 2026
    From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.repair

    On Wed, 4 Mar 2026 11:58:56 +0000, liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid
    (Liz Tuddenham) wrote:

    Wu Ming <wu.ming2@icloud.com> wrote:

    Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Wu Ming <wu.ming2@icloud.com> wrote:

    Chuck <chuck23@dejanews.net> wrote:
    On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 09:21:20 -0000 (UTC), Wu Ming <wu.ming2@icloud.com
    wrote:

    Hello,

    Bought second hand one year ago but according to serial code plaque
    fabricated 11 years ago. My bread making Unold 8695 delivered good bread
    for more than one year now.

    Beginning with last week begun not switching on immediately. One minute >> >>>> delay became one hour today. Text on the small display is clearly dimmed.
    Last week reset itself twice along the program. Eventually being able to
    complete.

    Producer amazingly has a spare |o-n-+power control board|o-n-?. But sales
    ended in 2020 and part may be even older. I am not sure it would solve. >> >>>>
    I was thinking it may be an old capacitor. But I am not very good at
    electronics. Suggestions? Thanks for sharing.
    Probably one or more electrolytic capacitors. Do you have an ESR
    meter?


    What is the useful shelf life of electrolytic capacitors?

    Sorry this isn't more helpful but - it varies from manufacturer to
    manufacturer, from type to type and from application to application.
    Sometimes their working life is specified at certain temperatures, but
    the relevant literature is not always available and shelf life is hardly >> > ever mentioned..

    A capacitor that might last indefinitely as a decoupler in a pre-amp
    could fail rapidly if it were in a power supply with high pulse
    currents. Even if it started to fail, as a pre-amp decoupler it could
    degrade quite badly before any drop in performance would be noticed,
    whereas, in other parts of the circuit, any leakage would result in
    "noisy pots" or some other very obvious symptoms.

    Furthermore, a manufacturer with a good reputation might have an
    occasional dud batch or may be take over by bean-counters and start
    producing 'value-engineered' rubbish without any visual change in the
    product. It would only be much later, when things began to go wrong,
    that their reputation would be lost (and by then the bean-counters would >> > all be retired with fat pensions).



    Well written and thanks.

    Any hint from my previous posts about why I am experiencing described
    faults? Delay at powering on expanded from a minute to an hour after only
    two use cycles.

    I am not familiar with the product but that time-scale suggests
    something like a memory battery or super-capacitor needing to charge up.
    Does it have a memory battery?

    If it hasn't got a battery, then a failed electrolytic capacitor would >definitely be my next suggestion.
    If you replace the capacitors, use 105C ones.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Wu Ming@wu.ming2@icloud.com to sci.electronics.repair on Wed Mar 4 23:39:19 2026
    From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.repair

    Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Wu Ming <wu.ming2@icloud.com> wrote:

    Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Wu Ming <wu.ming2@icloud.com> wrote:

    Chuck <chuck23@dejanews.net> wrote:
    On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 09:21:20 -0000 (UTC), Wu Ming <wu.ming2@icloud.com >>>>>> wrote:

    Hello,

    Bought second hand one year ago but according to serial code plaque >>>>>> fabricated 11 years ago. My bread making Unold 8695 delivered good bread >>>>>> for more than one year now.

    Beginning with last week begun not switching on immediately. One minute >>>>>> delay became one hour today. Text on the small display is clearly dimmed.
    Last week reset itself twice along the program. Eventually being able to >>>>>> complete.

    Producer amazingly has a spare |a-o|e-C|e-Lpower control board|a-o|e-C|e-Y. But sales
    ended in 2020 and part may be even older. I am not sure it would solve. >>>>>>
    I was thinking it may be an old capacitor. But I am not very good at >>>>>> electronics. Suggestions? Thanks for sharing.
    Probably one or more electrolytic capacitors. Do you have an ESR
    meter?


    What is the useful shelf life of electrolytic capacitors?

    Sorry this isn't more helpful but - it varies from manufacturer to
    manufacturer, from type to type and from application to application.
    Sometimes their working life is specified at certain temperatures, but
    the relevant literature is not always available and shelf life is hardly >>> ever mentioned..

    A capacitor that might last indefinitely as a decoupler in a pre-amp
    could fail rapidly if it were in a power supply with high pulse
    currents. Even if it started to fail, as a pre-amp decoupler it could
    degrade quite badly before any drop in performance would be noticed,
    whereas, in other parts of the circuit, any leakage would result in
    "noisy pots" or some other very obvious symptoms.

    Furthermore, a manufacturer with a good reputation might have an
    occasional dud batch or may be take over by bean-counters and start
    producing 'value-engineered' rubbish without any visual change in the
    product. It would only be much later, when things began to go wrong,
    that their reputation would be lost (and by then the bean-counters would >>> all be retired with fat pensions).



    Well written and thanks.

    Any hint from my previous posts about why I am experiencing described
    faults? Delay at powering on expanded from a minute to an hour after only
    two use cycles.

    I am not familiar with the product but that time-scale suggests
    something like a memory battery or super-capacitor needing to charge up.
    Does it have a memory battery?

    If it hasn't got a battery, then a failed electrolytic capacitor would definitely be my next suggestion.



    It does have a memory battery to store custom program settings. To my
    surprise it didnrCOt fail so my settings were retained. What changed instead
    is the power up - not instantaneous anymore - the text on the small
    segmented display - faint after switching on, less so later - and
    occasional resets along the program - happened twice the same day but not
    the next day when power up was much earlier than program start.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From liz@liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Liz Tuddenham) to sci.electronics.repair on Sat Mar 7 11:26:33 2026
    From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.repair

    Wu Ming <wu.ming2@icloud.com> wrote:

    Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Wu Ming <wu.ming2@icloud.com> wrote:

    Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Wu Ming <wu.ming2@icloud.com> wrote:

    Chuck <chuck23@dejanews.net> wrote:
    On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 09:21:20 -0000 (UTC), Wu Ming <wu.ming2@icloud.com >>>>>> wrote:

    Hello,

    Bought second hand one year ago but according to serial code plaque >>>>>> fabricated 11 years ago. My bread making Unold 8695 delivered good >>>>>> bread for more than one year now.

    Beginning with last week begun not switching on immediately. One >>>>>> minute delay became one hour today. Text on the small display is >>>>>> clearly dimmed. Last week reset itself twice along the program.
    Eventually being able to complete.

    Producer amazingly has a spare |a-o|e-C|e-Lpower control
    board|a-o|e-C|e-Y. But sales ended in 2020 and part may be even
    older. I am not sure it would solve.

    I was thinking it may be an old capacitor. But I am not very good at >>>>>> electronics. Suggestions? Thanks for sharing.
    Probably one or more electrolytic capacitors. Do you have an ESR
    meter?


    What is the useful shelf life of electrolytic capacitors?

    Sorry this isn't more helpful but - it varies from manufacturer to
    manufacturer, from type to type and from application to application.
    Sometimes their working life is specified at certain temperatures, but >>> the relevant literature is not always available and shelf life is hardly >>> ever mentioned..

    A capacitor that might last indefinitely as a decoupler in a pre-amp
    could fail rapidly if it were in a power supply with high pulse
    currents. Even if it started to fail, as a pre-amp decoupler it could >>> degrade quite badly before any drop in performance would be noticed,
    whereas, in other parts of the circuit, any leakage would result in
    "noisy pots" or some other very obvious symptoms.

    Furthermore, a manufacturer with a good reputation might have an
    occasional dud batch or may be take over by bean-counters and start
    producing 'value-engineered' rubbish without any visual change in the
    product. It would only be much later, when things began to go wrong,
    that their reputation would be lost (and by then the bean-counters would >>> all be retired with fat pensions).



    Well written and thanks.

    Any hint from my previous posts about why I am experiencing described
    faults? Delay at powering on expanded from a minute to an hour after only >> two use cycles.

    I am not familiar with the product but that time-scale suggests
    something like a memory battery or super-capacitor needing to charge up. Does it have a memory battery?

    If it hasn't got a battery, then a failed electrolytic capacitor would definitely be my next suggestion.



    It does have a memory battery to store custom program settings. To my surprise it didnrCOt fail so my settings were retained. What changed instead is the power up - not instantaneous anymore - the text on the small
    segmented display - faint after switching on, less so later - and
    occasional resets along the program - happened twice the same day but not
    the next day when power up was much earlier than program start.

    I can't really make any helpful suggestions as I am not familiar with
    the equipment. If you can measure some of the voltages (start with the battery) you might find one that is low and only rises grasually.
    --
    ~ Liz Tuddenham ~
    (Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
    www.poppyrecords.co.uk
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2