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Hackers Help: Duktig stove LED without batteries?

christine·
Hackers Help
·13 Comments·1 min read

duktig_minikueche

Hi there,

My toddler girl loves her DUKTIG-kitchen. And she loves the lights of the cooktop even more. But I am tired of replacing those batteries nearly every day.

Did anybody already replace them with a power supply?

TIA!!!

Yours,

Christine

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13 Responses

  2. Hi Christine,
    I have built it with two simple voltage regulators. But you have to solder them into the case before connecting it to a power supply. If you’re interested yet, feel so free and contact me. I’m also living in Germany so I can explain it in your native language.
    Regards, Michael

    Reply

  3. Forgot to mention one thing: use of rechargeable batteries in this device is not as big a win as one might expect because rechargeable batteries have a slightly lower voltage than non-rechargeable ones.

    This voltage difference is not a problem for most devices but due to the unregulated design of this device, rechargeable batteries will need to be re-charged sooner than non-rechargeables would need to be replaced.

    So, though it still may be worth it for you, expect to have to recharge your batteries even more often than you were having to replace your non-rechargeable ones.

    Reply

  4. Hi all,

    I don’t understand the pros and cons of posting here (directly on ikeahackers) as opposed to the associated Facebook thread but here goes.

    I highly recommend the Lectrobox replacement board, http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Saver-Board-Duktig-Mini-kitchen/dp/B00E0NQIUO.

    Of course if Amazon won’t ship to you then that is not much help.

    Regarding the possibility of duds, I am quite confident that the inefficient use of batteries is a design flaw, not a manufacturing error (dud). My confidence comes from contact with the designer of the Lectrobox board who, naturally, as a first task, analyzed the design of the “stock” board.

    Now, it is quite possible that IKEA has recently updated the boards to make them more efficient, in which case it might look like some people have duds and others do not.

    Regarding testing the batteries after use: that will not be a good test of how well your stove works because one of the many design flaws is that the light fails to work once the batteries have been drained only a little bit. So the batteries will be quite fresh, and can even be used in better-designed (i.e. voltage-regulated) equipment once the stove “thinks” they are dead.

    To summarize the design problems of the original: (a) uses too much current when on (b) uses too much current when off (c) stops working when battery voltage drops even slightly. A “trifecta” if there ever was one.

    Also regarding the possibility of DC replacement, the previous poster is indeed correct, this is not simple because the original board has a two-tap (6V and 9V) design.

    Reply

  5. We own this product and you shouldn’t have to replace them everyday. I’d try a different brand. Better yet, convert to rechargeable batteries. When we had our first baby and suddenly had a bunch of battery operated items, we got a bunch of rechargeables in various sizes with a good charger. It’s a worth while investment. I hope this helps!

    Reply

  6. I don’t have the toy. When I went to look up how many batteries this takes, etc I found this:
    http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Saver-Board-Duktig-Mini-kitchen/dp/B00E0NQIUO
    Replacement circuit board that is more power efficient.

    I was going to recommend, to prove other’s suspicions that you have a dud, pick up a battery tester. Test the new batteries to prove they’re good, then replace them after your girl goes to bed. In the morning, pull them out and test again to prove it’s eating batteries.
    http://www.amazon.com/Amprobe-BAT-200-Battery-Tester/dp/B005G7SBY4
    A battery tester is a good investment for anyone with kids. When they get old enough to change batteries themselves, they always seem to make a mystery bag of new, half-life, and dead batteries that need sorting.

    Reply

    1. Dear Jenny,

      I already have different battery-testers, because those have-life can be used for other stuff, that doesn’t need such a good power.
      Thank you very much für the hint with the battery-saver. As i am in Germany I have to check, wether they ship to Germany, too. And I need to know the shipping costs!

      Yours Christine

      Reply

      1. Hi Christine,

        I sometimes ship internationally at work for other offices, so I tried buying the battery saver as if I were going to send it to our Friesing office. It seems Amazon will not ship it to Germany. 🙁

        I sent the seller a link to this, maybe they will come be a hero for us!

        -Jenny

        Reply

  7. I’m a little late to the party but there are a few options. With a bit of Googling I found this device for sale:

    http://www.lightsforalloccasions.com/p-2029-convert-aa-battery-pack-to-usb-or-ac-electric-power-plug.aspx

    and I also found this DIY project:

    http://makezine.com/2013/06/03/diy-hacks-how-tos-convert-battery-powered-electronics-to-run-on-ac/

    A quick look at IKEA’s site shows that the kitchen requires six AA batteries. That’s 9 volts (1.5V x 6 = 6V). So I’m not sure if either of these solutions will work as designed.

    If you’re still looking for a plug in solution I’m sure I could hack something together. I have boxes of old power adapters. If you’re interested send me an email to voxadam(at)gmail.com, I’d be more than happy to help.

    Reply

    1. Dear Adam,

      thank you very much for your offering. But as I am in Germany the costs for shipping would be bigger than the effect. (And we have different plugs and voltage).

      In the last days I learned, that the six batteries control different curcuits and cannot be just replaced by one 9V thing. It’s more complicated than it was at first sight.

      Yours christine

      Reply

    2. Hey Adam,

      sorry but your calculation is for a series connection. Are you sure that it is only one power circuit? It seems that inside the Duktig is a IC and I think the IC do not need 9V. Therefore I think there should be two power curcuits.

      Reply

    3. As others in the thread have mentioned, a straightforward conversion to a 9V wall-wart conversion won’t work correctly in this case because the Duktig stove takes both 6v power for the electronics (from 4 batteries), and 9v power for the LEDs (using all 6 in series).

      Reply

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