Sonos Play 1 repairs

We had suffered a power issue at the villa in Cyprus. During a storm, the neutral line on the overhead power cables that feed the villa (we are on a 3ph+n supply) detached. This resulted in us seeing power surging.

You can read more about floating neutral impacts over at https://electrical-engineering-portal.com/floating-neutral-impacts-in-power-distribution

Anyway, after a few minutes of the surging, devices starting failing. Phone chargers exploded, wifi extenders banged, and numerous other pieces of equipment died.

2 of my Sonos Play 1 speakers didn't survive.

Living in Cyprus, services and support are hard to find, especially when I didn't buy the speakers in the country. I did contact the island distributor for Sonos, but they didn't do repairs and only dealt with warranty related issues.

The speakers were a few years old now and so I had nothing to lose, but to open them up and see what was going on.

There is a really good teardown guide on iFixit, they have a few different guides, but I followed the one for the Motherboard removal.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Sonos+Play+1+Motherboard+Replacement/50818

On inspection, I could see the internal fuse, and checking across it with the DVM, it was blown. There was also evidence of the surge protector, MOV (Metal Oxide Varistor) had burst open. I did have to remove a lump of hot glue off the resistor and MOV to get to the components.


At this stage I didn't know what else had failed, but clearly 2 components had gone, and I thought it was worth the effort to at least start with them, and see if it worked. If the surge protector and fuse had done their job, then hopefully nothing else should be damaged.

I looked up the number on the front of the varistor to see what the spec was, and then had a look at RS Components. Unfortunately, the exact part was unavailable and on back order with no expected delivery date. I found a very similar part, although not exactly the same, it was surge characteristics which I thought would still give as near as the same level of protection:
https://cy.rsdelivers.com/product/panasonic/erze05a431/panasonic-znr-series-disc-varistor-120pf-10a/7858720
These came in a pack of 25, with a unit price of 0.20 euro (ex vat).

The fuses were pretty standard and they had them available:
https://cy.rsdelivers.com/product/wickmann/3721200000/wickmann-2a-radial-t-leaded-pcb-mount-fuse-250v-ac/2266599
There was a minimum order of 10, with a unit price of 0.59 euro (ex vat)

Once they arrived, I swapped out the components and rebuilt the speaker.


Standing at a distance and flicking the power back on, there was no bangs or smell of smoke, so we are off to a good start, then the indicator light started flashing and was searching for the Sonos network in the villa!
I got my phone and fired up the Sonos controller app, and sure enough the speaker was now available and was needing an update. Updated, loaded a playlist and YAH - WORKING SPEAKER!

Component cost to repair the speaker, 0.79 euro (ex vat). I would hate to thing what the repair cost would have been if I had to ship overseas to a repair center, plus repair cost and return shipping fees.

I had a 3rd speaker that had been dropped (thanks dog) and damaged the speaker element, so had taken the motherboard from it and moved it to the 2nd speaker and YAH - ANOTHER WORKING SPEAKER!

The 3rd speaker, I repaired the defective components on the motherboard removed from the 2nd speaker and just waiting to get a replacement speaker element to see if I can make it 3 for 3.

Job for another day...

Comments

  1. Well done! An excellent guide, well written and great derailed pictures. I have a Sonos Play 1 " for parts" purchased cheaply on Ebay and will use this to (hopefully) make it work.

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  2. I think only the varisitor on my Sonus has blown looking at the board. I had a Nuetarl power surge a few month sback nad just decided to try and repair it.

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    Replies
    1. I changed the parts as above and its wor,img again, but although I get the orange and green light on the touch pad doesnt seem to work now, nor have I been able to connect it to the app on my mobile.

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    2. Just relaised that i had to set the whole device again with voice and services......all working now, thanks for your tutorial......

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  3. the R178 resistor on my board went dead. Anyone can look it up on their sonos 1 r178 is located on the other side, just underneath the most blown resistors R525 , R423 and R524

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  4. Nice repair! Did you ever find a new speaker element for your third Play: 1? I'm afraid somehow one of mine was dropped and Sonos won't repair it.

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    Replies
    1. Hi There! I did buy a replacement element, but unfortunately misread the spec sheets so it doesn't fit, haven't looked at it since. I bought a DaytonAudio TCP115-4, they have a huge range of elements, so maybe worth trawling through the spec sheets and checking dimensions, but don't buy the one I did! I was going to make a new enclosure instead or try and modify the existing one, but just never got round to it. All the bits are still in the drawer..

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  5. Thanks for this great post.
    I am having a 2016 play 1 with a blown fuse and varistor as well.
    I’m in the Netherlands so we have 230V ac. The varistor is 15-16mm in diameter.
    Can it be that this is a better replacement for me https://www.vanallesenmeer.nl/Varistor-VDR-S14K275

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    Replies
    1. Hi Bob, I had a look at the full spec for the part you mentioned via another site, and it looks like it would do the job. whatever part you choose, just make sure it can handle the operating voltage etc.

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    2. Thanks for the response. I replaced it with the part from my link and the fuse and he played nice again.
      I understood from the technician: the purpose of the varistor is to shorten the fuse so it blows as soon as the voltage goes over its protection point. In this case 275V. Job was well done.

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    3. Excellent! Job well done Bob :-D

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