2021 DinkieDino Log - ready to try again.

[DinkieDinkieDino]

Whilst looking for an obnoxiously large keyring to stop me losing my radiator keys, I come across a seller on eBay with a genuine 1997 unopened DinkieDino in the same colour that I used to have when I was a kid and I thought I was finally ready to try again. Welcome to my log!

 

[DinkieDinkieDino]

When it arrived it had the expected battery leakage from storage and I was oddly delighted to find it had the same ‘sticky buttons’ issue from 25 years ago (just how I remember it!) when I was setting the clock.

Luckily in the time between then and now I’d gone to school and learnt a few things. Unscrewing the back shell and circuit board I used some electric contact cleaner and cotton buds and cleaned up the conductive carbon pads (black dots inside the buttons) and wiped down the contact points on the board. Interestingly the backing of the screen slipped out and it’s just paper.

Reassembling the DinkieDino and putting fresh batteries in DinkieDino1 (some say I’m ‘too’ original) was born!

 

[DinkieDinkieDino]

After a few days of play I noticed the pixels would flicker and fade in and out.

A search on the forum found that this was likely due to the capacitor in the power supply circuit having aged - which isn’t unreasonable after 25years storage. Problem was I’d have to open up DinkieDino again to see what capacitor size was needed. After another day of flicker DinkieDino1 valiantly gave up his life to secure the future of the unit.

Opening up the unit, I found the capacitor needed was a 47uF 10v capacitor.

I ordered the component, soldered in a new capacitor and DinkieDino2 was born!

 

[DinkieDinkieDino]

DinkieDino2 carried on growing. With the pandemic and working from home I’ve found the DinkieDino to have had a positive impact on my working day.

I’ve muted the speaker and thanks to some gameplay guides I know I can check on DinkieDino2 once an hour with no I’ll effects.

Once an hour I check DinkieDino2 but also stand up and stretch a little, this has broken down my day and means for every 55mins of concentrated work I know there’s 5 mins where I look away from my workstation, breaking the monotony of feeling as if I’m always at home/work.

 

[DinkieDinkieDino]

From small blob to big blob!

From big blob to Mohawk Slug!

 

[DinkieDinkieDino]

It took longer to advance to the next evolution because I missed a few weight gain points over but Mohawk slug has grown legs!

I’ve ended up setting the clock an hour ahead because once ‘slug stage’ has been reached, bedtime is 10pm instead of 9pm and I just don’t want to stay up late. (Early start job).

 

[DinkieDinkieDino]

It’s finally happened I have a junior T-Rex! Look at his little arms!

He needs a little more attention where he gets dirty or sick more frequently than before.

 

[DinkieDinkieDino]

DinkieDino2 has reached his final dinosaur stage and evolved into T-Rex!

This marks the first time in my life that I’ve actually brought any virtual pet to full adulthood (I was really bad at tamagotchis when I was younger).

The difficulty has increased again where there seems to be less time between too hot/cold and getting sick, as Junior T-Rex he got dirty 3-4 time yesterday, this morning he got sick only 30mins after he was perfectly healthy.

Looking forward to seeing whether he becomes an Angel or Devil next!

 

[DinkieDinkieDino]

I may have spoken too soon... after my post this morning DinkieDino2 continued to put on weight at my hourly check ups but just before lunch when I went to feed him my screen froze.

This is my frozen screen.

I had noticed that the screen was intermittently fading in and out the last few days which is characteristic of a depleting power supply.

I took the batteries out (goodbye DinkieDino2!) and measured the remaining voltage. These batteries were new Energizer LR44 so assuming they were both 1.5V (usually higher than rated for alkaline batteries) when I put them in are now 1.44V at the point where they (possibly) caused my DinkieDino to freeze. The image would flicker when I pressed buttons but always return to the frozen image.

It would be unusual that such a small voltage drop might have caused the unit to glitch but on resetting and using the same battery the unit seems to run normally.

I think next time I’ll use SR44 batteries - same size as LR44 but with a different battery chemistry and more consistent output voltage. I also plan to check my soldering of the replacement capacitor but it functioned perfectly for so long my suspicions still lie with the power source (batteries), over the power smoothing circuit (capacitor).

I’ve really enjoyed incorporating my DinkieDino into my daily routine as well as brushing off some old skills with electronics. I’m quite chuffed I managed to get my first virtual pet to adulthood and I’m glad it was a DinkieDino like before. I’ve also ordered a Rakuraku dinokun off eBay and I think this is the beginning of me trying a few other virtual pets.

I plan to run DinkieDino3 with these batteries again for the next few days to see if the freeze repeats itself but I guess for now this wraps up my log of starting again with DinkieDino, thank you for following along and I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have.

 

[DinkieDinkieDino]

P.S. Unable to handle the fading screen of rerunning with the same batteries I opened the pack of SR44 I was saving for my RakuRaku Dinokun and popped them into my DinkieDino.
 

These Duracell SR44 out of the pack measure 1.59V and I’ve never seen the image on DinkieDino so clear and crisp. I may have just been unlucky and experienced a glitch with DinkieDino2 but these batteries definitely make for a pleasant user experience.

The Energizer LR44 I used previously whilst new must have been near end of shelf life. I’ll only use SR44 (where possible) moving forward. Make sure to check best before dates!

 

[Sabby20903]

Hi! I thank you for your post! I am having some issues with my RakuRakuDinokun. It has at different times in evolution just returned back to the start clock screen. At 2yrs then 4yrs then again at 6 years old. Each time I must restart. Heartbreaking.
I shall try changing the capacitor and see if that helps! Thank you xxx