Cursitor Doom wrote:
On Sun, 10 Jan 2021 16:34:13 +0000 (UTC), Bertrand Sindri
wrote:

Cursitor Doom wrote:
On Sun, 10 Jan 2021 14:31:52 +0000, Andy Burns
wrote:

Cursitor Doom wrote:

Adrian Caspersz wrote:

Internet only.

Yes, and it remembered my choices perfectly well for many years
before developing dementia, so I think it's fair to assume
there's an internal power supply of some sort.

If it has access to the internet, then it is *not safe to assume*
that there is an internal power supply of some sort. It is possible
that *every* setting beyond the local WiFi AP credentials is stored
on a server somewhere in the cloud. And the WiFi AP credentials
could be stored in a tiny amount of flash on the main chipset to
provide the bootstrap necessary to find the rest of the settings on
some cloud server.

You see this is all like rocket science to me. Never in a million
years would that have occurred to me.

This just requires thinking like a "cost-cutting businessman".

Question: How can we reduce the manufacture cost of this product?

Answer: Eliminate some of the components.

Question: How can we do that?

Answer: Since it already has internet access to operate, we could
eliminate the local storage of settings, allowing us to eliminate a
flash chip of X amount, or a battery backup of X amount.

If my favourites are stored in the cloud rather than locally then
that's a major breach of trust Roberts has committed. And
confidentiality!

Indeed, but none of the above means they /did not/ commit this breach
for the purpose of cost cutting.

It's funny they seemed to know already what the problem was since
they quoted me 40 quid to fix it I'm just wondering if they don't
do anything to the radio but just renew my subscription or
something like that.

Why would you think this vs. the more typical option of the minimum
wage phone worker having a table of "customer quoted symptoms" vs.
"quoted repair cost" and the minimum wage worker just reading you off
the quote for the item that sounded most close to your description?

Look, I'm an old dude. I have no idea what goes on in these places
nowadays.

Again, think like a "cost cutting businessman". How do I reduce the
cost of my "support team"? Answer: Hire the cheapest workers possible
and give them a canned script to read from and follow (canned script is
so I don't have to pay them for 'smartness'). The very concept of
telephone support people having a "script" that they strictly follow
has been the subject of jokes and parodies for a good 30+ years.

In fact the only odd thing is that there are several 220uF caps
which are showing as anything between 1000uF and 1200uF on my Peak
ESR70 meter. I've never known caps so far out of tolerance before.

In circuit or out of circuit measurement?

In circuit. And they're not in parallel.

And you know this because you have the schematic or have reverse
engineered the schematic from the PCB?

If you have no schematic, you are again 'assuming' they are not in
parallel.