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The Ragini Digital Tanpura is a great companion for classical vocal singers. Last time I had attended one live concert at Bal Gandharv, Pune and had a chance to repair one Ragini Digital Tanpura offhand to continue the singing performance of a great young artist…! You may know, who he was!
Well, if you are rather good in some basic electrical things, then its very simple to repair Ragini Digital Tanpura and Tabla at home. Refer the following photographs. I recently repaired 7 units of Ragini Digital Tanpura and Tabla together of a renowned music college of my home town.
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How to open it?
Remember, if the Ragini Digital Tanpura or Tabla which you are opening, is within guarantee period, then suggest your client to refer to the manufacturing company www.soundlabs.in.
However, if the unit has already crossed the guarantee period, then you can of course, open it for repairs.
First there are 4 bolts on both left and right side of the unit, which you have to open. Open all the 8 bolts (remember these 8 bolts are not screw, they are bolts without nuts) with a screwdriver, particularly a sharp screwdriver, as these bolts may have plastic coating on it, applied already by the company. Refer the following photographs for more details –
Unscrew inner bolts
As shown below, there are 6 bolts which you have to unscrew. Its actually a tedious task, because the you cannot unscrew the bottom bolt, as we generally don’t have a screwdriver of such a small size with good big head.
So for that what you have to do is to bend the front panel as shown below. DON’T WORRY! WHEN YOU WILL FIT IT AGAIN AFTER REPAIRS, IT WILL FIT LIKE ORIGINAL PIECE OF COMPANY FITTING…!
Thus remove the first PCB and then the second one.
What are the actual faults?
Ragini Digital Tanpura and Tabla are quite robust and possibly do work long life (not life long!). I have observed that generally the faults occur within the volume potentiometer or the tone potentiometer. Sometimes the fault may be more worse, that the SMPS may stop working (but its a rare case!).
Volume Knob or Tone Knob problem
In case of rumbling sound when volume or tone knob is rotated, then its better to replace it. After opening the unit, desolder the pots and replace with identical value.
Generally they use 10k Log pot for volume control. Do not replace it will LIN type. It will change the overall audible curve of human ear as our ear is sensitive logarithmic increment of sound level in dB i.e. Decibel.
Power Supply Failure
If the unit appears dead when plugged in, then there may be different types of problems as listed below.
- Check the continuity of power cable.
- If power cable is ok, then try to run the unit on pencil cells. Insert 8 pencil cells and then switch on the unit. If the unit works on cells but not on 230V (or 110V) power supply, then there is serious technical issue.
- The internal power supply problem may consist of transformer failure or the rectifier or filter circuit or the regulator circuit.
- However Troubleshooting transformer, rectifier or regulator requires special skill in practical electronics.
- If such problem exist, you can post the comment below. I will reply ASAP. I have repaired about 45+ Ragini Digital Tanpura and Tabla.
This article is published just to help the classical vocal singers to troubleshoot the problem in Ragini Digital Tanpura or Tabla at home. If you find worst problem, then contact me.
My Raagini Digital Electronic Tanpura 2016 Improved Tone model recently stopped turning on. I’ve replaced the batteries and tried different power cables but nothing seems to help.
I have a technician that I take my guitar amps to who I believe will be able to fix it. I was just wondering what he should be looking for, which parts go bad or what would need to be replaced on the board.
So far my experience goes in the repairing of Ragini Digital Tanpura, I observed that the 3-terminal regulator IC 7805, in power supply section, generally gets faulty.
The other possible reason is that the SMPS section of power supply may stop working. But since the company scratches out code numbers of all the parts in the circuit, its rather hard (not impossible) to find the exact match for the faulty component.
So if the tanpura stops turning on, then just use one 12V,1A external adapter and power the circuit through it. For that you may have to connect one jack socket on the chassis of the unit, (by drilling a small hole) to which you have to connect the adapter pin.
This works very fine and gives you perfect output.
Hello! A friend asked to repair Raagini digital – it looks like one on your photos – it has serious humming noise at the audio output, it is not like usual 50-60hz ac power noise, but higher tone, independent from volume control. I believe it has something to do with this dip40 IC crystal oscillator, because when i interrupt crystal oscillator generation by connecting either of 2 pins to ground through 100-200pf cap.
You are doing right.
This noise is generated due to malfunctioning in programmed crystal oscillator.
However this section of the Digital Tanpura is sealed by the company and cannot be repaired.
But for such noise, we tried a different method in our lab.
Try to connect bleeder capacitor of different values from 10pF to 0.22uF across the oscillator output pin and ground. This will effectively reduce the noise.
There is one “JAWAR” or “Sharpness” knob in digital tanpura. Try replacing its potentiometer.
Please let us know if the problem still occurs or rectified.
All the best…
Found out it stops whinning if disconnect control board (the one with leds and switches). This Raagini version is like this one https://vsa.edu.in/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/How-to-repair-Ragini-Digital-Tanpura-11.webp
Ok! Got it!
As per my experience, when control board is disconnected and noise stops, indicates that the “Tone” pot is faulty.
Replace it and then connect one 10pF ceramic capacitor across its first and third terminals.
Hope this will rectify the problem.
I have got Digital electronic tanpura. It’s power supply is ok,speaker is ok, IC 810 is ok, wiring connect are ok,groul is ok, but no sound of tanpura only blank hissing sound. Can you help me to solve this problem. Thank you.
Check the external speaker socket through which we take headphone output. There must be a loose contact.