Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bradford on December 18, 2008 at 11:39am

Before I started using the pod, I had a sample (fake) pod that I tried to fill with water and a syringe...that caused an awful alarm to go off, and the only way I could 'kill' it was to kill the pod with a hammer :-) The plastic shell never actually broke. I just beat it to death until it stopped ringing...
I took it apart too, which was MUCH harder than I expected it to be. Seeing the winding mechanism and the self-serter device and understanding how it all operates was pretty cool. It's cool that so few pieces of plastic and some metal are required to keep us healthy :-)
Any clue as to what the two springs are that touch the copper disk on the 'roof' of the pod? I couldn't decide if that was part of the RF receiver or something else entirely...

Permalink Reply by Tony R. on December 18, 2008 at 4:16pm

Bradford- I'm pretty sure the 2 springs act as conductors for the alarm beeper. The disk is essentially a small diaphragm, like in a speaker. A small voltage applied to it causes it to vibrate at a high frequency...a beep. You would see this inside of digital watches and other microelectronic devices that make noise as well. I took one apart a few weeks ago too and was amazed at how bullet-proof the housing was! And the winding mechanism was indeed pretty cool. I turned it a bunch of times until it "inserted". Scared the @%*! out of me.

Permalink Reply by Holly on December 20, 2008 at 6:19pm

I take every one of mine apart to get the batteries out. They are great for my kid's music books that take that kind of battery. I just use pliers, on either side and it pops open no problem.