Repro MTH Mr. Atomic

[dratomic]

The light inside my MTH Mr. Atomic started getting wonky about a year ago -- and recently, it went out for (possibly) good. So I decided to make the toy my first robot repair. Unfortunately, getting to the light is pretty tough. The bottom comes off the robot with ease, but then, as you can see from the pics below, getting to anything on the inside gets tricky.

One possible means of gaining access to the bulb involves removing the whole battery assembly. This is complicated by a tab at its top that's impossible -- as far as I can tell -- to get to.

Another means would be to remove the rotating light assembly from the back of the battery box. This seems easy at first; the tabs are exposed in the battey box. Unfotunately, the tin holding this in place is thicker and thus harder to bend. It's also crimped to tightly that wedging something under the tabs is pretty tough without scratching anything.

The final method would be to open up the body shell. But this is also tough -- getting to the inner tabs requires tiny little elf hands or something.

So I'm stumped. Anyone repair one of these? Anyone have any suggestions as to how I might fix the bulb? I don't know if it's burned out or if there's a loose connection; I can't get to it and figure things out, though. All the wires seem tightly soldered, though. The rest of the toy works fine.

Oh well. Even if no one else has any suggestions, at least it's been an opportunity for everyone to get a look inside the toy. It's amazingly simple, but there are all these little nefarious traps that get in the way of repair. Curses!

[dratomic]

As you can see in the above picture, the battery case is attached by six side tabs, one bottom tab, and one top tab. The top can't be gotten to (as far as I can tell). So that's that.

The arm's attached to the battery box, but as stated, I can get these tabs (which are on the other side of the box) to bend without scratching things. The light is at the top of that arm assembly, just above that disk. There's a column of colored gels extending up from the disk -- the bulb's inside that. that little metal rod coming out the bottom is turned by a metal arm extending up from the motor, which is attached to the toy's base. (see pic, below).

Unrelated side note -- the noise of the Mr. Atomic is caused by that small hoop on the base. It's got a clear membrane of plastic stretched over it and a small wire attached across the plastic. This wire snaps against the plastic like a drum stick, causing it to make the boing boing noise that probably so annoyed parents back in the Sixties.

[dratomic]

Whoops. Forgot the pic.

[robert]

Doc,

Are you sure that the light is the culprit? If possible, do a continuity test on the wires that come from the bulb. I don't own one of these and I am not sure if I can see the bulb wires in your pictures but it looks like they may be attached by wirenuts so it should be fairly easy to determine the condition of the light by continuity testing those wires. Is the light a bulb or a led?

[dratomic]

As far as I can guess, it's a bulb. But really, it's impossible to tell as I can't actually see it. I'll try to test the wires, but it's a little tough to get to the leads. But the rest of the toy works perfectly, so current's flowing. Still, it's possible that it's not reaching the bulb correctly. I'll look into it.

[toywheezer]

Have you tried taking off the dome and the housing that holds the "eyes" and replace the bulb through the top of the robot? I'm just guessing as I've seen very detailed photos but do not own a Mr. Atomic so I'm not sure if this would work. Good Luck!!!!!!!!!!

[dratomic]

Toywheezer -- Nice idea. Unfortunately, getting the dome off is difficult as the tabs are inside the toy, up near the top (and obstructed by the lighting mechanism). I did consider this option... and then promptly discarded it. It'd entail opening the whole toy -- a last option since this'll be MIGHTY tricky. I'm still playing my bets on somehow getting the light/battery structure out of the toy...

Whoever put this thing together must have been some sort of sadist... Or a masochist, since constructing the thing in the first place must have been a serious pain in the ass.

[H.I. Gosses]

It has been a long time since I last fiddled with a mr.A., so memory is not too fresh.

However, current is transferred to the bulb through a brush stroking a ring.

Before you do anything else, get a aerosol with contact-cleaner and and clean these contacts.

Make sure the brush ( a strip of phosforbronze) is in tight contact with the ring.

Most of these questions are like:

"I have bought a fiddle, Stradi-something-or-the-other, and

now I've bought a book with strange dots called "Paganini violin concert".

Can somebody please explain to me how I can play this?"

It is difficult to transfer a lifetime of working with tools and mechanisms

in a few words.

This robot is much easier than the -Bart- space explorer.

And I give you a 75% chance with this.

[dratomic]

Thanks for the suggestion, Henk. I'll still need to gain access to the light assembly somehow, but you've given me a likely culprit to look for when I finally get to the bulb. And perhaps I can find a way to try this without getting any further into the body...

Not sure if I agree with the violin analogy, though. I'd say it's more like, "I know how to play the violin, but if anyone knows how to play the middle passage of this particular song, I'd appreciate a little help to get past the tough bit." I have lots of ideas how to repair the light once I get to it -- I was just wondering if anyone has any smart ideas about getting this puppy open... Unfortunately, I suspect I've pretty much hit on all the possible ways to get to the light: Either open the body, remove the battery box/light assembly, or somehow get just the light assembly out. No easier options... Too bad. This'll be tricky, but shouldn't prove impossible. I just need to approach it VERY CAREFULLY...

As for my 75 percent chance of success... Hm. I like those odds, I guess.

[H.I. Gosses]

Well... the fun of chemicals in liquid form is that they work 'round the corner.

The idea was that you would not have to dis-assemble.

I am sorry, I underestimated your ability to play violin (- with or without a screwdriver)

but some of the questions in other posts, make me think it were better to leave things alone.

I hope and trust this will work -and in the process you succesfully ran through Szerny (-'s violin school).

[David Kirk]

Dr., I'm rather taken aback by the apparent simplicity of this machine. I was expecting circuit boards and perhaps a miniature atomic reactor. Instead, it's like a tin can with a few gears—more like a toy than a real thinking robot. I'll admit, I never had mine open as a child. It was one of the few robots that always worked. If you figure out this light problem, can you work on why the bump and go is so miserable on it. I have several of these MTH contraptions, and they all just rotate in one place. My original used to work fine. He'd bump and go as he was supposed to. I wave to him in Venice! Helloooo!

[dratomic]

Henk -- No worries. You've never seen me in concert, so you've no idea whether I know an arpeggio from an archipelago... And, of course, compared to yourself and John Rigg, I'm just a humble hobbyist -- you guys are pros. So any and all suggestions are more than welcome! And you're right -- chemicals do work around corners. I'll have to give that a shot before I dig any deeper into the toy's innards. Thanks!

David -- Considering the light bulb hasn't shined much in my Mr. Atomic, it's safe to say he hasn't had any bright ideas lately. It really is just a tin can filled with some gears. Unfortunately, it's an insidiously constructed tin can filled with some gears, one that'll probably drive me mad before the repairs are done.

Unless, of course, Henk's idea of using contact solution makes short work of the work.

[dratomic]

Okay. I managed to get the whole battery box out, along with the light assembly. I unbent the side tabs and the one on the bottom of the box. The top one turned out not to be bent all the way, and the box slid out with a little bid of jiggling. (Thanks to John Rigg for suggesting that this might be the case.) I cleaned the disk and the contact (as suggested by Henk) so current should be flowing up to the bulb. Unfortunately, no light. So now I'm going to check the bulb itself... or I was going to, until I discovered that the column of colored gels surrounding the light is partially glued into place with the bulb inside. Argh!

So now I've got to figure out how to get the gel off. I'm pretty sure that I can remove it without tearing it -- I've just got to do so very carefully. Once I've gotten to the bulb, well... We'll see what happens. I've taken some pictures, but my camera battery's about to die so I might have to wait to post them tomorrow.

[dratomic]

SUCCESS! I removed the gel (turned out it wasn't glued in -- merely taped, and then tabed down. I slit the tape and then slid it out from under the tabs. No damage done.) I checked the bulb -- the filament was fine. Still, no light. I unbent the tabs that held the bulb socket down to the spinning arm and checked the wire leading up to it. Soldered in place. Odd.

Finally, I scraped some of the grease out from around the spinning bar -- which also served to complete the circuit. I put in batteries, threw the switch and... LIGHT! Lo and behold.

So life is good, everything works, and now all I have to do is put the toy back together.

I'm feeling pretty proud of myself right now (hey, it's my first attempt at robot repair). Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions -- they were much appreciated and very helpful.

So Henk -- did I play a pretty tune?

[robert]

WTG Brian.

It's always nice when the operation is successful, the patient lives, and the relatives can at last get a good nights sleep!