I was thinking the same thing ! I wish i had manuals like this for my electronics, it's awesome .. So im supporting this and buying some Kenwood audio products
@@maxstr The guy said it was a Ham radio repeater so its technically a consumer product and not commercial. But you are nonetheless essentially correct. The Ham radio community in many cases is steeped in electronics and as such they would be at a competitive disadvantage to not provide these details when it comes to their radio systems as many other companies do.
I wrote Harmon Kardon asking for a schematic so I could find a part. They emailed me back with the entire service manual and a link to their site to buy parts. It was an extremely thorough manual.
Well, I can understand they don't outright provide a service manual, as very few of their customers will ever need such a tome. But the fact that they actually prepare a detailed one and willing to give it to anyone who asked for it, shows that it's a trustworthy company.
The Reason for this is Amateur radio users will not buy a product to use without a semantic or manual about what is in it & how it works. Yet the rest of us will blindly buy electrical products that don’t do this . Amateur Radio is the one field left where the Right to repair is a right & not a privilege ….
This is the correct answer. I am an amateur radio operator, and I've had radios from several manufacturers over the years. Kenwood, Yaesu, Icom, etc... They all came with manuals similar to the one shown in this video. As the commenter above said, Ham operators want to be able to work on the gear they buy, and won't buy gear from manufacturers who don't provide detailed descriptions and schematics.
Except the NXR is not an amateur radio product, but a commercial (part 90) repeater. Service literature is common on LMR gear from reputable manufacturers like JVC Kenwood, Icom, Motorola Solutions, etc because local LMR shops provide warranty and out of warranty support. The life cycle of part 90 infrastructure products is usually 5-10 years versus consumer electronics which are engineered to die when the 1 year warranty expires and all "service" is replace the entire unit and toss.
Nothing new here, regarding Kenwood. I've been fixing Kenwood gear since the 1990's because of this very reason. Keep up the good work my friend and long live Kenwood! 😎🙏🏼
As a 2-way communications technician and Kenwood dealer - every 2-way radio they make has detailed service manuals including, theory of operation, parts lists, board layouts detailed schematics. for portable radios, mobile radios, repeaters, base stations. It's always been great working on Kenwood 2-way radios for the last40 years. Have a blessed day.
An electronic repair manual in 2024? That's as rare as a Sasquatch riding a Unicorn holding a piece of the Holy Cross. Amazing! Props to Kenwood for serving the customer instead of their Sales Division.
@@Dirnkus_Ginish I just checked; equivalent service manuals exist for the current-production NXR-1800 and TKR-D810 repeaters, which are lifecycle replacements for the NXR-800.
I do a lot of repair work on vintage synthesizers and audio gear from the 80's and 90's. The amount of documentation from the manufacturers back then was amazing. Not only for professional models, but all the way down the product line to even toy keyboards. Schematics, board layouts and theory of operation descriptions are so incredibly helpful. Happy to see proper service manuals aren't completely extinct. Thanks for another great video!
That blob of solder is creating a short circuit just like the zero ohm resistors. The question now is, if it didn't work before, what makes you think it will work now with the resistors in place?
Hi alex.. i did some internet search and found out and based on this video that one reason to have 0 ohm resistors is to create two pc board layouts, one with a resistor in place and one without any resistor. However, it is cheaper, smarter, and better inventory management (for the manufacturer) to have just one board and insert/remove the zero-ohm resistor as needed.
i saw that too i think i remember hearing about this Kenwood wrote manuals for Americans and they like 12/16ths size fittings and such with their silly measurement, so maybe 1/10th of a Watt is easier to understand than 0.1W? who knows
Ye this isn't a kenwood thing, it's a radio equipment thing. You will not find diagrams like this for kenwood hifi units these days for example (at least I wouldn't think so).
I worked in TV/Video/Audio repair 30 years ago and it was common place to have full schematics and parts lists for every device we ever repaired. We had a whole filing cabinet full of them. Repair was simple when the manufacturers made such manuals readily available. The fact that so many companies no longer do so has done nothing to prevent the throw away society we have today. I remember fixing equipment that was 20 plus years old. Today most failed electronics ends up in the trash simply because it can't be repaired without service manuals.
I have been a fan of Kenwood HiFi and car head units since my father built a HiFi system in the 70s using Trio components as Kenwood were then known as.
I think it's basically requirement in the amateur radio community for the manufacturer to offer support for repair and alterations to their equipment. That's the heart of ham radio and I don't think products would get sold without that information.
Amateur radio is a different beast, the spirit of self repair and modification is ubiquitous and many companies provide this kind of data to aid in repair and modification of their own devices. Those diagrams really are nicely laid out though!
I guess the market for us ham is different. We often tinker with devices and have ability to repair them more than average consumer. I hate any equipment without such information and almost all my equipment has similar information available. It is also not just Kenwood but practically any manufaturer, new or old. My pretty recent Icom radio had full schematics, board layouts, parts lists and logical block diagrams too.
In the PDF file, expand the left pane, where you switch views... and look at the bottom, there's a tab for attached files. Some PDF files have other files as attachment.
It is done for example to allow you transmit in frequencies for MARS (Military Auxiliary Radio System) if that was the case the modification would allow the radio to transmit in special frequencies that have authorization to transmit at such frequencies.
Let's reward Kenwood, be a customer! I am a one! Hats of for this company for this good practice, providing us all the infos so that we can repair their products!!!! Awesome video! Thanks!!!!
I got my first KENWOOD RXD-G2 hifi in 1995 it was an hifi with 3xCD platform! At the time, super futuristic and modern! Today it still works! I still use Kenwood products for everything possible and whenever their products are available. I pay for quality and commitment!
I have quite a few of Kenwood's electronics and yes, they provide a complete manual just like this for all of them. At least all the ones I own anyway.
I love the fact that my old Fender M80 bass amp that I bought in the mid 90’s came with full schematics and repair manual in the box when I bought it. More companies need to include these.
We hams generally won't buy a transceiver or other such equipment if it doesn't have a service manual. Tinkering and repair are a central tenet of the hobby.
My guess as to why they'd put two 0 ohm resistors in parallel like that, is to leave room for future circuit tuning if fixes come along. Adding a small resistor above 0 ohms, or some other component of that size wouldn't require a circuit board change for the next revision. By having two in parallel allows the flexibility to put two [presumably more common values] in parallel to make the [rarer] value they need, or even an RC pair with a resistor and capacitor. Going the other direction, maybe it USED to be an RC filter or some components they thought were needed for stable operation, but later decided it was good enough without them. Cost savings.
20 years in the US Navy. Navy Electronics Tech. We had similar manuals early on. We had the information to solve problems. Great info. This info should be available for techs.
This is a remarkable example of how providing detailed manuals can empower repairability and support the Right to Repair movement. Kenwood’s comprehensive 156-page manual, including schematics, board diagrams, and part numbers, is a testament to their commitment to customer service and sustainability. This approach not only facilitates easier repairs but also sets a standard for other companies to follow. It’s a win for consumers, the environment, and the repair industry. Kudos to Kenwood for leading by example!
Great video - good gear has info like this - Pioneer, Sansui and some others did the same back in the day. I kept my families receiver working for decades! Zero Ohm Resistors are a thing! Had a good read on how many ways they can be used. -RF choke -skipping over a trace in a multi-layer board - test point - 'permanent' dip switch setting. All sorts of tricks! Thanks!!
Not surprised, I remember years ago when I bought a Kenwood car stereo, that manual was several pages and highly detailed. Nowadays, you're lucky to even get a manual when you buy electronics, and if you do, it's basically a single piece of paper.
Kenwood and other radio equipment manufacturers have fortunately never really stopped providing complete service manuals and information to both the amateur and commercial consumers. Makes me miss the old days. We had a console when I was a kid - had the TV, record player, radio, and tape play all in one. The schematic was included in a fold out, and etched into the back panel. A tube failed one time - Dad pulled it out, we got the value off the schematic, went to the display at the grocery store, picked one up, brought it home and swapped it in. Done. lol - wow, different times :)
Schematics give very little advantage to a competitor. If a competitor wanted to make a schematic from a product they could afford to pay someone to disassemble and test every component and xray the boards to get the circuit diagrams. Yes it would be expensive but for companies like a Kenwood competitor, say Yamaha, if they really valued the schematic they could pay to have prepared at a reasonable cost to them. The reason schematics matter is REPAIR SHOPS can't afford to do this with every single device we repair. My only point is the reason schematics are withheld have very little to do with proprietary information. There are primarily withheld to limit the ability to repair. These kind of manuals were the norm for decades. They still exist for quite a bit of stereo equipment.
The service manuals was standard pratice 20+ years back. Worked in a small TV/radio shop repairing JVC, Sony, Panasonic gear. JVC for example, sent a big box of service manuals each year when they released new models. You could call up any manufacturer and request a service manual (even for older gear). Here in Sweden, they had spare parts on hand for up to 10 year old models, if they didn't have it locally, it was sent from JP or where it was manufactured. The stuff was made to be reparied/serviced. But things changed when the big box stores took over and the small holes in the wall shops shutdown. Now they think you are crazy (or don't know what you mean) when you try to get a service manual.
Brother I am deeply impressed by your generous praise to Kenwood. I appriciate your positive remarks. Great.There should be international rule for manufacturers to give this information when they launch their product in Market. Even Paid.But there should be.I am with you to appriciate Kenwood Company.
Great Service by Kenwood, and scoping around to find the part number and resistance was easier than trying to magnify in the old days using the colours.
I used to do micro miniature repair. Once people found it cost less to upgrade over repair. But with old equipment that people want is another story. Like old tube TVs have a schematic glued inside. I still love working on old pinball machines, they come with some real nice schematics to work from.
I repaired a Kenwood audio system out of a Suburu car, I found the service manual online and it was very complete. It allowed me to track the fault and repair it relatively simply. Quite unusual sadly.
That's weird. Two 0 ohm resistors and a fuse in parallel?! Maybe they did this to allow the fuse and resistors to blow when there's a high-current spike?? I dunno.
And that fix doesn't make any sense to me. The tin connection worked as a jumper, so it had to work without those resistors if there was no problem elsewhere.
I have a kenwood kitchen chef, so far I replaced the gear assembly after 8 years. I haven’t searched for a service manual, but the fact that I could get the gear assembly is crazy. This machine is going strong and handles a lot of abuse. Your video convinced me, I will buy kenwood when I have the option. Good work kenwood.
I've been restoring old pinball machines and I totally love it that their manuals have schematics where to look values for everything. It is so fun to fix those things. You should try it too.
Repaired some Kenwood radios at work a few times. Their documentation is solid, and i've always been able to find the replacement parts I needed one place or another.
I had to troubleshoot and repair a blown coil on an Icom IC-729 HF radio. Servive manual was very easy to get, got the right parts and did the fix myself. What is better than saving some money on repairs? Doing the repair yourself, switching on the equipment and seeing your repair actually worked!
I just built a garage boombox with a Kenwood Z919 and KAC-680 with Infinity speakers. The deck is over 20 years old. Works like a charm. Kenwood rocks. LITERALLY.
Yeah, this is pretty common for most amateur radio gear.I have radios and different stuff from Icom, Kenwood, yaesu, MFJ, etc... If it doesnt come with the rig, it is available online.
I work on radios as well and this is why I like buying older test equipment. You get schematics, service data, calibration procedures, parts lists, board views, block diagrams, etc. My old Fluke 6071A RF signal generator from the 80's has four manuals filled with this stuff, it was a different world back then...
Service Manuals to the component level used to be common in and prior to the 90s however many companies did restrict their distribution to only authorized repair centers. As a consumer I was able to obtain the service manual for the SONY VHS Video Editing Decks - the decks i so much regret purchasing yet so glad I purchased the manual considering they spent more time getting repaired than getting used.
I work all day now with those schematic thanks to you and your RUclips channel I get a job in repair chop for kenwood I saw your video during Covid already do smd soldering for Eurorack module. You helped me to be good in repairing not just doing a pick and place like a machine thanks again. I still looking your videos during my work cause it’s a very good shop in Canada that helps me and give me the tools to get better 🙏🙌 good work and long life to Kenwood support
Not only the manual, the quality of Kenwood products is outstanding. I have a Kenwood Spectrum hi-fi bought new in 1984. It still works perfectly in 2024. I don't use it much anymore, but there was a time that I played disco with it. That amp was driven at max power for hours on end twice a week for a long time, even the speakers still sound pretty good, with only a hint of distortion these days, but I don't use more than about half power in my old age!
This manual reminds me of Canon image runner service and parts manuals. Typical Canon iR service manual exceeds 1200 pages. Very thorough and good layout. Hats down for the people that makes them.
I started fixing electronics thanks to you, bought microscope, soldering station etc... Most of the appliances i fix are air conditioner, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher.... Most of those manufacturers have such manual, with diagrams and schematics.... Seems it's hard to get schematics for phones and computers only....
Two zero ohm resistors in parallel is apparently to allow more current to flow through the line. For example if you need 3A and the resistor package is rated for 1 or 2A.
When i was still messing around with car audio stuff when i was young i had a big old 90's model 4kw 5ch Kenwood amplifier it was physically enormous and weighed close to 10kg due to the entire housing essentially being a heat sink. i had repaired it a number of times mainly things like broken solder joints and failed capacitors but one thing i did find incredible was all the components and values were labelled on the the pcb itself i have never seen anything like it again other than on generic Chinese stuff where one pcb may be used in 10 different applications its good to see Kenwood is still supplying data and information the keep their products going.
Alex, the service manuals like this are common if we talk about Hi-Fi components: amplifiers, tape decks, tuners, DAT tape decks ecc. ecc. Many manufactures provide their own service manual for their products and they are very useful even if you have to service a device for maintenance on a regular base. I like the way you surprise when you find something new that helps your job.
I hold an Amateur Extra license W1GCF. I'm going to speculate here as to why two zero ohm resistors and a fuse. This is a repeater, often installed in a place that can be hard to reach for service. Also, in an environment with 50 watt VHF RF, and then connected to antennas, things can get weird. So this parallel fuse/resistor arrangement may have been intended to partly fail to relieve the effects of an impulse or surge. I admit, that's doesn't make much sense, but I took a try. As state Amateur radio products in general are well documented but above them all is Kenwood. Another one with good schematics is Elecraft. If anyone has a speculation they like better, I'd love to hear it.
I have a Denon Hi Fi amp from the 90's, and it has the same kind of user manual. Hi-Fi amplifiers from various manufacturers from the 90s usually have such user manuals. I don't know about later periods.
Kenwood has always done that. I had those manuals back in the 80's. This was the time when almost all radios and such had repair manuals or you could get them from a company that I forget the name of, they printed them all. But once things started to goto IC's and things could not be repaired by the average repair shop, that went away as well. If i rememeber right, Kenwood also mandated that all of their design engineers spent time in the Kenwood warrenty repair department repairing the returns so they knew what was breaking and where to pay attention to in their designs.
I'm always fascinated by what you can learn when you read a product manual. Interesting things you would never think of otherwise. In some cases, just reading the manual and understanding its operation can make the product better in the users eye. it sounds obvious, but often overlooked.
Alex, if it weren't for the excellent repair and service manual from Kenwood, there would have been no way for me, a novice repairman, to be able the test and repair my TS=50s HF amateur radio back to working order. Everything was there, including the parts and identifying placement for the radio AND all the country zones which they marketed for. I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but the very same radio built for the European market spec's, are different from ones built to United States spec's and some other countries. The information for ALL countries was included and separated by country code. Thanks for the fine videos.
Great work! Basically Kenwood could two major improvements: (1) distribute the PDF file from their own servers fully publicly and (2) put component numbers on the PCB so it would be easier to look up the correct part number.
Well done Kenwood, exactly how it should be, and how it was done years ago. I'm showing my age now but circuit boards used to have the circuit diagram on the board with the values of the components and as such made it so much easier to repair.
I bought a Kenwood amp to replace a failing Bazooka (20 years old and the RCA connectors are failing) because it was on sale, and I had seen dyno tests where they actually provide wattage they claim, but also because I've heard of their quality. This was before I knew about their repair information they provide! Now I'm even more excited to get it hooked up and running. I think a lot more of their products will end up in my possession from here out.
Alex, in most software and search engines too: If you put your search term in quotations, it will iterally just search for that. For example: CN4 will find CN401. "CN4" will not find CN401 but just CN4.
Commercial and amateur radio gear, professional music gear, and test equipment all still have manuals because it's expected. Sewing machines all have service manuals but you can't get them for a lot of models because Pfaff, Singer, etc. guard them like nuclear launch codes because a big part of their profit comes from long term service of their machines (customers usually only ever buy one sewing machine and then use it for a lifetime)
I recently fixed a Pioneer X-HM72 receiver at a Repair Cafe where a SMPS PWM chip had blown its top. As there is a full service manual with schematic online, I could contact the owner to get them to buy two chips (cheap on eBay) and at the next session I replaced this chip, two blown SMD current sense resistors, two diodes in the bridge rectifier, the fuse, and it sprang into life. Without a schematic it would be landfill. Two Pioneer Service centres refused to touch it as "Parts not available". I guess they don't know how to read schematics and have never heard of eBay!
Years ago I had one of those first Apple Mac computers with the little bitty B&W screens. It developed a fault on the board. I thought I might be able to repair it, so I took the case off and to my surprise none of the components except a few capacitors had any identification on them. Capacitors I could deal with but the problem was worse that that. I had a tech friend from my Air Force days who was now working as an Apple tech. He repaired it at the usual Apple exorbitant cost (not his fault but he did warn me). When I got it home I took the case off again to see what was repaired and, to my surprise, the chip that Apple replaced had the identification quite clearly ground off. I discussed it with my friend and he lamented that if their repair workshop didn't have the chip in stock, they were to buy it locally and 'un-identify' it. That's how Apple made their money in those days.
Todays youth is really living in a depraved society.when i was still in school and learning about electronics,i could find infor easily, especially in libraries and electronics shops were all over the place.thanks Northridge fix,kenwood,Rossman and everyone in diy communities.
Pro tip: you can often successfully find for "R4" in this kind of context when you search for "R4[space]" because the file logically contains whitespace between every word. And if your PDF reader supports regular expressions, you could search for "R4\b" where "\b" is a regex code for word boundary.
I love older electronics, even ones made up through the 90s and early 2000s. Your device used to come with a full schematic so you can fix it if needed.
my father was an amateur radio operator and I think all the radios came with manuals like that, actual printed copies back in the 1970's. I may still have some of them even though he died 12 years ago.
AV receivers have awesome published schematics. Onkyo, Kenwood, Denon, etc. If you need a service manual for AVRs, Hifi Engine is the spot. White SMD with T top is usually a time-delay fuse. "0 ohms" until it pops. ;)
How ironic. I just started repairing audio equipment myself. And was just posting on audio karma how amazed I am about the service manuals provided. I am working on a Onkyo and a vintage Realistic quick search and the manuals are readily available with everything you need.
In the big three ham radio makers, all provide detailed service manuals for their transceivers, etc. Kenwood might be a cut above the rest but in my experience Yaesu has excellent service manuals. I have no direct experience with Icom service manuals.
In the past, Japanese companies always had service manuals for their authorized agents and distributors. I once went to a local agent to purchase a service manual for my Sansui A80 amplifier. Instead, I was given an original copy of it without charge. I still have it till today.
Kenwood A+ all my schematics from Kenwood are like that one I work on lots of vintage stereo equipment love Kenwood killer job on that love your program/channel
Kenwood got another customer.
I was thinking the same thing ! I wish i had manuals like this for my electronics, it's awesome .. So im supporting this and buying some Kenwood audio products
Same here!
I have been their customer decades ago.
And will be forever, for their quality amps.
They don't do this for consumer products. These are professional radio systems
@@maxstr The guy said it was a Ham radio repeater so its technically a consumer product and not commercial. But you are nonetheless essentially correct. The Ham radio community in many cases is steeped in electronics and as such they would be at a competitive disadvantage to not provide these details when it comes to their radio systems as many other companies do.
I wrote Harmon Kardon asking for a schematic so I could find a part. They emailed me back with the entire service manual and a link to their site to buy parts. It was an extremely thorough manual.
Nice!
I mean, even though you had to ask for, they were extremely forthcoming.. commendable.
Well, I can understand they don't outright provide a service manual, as very few of their customers will ever need such a tome. But the fact that they actually prepare a detailed one and willing to give it to anyone who asked for it, shows that it's a trustworthy company.
HK and kenwwod are the same manufacturer only diffrent brands.
Omg! @@gabrielecossettini2923
same was for me with audio pro! they are the best
The Reason for this is Amateur radio users will not buy a product to use without a semantic or manual about what is in it & how it works. Yet the rest of us will blindly buy electrical products that don’t do this . Amateur Radio is the one field left where the Right to repair is a right & not a privilege ….
^ This! Many of them are also electronics enthusiasts.
This is the correct answer. I am an amateur radio operator, and I've had radios from several manufacturers over the years. Kenwood, Yaesu, Icom, etc... They all came with manuals similar to the one shown in this video. As the commenter above said, Ham operators want to be able to work on the gear they buy, and won't buy gear from manufacturers who don't provide detailed descriptions and schematics.
I was just about comment about my Yaesu FT-51R...
Well, of course. Because we can and will build our own radios from scratch than buy a manufactured radio without complete and thorough documentation.
Except the NXR is not an amateur radio product, but a commercial (part 90) repeater. Service literature is common on LMR gear from reputable manufacturers like JVC Kenwood, Icom, Motorola Solutions, etc because local LMR shops provide warranty and out of warranty support. The life cycle of part 90 infrastructure products is usually 5-10 years versus consumer electronics which are engineered to die when the 1 year warranty expires and all "service" is replace the entire unit and toss.
Kenwood, a REAL company.
Everything out of Japan is fantastic.
Nothing new here, regarding Kenwood. I've been fixing Kenwood gear since the 1990's because of this very reason.
Keep up the good work my friend and long live Kenwood! 😎🙏🏼
As a 2-way communications technician and Kenwood dealer - every 2-way radio they make has detailed service manuals including, theory of operation, parts lists, board layouts detailed schematics. for portable radios, mobile radios, repeaters, base stations. It's always been great working on Kenwood 2-way radios for the last40 years. Have a blessed day.
Just like old times.
These used to also exist for cellphones.
An electronic repair manual in 2024? That's as rare as a Sasquatch riding a Unicorn holding a piece of the Holy Cross. Amazing! Props to Kenwood for serving the customer instead of their Sales Division.
*On the contrary. Kenwood's Sales Division clearly understands that future sales and repeat sales are built upon happy present and past users.*
@@blackrifle6736 Touché
Looks like it was printed in 2008, it definitely seemed to be more common place then.
I once saw an Unicorn riding a Sasquatch but that's too long of a story to be told here.
@@Dirnkus_Ginish I just checked; equivalent service manuals exist for the current-production NXR-1800 and TKR-D810 repeaters, which are lifecycle replacements for the NXR-800.
I do a lot of repair work on vintage synthesizers and audio gear from the 80's and 90's. The amount of documentation from the manufacturers back then was amazing. Not only for professional models, but all the way down the product line to even toy keyboards. Schematics, board layouts and theory of operation descriptions are so incredibly helpful. Happy to see proper service manuals aren't completely extinct. Thanks for another great video!
My Harman amplifier is still working beautifully for this same reason.
The old Lexicon manuals are fantastic! Great service/operator handbooks, a wealth of information and tips, and the odd funny joke thrown in there too!
I just discovered kurzweils repairability. All schematics for all models available online. Amazing.
That blob of solder is creating a short circuit just like the zero ohm resistors. The question now is, if it didn't work before, what makes you think it will work now with the resistors in place?
He changed 0 ohm with 0 ohm. So effectively he did nothing. Strange, I expect him to know that.
Might be Kenwood sponsored this video?😁
Exactly.
Radio signals work in mysterious ways?
Hi alex.. i did some internet search and found out and based on this video that one reason to have 0 ohm resistors is to create two pc board layouts, one with a resistor in place and one without any resistor. However, it is cheaper, smarter, and better inventory management (for the manufacturer) to have just one board and insert/remove the zero-ohm resistor as needed.
The zero ohm resistors are being used as fuses to protect the supply line to the final board.
Look at Page 18, R405 and R404 are 0 Ohm 1/16W
i saw that too i think i remember hearing about this Kenwood wrote manuals for Americans and they like 12/16ths size fittings and such with their silly measurement, so maybe 1/10th of a Watt is easier to understand than 0.1W? who knows
The lost 0 Ohm esistor was just aside od the metal oxyde cap you can see the white grey line and the zero sometime... was not far...
came here to say the same i spotted too
And now we have, at last, got a glimpse of what the ninth dimension looks like.
saw it to.
I am a Radio Ham in the UK. Most of the major Amateur Radio equipment suppliers have full service information available. 🙂
Yep. I'm a ham in the US. Kenwood, Icom and Yaesu all do. Part of the hobby is fixing and modding your own gear.
Ye this isn't a kenwood thing, it's a radio equipment thing. You will not find diagrams like this for kenwood hifi units these days for example (at least I wouldn't think so).
I worked in TV/Video/Audio repair 30 years ago and it was common place to have full schematics and parts lists for every device we ever repaired. We had a whole filing cabinet full of them. Repair was simple when the manufacturers made such manuals readily available. The fact that so many companies no longer do so has done nothing to prevent the throw away society we have today. I remember fixing equipment that was 20 plus years old. Today most failed electronics ends up in the trash simply because it can't be repaired without service manuals.
I have been a fan of Kenwood HiFi and car head units since my father built a HiFi system in the 70s using Trio components as Kenwood were then known as.
I think it's basically requirement in the amateur radio community for the manufacturer to offer support for repair and alterations to their equipment. That's the heart of ham radio and I don't think products would get sold without that information.
just like the old days, well done kenwood
The 2 "0 ohm" resistors in parallel are fitted to handle the current for the circuit
Amateur radio is a different beast, the spirit of self repair and modification is ubiquitous and many companies provide this kind of data to aid in repair and modification of their own devices. Those diagrams really are nicely laid out though!
I guess the market for us ham is different. We often tinker with devices and have ability to repair them more than average consumer. I hate any equipment without such information and almost all my equipment has similar information available.
It is also not just Kenwood but practically any manufaturer, new or old. My pretty recent Icom radio had full schematics, board layouts, parts lists and logical block diagrams too.
In the PDF file, expand the left pane, where you switch views... and look at the bottom, there's a tab for attached files. Some PDF files have other files as attachment.
Those resistors could be placeholders to unlock certain features of the radios, like a jumper trace you'd cut.
It is done for example to allow you transmit in frequencies for MARS (Military Auxiliary Radio System) if that was the case the modification would allow the radio to transmit in special frequencies that have authorization to transmit at such frequencies.
Kenwood customer since the 90s and they are always good customer service. Plus the stuff still works I bought in the 90s
manuals like that are a thing of beauty. We really need to push right to repair harder to get this for every device
I agree that is what I was thinking
That solder blob is an effective replacement for R4 and R405
I was amazed to find so much detail and part numbers for a Samsung Galaxy 8 tablet that I repaired!
Let's reward Kenwood, be a customer! I am a one! Hats of for this company for this good practice, providing us all the infos so that we can repair their products!!!! Awesome video! Thanks!!!!
I got my first KENWOOD RXD-G2 hifi in 1995 it was an hifi with 3xCD platform! At the time, super futuristic and modern! Today it still works! I still use Kenwood products for everything possible and whenever their products are available. I pay for quality and commitment!
I have quite a few of Kenwood's electronics and yes, they provide a complete manual just like this for all of them. At least all the ones I own anyway.
A fuse won't just blow without reason I suppose. I would've checked rezistance to GND for my curiosity
I love the fact that my old Fender M80 bass amp that I bought in the mid 90’s came with full schematics and repair manual in the box when I bought it.
More companies need to include these.
Here's another customer of Kenwood, thank you for pointing them out ❤❤
We hams generally won't buy a transceiver or other such equipment if it doesn't have a service manual. Tinkering and repair are a central tenet of the hobby.
My friend Andy Ota was the parts manager at jvc/kenwood in Tokyo for many years. glad to see they were keeping him busy.
My guess as to why they'd put two 0 ohm resistors in parallel like that, is to leave room for future circuit tuning if fixes come along. Adding a small resistor above 0 ohms, or some other component of that size wouldn't require a circuit board change for the next revision. By having two in parallel allows the flexibility to put two [presumably more common values] in parallel to make the [rarer] value they need, or even an RC pair with a resistor and capacitor.
Going the other direction, maybe it USED to be an RC filter or some components they thought were needed for stable operation, but later decided it was good enough without them. Cost savings.
20 years in the US Navy. Navy Electronics Tech. We had similar manuals early on. We had the information to solve problems. Great info. This info should be available for techs.
“Who gives out schematics?”
Who makes sure to give props to Kenwood?
Two class acts. Bravo! 🙌
This is a remarkable example of how providing detailed manuals can empower repairability and support the Right to Repair movement. Kenwood’s comprehensive 156-page manual, including schematics, board diagrams, and part numbers, is a testament to their commitment to customer service and sustainability. This approach not only facilitates easier repairs but also sets a standard for other companies to follow. It’s a win for consumers, the environment, and the repair industry. Kudos to Kenwood for leading by example!
Roland does a really good well with this also. I was able to mostly repair my Roland MC-808 by looking at the service manual.
Great video - good gear has info like this - Pioneer, Sansui and some others did the same back in the day. I kept my families receiver working for decades!
Zero Ohm Resistors are a thing! Had a good read on how many ways they can be used.
-RF choke
-skipping over a trace in a multi-layer board
- test point
- 'permanent' dip switch setting.
All sorts of tricks! Thanks!!
Not surprised, I remember years ago when I bought a Kenwood car stereo, that manual was several pages and highly detailed. Nowadays, you're lucky to even get a manual when you buy electronics, and if you do, it's basically a single piece of paper.
It's fine to save paper, most of them get thrown away, but at least have the manual in PDF form.
Kenwood and other radio equipment manufacturers have fortunately never really stopped providing complete service manuals and information to both the amateur and commercial consumers. Makes me miss the old days. We had a console when I was a kid - had the TV, record player, radio, and tape play all in one. The schematic was included in a fold out, and etched into the back panel. A tube failed one time - Dad pulled it out, we got the value off the schematic, went to the display at the grocery store, picked one up, brought it home and swapped it in. Done. lol - wow, different times :)
Schematics give very little advantage to a competitor. If a competitor wanted to make a schematic from a product they could afford to pay someone to disassemble and test every component and xray the boards to get the circuit diagrams. Yes it would be expensive but for companies like a Kenwood competitor, say Yamaha, if they really valued the schematic they could pay to have prepared at a reasonable cost to them. The reason schematics matter is REPAIR SHOPS can't afford to do this with every single device we repair. My only point is the reason schematics are withheld have very little to do with proprietary information. There are primarily withheld to limit the ability to repair. These kind of manuals were the norm for decades. They still exist for quite a bit of stereo equipment.
The service manuals was standard pratice 20+ years back. Worked in a small TV/radio shop repairing JVC, Sony, Panasonic gear. JVC for example, sent a big box of service manuals each year when they released new models. You could call up any manufacturer and request a service manual (even for older gear). Here in Sweden, they had spare parts on hand for up to 10 year old models, if they didn't have it locally, it was sent from JP or where it was manufactured. The stuff was made to be reparied/serviced. But things changed when the big box stores took over and the small holes in the wall shops shutdown. Now they think you are crazy (or don't know what you mean) when you try to get a service manual.
Brother I am deeply impressed by your generous praise to Kenwood. I appriciate your positive remarks. Great.There should be international rule for manufacturers to give this information when they launch their product in Market. Even Paid.But there should be.I am with you to appriciate Kenwood Company.
The fuse sitting right next to where working on board sitting up right re watch video if it still there
Kenwood leading the way for customer support. That's awesome! Probably because the Japanese still have honor.
Great Service by Kenwood, and scoping around to find the part number and resistance was easier than trying to magnify in the old days using the colours.
I used to do micro miniature repair. Once people found it cost less to upgrade over repair. But with old equipment that people want is another story. Like old tube TVs have a schematic glued inside. I still love working on old pinball machines, they come with some real nice schematics to work from.
cool.. I remember a lot of things had these parts lists. back in the day.. nice to see some still do it
This remember me to the old times of CRT repairs the service manual, they have everything like this.
But in 2024, it's another level!
I repaired a Kenwood audio system out of a Suburu car, I found the service manual online and it was very complete. It allowed me to track the fault and repair it relatively simply. Quite unusual sadly.
That's weird. Two 0 ohm resistors and a fuse in parallel?! Maybe they did this to allow the fuse and resistors to blow when there's a high-current spike?? I dunno.
For me it looks like this revision had a fuse, and revision in the schematic had two low-powered resistors like some kind of 'slow' fuse.
idd tose 2 resitors are usless .. when the fuse is ok ..
And that fix doesn't make any sense to me. The tin connection worked as a jumper, so it had to work without those resistors if there was no problem elsewhere.
I have a kenwood kitchen chef, so far I replaced the gear assembly after 8 years. I haven’t searched for a service manual, but the fact that I could get the gear assembly is crazy. This machine is going strong and handles a lot of abuse.
Your video convinced me, I will buy kenwood when I have the option.
Good work kenwood.
We've got a Kenwood food mixer from the 1970s. It's still working! Not sure if it's the same company for the part in the video though?
I've been restoring old pinball machines and I totally love it that their manuals have schematics where to look values for everything. It is so fun to fix those things. You should try it too.
Thank you for video,it is nice to sit beneath you at your laboratory 😊
Repaired some Kenwood radios at work a few times. Their documentation is solid, and i've always been able to find the replacement parts I needed one place or another.
I had to troubleshoot and repair a blown coil on an Icom IC-729 HF radio. Servive manual was very easy to get, got the right parts and did the fix myself.
What is better than saving some money on repairs? Doing the repair yourself, switching on the equipment and seeing your repair actually worked!
I just built a garage boombox with a Kenwood Z919 and KAC-680 with Infinity speakers. The deck is over 20 years old. Works like a charm. Kenwood rocks. LITERALLY.
Yeah, this is pretty common for most amateur radio gear.I have radios and different stuff from Icom, Kenwood, yaesu, MFJ, etc... If it doesnt come with the rig, it is available online.
Kenwood, hand out those notes to the industry, we need more and better business practices
I work on radios as well and this is why I like buying older test equipment. You get schematics, service data, calibration procedures, parts lists, board views, block diagrams, etc. My old Fluke 6071A RF signal generator from the 80's has four manuals filled with this stuff, it was a different world back then...
Service Manuals to the component level used to be common in and prior to the 90s however many companies did restrict their distribution to only authorized repair centers. As a consumer I was able to obtain the service manual for the SONY VHS Video Editing Decks - the decks i so much regret purchasing yet so glad I purchased the manual considering they spent more time getting repaired than getting used.
I work all day now with those schematic thanks to you and your RUclips channel I get a job in repair chop for kenwood I saw your video during Covid already do smd soldering for Eurorack module. You helped me to be good in repairing not just doing a pick and place like a machine thanks again. I still looking your videos during my work cause it’s a very good shop in Canada that helps me and give me the tools to get better 🙏🙌 good work and long life to Kenwood support
Not only the manual, the quality of Kenwood products is outstanding. I have a Kenwood Spectrum hi-fi bought new in 1984. It still works perfectly in 2024. I don't use it much anymore, but there was a time that I played disco with it. That amp was driven at max power for hours on end twice a week for a long time, even the speakers still sound pretty good, with only a hint of distortion these days, but I don't use more than about half power in my old age!
This manual reminds me of Canon image runner service and parts manuals. Typical Canon iR service manual exceeds 1200 pages. Very thorough and good layout. Hats down for the people that makes them.
I started fixing electronics thanks to you, bought microscope, soldering station etc... Most of the appliances i fix are air conditioner, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher.... Most of those manufacturers have such manual, with diagrams and schematics.... Seems it's hard to get schematics for phones and computers only....
Two zero ohm resistors in parallel is apparently to allow more current to flow through the line. For example if you need 3A and the resistor package is rated for 1 or 2A.
Ok, but why in parallel with the fuse?
@@jeroentaverne8232 Some weird overcurrent protection? Apparently it didn't work in this scenario as intended 🤣
When i was still messing around with car audio stuff when i was young i had a big old 90's model 4kw 5ch Kenwood amplifier it was physically enormous and weighed close to 10kg due to the entire housing essentially being a heat sink.
i had repaired it a number of times mainly things like broken solder joints and failed capacitors but one thing i did find incredible was all the components and values were labelled on the the pcb itself i have never seen anything like it again other than on generic Chinese stuff where one pcb may be used in 10 different applications its good to see Kenwood is still supplying data and information the keep their products going.
Alex, the service manuals like this are common if we talk about Hi-Fi components: amplifiers, tape decks, tuners, DAT tape decks ecc. ecc. Many manufactures provide their own service manual for their products and they are very useful even if you have to service a device for maintenance on a regular base. I like the way you surprise when you find something new that helps your job.
I hold an Amateur Extra license W1GCF. I'm going to speculate here as to why two zero ohm resistors and a fuse. This is a repeater, often installed in a place that can be hard to reach for service. Also, in an environment with 50 watt VHF RF, and then connected to antennas, things can get weird. So this parallel fuse/resistor arrangement may have been intended to partly fail to relieve the effects of an impulse or surge. I admit, that's doesn't make much sense, but I took a try. As state Amateur radio products in general are well documented but above them all is Kenwood. Another one with good schematics is Elecraft. If anyone has a speculation they like better, I'd love to hear it.
73 from Madeira Island
I have a Denon Hi Fi amp from the 90's, and it has the same kind of user manual. Hi-Fi amplifiers from various manufacturers from the 90s usually have such user manuals. I don't know about later periods.
Service manual.
Kenwood has always done that. I had those manuals back in the 80's. This was the time when almost all radios and such had repair manuals or you could get them from a company that I forget the name of, they printed them all. But once things started to goto IC's and things could not be repaired by the average repair shop, that went away as well. If i rememeber right, Kenwood also mandated that all of their design engineers spent time in the Kenwood warrenty repair department repairing the returns so they knew what was breaking and where to pay attention to in their designs.
I'm always fascinated by what you can learn when you read a product manual. Interesting things you would never think of otherwise. In some cases, just reading the manual and understanding its operation can make the product better in the users eye. it sounds obvious, but often overlooked.
Alex, if it weren't for the excellent repair and service manual from Kenwood, there would have been no way for me, a novice repairman, to be able the test and repair my TS=50s HF amateur radio back to working order. Everything was there, including the parts and identifying placement for the radio AND all the country zones which they marketed for. I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but the very same radio built for the European market spec's, are different from ones built to United States spec's and some other countries. The information for ALL countries was included and separated by country code. Thanks for the fine videos.
Great work! Basically Kenwood could two major improvements: (1) distribute the PDF file from their own servers fully publicly and (2) put component numbers on the PCB so it would be easier to look up the correct part number.
Blown away indeed. Kudos to you Kenwood. Love you for this. Feels so good. Good luck and best wishes to all. Cheers! 🎉
Well done Kenwood, exactly how it should be, and how it was done years ago. I'm showing my age now but circuit boards used to have the circuit diagram on the board with the values of the components and as such made it so much easier to repair.
I bought a Kenwood amp to replace a failing Bazooka (20 years old and the RCA connectors are failing) because it was on sale, and I had seen dyno tests where they actually provide wattage they claim, but also because I've heard of their quality. This was before I knew about their repair information they provide! Now I'm even more excited to get it hooked up and running. I think a lot more of their products will end up in my possession from here out.
I remember the days when there was a schematic for almost all electronic you would buy... Good times.
Alex, in most software and search engines too: If you put your search term in quotations, it will iterally just search for that. For example: CN4 will find CN401. "CN4" will not find CN401 but just CN4.
Commercial and amateur radio gear, professional music gear, and test equipment all still have manuals because it's expected. Sewing machines all have service manuals but you can't get them for a lot of models because Pfaff, Singer, etc. guard them like nuclear launch codes because a big part of their profit comes from long term service of their machines (customers usually only ever buy one sewing machine and then use it for a lifetime)
I recently fixed a Pioneer X-HM72 receiver at a Repair Cafe where a SMPS PWM chip had blown its top. As there is a full service manual with schematic online, I could contact the owner to get them to buy two chips (cheap on eBay) and at the next session I replaced this chip, two blown SMD current sense resistors, two diodes in the bridge rectifier, the fuse, and it sprang into life. Without a schematic it would be landfill. Two Pioneer Service centres refused to touch it as "Parts not available". I guess they don't know how to read schematics and have never heard of eBay!
Years ago I had one of those first Apple Mac computers with the little bitty B&W screens. It developed a fault on the board. I thought I might be able to repair it, so I took the case off and to my surprise none of the components except a few capacitors had any identification on them. Capacitors I could deal with but the problem was worse that that. I had a tech friend from my Air Force days who was now working as an Apple tech. He repaired it at the usual Apple exorbitant cost (not his fault but he did warn me). When I got it home I took the case off again to see what was repaired and, to my surprise, the chip that Apple replaced had the identification quite clearly ground off. I discussed it with my friend and he lamented that if their repair workshop didn't have the chip in stock, they were to buy it locally and 'un-identify' it. That's how Apple made their money in those days.
Kenwood had and still hve their customers. They always did a good job making quality products and being transparent as much as possible.
Todays youth is really living in a depraved society.when i was still in school and learning about electronics,i could find infor easily, especially in libraries and electronics shops were all over the place.thanks Northridge fix,kenwood,Rossman and everyone in diy communities.
Thanks Kenwood, this make me a proud customer of yours.
It's truly remarkable. Not even DELL has manuals like this
Pro tip: you can often successfully find for "R4" in this kind of context when you search for "R4[space]" because the file logically contains whitespace between every word. And if your PDF reader supports regular expressions, you could search for "R4\b" where "\b" is a regex code for word boundary.
Kenwood has always made very good sevice manuals, especially for their amateur radio equipment. I have always been happy with Kenwood products.
I love older electronics, even ones made up through the 90s and early 2000s. Your device used to come with a full schematic so you can fix it if needed.
I was a bench tech since 1979, and most manufactures provided this level of service information.
Awesome cattle dog!. It's really nice to come across such gems these days. Rare as they may be.
my father was an amateur radio operator and I think all the radios came with manuals like that, actual printed copies back in the 1970's. I may still have some of them even though he died 12 years ago.
Kenwood definitely got my respect, Ill definitely buy more from them for now on, thank you very much for being a better company.
AV receivers have awesome published schematics. Onkyo, Kenwood, Denon, etc. If you need a service manual for AVRs, Hifi Engine is the spot.
White SMD with T top is usually a time-delay fuse. "0 ohms" until it pops. ;)
How ironic. I just started repairing audio equipment myself. And was just posting on audio karma how amazed I am about the service manuals provided. I am working on a Onkyo and a vintage Realistic quick search and the manuals are readily available with everything you need.
In the big three ham radio makers, all provide detailed service manuals for their transceivers, etc. Kenwood might be a cut above the rest but in my experience Yaesu has excellent service manuals. I have no direct experience with Icom service manuals.
Old 1990s Radio, cassette boombox, DVD/VHS players,TV, washing machines had schematic booklets.
In the past, Japanese companies always had service manuals for their authorized agents and distributors.
I once went to a local agent to purchase a service manual for my Sansui A80 amplifier.
Instead, I was given an original copy of it without charge.
I still have it till today.
Kenwood A+ all my schematics from Kenwood are like that one
I work on lots of vintage stereo equipment love Kenwood killer job on that love your program/channel