(Last minor update August 2010)

UPDATE CONCERNING THIS ENTIRE PAGE AND IP RADIOS GENERALLY
18 July 2010

The Logik IR100 internet radio has now been available for more than 5 years. They were made very cheaply (too cheaply)  in China for the Dixons Stores Group and have never been too reliable - for some of the reasons look lower down this page. In the last few months our email inbox has been growing larger each day - mostly containing emails about Logik radios with faults of a terminal nature. In fact it is true to say that radios that have been plugged in continuously are now more likely to be faulty than not! If YOU have had your radio plugged in for years and it still works then you can count yourself lucky indeed! You probably live in an urban area where the electricity supply is reliable and comes in underground, as constant mains failures are definitely a major cause of problems in these radios. The time is right for a replacement model to be designed. So what to do?

As far as we are aware there seems nothing on the market comparable with the Logik IR100. Roberts make a great Internet radio - my son has had one for 2 years, it cost £150 and has now gone up to £170, which proves how good it is! Others manufacturers make IP radios, one is available on eBay for about £70 or so. The model is much smaller and the audio quality is not nearly as good as the Logik.

The reason for these paragraphs therefore is to ask if YOU know of an IP Internet radio that retails for £50 or so PLEASE let us know so that we can tell others.

It seems manufacturers are missing out here too. There is certainly a demand for a reasonably priced IP or Internet radio, yet nobody seems to be marketing them properly. I expect the main reason - and the main reason why Dixons dropped the Logik - was the problem explaining the concept and installation of a radio that uses a wireless router rather than an aerial. However I think that with I Phones and similar the public are now better informed at the possibilities of using their router with other things than computers. IP addresses and subnets are now far better understood. How about it manufacturers?  I have been fixing these radios since they first came out, used to work as an engineer for the BBC, and would be delighted to advise an entrepreneur or manufacturer about the necessary, and unnecessary, facilities needed!

There is no reason at all why a reasonable quality IP radio could not be manufactured in China for $15 FOB. That would mean that it would sell for £55 - £60 in the UK and the equivalent cost in the rest of the world. It CAN be done! Please get in touch if you'd like my advice on design or can suggest on suitable models. My dedicated address is logik at horsted keynes dot com (all lower case no gaps). 

The Logik IR100 is an Internet Radio also known as a Wi-Fi or Web Radio; that is it connects to your existing home wireless broadband network and enables you to connect to any of more than 8,000 radio stations almost anywhere in the world without needing a computer! It also lets you listen to audio files that are stored on any computer on your home network and works particularly well with the new Microsoft Home Server that is discussed elsewhere on the Horsted Keynes web site. Alternatively you can listen to more than 24,000 audio streams from all over the world such as the BBC podcasts! Unfortunately many of the people employed to sell these radios don't explain that for them to work you must have a working wireless network in your home but you do not need a computer at all! If your internet radio doesn't work with your wireless network then we can modify your receiver to work instead with a wired network - more on this later.

An internet radio station can use a number of different codecs including Real Audio (RA), Windows Media (WMA) and MP3 (that's mp3 ;-) and this radio will work with all these and more. Any operating parameter can be altered by firmware updates which are automatically downloaded not from the manufacturer's web site, as would be normal, but from reciva.com who make the processor board that is at the heart of this and many other Web Radios. Their web site also updates the IR100's internal list of radio stations and acts as a hub to store your personal preferences. At present this is all provided free of charge but we think it only a matter of time before they are forced to start charging for their services. A recent posting from their owner says that their service will stay free however, we do hope so!

So to make it 100% clear, as received this radio requires a working wireless home network like a BT Home Server or a Netgear or Belkin Router - any make will do! Your network can be encoded or in the clear and you do not need a computer running anywhere in your home to listen to internet radio! Besides this you can also listen to all the stored "on demand" programmes on the BBC web site as well as podcasts. This sort of radio can be a very useful addition to your home entertainment setup and is capable of giving really good quality audio which can be fed into your home Hi-Fi through a socket on the back.

They are frequently used as a bedside radio and for this they have a built in alarm clock. Alternatively perhaps you prefer to listen to the "Today Programme" or a repeat of "The Navy Lark" in the kitchen. There is a very high quality 8 Watt mono loudspeaker inside as well as the afore mentioned stereo headphone or HiFi socket on the rear.

Now these are some of the plus points of this radio, but like any technology they also have their problems!

Firstly, be very careful where you buy your Logik IR100. If you buy new at full price (if you can find on in a shop these days) then there is no problem, but unfortunately whilst this design is still being made (in a variety of colours) it is no longer being sold by PC World or Curry's so the second hand route seems to be the way that you must go. The problems can come when you buy one of these radios from an eBay seller who does not disclose that they are selling units that have been returned as faulty or are customer returns! They often "forget" to mention this in their product descriptions then sell the radios as "new"! Now some of these radios will have little wrong with them as they were just returned by people who bought them without realising they needed a home wireless network to make them work. Some other radios bought from eBay will have serious faults (frequently intermittent - important see below) which do not show up until several days after purchase, and items bought on eBay do not come with any guarantee at all! Caveat emptor, and then caveat again!

One tip is to see if the seller includes an instruction book and a box in the sale. Whilst not infallible if these accessories are included then at least you have a chance of getting a genuine bargain.

The most well known and common fault with this model of Logik radio is a loud mains hum that emanates from the loudspeaker even when the radio is switched off. This can be particularly annoying when the radio is placed on a bedside table as the hum cannot be turned off without removing the power and stopping the alarm! There is a fairly simple modification that many can do at home to make this hum much quieter, please get in touch with us if interested. Sometimes the selector switch is intermittent or slow to register while other problems are a general lack of wireless sensitivity.

Then there is the fault that causes some headphones to fail if they are left plugged in when the radio is switched on, this has happened to us - twice now! This is because of a design flaw that gives a large power surge when the radio is switched on from cold. As well as the left/right control knob being faulty quite often the selector switch itself which is built into the left/right knob gets "iffy" and has to be pressed very hard before it works. This means that after a few hundred presses (and you have to press this button at least four or five times every time you select any station) the switch mounting plastic breaks off completely and the radio is rendered completely useless. Fixing this problem involves replacing the rotary encoder.

Another problem has been around from new, these radios sometimes "brick", a term which means that they just sit there looking at you with no light showing at all. The problem is sometime preceded by the sound "babbles" and then the radio simply fails to turn back on. This is becoming a more frequent problem as these radios get older. There are other causes and such faults can sometimes be fixable but dead radios are seen much more often as the design gets older.

We are retired electronics engineers and are able to fix some of the problems with these radios however some of the parts are "specials" which are hard if not impossible to find!

Because some older people find these radios especially easy to use we like to help them by fixing their faulty sets so we need to have a stock of spare parts. If you don't want to bother to pay for your radio to be fixed then we may well be prepared to buy your Logik IP radio so that we can salvage its spare parts which are generally unavailable from normal spares outlets.  We will consider paying you cash money for your Logik IR100 WiFi Internet Radio, working or not. In the section below we list the prices that we are usually able to offer. The fee paid includes the postage for you to send in the radio, or of course you may bring it to us by hand. Given that you may have bought your faulty radio for £20 on eBay we feel that our offer for what is in reality a broken 5 year old item is a very generous offer indeed! However we must point out that these radios are really showing their age and are much less reliable than many buyers (and we) would wish. This means that we have in recent months been offered up to several radios each DAY and as our finances are limited we are not always able to buy radios, even when we would love to!

Your radio may not have sound but it must light up (even if it just shows squares in the display) for us to be able to pay you the most money. We will still make you an offer if your radio is completely dead and does not even attempt to light up when switched on but in this case the main Barracuda module has probably gone and we would only be able to offer you a smaller sum for it - nevertheless do please contact us as we might still be able to recover some of the redundant parts.

Because of the large number of these radios going wrong and also because of storage problems we are unfortunately not able to accept every radio offered particularly if you expect a lot of money for it. If we are not able to do a deal the first time then please do consider asking us again a few weeks later when we may well have some storage room to spare. It is better than dumping a broken radio in the landfill, isn't it?

If you would like to sell us your Logik IR100 radio (working or not) please email logik@horstedkeynes.com with whatever details you have about it and with any faults or symptoms clearly stated so that we can see if we are able to make you an offer. If you accept our offer we'll be in touch to sort out the details. Payment to you would be from your choice of Cash, Cheque, or Postal Order. Alternatively if you live reasonably near to us in Sussex then we will happily give you cash on the doorstep - indeed we'd be delighted to meet you!

Needless to say you must be the owner of any radio that you intend to sell us. Fair enough?

Now the above very special offer is out of the way we have a second one if you just want your radio to work again.

If your radio has a problem that is not due to one of the mechanical faults mentioned above which requires a hard to get spare part we will be pleased to offer you our personal help resolving the issue at home and without your having to send it in.

For example if your new IP radio simply refuses to connect to your router we are often able to walk you through the problems, and will look up to see if there is an insurmountable conflict somewhere. If we manage to get everything working to your satisfaction then all we ask is that you pay us a minimum donation of £10 which goes towards the cost of running this web site. You only pay us after we have helped you (we tend to trust people). If you are not happy, or we can't fix your problem then our advice will have cost you nothing!

The minimum £10 fee is for problems that are fixed by you at home following our specific directions. You may have to take the back off your radio (if you chose to) and in such circumstances we expect you to be careful to unplug from the mains (doh) and put it all back together carefully afterwards. We are not looking over your shoulder but it just takes a bit of common sense. Sometimes soldering may be necessary but this is not always the case and obviously you don't have to go further than you want attempting any repair.

If we have to have the radio in our workshop to sort it out then our fee will quite naturally be somewhat higher, in fact probably more than your radio is worth! Remember these radios were made down to a price and many are now suffering from major reliability issues. Some users are lucky whilst others seem to have a "lemon" that has been unreliable from new. In particular the control microprocessors are now failing with some regularity. These give various faults but mostly the radio just won't switch on at all, often following a power failure, but sometimes after hearing a funny baubling sound it just refuses to restart! Radios with these faults in particular are ending up on auction sites such as eBay and are often sold as having an "intermittent fault sometimes will not switch on"! If your micro has gone then unfortunately take it from us, your radio may be beyond economic repair.

Roberts make a wonderful radio that covers ALL wavebands from VHF via Digital Radio to Internet Radio, it sells for nearly £200; your Logik probably cost you £40 new - remember you gets what you pays for!

If you get in touch, we may take a few days to reply. If you do not hear from us within say a week at most please feel free to email again as sometimes messages just do not arrive, or our answer gets trapped as spam the first time.

April 2010 clarification

These sets are becoming increasingly unreliable. When you consider that many of them are 5 or more years old this is hardly surprising. As mentioned above they were badly made when new, on top of their being made of the cheapest, lowest quality parts imaginable, this makes them more than likely to fail sooner rather than later.

In the past we have been happy to take a look at any faulty Logik radio that arrived at our door. Whilst we can still do this we must point out that the commonest faults can be caused by any of a number of parts and our stock of parts is severely limited - we are not a business after all!

For this reason we feel that it is time to state that we are no longer able to offer a normal "repair all" service (except in exceptional circumstances). We are still keen to buy your faulty sets as there are older people who would like to have a set to listen to and we can use the working parts for our stock. Apart from the odd exceptional case however we regret that repairs must now come at the end of our list of facilities.