A neat little item, but this mirror's lighting is flaky.
The unit is six inches square.It has a light with selectable colour filtering at either side of the mirror. The lights come and go at random. Let's see if we can discover the fault.
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The lighting is from two little incandescent bulbs powered by four 'AA' cells.[1] Here's a view of the lights popped out of the mirror's frame for access.
The bulbs weren't firmly screwed in. Snugging them up tightly did away with the flakiness. The mirror's lighting now works as it should.
As for any further seviceablity of such a thing -- good luck. Should a cold solder joint surface inside, it would be game over because I can see no way to non-destructively dismantle the mirror. It looks to me like the factory screwed the front frame to the rear frame, then forcibly snapped the mirror in place over the screw heads. 'Odds of prying out the mirror without breaking it are slim to nil.
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The Light Bulbs
They're what's known as G-3½ miniature screw base bulbs. They have their electrical characteristics printed on their bases, but there are no type numbers. (They're rated at 4.8V, 0.5A.)
The 'G-3½' business breaks down like this:
- G = Globular (as far as I know) bulb shape.
- 3½ = 3½ eighths of an inch bulb diameter; i.e seven-sixteenths of an inch.
I have an extensive listing of miniature light bulb types in my possession, in the form of an elderly Electrosonic Inc. catalogue. Nowhere in that catalogue's listings is there a G-3½ bulb rated at 4.8V, 0.5A. The odds of finding such bulbs are slim to nil.
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So there we are -- a nicely designed and executed little makeup mirror that will be landfill should it ever give more trouble than it has so far.
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Note:
[1] The mirror is fitted with a 3.5mm phone jack for use with a six volt AC adapter. Plugging in a plug disconnects the battery, and puts the unit on external power.
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