Electric Toothbrush

    
    There used to be a series of sayings.. "You know you're getting old when....." followed by something like ".....you bend down to tie your laces and wonder what else you can usefully do while you're down there"
    Today I realized how quickly one can get left behind by the pace of modern technology - blink and you've missed it! Earlier, I casually picked up an electric toothbrush belonging to a friend. It was seated onto a small plastic pedestal which was wired into the mains, and obviously contained a charger. The connection between the brush body and the charger was by means of a solid plastic spigot on the charger being entered into a socket in the base of the plastic body, there was no metal to metal connection of any sort.
    I assume the body contains a rechargeable battery. How is the current passed into the brush body to recharge the battery - by induction? Do any other products work this way? How much current can be transmitted? How long has this technology been available?
     Sigh......I have absolutely no idea how this thing works, what else have I missed? Will the horseless carriage catch on? Answers on a postcard, please...... :}

On Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:28:18 +0100, Chris Edwards
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Think of it as a two-part mains transformer...the primary is in the base that plugs into the mains and the secondary is in the bottom of the toothbrish handle. The plastic spigot is almost certainly hiding a soft iron armature of some kind under its plastic skin.
No magic involved...no "new" technology...the currents will be low - trickle-charge level.
Regards, Tony

Tony Jeffree wrote:
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I changed the battery in mine a while ago and was surprised to find a pcb with an IC and several components to control the charge rate. My shaver has an LCD display with charge level and suggestions about when it needs an ultrasonic clean. Chips with everything!
Dave

wrote:
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Have they moved to DAB yet? The last one I played with was on Long Wave not even VHF! Try tuning a radio near it and you will probably pick up the oscillations.
Henry

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Not very complex AFAIK. One half (primary) of a transformer is in the pedestal and the other half (secondary) is in the toothbrush - inductive coupling and a silicon rectifier does the rest. As to how efficient and how much current - I'll leave that to the real experts.

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on a
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easier way!"
They've done away with corn stooks round 'ere abouts and are making big carpet rolls that they leave in the fields. No more scythes and sickles, just big gobbly machine that chew up the crops. Even the milk maids have gone. I do hear tell that they have a magic machine that sucks the milk out. Any of these new fangled things reached your neck of the woods Chris - hope the inhabitants of Tolpuddle don't get to hear of them!
AWEM (In deepest East Sussex with tongue in cheek)
(Yes Tony - my cheek and my tongue)

On Tue, 2 Sep 2008 19:16:30 +0100, "Andrew Mawson"
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........of course, I really knew about the 'split' transformer all along (cough), and as for this Sussex nonesense, a fellow in the next village is working on a machine to put you all out of business - just you wait till 'ole Jethroe Tull get's finished - you'll see!
    (thanks for all the replies....it's a bit like life itself, really, easy when you know how :)

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Hi Chris,
Jethro Tull, don't make me laugh, you're just "Living In The Past" down there. Sounds like another "Witch's Promise" to me. Apologies of course to those who didn't live through the period of "good" music.
Regards
Lost Englishman

On Wed, 3 Sep 2008 08:33:04 -0700 (PDT), jontom snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote:
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My God, you must be Thick as A Brick Fat Man
:-)
Mark Rand RTFM

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Hey, "Locomotive Breath" Is that a "Wind-up" I'll have you know that I'm a "Man of Principle". I might have to meet you "Down At The End Of Your Road" for a little "Mayhem, Maybe". Then again my mother told me that meeting men in "Strange Avenues" would be "Skating Away On The Thin Ice Of The New Day" so perhaps I'll have "Nothing To Say" other than you must be another one who has gone from "A Dead Beat To An Old Greaser".
:-)) :-))
Best Regards
Keith "Fallen On Hard Times"but at least still "Looking For Eden"
PS With such a long career it is easy to find the right title!!

On Wed, 3 Sep 2008 12:18:40 -0700 (PDT), jontom snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote:
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    OMG...what have we started....?
Bewildered of Blandford

Chris Edwards wrote:
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Sitting on a park bench - is very non-PC now ...
-- Peter Fairbrother

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Indeed Peter, a bit obtuse going for the words though. :-) I'm sure these days he wouldn't be sitting there long before he needed an "Aqualung" for his immediate visit to the deepest village pond.
Chris, don't worry if you are still waiting for the developments to the seed drill it will be another 227 years before these references are of any interest. However, if you want to ride the "Cold Wind To Valhalla" or maybe even "Drive The Young Side Of Life" you will need to look up the music of Jethro Tull (the 1968 incarnation).
Best regards
Keith merely a "Journeyman" at heart
Keith

In article
jontom snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com in uk.rec.models.engineering wrote:
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Aha! A clue. You guys had me quite lost, but now I see, it's dear old Richard Wagner (whose music (according to Mark Twain) "is better than it sounds"). I've always fancied my chances to play in the orchestra as 17th assistant anvil basher in "Reingold": I don't have the patience to scrape stuff off thou' by bloody thou' on a lathe, but I'm a dab hand at boiling it up to a good red and bashing it to more or less the shape I want with the long handled two pounder. Angle grinder does the rest. Or a good swing on the ball of the no.5 fly press. I did get to Bayreuth in my youth, saw a performance of Valkyrie, all those magnificent muscular females carrying the bodies of dead heros to Valhalla on their white horses, with music to suit. Made quite an impression on me.
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Regards,
David P.
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Keith expounded thus .........
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Oh! The wonders of a classical education :)

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Wonders indeed Mike but that particular one belongs to David P; unfortunately I do not have the "tie" to get a ticket for Bayreuth and as a mere mortal, suspect that I will be on my ride to Valhalla before I get to the front of that queue. I do however; go to bed now with the vision of "all those magnificent muscular females carrying the bodies of dead Heros to Valhalla on their white horses, with music to suit". However, with "The Ring" being much more than just the sound that the anvil makes when struck, I now have to somehow fit that in with the picture of 17 "hairy assed blacksmiths" plus Alberich pounding away on “Das Rheingold”. Now “Brunnhilde” has already gone to bed and “Freia” left me years ago so I guess any sleep I might get is in the hands of “The Norns”.
Why oh why did I just have a “quick look” before retiring for the night?
Best regards
“Wotan” – well it’s my dream isn’t it