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Lr44 battery installation8/7/2023 I had to be careful.Look at the compartment door to determine what size battery you need. Solder repair jobs like this are difficult as excess heat can quickly transfer from the joint being operated on, to the whole component, causing damage if too much heat is conducted. The small piezo speaker was held behind the main circuit board and on closer inspection, I saw that one of the soldered connections had broken away from the speaker. Whipping the back of the key fob apart revealed a simple integrated circuit with the battery terminals, all in good condition. What I thought would be a quick battery change had escalated in to a full toolkit situation. But, upon installing them, replacing the cover and pressing one of the buttons for the first time there was still no sound. I usually keep a pack of LR44s (as one does) in case of toy key emergencies like this and luckily on this occasion, I had two shiny new ones to fit. However, a quick test with the multimeter revealed that both batteries were kaput. Taking the batteries out revealed some light corrosion on one cell, but no dramas. These are found in many items and are readily available, if you know where to look, but are not commonly stocked in supermarkets, where I suspect most people buy batteries. The battery compartment contained two LR44 coin batteries. To some, that might have been a good thing. This set of keys had stopped playing a tune, when any button was pressed. It doubles up as a teething chewy thing as well as an imitation car alarm blipper remote fob thing, that plays a tune. This kids-chew-musical-keys is supposed to mimic an adults’ set of car keys. Now, I know there are some very cool kids toys that rely on sophisticated electronics to make them work, but manufacturers: Please try to think harder about the toy’s overall impact on the environment and it’s in-life running costs. This does two things makes the toy expensive to own and damaging for the environment when the batteries expire. Too many kids toys take too many batteries – it’s been like that since I was a kid. However, having just said that, the repair I’m about to discuss, didn’t bring joy for all…įirst off, I’ll get a moan out-of-the-way. I know that if the repair works out, it’ll usually make someone very happy. It makes a nice change to repair something like a childs’ toy. All I could do is roughly locate the sound box within his chest and neck area and then chose a suitable seam to unpick, in the hope that it would allow me some access to the box without causing too much damage. He’s a soft toy, made from a mixture of polyester and cotton fabric, which is all neatly stitched together. I knew that this Bagpuss ran on batteries, but had no battery compartment to gain access etc. Things must work correctly and if there’s a reasonable chance of success, then the repair must go on. There’s always that moment with a fix like this when you think shall I just leave it as it is? I mean, it was still a loved toy right? But as my regular reader will know, that’s not quite how we do things in the workshop. Tools needed: Needle and thread, small flat screwdriverīiscuits consumed: No biscuits, just a slice of chocolate cake (I think) Well, that’s not very good is it? So, in the spirit of the original TV program, I decided to take an unpicker tool to the cat and carefully dismantle his seams…See how I get on.Ĭost of replacement machine: £10.00 if you can find one Well, this Bagpuss wasn’t waking up anytime soon and to make matters worse, the batteries within appeared to be non-replaceable.
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