PURE Evoke 1S radio display (2023 Update)

[Chris Hogg]

The display on my above digital radio has all but disappeared. In a darkened room, with a small torch illuminating the light sensor, it's just possible to make out that something is happening on the screen, but it is unreadable. I have tried going through the factory reset sequence, apparently to no avail, but as I can't actually see what's happening, I'm at a loss to know what I've managed to do, if anything. Without the display the radio is almost useless as I can't see to select various stations, set the alarm time or anything at all.

Is it a known problem with this radio? If it's a component failure, is it likely to be the display unit itself, or the photo-sensor that controls the brightness, or something else, and is it DIY repairable?

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

Yes the Evoke 1 and Sonus 1 are the same, the display lighting vanishes eventually. At least the Sonus 1 has voice support. I was unaware of the death of the display till somebody said your pretty pink and blue display has gone off. Gather some other combinations were used in these radios. If its one of the original radios, it is almost obsolete now many many stations do not work since the hardware does not support DAB plus. I find it very annoying that there is no replacement for these radios for blind users. It is obviously pretty trivial to add proper text to speech these days as most TVs have it. Its just cheapskate manufacturers buying off the shelf solutions and putting them into their own cases. I have had my one fixed twice, but I'm told there are no more main boards left, and Pure are not interested nowadays. Used to be a company called Radio changing parts, but to be honest, its cheaper now to get a new radio. Brian

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Chris Hogg expressed precisely :

I assume this is an LED display?

Try snipping one of the wires to the sensor, if that doesn't make a difference, try shorting out the sensor..

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

That company name was radiofix. However the whole radio is mounted on the front panel, only the amp and voltage regulator was on a normal pcb in the normal way. I'd have no idea if there is a way to change the illumination in the display or whether it is a whole new display you need. It is a common issue with those types of display though. I guess it might just be a backlight but never ventured to that much detail. Brian

[GB]

I found this review on ebay:

by robhookham

19 Jul, 2019 Great sounding older radio- get the later model

These are nice sounding and looking radios.

There are two models of the Evoke 1S the older one with a square usb socket (type B) and a later one with a mini type B.

The older one which has an Osram display is difficult to service as you have to remove screening cans that are soldered to the board to even change the display. The RIT display will work but you will loose 8 pixels on the right hand side. They are also prone to not powering up except on a battery. This seems to be a AS3654 chip failure which is very difficult to buy and replace.

The newer model uses the RIT OLED display available on Alibaba which is easy to change without any soldering.

Since Rob seems to have a good idea what he's talking about, you might try contacting him.

[Brian Gaff (Bed)]

I think its a fancy LCD with false colours to make it look pretty, or at least mine was when I could last see it. Brian

[Scott]

Is there a setting for bright or dim? I always have mine (a different PURE) set to dim but changing your setting to bright might solve your immediate problem.

[Chris Hogg]

Thanks for that. Mine appears to be the later one, so there's hope yet if I can locate a replacement RIT OLED display.

[Chris Hogg]

The handbook offers several options for brightness adjustments, but they all require that you can read the display in the first place, in order to navigate through the menu to reach those options, which of course I can't do!

[Broadback]

I have an Evode radio, when it goes tilt, as It seems here it may well do what do you all suggest as a replacement please?

[Andy Burns]

Even if you shine a very bright torch on the display? (LCDs with broken backlights can usually be seen that way)

I think my Pure Evoke3 has an EL display, which is now several "half-lifes" old and next to useless.

[Dave W]

I have a Pure Chronos CD unit I took from my neighbour in exchange for my Pure Evoke 1S, which sounded better (but mono), has more bass and can be heard better by her deaf ears.

The 1S had a splendid bright green background LCD display with black text, but the Chronos has a blue backlight shining through a negative LCD display giving blue digits on a black background. (Later S1's had green letters on a black background).

But the Chronos display was faint and I couldn't believe it was intended to be that way. After investigating voltages, currents and series resistance I came to the conclusion that the sole blue LED had grown dim over time.

So I looked for the brightest white LED that RS sells and bought a packet of 5, the minimum. I managed to cut the old LED out of its pocket in the back-light light-guide and replace it with a white LED filed down to fit.

I was disappointed that the display is still a bit dim, but at least it's adequate now.

[Andy Burns]

I did a similar replacement with white LEDs and epoxy on an iMon LCD display for my HTPC.

[Annoyed]

Anything new re this? Mine has just given up the ghost re screen! It's parked on Radio 4 and two small anti-clockwise turns give me Radio 3, but I daren't try to search for any other stations....

[nothanks]

Why do you need any other stations? ;-)

[John Bryan]

After a whole year does it really matter?

[Fredxx]

Before replying through a broken website read this first.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Actually this and the Sonus 1 are well known for the brown out of their displays, as this radio cannot do dab plus you are probably going to find fewer and fewer radio stations to listen to anyway. You can of course simply click through and press the control knob and listen to decide what it is, welcome to the blind world of using dab. Sadly although the Sonus 1 has audio tags, they are now completely out of date and bear no resemblance to the actual station. It does have a spell function of course but that is very difficult to understand. as it takes an age to read the display that way. I did put a new tuner module in mine about five years in but that display went dark brown as well and its a known problem with the display apparently. I might suggest you look at a Roberts portable with mains unit not only is it good sounding but can run from batteries and charge them up. You can connect it to a stereo if you like. Still not much use for us blindies but apparently the display seems more robust. Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Mine is a lot older and on its third display, but now I don't care since I can't see it anyway! As in my previous reply, it is a known issue and unfortunately since it cannot do dab plus its really not going to be able to be fixed now. Hardware has moved on. Brian

[Radiodabbler]

I had similar problems which led me to this hub. The display on my Evoke 1S is also badly faded but just about readable and as the radio is only ten years old but won't receive DAB+ I was going to scrap it. I found the Evoke website and found there was upgraded software for my model here:

I downloaded and installed it. The display is still faded but to my delight the radio now receives DAB+. Strangely, Evoke don't advertise this upgrade.