Haynes Advent Calendar Radio
 

If there have been previous threads on the Haynes Advent Calendar FM Radio kit can someone point me in the right direction.
I have tried a search of course but only got a mention of them when a member had a grand-daughter who had shown an interest in what grandpa was doing.
Is there a extensive thread on the construction & modification of these radios?


I have seen them in my local Maplin's branch at £20 and on Amazon at around £15.
There seem to be two distinct varieties, unless this is just packaging differences.
One has a front illustration with a horizontal dial, the other has one with a vertical dial.
These have been around since last year as member 60 oldjohn showed me one on his workbench made on a prototype board. This is what you get with the kit apparently .
There may also be an included LM386 amplifier IC.
The actual radio IC is on a postage stamp sized PCB. Tuning is by two tiny push buttons.
I don't know abouut volume control.

Re: Haynes Advent Calendar Radio
 

Re: Haynes Advent Calendar Radio
 

Those Forum Members who bought these kits last year & assembled the radio..
How many of you still have the thing assembled & working?
I just wondered if the packaging with the kit can be made into a basic enclosure for the prototype board.

Re: Haynes Advent Calendar Radio
 

You could make up the enclosure by folding, but it's only cardboard.

The proto board has limitations. It does not hold the switches securely, they jump out without much provocation.

Do I have it assembled? Yes. Do I have it working? No, largely because of the above.

Was its fun? Yes. Was it value for money? Yes. Could it have been better? Yes, but probably far less cost-effectively, and a higher price tag would likely have killed sales.

Whoever put together the kit, they've used standard parts, some custom printing for the booklet and the packaging (and the enclosure). For the price of a meal for one out, or a few beers, you can have a fortnight of fun. Even if you put the whole lot in the bin afterwards, that's not bad! But if you do bin it, you'll keep the proto board... Oh and the speaker, and the LED... And that audio amp IC... And that FM receiver chip is good for another project...

Go on Neil, you know you want one!

Re: Haynes Advent Calendar Radio
 

Hi Neil, The 2 ICs are MC34119 18p each min order 10 and BK1068 0.8$ each min order 10,000! post free. Yes I have my set, not tried it lately. Both Vol and Stations are set with buttons.


John.

Re: Haynes Advent Calendar Radio
 

Radiocruncher assembled one on his excellent Youtube channel ;)

Re: Haynes Advent Calendar Radio
 

I have a proto board & a box of jumpers I could make the kit on. It may have better grip.
Fingers start to itch...........

Re: Haynes Advent Calendar Radio
 

I toyed with the idea of re-assembling mine onto stripboard to make it more 'permanent' and then use the breadboard for something else. When I get the time...

Re: Haynes Advent Calendar Radio
 

The MC34119 could easily be replaced with an LM386 or similar audio chip, but the scanning FM chip may be harder to substitute.

The kit is a harmless enough bit of fun for both adults and children, and although not dirt cheap doesn't cost a fortune.

Re: Haynes Advent Calendar Radio
 

The scanning IC is identical to a Beken BK1079, which is a ten pin 1mm pitch surface mount device.
the reduction to eight pins on the breakout board may be due to removal of a 32.768 crystal clock option and maybe to restrict the tuning range. There is one tiny component on that fragment of PCB. What it is I do not know. I know the BK1079 tunes 76-108Mhz. I know I could not solder wires to that SMD chip unless I had a very big lens
You can buy the BK1068 breakout board for nine euros from a German site. The BK1079 chip is thirty two pounds for a bag of fifty ICs. The MC34119 is dirt cheap, one pound nineteen for ten. Socket mount. The good thing about that chip is the lack of extra components needed to form a amplifier.
I was just trying to see if I could possibly buy the parts for less than the Haynes kit.

Re: Haynes Advent Calendar Radio
 

Enough arm twisting...

Re: Haynes Advent Calendar Radio
 

Thanks John. The link to the series I made is here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...TtDrX1dRjmk5OH

Mine is still working. I did cut the box out and carefully folded it. I couldn’t see a way of fitting the radio into it though. I was going to fit it all on strip board but haven’t got around to it yet. It was great fun to make and it’s a shame that I don’t have another similar project for this Christmas. If they are still available then definitely get one.

All the best

Graham

Re: Haynes Advent Calendar Radio
 

As I mentioned a couple of weeks back, Debenhams (at least the one in Eltham) has the FM Radio advent calendars, and a similar one, also by Haynes to make electronic games (pre-programmed microcontroller, breadboard, LEDs, pushswitches, resistors and capacitors, piezo buzzer).

Re: Haynes Advent Calendar Radio
 

Radiocruncher made a mistake in the wiring & so did I. It is quite difficult if you are not looking directly down on the prototype board.
I wondered about a version on stripboard, or perforated board. The radio could have been a very cheap project if the Beken IC was offered in a standard 2.5mm pitch package. If I had a prototype board on which you could fit a front panel I would have a row of switches there. The tiny things you get are so small they are fiddly to fit & don't really want to stay fixed down.
I wondered about feeding the audio to a PAM8403 panel & running that thing off a USB power bank.

It is a fun project, but you can buy a panel from aliexpress which has a LCD display & RDS for 7 UKP or thereabouts.

BTW: The IC had a option for a 32.768Khz crystal. What would that have enabled if it works without?

Re: Haynes Advent Calendar Radio
 

That's a standard clock crystal frequency, so presumably a radio alarm clock.

Re: Haynes Advent Calendar Radio
 

Has anyone made one on a conventional perforated board with a BK1079, or is it too fine pitch to solder wires onto the pins?

Re: Haynes Advent Calendar Radio
 

1mm isn't too bad for 30AWG wirewrap wire connections. 0.625mm is a real pain though. (Had to do a few design mods at that level once- ARRRghh).

Re: Haynes Advent Calendar Radio
 

You can get adapter boards that would be much like the supplied IC. It is just that if you wanted to make another getting the Beken BK1079 IC means buying a bag of fifty. Be worth it if there was three or four people to divide up a purchase of adapter boards & ICs.
If it could be modified to run from 5V provided by a power bank you could use one of those 99p PAM 8403 Class D amplifier boards for 99P. Unless the MC34119 has more gain....
I haven't got so far as to add that extra IC yet.

Re: Haynes Advent Calendar Radio
 

Mine arrived today as I left it a bit late and maplins had run out in Carlisle. But the good news was that they sent a couple out to me from another store and as it was 1st DEC there was a goodly discount!
So one for me and one for my nephew and his 2 young boys to play with.
Could be a bit of fun I hope.

A.