Hello,
First post here. I have a Leapfrog Quantum Leap Explorer Interactive Talking Globe that is not working. This is the globe:
It's a brilliant little item but unfortunately a few years ago someone (not me, promise) plugged the wrong power lead into it and the power light flashed on for a second and then off, never to light up again. It says 6v dc 500mA next to the dc socket, I don't have the power lead anymore.
I should explain that I know next to nothing about electronics! I am of a technican nature of sorts, I'm a computer and networks technician, I identify and replace faulty parts in computers big and small, etc, I can solder but I have never really done anything with electronics.
Now, I don't really have the time to embark on a proper course of learning electronics but I would like to fix this globe myself and in doing so, learn a tiny bit about electronics. If this is an unrealistic idea, please let me know.
I have opened it and looked at the (very simple) circuit board inside and tried to see if I can tell if anything is blown such as capacitors which you can often see are domed upwards when blown on a computer motherboard. In this case looking at it, and smelling it, offered no clues.
The unit also takes batteries, size C. I put 4 batteries into it and pressed the power button, it turned on! However, none of the functions actually work. It usually plays a little sound when you turn it on, and it has an interactive pen, none of these things worked, all that happened was the power light came on which makes me think that it's perhaps damaged in terms of it's power and also in another area(s)... but maybe I'm wrong in thinking that?
What I want to know is:
1. How do I identify the problem(s) in this globe and what do I need to do that? A multimeter? Anything else?
2. Once I find the area at fault, what needs to be done to actually fix it?
After reading back over the above two questions I can see that I have indeed stated the bleeding obvious, but there we go.
Hope someone can point me in the right direction with this, thanks!
First post here. I have a Leapfrog Quantum Leap Explorer Interactive Talking Globe that is not working. This is the globe:
It's a brilliant little item but unfortunately a few years ago someone (not me, promise) plugged the wrong power lead into it and the power light flashed on for a second and then off, never to light up again. It says 6v dc 500mA next to the dc socket, I don't have the power lead anymore.
I should explain that I know next to nothing about electronics! I am of a technican nature of sorts, I'm a computer and networks technician, I identify and replace faulty parts in computers big and small, etc, I can solder but I have never really done anything with electronics.
Now, I don't really have the time to embark on a proper course of learning electronics but I would like to fix this globe myself and in doing so, learn a tiny bit about electronics. If this is an unrealistic idea, please let me know.
I have opened it and looked at the (very simple) circuit board inside and tried to see if I can tell if anything is blown such as capacitors which you can often see are domed upwards when blown on a computer motherboard. In this case looking at it, and smelling it, offered no clues.
The unit also takes batteries, size C. I put 4 batteries into it and pressed the power button, it turned on! However, none of the functions actually work. It usually plays a little sound when you turn it on, and it has an interactive pen, none of these things worked, all that happened was the power light came on which makes me think that it's perhaps damaged in terms of it's power and also in another area(s)... but maybe I'm wrong in thinking that?
What I want to know is:
1. How do I identify the problem(s) in this globe and what do I need to do that? A multimeter? Anything else?
2. Once I find the area at fault, what needs to be done to actually fix it?
After reading back over the above two questions I can see that I have indeed stated the bleeding obvious, but there we go.
Hope someone can point me in the right direction with this, thanks!
