how to fix roberts ecologic 4?

I was at the Petts Wood Repair Cafe this afternoon [Sat 2 Sep 2023] and a Roberts ecologic 4 with a faulty on/off switch was presented and exhibiting all of the symptoms found above.

All working after removing the black wire from the connector going to the circuit board where the on/off switch was located [Thanks Dominic]. The owner was very happy as the radio was a gift that he cherished. This radio can now only be switched off at the mains.

Thanks to Tony for the permanent fix of replacing the 14 pin (4013BT) flip flop chip to get everything back in normal working order. Farnell are selling them for £0.57 as a surface mount. So unless you are nifty with replacing SMD [Surface Mount Device] components then find someone to do it for you.

Thanks to How to Mend It for keeping this fix up and allowing further posts.

Try the fix you have nothing to lose and may get your radio working again.

Bob
September 2023

Just did Dominic's fix and it worked well. Very small inconvenience to turn the radio on and off at the power outlet.


March 2022

Lawrie
March 2022

I ALSO have a Roberts Ecologic 4 with a faulty green on/off button! Just did the cutting black wire trick (Dominic June ‘20). Now works great by turning on and off at wall switch.

Gareth
March 2022

Folks, i was looking for the schematic for this radio and found the solution instead, new flip flop fitted and all fine now, precious little else on the web about this radio which is a good performer.

Greg
August 2021

Thank you Dominic - your solution has worked here and the Roberts I was about to reluctantly dump (they are not cheap) is now working again, minus the on/off switch. I am grateful to you.

Hugh
May 2021

Another happy chappy.Phoned Roberts but they said they couldn't repair radio as it was 12 years old! Went the black wire route and radio works fine. Thanks for advice-saved me quite a few bob.

RODNEY THORN
February 2021

Just found this site and tried the method of cutting the black wire. Worked perfectly. Slight annoyance having to turn off at the mains now but well worth it keep the radio going. Many thanks!

Martin Jackson
September 2020

Just found this site and tried the method of cutting the black wire. Worked perfectly. Slight annoyance having to turn off at the mains now but well worth it keep the radio going. Many thanks!

Martin Jackson
August 2020

I can confirm the disconnecting of the middle black wire from plug gets the radio fired up again. I will order the flip flop and fit, as its less than £2 on ebay. thanks for the tips

Terry Norris
June 2020

Found this on an Amazon review, tried it and it worked!!!! only took me 2 years to solve this :-(

This was a great radio when it worked but it’s been sitting on a shelf with a faulty on/off button for over a year. Roberts charge £40+ to fix it and there are no fixes on the internet (so far!). Today l decided to have a play with it to see if I could get it working...I now have a radio which is on when connected to the mains but the on/off switch still doesn’t work so you need to turn the electricity supply to it off to turn it off. Purely by chance I discovered this fix which is dead easy to do. First disconnect from the mains supply and take the back off. All the screws are arrowed and don’t miss the one in the battery compartment. Next to the green on/off switch on the inside there are three wires connecting it to a circuit board. They are orange, black (in the middle) and red. These wires are about 2 inches long and have small white plastic connecting blocks at each end. Anyway I discovered that disconnecting the BLACK wire bypasses the switch entirely. I removed the end of the wire from the plastic block which plugs into the circuit board and put some insulating tape on it but snipping the black wire and putting insulating tape on the ends would have the same effect. If you were going to throw your radio out, try this, you’ve nothing to lose.

Dominic
June 2020

Interesting I also have a Roberts ecologic4 and the switch has broken.

COLLINS
May 2020

Re ecological 4 my green switch has just gone on a 2 year old model. It has only ever been used on the mains. Is this a systemic problem because Roberts should be addressing it. Am currently listening to a 30yr old Morphy Richards fm radio that still works no problem!
Where would you take the Roberts for repair?

Tony Payton
June 2016

Peter Cole: Out of interest, did you ever receive any reply from Roberts?

Jim
June 2016

Further to this matter of Vdd max, I note from the 4013 datasheet that Vdd max is given as 15 volts.

I have measured 19.4 volts from the power supply in AC mode, which is some 30% above the recommended maximum.

No wonder then that these chips eventually give up the ghost!

Jim
June 2016

(I should've said Vdd in my response.)

Jim
June 2016

Thanks for the tips, guys. I have one of these to fix on my bench at the moment.

As regards Vcc max of 18 volts for the 4013, if the radio is producing 20 volts then I guess putting two silicon diodes in series with the supply would be a good idea to drop the Vcc to a safer value.

Jim
June 2016

Tony is correct in that the 4013 flip flop has failed.
Replacing it will restore operation although it is glued down so difficult to remove without specialist
Desoldeing tools. However the device failure is a symptom the cause seems to be that when the radio is mains powered the supply to the device is 20Volts it's maximum rating is 18Volts. It may take a couple of years to fail.awaiting I
Reply to my email to Roberts for official mod.

Peter Cole
April 2016

Would you happen to know if this is the same type of on off switch that is on the Roberts duologic as I have a simalar problem with the radio not switching off properly

Graham
November 2015

You need to get to the on / off switch on the circuit board, near there you will see a 14 pin chip (4013BT), on my faulty on / off switch pin 7 (vss) and pin 14 (vdd) of this chip were short together in the actual chip. I got a replacement from ebay for less than £2. When fitting the new chip note that pin 14 of the chip is nearest to the switch, if you look carefully on the board there is a small black dot indicating pin 1. Hope this is useful to someone.

Tony
June 2015

If it is over a year old ask a competent electronic technician to check the back of the power button with a multimeter. Do not remove the cover yourself (mains voltage inside). I know someone with an ECO 1 that has an intermittent power button.
If it is less than a year old, get it repaired under warranty.

John
July 2013