Geiodo

A little while ago, I was messing around with my tooth brush (who wouldn’t?), and I decided to try, for the thirteenth time to open my toothbrush. There is a thin line separating the bottom, and top half of the toothbrush. I had tried many times to get these separate, but for whatever reason, this way works.

In fact, it was as easy as taking a cap off of a bottle!

Inside, I found a tripleA battery. Instead of buying a new toothbrush (Virtually the same, other than battery charge), I simply decided to replace the battery.

I had to force up a metal connection, which, little to my knowledge, ruined the conductivity. IN fact, I think it was engineered to do that.

However, I simply stuffed some tin foil between the metal connection, and the new battery.

This now works, though the toothbrush is cantankerous… It sometimes needs a classic bang to get it going again.

When I need to use it, I press the on button, and tighten the cap. When I turn it off for short periods of time, I unscrew the cap a little – and re-screw it to turn it back on. When I’m done with it, I press the off button, and screw the cap back on completely.

I even leaned a little about how the switch works…
There are two pieces of metal, side by side, where the negative side of the battery connects (The positive side being where the tin foil is.) THere is a plastic rod between these two bars. WHen you press the off button, the rod sticks out ,and pushes the battery off of the two bars. Pressing the on button releases the rod, and lets the battery back on.

It’s a pretty smart design, if you ask me, but I think it could be simpler. Instead of pushing a battery, why not just break the connection?

For example, the plus, and minus buttons (On, and off) are both connected to a plastic piece. Pressing either button rotates the piece. At 0 degrees, the metal is contacted. At 10 degrees the metal is not.

Much simpler if you ask me, but, I suppose the had their reasons.

I do notice that when the cap is tight, I cannot press the off button – this could be another engineering thing.