warpnine

My son got Spike the Ultra Dinosaur for Christmas, and a few days later it started cutting out about every 5 seconds while operating. Each time it cut out, you could restart him again by gently tapping or moving him - indicating that there was a defective position sensor inside that was doing this. Customer support first sent me a new battery and charger, which did not solve the problem since these had been working fine. Then they had my clip off the proprietary battery connector inside Spike and mail it to them, and are sending me a totally new unit!

On their support web site, about 30% of the people writing reviews of Spike are having the same problems we saw, mostly to a lesser degree. Seems likely that there is a design or component defect that causes this... Hopefully the new Spike that we will be getting, which just came from the factory - may work better.

I am going to try to open the old Spike up, replace the missing bettery connector with a standard 9.6V one (attaching a bigger C cell pack under Spike's belly) and see if I can find and fix the presumably broken position sensor. I was told by customer support that this is inside his head, but without a mechanical diagram it is hard to tell without opening him up. Like most toys these days, he wasn't really made to be taken apart and repaired - although many of his bindings are held with screws, so this should be possible.

So does anyone have any idea or better yet a diagram of how the components are installed inside of Spike? Not able to find anything except reviews and sales on Google.

Spike is an awesome toy when he is working well, and my almost 4 year old son loves him! He dominates the RoboRaptor!

Thanks for any assistance!

dknovick

He looks pretty cool!

When you do get him apart, take pictures (so you'll know how to put him back, and so if you don't know what something is, someone might be able to help).

Lorduss

just a wild guess, but most common electronic toys can suffer from a single bad soldering joint letting go and bouncing on and off of its connection, allthough it may not be likley to be your problem, but you do mention shaking or touching him to get him back going again.
outside of that, something overheating and shutting down maby? but i still think back to bad connection, if it was a component failure i think theres not much you can do but try for a replacement. you can try to get a replacement based on that its defective...
when i was growing up some thing i ALLWAYS did was take things apart peace by peace and tryed to figure out why something would fail, tought me alot, allthough i dont recemend it in this case =)

warpnine

Thanks for the suggestion, I wouldn't have thought of that - that makes a lot of sense!

I'm still trying to figure out exactly how to take Spike apart, without messing with the parts like the leg drive mechanisms that are working correctly. It is not even obvious to me, how to get the base of his internal battery compartment off - so I can replace the very short, proprietary battery connector they had with a standard RC 9.6V connector from Radio Shack.

When I was growing up, my brother and I tried to fix a Major Matt Mason Space Crawler from Mattel that had stopped shifting into drive when the winch reached the end of its rope. The thing had a top and bottom half with the crawler leg-wheels sticking out the sides. We undid the screws and gently pulled the top and bottom apart - only to have a million cogs and shafts fall out, looking like the insides of an automatic transmission. We never could re-situate or hold the internal components in place - without the manafacturing jigs they obviously had at the factory - to get the thing back together, so it worked at all. The lesson we learned was "You may be able to take it apart, but that doesn't mean you can ever get it back together correctly"!

Well, if Spike's problem is a bad soder joint (and it is interesting to note that about 30% of the people writing reviews on the Fisher-Price web site report the same problems that we see to a lesser degree), I would guess that is inside his main body - where the main power switch is. When he locks up, everything about him looses power, not just the motion, lights, or sound - so the defective joint is probably pretty central to how he is wired up. I do not think this is an over heating issue, since Spike will start hanging up immediately upon turning him on - after we'd had him for several days. My son was always very gentle playing with Spike, so aside from all the jarring his normal movement make - no reason to think we did anything to break him (and he was doing the hanging a little bit when we first got him out of the box too).

I've been wondering if Radio Shack or someone sells a fiber-optice tool that could allow me to look inside Spike through a small hole, which would also need an internal light (like two fibers)? That would be helpful for "scouting out" what is inside. I'm just afraid that if I unscrew everything to open up his main body, all the drive mechanisms and gears may fall out and I'm toast about ever getting him back together again...

New Spike still hasn't arrived yet, a week after they should have received the returned battery connector via Priority Mail. Hopefully in a few days!

Thanks again for the good thoughts! Watch this space, to see what eventually happens!

Cheers,
Dave

Lorduss

like you mention, taking things apart that are realy over complicated, if he seems complicated (havent seen the pic yet) he probbly is, since so many people are having the same problem, id sudjest waiting to see what cure people experancing the same problem come up with. if any. its a little different than our RC cars/planes etc, there ment to be taken apart, nothings over complicated if your supposed to take apart to fix/clean etc.
hope the best for ya!

Slrkken0609

I recently sold my son's Spike the Ultra Dino on Ebay and due to his measurements I am having so much trouble find something to ship it in and the price to ship it is outrageous. Does anyone know how to disassemble this Dino? That is the only way I am going to be able to get this thing shipped. I know it wasn't fully put together when I purchased it. I had to snap the legs and end of the tail on to put it together. I am just unsure if it can be taken apart. I really hope I can. Please help me.

lburgguy

Seriously?

Slrkken0609

Yes seriously. I wouldn't have asked for help if that wasn't the case. If it's tall enough it isn't long enough or wide enough without being 5 times bigger than the Dino and a box that size is a very large box.

lburgguy

So how long of a delay has it been since you sold it and finding a suitable box? The buyer must be anxiously waiting for it to be shipped.

Nikkib76

Did you find a solution? I just sold one on ebay too! Can't figure out how to ship---
AND YES- it's a real problem!!

Hsherm

I have the same problem with my grandsons dinosaur. Have you tried the reset button located next to/by the switches on the bottom? It's a very tiny recessed button. It didn't help me, but it might help others.