CodeKase Tear Down

I recently received a contest offer from an area car dealership with an “Electronic Codekase”. Electronic. Quickly the contest paperwork was discarded and the “Codekase” investigated. Sceptical, I pulled the tab labelled “Pull Tab to Activate”. Lo and behold, the device lit up to display the code numbers allegedly matching the numbers on the discarded paperwork. After locating something to pry with, the device was cracked open to reveal the working bits of the device.

Codekase Exploded View

CodeKase(tm) Exploded View

 

Here we see the internal bits, labelled in the picture to the left. I have blurred the code strip to prevent the contest holder from getting on my case. The plastic strip blocks the batteries from contacting the LED and covers the code numbers, requiring you to remove the strip to both see the numbers and activate the electronics. The LED is sandwiched between the code strip and the backing of the plastic diffuser to back light the code.

The battery interconnect is simply a piece of stamped metal to complete the circuit.

The more interesting parts are the batteries and the LED (which are the only parts worth anything, in my humble opinion.

 

L1131 Button Cells

Button Cells: The batteries included are a pair of L1131 Alkaline batteries. They are both 1.5 volts

LED

The LED inclued with this particular one was a super bright, blue one.

 

That’s it! Not much to them, but you get a few fun electronic bits for free.

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