Modifying Radio XR30 to run with a different controller/driver?

[Odlc84]

Hello. As the title states, has anyone ever modified a XR30 Gen2 to run with a different controller like a blue fish? Long story short, I picked up a damaged XR30 for $30. it turns on, can program with ecosmart live, but it doesnt keep time internally and it has one bad led. the led can be replaced and i ordered the clock/calendar cmos chip and hopefully that solves that problem, but just wondering if anyone has removed the ecotech driver/controller and installed a different one. If so, was it worth it? can it be made to fit inside the case or will it have to be mounted externally?

Thanks in advance for any info.

 

[TheEngineer]

EcoTech would probably fix it for you or give you a good deal on an upgrade. The timekeeping issue could be as simple as a dead coin cell battery. Did you check if the one in there is dead?

 

[Odlc84]

Talked to them and they dont know when the driver board will be back in stock. They also said it was like $180, for that much Ill retrofit something that has wifi control built in. No battery in the board either, as that's the first thing I thought of. Also didn't know they no longer offer the upgrade pucks for the xr30. Said they stopped 6 months ago. I was planning to get the gen3 pros.

 

[TheEngineer]

There has to be a battery somewhere. Otherwise they’d lose time when the power drops off. Mine is in use or I’d open it and look

$180 seems like a bargain to me but the value of getting to tinker must be taken into consideration :)

 

[Odlc84]

Unfortunately ecotech doesnt actually repair the lights, they just swap componets. The driver board doesn't have any obvious battery. I'll get some pics tomorrow. I like to tinker. I buy broken kessils and 90% of the time it's pretty easy to fix them. Usually water damge that eats some tiny resistors or bad transistors that control the fan.

 

[Odlc84]

Also what led me to the clock chip is that whit a computer connected the clock and schedule work perfect. Also, the last light setting is retained after disconnecting power and reconnecting.