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I recently picked up an ebay lot of dead watches that included an Armitron Animated Dixie Cannon Watch:
![Image](http://www.liquidcrystal.co.nz/armitron-dixie1.jpg)
They arrived today and the battery that caused that reflector damage was still in the watch, a Union Carbide battery that had gone black over time and was stuck in the module.
Carefully disassembled it and gave it a light clean to neutralise the worst of the damage but didn't expect anything from this watch at all. Reassembled and put a new battery in, and there were a few faint segments, although they were fixed and it definitely wasn't running.
That was enough though, pulled it apart again and into the alcohol bath for a soak, cleaned with a kids toothbrush, reassembled and replaced the reflector from a bad Sexum module, and this was the result:
![Image](http://www.liquidcrystal.co.nz/armitron-dixie.jpg)
To say I was impressed was an understatement! There was no sound that I traced to the piezo still being coated with black battery gunk so cleaned up with a fibre brush and tried holding the piezo on the spring while touching the outer ring against the case - bingo, Dixie.
Now for the weird bit. When I pop the back on, there's no sound, regardless of how the piezo is rotated. The watch functions correctly though, just no sound.
If I leave the circuitboard uncovered I get the music every time I press any button, although the functions go a bit crazy and it's pretty much unusable. So it's constantly triggering.
Trying the module in a different case does the same thing.
What do you think? Funky electronics from years of battery gas? Or am I missing something obvious?
I can make a video of what it's doing if it would be helpful, but if you have the answer at hand that would be better. Thanks.
![Image](http://www.liquidcrystal.co.nz/armitron-dixie1.jpg)
They arrived today and the battery that caused that reflector damage was still in the watch, a Union Carbide battery that had gone black over time and was stuck in the module.
Carefully disassembled it and gave it a light clean to neutralise the worst of the damage but didn't expect anything from this watch at all. Reassembled and put a new battery in, and there were a few faint segments, although they were fixed and it definitely wasn't running.
That was enough though, pulled it apart again and into the alcohol bath for a soak, cleaned with a kids toothbrush, reassembled and replaced the reflector from a bad Sexum module, and this was the result:
![Image](http://www.liquidcrystal.co.nz/armitron-dixie.jpg)
To say I was impressed was an understatement! There was no sound that I traced to the piezo still being coated with black battery gunk so cleaned up with a fibre brush and tried holding the piezo on the spring while touching the outer ring against the case - bingo, Dixie.
Now for the weird bit. When I pop the back on, there's no sound, regardless of how the piezo is rotated. The watch functions correctly though, just no sound.
If I leave the circuitboard uncovered I get the music every time I press any button, although the functions go a bit crazy and it's pretty much unusable. So it's constantly triggering.
Trying the module in a different case does the same thing.
What do you think? Funky electronics from years of battery gas? Or am I missing something obvious?
I can make a video of what it's doing if it would be helpful, but if you have the answer at hand that would be better. Thanks.