#speaker issues

[furbytech]

hi! i just bought a jester furby and he is new out of the box. his mechanics work fine and he speaks, but his voice is VERY quiet. is this something i can fix without a full speaker replacement? could there just be something lose on the circuit board?

That’s probably just the speaker wearing out! You’ll need to replace the speaker if you want it to be louder. If there was something loose on the board, your Furby’s speaker wouldn’t work at all, or it would be producing incomprehensible noise.

[furbytech]

Hello! Do you have a tutorial on how to replace a furbys speaker?

Sorry, I don’t! It’s definitely in my list of things I need to make a guide for! If you want to swap in a “donor” speaker from another Furby as a temporary solution, I have a post describing the process here.

[furbytech]

i bought a 1998 furby on ebay- used, out of box. he responded when i put (fresh, just bought) batteries in, but his speech is intensely garbled and messed up, and he makes a slight screeching sound as well. do i jusr need to replace the speaker, or could something more be wrong with him?

Have you noticed other issues on top of the garbled speech- like random freezing? If so, I’d go over the usual battery issues: Make sure you’re using new batteries, check that the battery contacts are clean, and make sure the batteries are firmly seated and that the battery door has closed properly.

If it's just his speaker making odd noises and he otherwise runs fine, you’ll want to check for any loose connections before you jump to speaker replacement! Skin him and slowly wiggle the wires connecting his speaker to his circuit board while he’s running- if you notice any change in how garbled his speech is, you may need to disconnect and reconnect the socket where the wires plug into the circuit board or replace some of his wiring. If you don’t notice any change, then it’s most likely that his speaker is starting to go out and needs to be replaced!

[furbytech]

Hello! I recently bought two furbies, and both of them are mute. One was previously used, so I just assume the speaker got damaged, but the other one was a NIB furby. I tried to open them, but honestly, I don't know what I'm looking for in terms of damage. Is there a way to make a furby speak again? Do I need to replace anything?

Furby speakers are pretty fragile, so I’m not surprised the NIB one was mute! Speakers use some ultra-delicate copper wire that’s about as thin as spider’s silk, so you’re not likely to be able to see any damage.

You can make them speak again! You’ll need to replace the broken speakers, either with a brand-new speaker or a “donor” speaker from another Furby. I’ve talked about this kind of thing before, right here!

[furbytech]

hey, do you have any tips on fixing a 1998 furby that went mute after being dropped? everything else works fine, but i’m thinking the speaker must've been disconnected or possibly broken - i’m not too good with electronics myself and don’t wanna mess em up further, do you have any advice?

Being dropped probably was enough to damage the super delicate wiring in the speaker. If you want your furb to be able to speak again, your best bet is to switch the now-broken speaker out with one from another Furby. I have a post explaining how to do so right here!

[furbytech]

Hello, I was wondering if you could help me. I’ve recently gotten a furby that was said to be mute, but after I received her, and gave her a gentle hit, she very quietly garbled something. It was as if she was trying to speak but couldn’t. It was hard to hear over her gears, but it was still there. Is there any way to get her to speak again with a donor, or is it useless to try? Thank you for taking the time to read this! 💕

It’s quite likely that her speaker hasn’t completely died yet! Speakers stop working over time because they have some very thin, delicate wires in them that eventually break apart. Your gentle hit probably shifted the broken pieces close enough for the speaker to produce some noise.

You absolutely can get her to speak again by replacing her speaker! My recommendation is always to replace a Furby’s old speaker with a brand-new one, since it will keep working for a very long time. You do need to have the ability and equipment to do some soldering, however.

If you can’t or don’t want to solder, you can also have another Furby donate a speaker. You can check out my previous post for more information on how to do this!

I promise I’ll write a proper guide for both speaker replacing methods some day!

(Oh, also! Please don’t hit Furbies when they’re not working right! I know that some people prefer to do so over push-starting them, but there’s a huge risk that hitting them can irreparably damage them! Be gentle with these old bots!)

[furbytech]

Last week’s project: Testing to see if the method I outlined at the end of this post actually works to reduce a Furby’s speaker volume. It does!

please don’t look too closely at my ugly soldering

This furb is one that @selfindulgentnonsense found in one of our local thrift stores, and the first ‘98 either of us has found locally (or “in the wild”, as they put it)! The original speaker was already starting to wear out, so they opted to have me replace it and graciously allowed me to do some... experimentation.

While I was working on soldering everything onto R10, the left trace decided to fall right off the board, so I had to improvise a little. The left side of the resistor has been soldered a little further down the trace, in a spot that was not originally intended to be soldered to (I had to scrape the green “resist” coating off that part of the circuit board to get electrical contact and let the solder “stick”). This isn’t very mechanically stable, but it should be fine, especially since I coated this entire area of the circuit board liberally in hot glue after taking this picture.

Details on my resistor mod. The original trace fell off because this spot is designed for a surface-mount part, not a comparatively-heavy through-hole part.

I wound up using a 100 ohm resistor on top of the new speaker’s built-in resistance to get a volume that’s just a little quieter than an original Furby’s speaker. New speakers are always substantially louder, even if they have the same specs. This is because the sound quality and volume decreases with age, and the speakers that Furbies left the factory with are not that great to begin with, even by 1998 standards. (New speakers are likely to be louder, retain their volume for longer, produce higher quality sound, and take up less space. Thanks, the forward march of technology!)

In theory, you could instead add the resistor at the other end of the speaker, though there’s not much room, or even in the middle of one of the wires that connect the speaker to the circuit board!

[furbytech]

Hi! I’m assuming you meant speaker, and yes! Please note that I haven’t done this before and may make some mistakes!

There’s a spot on the Furby’s main circuit board labeled “R10″. It’s right next to the two smaller “daughter” boards and the plug where all of the wires for the speaker and tickle button attach:

It might be coated in hot glue, which you’ll have to GENTLY cut away. Please be extremely careful here; a wrong cut may permanently damage your furb.

You will need to veeery carefully use a craft knife to slice through the copper connecting the pads. Follow the red line here:

You can do this safely with your Furby turned on, so you know when you’ve cut through correctly. Do NOT cut all the way through the board, and do NOT cut anything else. This should render your Furby mute! If you do not have a soldering iron, be advised that this is a PERMANENT change.

If you do have a soldering iron, you can solder a resistor between these pads to reduce the volume! A 32 ohm resistor should give you a furb with 50% volume. You can also reconnect these pads to restore full speaker function.