Alps tv spaceman repairs and parts

[Nemo]

Hi all, have just joined and am looking to restore my alps tv spaceman. I have been looking forward to getting one like I had as a child. It is in good condition but needs a few things sorting out. 

 

First off is the antenna switch. I have a problem in that it is switched on regardless of the antenna, however it will stop erratically. It seems like a loose connection somewhere (?) but I did find that the contact switch inside the head is in a bad state. Someone has done a very dodgy repair at some time so in the first place I would like to replace it. Can anyone supply one for me, or if not is there anything still being sold which it used originally?

 

Next question is how do I remove the head to get to it? What has to be removed to release the head?

 

That is the first and most important thing to tackle - sorting the wiring so that the antenna will switch it on or off. So, if anyone out there can help it would be great to hear from you.

 

Thanks.

[Racerxc70]

Nemo

 To get to the switch you must remove the chest piece that means opening the tabs on the side of the body to get to the tabs that secure the head in place.

You must also remove the faceplate and it goes without saying that you must be very careful not to break the plastic after that you can bend the tabs that hold the head to the face.

After removal you will see a very delicate funnel shaped switch, if the solder connection is loose this may be your problem or it may be that a previous owner may have wiggled the antenna a little too much in that case 

 Note, use a camera to take photos as you go, they will in handy.

To do this you will need a very small and long flat screwdriver and a pair of needle nose pliers and of course a lot of patience.

 

[Fineas J. Whoopie]

Re: opening tabs, and I can't emphasize this enough, bend tabs as slowly as you possibly can. The tabs break off if they are bent to quickly. A broken tab is one of the hardest things to fix on a tin toy. If your robot has already been opened once that greatly increases the possibility of the tabs breaking this time. Good luck!

[Racerxc70]

....no truer words have ever been spoken...

[Nemo]

Thanks Chaps, I appreciate your help. Unfortunately I think it has been opened before so I will have to go very carefully with the tabs. The ones I am particularly concerned about are the discs that cover some of them. Thanks for the info regarding the delicate funnel shaped switch, I have managed to see it after opening the face tabs (I still need to get to the head tabs) and it looks very knackered. The front half looks almost melted (?) and I can see that someone has bound the electrical contacts by wrapping wire around each and twisting it off to keep them in place, so I think that it will need replacing. The solders look ok and my suspicion is that the problem may be further along the wiring but I will find out soon. Will keep this post going to report progress. Thanks once again for your help.

[Nemo]

Hi All,

 

Well I finally got the backof the head off after taking it very slowly and carefully as advised. I have included a picture of the switch. Someone appears to have done a very ropey job at some time - lots of glue, wire wrapping and poor soldering, added to which it has been glued in at the top of the head.. Anyway it needs replacing. Has anybody got a spare or repro that they can supply, or failing that point me in the direction of someone who might? I was hoping to find a chrome one as per first edition (which I think this might actually be) but the red plastic is fine.Thanks.

[Martian Gil]

Hi Nemo!  Great pic - I never opened that part of my robot, so I'd never seen it.

It's frustrating to uncover some of the odd repairs that might have been done - but the flip side is that some kids / folks come up with some outside the box ideas.   

Were you able to locate a junker anywhere, or did you go to work on this switch?

[Nemo]

Hi Martian Gil,

 

Thanks for your mail. I am glad you find the picture useful. In fact I repaired the switch myself and am attaching some pictures including one of the repaired switch in place.

 

To repair it I first had to carefully chip away the glue that had been used to attach it to the top of the head using a narrow blade modelling knife, and carefully lift and straighten the tin tab at the base. When I removed the switch I discovered that the basal plastic tab (where the tin tab slots in) was actually bent and close to cracking. I also realised that at some point the whole of that 'L' shaped basal part of the switch had broken off and subsequently glued back on, but incorrectly - in the wrong place.

 

I removed the wire around the contacts and discovered that the plastic covering had been melted overcthem when it was previously 'repaired' in order to try and keep the metals in place. This layer of plastic was extremely thin and really not much use. When I examined the switch side on it was also apparent that the contact strips themselves were not seated at the correct angle.

 

In order to repair it I first cut away the incorrectly positioned basal part of the switch, gently straightened the piece of slotted plastic and then superglued the piece back onto the main body of the switch but this time in the correct position. I have had to add a couple of very thin strips of extra plastic to ensure the joins have rigidity rigidity and give additional strength.

 

To repair the contacts I had to cut away the melted plastic with my modelling knife, and then very carefully carve away excess plastic around the midpoints to enable the brass strips to be lifted away. This took some time as I wanted to preserve the original shape of the depressions that they fitted into. When I lifted the metal strips out I could see that each had a flat button like shape in the plastic underneath each of them. I assumed that these were originally meant to got through the metal strips to help keep them in place but that they had been distorted when the previous owner had made a hash of melting the plastic. This was a bit of a quandry because the metal strips did not have a receiving hole, however it was obvious from the cross-sectional shape of the recesses that the strips were meant to be seated at an angle. The 'buttons' prevented this, so I decided to carve away some of the plastic to reduce the size of the 'buttons' and drill a receiving hole in the strips. This allowed the metal strips to fit correctly in the recesses and would allow better contact with the antenna switch. I then used a tiny drop of superglue to stick them in place.

 

I had tried ordering a 3d-printed replacement switch but when it arrived the quality was appalling and unuseable. However, there was one part of it that was decent enough to salvage and this was a shaped profile strip that fits over the top of the contacts to also keep them in place. I cut this strip away and after adding a couple of additional small blocks to help support it, glued that in place. You can see the piece I am talking about quite clearly in one of the side-view pictures I have included, and it clearly shows the angled profile that maintains the contacts in the correct position.

 

I have cleaned up the old blobby solder from the metal contacts and gently filed off any excess. I am not going to solder the wires back on when I rebuild the robot, but instead will attach contacts to the ends of the wires which will slide over the ends of the brass contact points. This should make for simpler removal if needed at any point in the future as well as mitigating the risk of the sodering iron melting any of the plastic switch body.

 

I have also found some other dodgy repairs regarding the rotating eyes (for which I have raised an additional blog), and also the electrics (including the light flickering and the robot starting regardless of whether the antenna was inserted or not), and the colour wheel behinfd the mouth. I will be adding some additional posts as to the causes and how I have corrected them in case they are of any future use to anyone who has similar problems. I will be adding these quite soon and I hope they are also of use/interest to you.

 

Thanks for your interest in this particular post, and I hope you find the new photos of some use for yourself if you ever need to carry out any similar repairs. The only tool I needed was a modelling knife as well as a lot of patience and concentration. Cheers!

 

 

 

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[Martian Gil]

Outstanding!   Great pics and description of your repair.  It looks great.

I'll confess to a dodgy repair done by myself a time or two..

If you catch a bug for making these repairs, you'll find another deep rabbit hole into this hobby -   

Here's to a great repair!