Thread: Gemmy Doctor Shivers - Sound is not working

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I bought Doctor Shivers a few years ago. It had been working fine until I took it out this year. And now the sound doesn't work.

I opened the base and there is a green wire in the center of the board near C28, and the other end is not connected to anything. I think this may be my problem. Anyone have any idea where this green wire is supposed to be connected? Or does anyone know if there is a schematic available?

Here is a link to a pic of the board.

http://imgur.com/cC5EF

Maybe they should have used more hot glue.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

CrazyMonkey,

Thanks for posting the pic, if it is possible I would take more pics of the wire and anything that it looks like it could have been attached to.
Just from looking at the picture I am pretty sure that that bare end of the wire was not attached to the board as it looks like it is a whole wire and everything on the board is glued.

I can't see any area on the board that is glued that leads me to think it was on the board at all and it is unlikely, not impossible but unlikely, they made a board to board jumper with a wire.

It would be great to see a closeup of the bare end of wire and that black heat shrink wire were the green and red wire meet.

Look around for solder that looks like it could have held a wire and the wire isn't there anymore.

The more close up pics the better... of course if someone else on here has that same prop and can crack it open and take a pic this might go even faster :P

I hope that helps a bit.

Thank you for your quick reply!

I tried taking some more shots. http://imgur.com/a/SKMrd

At the black heat shrink where the green and red wire meet, the tubing is loose and can be moved, but the red and green wire are still connected. That green wire is connected to the board at a spot labeled L2+. The green wire that is not connected to anything else is connected to another point on the board also labeled L2+. So it would make sense to me that both green wires would connect to the red wire in the heat shrink, even though it looks like all other connections in the heat shrink is just two wires. The red wire runs up to the head and appears to control the head motion. So if this is where that green wire goes, it won't help with the sound, and I still have another problem somewhere else.

There is a bead of solder on R68 on the right side of the board, as well as a hole next to it with a circle around it, that both seem like possible locations. But there is no glue around there like there is for all the other wire connections.

The speaker is connected to the orange and yellow wires that connect to the left side of the board. They are spliced up by the head and then connect to the speaker, but all of those connections look okay.

There is also an AUX input, where you can connect another audio source and if I remember correctly it would play it through the speaker and he would move and light up. When I plug another audio source into the AUX input, still nothing plays out of the speakers. It is possible the speaker is shot.

I have run out of ideas on what else to try, and am actually getting a little frustrated

Any thoughts are much appreciated.

Thanks for all your help!

I suspect that +L2 does go to the same spot as the other green wire.

I think the solder blob is not related to this wire at all.

And it is possible that this +L2 powers part of the audio amplifier circuit.

I am going to stare at the pics for a bit longer and see if that makes sense.

I took a few more pics.

http://imgur.com/a/f0Jlg

On the top, there is a small hole with a white circle around it. All the other holes with a circle around them have something connected to it. There is another hole in the board that seems out of place. It might be possible the wire routs through the opening and is soldered on the back of the board.

Ok, from the images I am pretty confident that its not connected to the bottom of the board. I am still thinking its connected to that red wire like the other green wire labeld +L2.
I did some looking around and it appears this circuit board is in all the lifesize standups. I would be shocked if someone on here doesn't have one of those somewhere that they can take some pics of. Just out of curiosity is this board in the foot???

Thanks for all your help.

The board is mounted in the base, right below the guy's feet.

I found one other location that could be a likely suspect. There are two holes labeled L1+ with nothing connected. On the back of the board there is solder underneath these holes. I connected the green wire to this point and he is moving around a lot more. Before he was only moving a little bit and it didn't seem like he moved as much as I remembered.

http://imgur.com/a/s5xN0

But if this is where it goes, the audio is still not working.

The audio amp is part of a LA4160 chip by Sanyo (Single-Chip Tape Recorder Audio System). I borrowed a DMM and there is no voltage going to Vcc of the chip. I am trying to trace it back to try and find the problem. I am having trouble tracing it since I am flipping back and forth from the top to bottom of the board and it is tough to find which pins go with which component. The resistors I can figure out with the DMM, but not sure what to do to trace the caps.

A great tip for figuring out what component goes to which trace is to take a bright light and hold the board up to it, you will see the shadows of the components through most boards and this can save you a ton of time.

Caps can be a bit difficult because depending on the circuit they could be in line with a signal or have the top to the signal and bottom to ground.

I am surprised nobody on the forum has cracked one of these open and taken a pic of the guts... I can't find any pics with the wires attached..