[Elaina M Roberts]

Hey everyone! My sister found a lonely WitchTime Skeleton Reaper discarded in a dumpster today. It was still in the styrofoam, with the cardboard & plastic cover on it. The battery cover had been jammed on it backwards (!) but otherwise, the prop is in great shape for what I believe is an older piece.

She is approximately two feet tall, with plastic body, legs, hands, and head. The arms are wire (the box states that it's poseable). The pumpkin is softer plastic the consistency of a dog's chew toy. The box states she is animated - her arms and head move - and lights up - eyes and pumpkin. She came with a power adapter, now missing, or uses 2 D-sized batteries. The price tag reads PharMore, a retail chain I'm completely unfamiliar with. There were six of these props in the set.

Say Hi to Hazel (I call her Hazel because she's clearly female - she has very feminine legs and even breasts!)



Anyway, I took off the bottom panel. There was one loose wire attached to the power switch, but it was too short to reach very much. It also fell off shortly after I removed the bottom -



Here's a close up of the power switch. I removed it hoping for a part number of some sort, but no luck there -



I only have a couple of questions -
1. Anyone know about how old this little skeleton reaper is? She's in pretty good condition, other than not working, and I'm curious
2. Anyone able to help a totally clueless newb rewire her to see if she works?

Thanks in advance and sorry the pics are so huge. I thought I adjusted them better than that.

 

[DaveintheGrave]

I can't tell from the pic which wires are loose. That is a DPDT slide switch (Double pole, double throw) meaning it controls the switching of two different things. That is, if something is connected on both sides of the terminals. It's a fairly common switch if you need a new one. Obviously there was a wire connected on the pin with the big blob of solder.
That's all I can tell by looking at the pics. I hope you can get it running again!

 

[Elaina M Roberts]

Ah, sorry about that. Only camera I have is on my phone.

The initial loose wire fell off shortly after removing the bottom, which is why you don't see it. It had been attached to the top, left-hand pin of the power switch, was red, and very short, maybe 2 inches if that. The only things it reached at that length was the jack for the power adaptor which is very loose (it spins in place).

Also attached to the switch was the red wire that is coming from the center of the base and leads into the figure. In the second picture, you can barely see a blue piece of tape attached to the wire. It was soldered to the upper, central pin on the power switch.

The other wires are -

Black from positive end of battery pack to jack for power adaptor.
Black from positive end of battery pack to center of base and into figurine.
Red from negative end of battery pack to jack for power adaptor.

This leads me to believe the short, red wire from the power switch has to go to the negative end of the battery pack in order to complete the circuit since there is a red from the switch (originally) from the switch into the figurine. Yes? No? Maybe?

Also, do the pins make a difference? Meaning, should I make extra effort to return the wires to their original pins on the switch or will any pin do?

Thank you all again. I admit I'm pretty clueless on this, but I'd love to see the little guy light up and move

 

[Pumpkinhead625]

If I understand this correctly, the missing wire went from the input jack to the center post of the switch. Incidentally, the red wires are the positive side and the black wires are the negative side.

The switch has 6 pins. The center set is power in, one + and one -. the other 2 sets are for position A or position B, depending what side it's switched to.



I believe the wiring goes like this (I sketched in the missing wire as the yellow line):



Wire (A) runs from the positive side of the battery to the positive side of the input jack.
Wire (B) (the one that came off) runs from the positive side of the input jack to the center pin of the switch (2).
Wire (C) runs from the switch pin (1) into the figurine.



So if you want to run this on the battery only, simply bypass the input jack. To do this, just to cut wire (A) where it connects to the input jack, then solder it to the center pin of the switch (2). Then resolder wire (C) to it's original pin (1). You don't need to do anything to the black wires.

Hope this helps.

 

[Elaina M Roberts]

I think I love you! Thank you so much. I'll give this a try. Since I don't know what voltage the power supply was, I'm scared of trying one and totally frying the motor (if it isn't already). This way, I can try it with batteries and, if it still doesn't work, can keep it as a static prop.

Again, thank you so much for your help I'll give this a try.

 

[Pumpkinhead625]

There's a fairly easy way to test it. Since the wires are disconnected from the switch, put batteries in, then touch the loose end of wire (C) to the positive battery clip. Then you'll know if it still works properly. If it doesn't work, then you don't need to spend the time soldering wires.

 

[Abunai]

Since I don't know what voltage the power supply was, I'm scared of trying one and totally frying the motor (if it isn't already).

Since it takes two batteries, it's a safe assumption that the power supply was 3 volt DC supply.
(Each battery supplies 1.5 volts. Two batteries in series, as in your picture, provide 3 volts)

 

[Elaina M Roberts]

Since it takes two batteries, it's a safe assumption that the power supply was 3 volt DC supply.
(Each battery supplies 1.5 volts. Two batteries in series, as in your picture, provide 3 volts)

Ah, cool. Thank you I'm just now dipping a toe in this part of making props, so know very, very little.

There's a fairly easy way to test it. Since the wires are disconnected from the switch, put batteries in, then touch the loose end of wire (C) to the positive battery clip. Then you'll know if it still works properly. If it doesn't work, then you don't need to spend the time soldering wires.

Thank you for the tip! The lights work (yay!) but no motion (awww). I can hear the motor turning, but the figure isn't responding. When I get time, I'll see where it's hiding (those girlie legs still get me whenever I peek up her robes) and see if it's just come unhooked.

Again, thank you to everyone! I figured this little reaper was a great first electrical project since she was a dumpster dive I'm learning a ton thanks to you guys.