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NAIM Hicap LED light board replacement - Advice needed

M

moleac

Member
I've a very old (33622) Hicap that I believe to be a chrome bumper that was re-cased. I haven't used it for at least 15 years and no longer have a way to test it, but when I plug it in the logo no longer lights up.

Not sure whether to sell for spares, try to repair the led board and sell, or pay for a complete service and sell.

Current thinking is to try and locate a replacement led board, but I haven't been able to find anything on Google.

Would welcome thoughts on value if I just sell for spares?

Thanks in advance,

Andrew
 
You need to test if it's working first, before buying the LED. Test it has 2 x 24V outputs at least. It could just be one of the 2 fuses has blown.
 
Thanks. Sound like I might need to enlist the help of someone who actually know about these things rather than my guess work.

As I no longer have any use for the hicap I’m beginning to think selling for spares might be the easiest option.
 
I also have a chrome bumper Hicap that was converted to Olive by Naim. I bought it like that but was told that installation of the olive era logo backlight wasn’t part of the conversion. i.e. they changed the front panel and switch knob but the single CB led was left in place (though you can’t see it from outside). The sleeve was also rotated so the silver edge was at the back.

I would suggest to see if you’re getting 24v x2 out of the back.
If so, you have a perfectly functional Hicap (and probably with a Holden and fisher transformer inside)
 
The Olive logo LEDs were driven from the spare output of a negative arm of a rectifier. If it's not lighting up at all there are only two things that can cause it - a dead fuse, or a dead series resistor in the LED board. The display board has two chains of LEDs, so even if one fails there should still be some light.

Given the inherent simplicity of the actual components in a (non DR) Hicap you'd probably be able to sell it for close to normal price to someone who can fix it. Anywhere between £400-600
 
DaveMc64 said:
I also have a chrome bumper Hicap that was converted to Olive by Naim. I bought it like that but was told that installation of the olive era logo backlight wasn’t part of the conversion. i.e. they changed the front panel and switch knob but the single CB led was left in place (though you can’t see it from outside). The sleeve was also rotated so the silver edge was at the back.

I would suggest to see if you’re getting 24v x2 out of the back.
If so, you have a perfectly functional Hicap (and probably with a Holden and fisher transformer inside)
Click to expand...
Naim did have a press which stamped out the cutout for the logo so some were definitely converted to full glowing Olive logo. The cases were rotated, that's correct.
 
Thanks everyone. It’s definitely a Holden and fisher transformer. I just don’t know how how to test for 24x2 output. Nor do I have the necessary tools.

Yet there’s definitely no light at all.
 
Nadi's can certainly fail due to blown LED's and in practice, due to the design the LED's actually go in pairs unless you're very lucky since a failure on one row pretty much guarantees a blowout on the other row due to the overload caused by the first row no longer taking current. They stupidly use only one drop resistor for two parallel rows!

That's exactly what happened on one of my 135's NADIs

The LED's are unfortunately no longer manufactured so no easy fix available unless somebody has a spare couple to help you.

Fortunately you can identify and replace the blown ones with a 500R (IIRC , I calculated it at the time and I think that's what I came up with) resistor and the rest of it will light up again and looks moderately OK.

I've got a couple of types of different LED to try to substitute at some point but haven't got around to it yet. I also tried a pair of SMT side view LED's but they were a total bugger to work with and I gave up.
 
moleac said:
Yet there’s definitely no light at all.
Click to expand...
Plug it into mains power and put your ear (either one will do) up against the case. Can you hear the transformer humming / buzzing? If no, then a fuse has gone or it's not switched on (rotate front switch to 12 o'clock position). If yes, then there's something wrong with the LED or its supply, so see explanations above.
 
It's actually quite common for the mains switch to fail on HiCaps so if it doesn't buzz, that could be your problem.
 
Thanks for your help everyone - there's no buzz....... I've been offered £250 'as is' by a dealer so that seems like the simplest route for now.

Andrew
 
Sounds fair
I think MJS estimate of £400+ is OTT

£375 to £400 for a good condition fully working one would be my ballpark so £250 to a dealer seems fair to everyone and no comeback on you if there is a major fault
 
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