The chargeable battery in my Braun electric toothbrush seemed to be holding a charge for a lesser and lesser time. I decided to replace it even though it is claimed to be non-replaceable. This may be because there is a bit of soldering involved. I purchased a battery from ebay and used the chosen method of rotating the unit on the charging base to get at the innards.
Removing the battery was a bit fiddly and my eyesight isn't what it used to be.
Eventually the battery was out and I set about fitting and soldering in the new one. Somewhere in this process I must have shorted something out with the soldering iron tip and there was a tell-tale puff of smoke.
A functional test showed that unit did not work anymore.
Could I find a circuit diagram on the Internet ? No.
Having gone to the bother of getting a new battery, I was blowed if I was going to scrap the toothbrush. I must admit that the timer feature that was built into the electronics was rather annoying in practice. I could see that when fitting the charging base, that the battery was charging as shown by the flashing LED. So I had only damaged the control circuit and not the charging circuit. I drilled a hole in the case and wired up an external switch. The switch gives simple manual control of the toothbrush motor. I reassembled everything and it still charges porperly when on the charging base. The external switch is not that much of a nuisance, although it does not look great as can be seen below. At least I should get another few years out of the toothbrush.
External motor switch
Not that beautiful
All the best.
Peewit
No comments:
Post a Comment