Friday, January 05, 2007

Vroom vroom

More along the lines of things stop working: my 2 year old electric toothbrush started acting weird the night before last.

So it's not just a matter of a short, which would have it running all of the time, or a broken wire, which might make it run none of the time. Instead, it's decided it wants to run all the time whenever it's away from its charger. How does that happen?

So now I pull the tip off while the thing is docked, smush a tiny amount of toothpaste on the brush part, then in one motion pick up the toothbrush and apply it to my teeth before the toothpaste starts flying all over. It still does that little pulse thing at the two minute mark, so the control electronics aren't completely fried. Then I've got to put the thing back on the charger so it'll shut down, pull the tip off for washing, then reassemble it. Or sometimes to avoid the hassle I go into the other bathroom and use my plain old non-electric brush (which would make my hygienist unhappy if she knew).

I was trying to think of some aspect whereby this new behavior might be an advantage, and the only thing I could come up with is that it would be considerably harder for a burglar to steal my toothbrush undetected. Otherwise, nothing.

4 comments:

Michael said...

The on/off switch is shorted. The charger also acts as a switch making sure the unit is off as it is being charged.

Take Care
Michael

RichM said...

So there are two switches in series inside? It makes sense. I could have tested that when the thing used to work, by putting it onto the charger while it was switched on, but too late now.

Kelley said...

Weird. My mother-in-law gave us a new alarm clock for Christmas. The morning after we plugged it in for the first time, it abruptly stopped working (the display went dark). So, we unplugged it. An hour later, the alarm started going off - the thing was unplugged, the display was black, and it doesn't hold any batteries. I can't figure that one out, either!

Anonymous said...

Sorry about your toothbrush. My grandmother would say it "got gremlins." I loved the video. I was hoping it would include your new brushing behavior.