I have a Christmas ornament that was given to me many years ago. It’s of the shuttlecraft from the original Star Trek show. You plug it into the socket that held a Christmas light, and it lights up.
There’s a button on the bottom that when pressed used to play a recording: “Shuttlecraft to Enterprise. Shuttlecraft to Enterprise. Spock here. Happy holidays. Live long and prosper.” Three of four years ago, the audio got sporadic in operation and for the past two years hasn’t worked at all.
Is there any way to fix it? I still hang it on my tree because it looks cool. But ever since Nimoy died I’ve missed hearing his voice when I push the button.
I suspect the answer will be that the audio portion is gone for good, but I thought I’d ask here just in case. In case it’s not clear, the ornament lights up just fine so it doesn’t seem to be an electrical problem.
Did the audio work when it wasn’t plugged in? I wouldn’t be surprised if the audio ran on a watch battery even as the light was powered by the light string, and if the battery died, so would the audio.
It sounds like it might be a problem with either the button itself, the speaker, or the wiring connecting everything; the chip or whatever that stores the recording itself is less likely to go bad. If you know anyone with small-electronics skills, they might be able to ID the problem, but that would probably require taking the ornament apart, which, depending on how it’s put together, may involve damaging it.
The recording was sporadic in that sometimes it played only part, and sometimes not at all.
I don’t know if the recording worked when the ornament wasn’t plugged in; I don’t remember ever trying that. But I’m thinking maybe the problem is a battery that is (I’m guessing) recharging from the plug-in. I seem to remember that when the playback was sporadic it became more reliable after a week or two on the tree.
I don’t think I’ll try to open it up to find out, but will enjoy the ornament without the audio.
The audio playback module isn’t powered at all by the plugin for the lights. It’s powered by watch-type batteries in a battery compartment accessible through a small access door on the bottom of the ornament (forward of the speaker grill).
I think there’s no electrical connection between the light (a light bulb powered by the plug) and the sound board because adding voltage conversion circuitry (AC/DC rectification and regulation) to power the sound board would have been more expensive than just sourcing a dog-standard digital playback module from Shanghai and just powering it with ubiquitous (and user-replaceable) LR44 batteries* or the like.
In general, engineering boils down to making choices that reduce the Bill or Materials and uses off-the-shelf bits as much as possible, and not necessarily the best-integrated or technically coolest choices, because your profits will have to show on a per-unit basis. The Rule of Cool is definitely not applicable in commercial engineering.
*I don’t recall what the specific battery actually is; this is just the most common battery of the type for this kind of application. Don’t buy replacement batteries just on my speculative say-so.
Thanks! I’ll go downstairs in a few minutes to check it out.
There’s a really good chance we have replacement batteries. A few months ago we needed a couple of those small disk batteries. At the hardware store, I could have bought two of what we needed for IIRC something like $10. Or for about $8 I could get an entire assortment of disk batteries that included 4 of the size I wanted. Go figure.
Gnoitall, your ornament must be a different issue than mine. A closer look shows mine is dated 1992. There is no openable battery compartment. In fact, I could see no way to get it open at all – it’s like it was glued together during assembly.
Per gnoitall there’s no way cost or complexity wise the low powered DC current audio module would be run by the AC light current. There’s a battery on the inside for the audio chip that’s dead or dying and depending on how it’s put together you may have to crack it open to get at it and replace it. “Crack it open” attempts on cheap plastic items doesn’t always end well. I speak from bitter experience.
I used to have that ornament also, got lost in a move (and I suspect my mom of being complicit in the loss) I don’t remember there being any way to open it for a battery of any sort. Hmmm, maybe I will check out some shopping sites and find a replacement.
When I put the ornament on the tree, I tried the button more than once, and there was no audio at all. During Christmas week, we had some people over and my husband told them about the audio, pressed the button, and it worked. I tried again when I took the tree down and it still worked.
I should have pressed the button one more time after I unplugged it, but didn’t think to do so.
I have been a fan of Sid Meier games since I was much younger. I’ve played every iteration of his Civilization games from I to VI, plus games like Pirates, Railroads, Alpha Centauri, etc.
By far my all-time favourite is Civilization IV. It takes the best of the three previous incarnations and mixes them with elements of Alpha Centauri. The replayability is endless, the music is fantastic, and the wealth of historical information in the game really makes you hunger to learn about famous people, places, cultures, and inventions throughout human history.
The cherry on top is that each time your civilization learns a new technological breakthrough, you’re presented with a pop-up page about its in-game effects and some historical notes… as well as a quote read aloud by none other than Nimoy himself.
A thought: By chance, do you keep your ornaments in the attic when not in use? And is your attic (in winter, at least) typically colder than the living space in your house? Because when a battery is close to dying completely, it’ll usually put out a little more voltage when it’s warm than when it’s cold. Right when you got it out of storage, it was still cold, and didn’t quite have enough to run the electronics, but once it warmed up in your living room, it did have just enough.
Yes, we do store the ornaments in the attic. And, yes, it gets very cold in there.
But it was about 2 days from getting the Christmas stuff out of the attic until I got the ornaments on the tree. Nothing felt particularly cold to me.
Still, you may well be right. Christmas stuff is back in the attic, but next year if I remember (and that’s a BIG if), I’ll put that ornament in the box with the tree, which is not stored in the attic. I’ll report back on whether it works right away.
I don’t remember there being any way to open it for a battery of any sort. Hmmm, maybe I will check out some shopping sites and find a replacement.