Making Toys

Updates from October, 2008 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

• 

  Yury Gitman 2:06 am on October 21, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

  Chipcorder with buttons 

  Below is a video of my chipcorder working, and some photos of what it would look like if I could get it to work inside it’s cute little box-like shell. I’ve apparently killed my other chip, and I think I’ve done something iffy to the volume pin on my second chip. Ruh roh. Before I screwed everything up, though, things were beautiful:

  http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2024267&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1
  Chipcorder with Buttons from Joana Kelly on Vimeo.

  The Case

  

  Look, there’s my speaker, some holes for the LEDS, and all my buttons! Hooray!

  Lodged

  

  Also, this is a photograph of some stuff from Sparkfun lodged in my mailbox. Great! I know it looks like maybe if I tilt the box then it will slide out of the mailbox quite easily, but I assure you it does not work. I’m going to hack apart the box inside the mailbox tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it goes.

  Rate this:
   

  Reply Cancel reply

  Required fields are marked *

  Name *

  Email *

  Website

  Notify me of new comments via email.

  Notify me of new posts via email.

  Δ

• 

  Yury Gitman 1:17 am on October 21, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

  The New Boom(less)Box. 

  Yes, the Winbond circuit now comes in a sleeker, more stylish look
  complete with toggle power switch, built-in 1/8" jack for recording,
  and mystery buttons for playback which I haven’t labeled yet. Ships
  with random quotes from Don Hertzfeldt animations. Bonus.

  http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2023657&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
  The New Boom(less) Box. from Katrina Bekessy on Vimeo.

  Here are some pics for some details…

  

  Title: The Boom Box
  Description: Box with matte board top custom cut to accommodate playback buttons, the speaker, LED’s, toggle power switch, and jack for recording from device.

  

  Title: Top View
  Description: Toggle switch has been turned on, as shown by the lit LED.

  

  Title: Closeup
  Description: A closer look at the switch, the jack, and the LED’s. One LED signifies power, and the other blinks when performing a playback action.

  

  Title: Another Closeup
  Description: This closeup includes the playback buttons. They’re not labeled yet, but they will be. I promise.

  

  Title: Boom Box Guts
  Description: Top is attached with Velcro for easy removal. Inside, one breadboard contains the circuit with chip and the other is for button placement. A paper cup help to reverberate the sound from the speaker and a battery pack is hooked up to a 5 Volt regulator which is then controlled by the toggle switch. Huge thanks goes out to jumper cables and electrical tape.

  

  Title: Another Angle
  Description: In case you wanted to actually follow my wiring, here it is!

  

  Title: The Meat of It
  Description: How can I even begin to explain this thing? Thank goodness for datasheets.

  Rate this:
   
• 

  Yury Gitman 2:00 pm on October 14, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

  Katrina’s Winbond Chip: Attempt #1 

  Yup, it works. But the sound is pretty bad. I had to turn up the sound on my computer to the max to get the chip to record from it at an audible volume. I guess my next step would be to figure out how to actually control the volume from the chip. I recorded 2 tracks: "A Little Night Music" by Mozart and "Young Folks" by Peter Bjorn & John. Watch the video:

  http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1966167&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
  Katrina’s Winbond Chip: Attempt #1 from Katrina Bekessy on Vimeo.

  Here are a couple of photos:

  

  Photo: The whole circuit.
  Description: Here it is. I decided that I really don’t like wire wrap – it always breaks! So I used 20AWG wire for the 1/8" audio plug, which is sticking out next to the yellow LED at top. I also added a 5-Volt regulator to power the board directly from the battery but immediately realized that there wasn’t enough room for it. So it’s just being powered from an Arduino board right now.

  

  Photo: Top View
  Description: Not much to say about this one…Just wanted you to be able to see the entire board clearly.

  Rate this:
   
• 

  Yury Gitman 5:16 pm on October 7, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

  Color Mixer (Update) 

  Last week’s assignment was "re-packaged" into the soap box.  Few steps were necessary for this to work.

  The LED was cut and a wire was attached to each leg:

  

  Holes were drilled into the lid, and the sensor was glued:

  

  
  

  http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1971198&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1
  Color Mixer in Soap Box from Fuki on Vimeo.

  (More …)

  Rate this:
   
• 

  Yury Gitman 4:59 pm on October 7, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

  Color Mixer with an IR Sensor 

  What a disaster! I’ve ruined one an IR sensor, and only just about managed to get this second one in action. I haven’t changed my code (yet), so I’m still using the code from the Arduino site. The code can been seen below.

  http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1906225&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1
  Color Mixer with an IR Sensor and a tri-color LED from Joana Kelly on Vimeo.

  Here are some fine photos of the thing in action.
  The Color Mixer

  

  This is what my color mixer looks like from the top. The black rectangle on the right is my IR sensor. I’d like to make a nicer case for this soon.

  The Innards

  

  Here are the innards of my color mixer. It’s kind of a mess.

  The Disaster

  

  Through the simultaneous use of solder, wrapping wire, and hot glue, I finally got this working, for the most part. I do not recommend this approach. Jumper wires are definitely the way to go.

  (More …)

  Rate this:
   
• 

  Yury Gitman 2:31 pm on October 7, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

  IR Proximity Color Mixer w/ Tri-Color LED 

  So here it is! And it works pretty well. With my setup, the long pin on the LED actually goes to power and the other three hook up to the PMW pins on the Arduino and then go to ground (I stuck some resistors in there before taking that pins to ground). Here’s what it looks like:

  http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1903107&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
  IR Proximity Color Mixer w/ Tri-Color LED from Katrina Bekessy on Vimeo

  And here’s some pics of the box itself and its innards:

  

  The Box
  Just a little cardboard gift box I cut up to make little windows with vellum paper…I used Velcro to keep the top closed.

  

  The Insides!
  Bascially the breadboard is stacked on top of the battery pack which is on top of the Arduino. Not elegant at all…

  

  Close up of LED
  Just a closer peek at the LED setup with the resistors

  I found this webpage with a great example of a tri-color LED used with the exact IR sensor we’re using. It gave code for averaging/normalizing the sensor readings so that it won’t flicker at all. I tried to use it, but I couldn’t get it to work correctly. If anyone else wants to take a stab at it, check it out: http://letsmakerobots.com/node/672

  Here’s a plain text file of my Arduino code. In a different file, I used the serial commands to read the range of my sensor…The highest it went was about 620, but I wasn’t really sure what that meant or how to make that meaningful through the way it would change the colors of the LED.

  Download IR_LEDmixer_KBekessy.txt

  Rate this:
   
• 

  Yury Gitman 7:04 pm on October 6, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

  Color Mixer with a Potentiometer and a Tri-Color LED 

  Here’s a short video of a color mixer I made using a tri-color led. I used the color mixer code from the Arduino site. To see the code, click the link at the bottom of the post.

  http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1898480&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1
  Color Mixer from Joana Kelly on Vimeo

  Color Mixer Insides

  

  This is the inside of the mixer. That’s the arduino on the left! Note I finally got that tri-color led working. Yesss! Turns out the short pin does go to power….good to know.

  (More …)

  Rate this:
   
• 

  Yury Gitman 3:31 pm on September 29, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

  03 Color Mixer updated 

  Color Mixer with IR sensor and Fullcolor Led in the same Gummy Bear Box.

  http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1905269&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
  FullColor+IR Sensor Color Mixer from Hsiang Ju Hung on Vimeo.
  Code is modified from the previous one.  Because the output voltage from IR sensor is about from 0 to 3 instead of regular range of 0 to 5. So I tried to justify it to make RGB reach full 255.
  Code is here:Download IRsensor_Fullcolor

  http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1853222&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

  Color Mixer from Hsiang Ju Hung on Vimeo.

  

  
  

  Material: Gummy Bear box, Led, Tissue, Arduino Board, Potentiometer, Resistors, 9V Battery, Wires.
  Code is modified from Arduino Example Code

  ———————————–

  // Input settings
  int analogPin = 3;   // potentiometer connected to analog pin 3
  int val = 0;         // variable to store the read value

  // Digital pin settings
  int aOut = 9;   // LEDs connected to digital pins 9, 10 and 11
  int bOut = 10;  //
  int cOut = 11;

  // Variables
  int aVal = 0;   // Variables to store the input from the potentiometers
  int bVal = 0; 
  int cVal = 0;

  int DEBUG = 1; // Set to 1 to turn on debugging output

  void setup()
  {
    pinMode(aOut, OUTPUT);   // sets the pin as output
    pinMode(bOut, OUTPUT);   // sets the pin as output
    pinMode(cOut, OUTPUT);   // sets the pin as output
   
    if (DEBUG) {
      Serial.begin(9600);  }    // Open serial communication for reporting
  }

  //Main program
  void loop(){
    val = analogRead(analogPin);   // read the input pin
   
    if(val < 341){         // first range = 0-340
      val = (val*3)/4;     // justify the range from 0-340 to 0-255;
      aVal = 256 – val;  // a changes from 255 to 1
      bVal = val;          // b changes from 0 to 255
      cVal = 1;            // c is 1
    }
    else if(val < 682){  //second range = 341-681
      val = ((val-341))*3/4;//justify the range from341-681 to 0-255;
      aVal = 1;           // a is 1
      bVal = 256 – val;   // b is from 255 to 1
      cVal = val;         // c is from 0 to 255
    }
    else{                 // third range = 682-1024
      val = ((val-683)*3)/4;//justify the range from341-681 to 0-255;
      aVal = val;           // a is from 0 to 255
      bVal = 1;             // b is 1
      cVal = 256 – val;     // c is from 255 to 1
    }
    if (DEBUG) {      // if we want to read the output
      DEBUG+=1;      
      if(DEBUG>100){  //print every hunderd loops
        DEBUG = 1;    // reset the counter
        Serial.print("val:");
        Serial.print(val);
        Serial.print(" A:");
        Serial.print(aVal);
        Serial.print(" B:");
        Serial.print(bVal);
        Serial.print(" C:");
        Serial.print(cVal);
        Serial.println(); }
    }
    analogWrite(aOut, aVal);
    analogWrite(bOut, bVal);
    analogWrite(cOut, cVal);  }

  ———————————–

  By the way, yesterday I ran into an street installation made by Ted Southern in Dumbo. It is a sidewalk-attached interactive music maker ontrolled easily via an interface by the public. Basically the interface is just a box installed different tuners and sensors controlling two rows of speakers that have different sound quality from each other.  So people passing by can play with it at ease without any instruction or guide.  But the inconvenience about this project is that the artist has to screw and open the box to replace batteries (there are two 9 V)every few hours.

  

  

  

  Rate this:
   
• 

  Yury Gitman 4:12 pm on September 16, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

  Unbreakable Fisher-Price Elephant 

  I got a simple Fisher-Price Elephant toy, which starts/stops playing a tune when the user bops its head.  As for dissecting the toy…Well, let’s just say "simple" is not synonymous with "easy."  Given that it’s a baby-toy, I expected it to be firmly built; but I didn’t think it would be impossible to break it apart with a few hits with a hammer…

  1. Original Form: What appears to be a innocent little elephant.

  

  2. Opening the Battery Cover: There were two screws that secured the battery cover.
  

  3. No Other Screws!  Go for the Leg!: The two screws for the battery cover were the only ones that were visible on the exterior of the toy.  I decided to snap off the front-right leg in hopes of revealing more screws.
  However, once it was snapped off, I was able to see only one other screw, which was the screw that secured that opposite leg. 
  
  
  

  4. Get the Saw Out: After many attempts to snap the toy open with a hammer and a minus-screwdriver, I decided to carefully "shave" open the elephant with a saw.  However, it was taking too long, and my arms were getting tired, so I reverted back to the screwdriver and hammer…  I wasn’t getting too far, so Yuri eventually helped me loosen the parts and take all the legs off.
  
  
  
  
  

  5. Saw2: Even with all the legs off, I still couldn’t see much of its interior, so I made a small cut in front of its body. 
  The speaker was revealed as a result. 

  6. Bye Saw! Hello Giant Scissors! (I think they’re called Shears?): The small opening made in step 5 helped me see the inside a little bit better, but I still couldn’t access the "brain" that operated the toy.  As I began sawing again, Yuri found a better tool for me: Giant Scissors!  I was able to easily cut open the entire side of its body to finally reveal the inside.
  
  

  7. Closer Look: The toy functions mainly by three parts: a button, speaker and a microchip.  The head, once it’s pushes, pushes the button and triggers the microchip to play the tune out of the speaker.
  
  
  
  

  Rate this:
   
• 

  Yury Gitman 10:35 pm on September 12, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

  The Disassembly of a ClickBox… 

  I wasn’t really interested in taking apart a toy that had motors in it or could move around and make noise, etc. So instead I found a toy that I thought was really interesting in terms of talking to other devices to send a receive information. It’s called ClickBox by VTech. Basically, this little cube is the home to a little digital dude (in this case, a body builder) that you help to train and take care of so that when he comes into contact with other characters he can beat them at various games and competitions. He can talk to other characters by connecting one side of its cube with the side of another cube via magnets. It can also be plugged into a computer through USB to play in online games against other characters in a virtual world. Here’s a little video of how it worked before I took it apart. Sorry about the reflection…it couldn’t be helped too much…

  http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1720879&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
  Click Box Toy Demo from Katrina Bekessy on Vimeo.

  Ready to see it’s innards? Here it is!

  
  Title: The Cube
  Description: Here’s how the cube looks from each side. On the top right pic, you can see how the magnets work to connect to cubes together so they can talk to each other. When connected, one of the magnet buttons depresses to activate communication.

  
  Title: The first peek inside…
  Description: The first thing I opened was the place where the battery goes. It’s a 3-Volt battery…nothing larger could possibly fit in it! After I opened that, though, I couldn’t find how to get in there deeper. Turns out that these little rubber grippie things on the corners can pop off and there you’ll find more screws. Tricky!

  
  Title: Packed like sardines
  Description: Once I finally got inside, the entire cube was packed with bundles of wires for the power, the USB, the little LCD screen, and the boards on each side of the cube that can talk with the other cubes. I love how the wires are bundled using tape…Seems so cheap and crude, but I guess it makes sense! I have a bunch of tape holding things together in my laptop as well. 🙂

  
  Title: Here’s where it starts getting cool!
  Description: Finding out how the communication happens between cubes was a nice little surprise. It’s so simple – when they connect with a magnet, a button depresses this little spring coil, turning on a little IR transmitter and receiver to do all the talking. It should be noted that the IR setup on the other side of the cube is opposite of this so that when two cubes are connected the IR transmitter of one cube is aligned with the IR receiver of the other cube.

  
  Title: The IR is only half of it…
  Description: To really make the IR stuff work, a lot depends on the material used. Yury helped me discover that these two sides of the cube were made with translucent material so the IR signal can pass through. The magnet is there to make sure that cubes click together and stay aligned properly.

  
  Title: Some cool little buttons/switches too!
  Description: I discovered some switches that I almost didn’t notice at first. The buttons on the faceplate of the cube used to control the little character actually work thanks to these little actuator switches that are so tiny and flat that I almost didn’t think they would really depress when I pushed them. The little reset button on the battery board was also pretty cool. It’s nothing but a little bit of conductive material that comes in contact with a little part of the board to connect the circuit.

  
  Title: The chip and the rest of it
  Description: The main board of the cube where the chip resides was pretty standard: some resistors, capacitors, and stuff. There was also a small motion sensor on board (the character responds to being shaken), and I liked how nicely the screen connected to the board. It was also interesting to see a huge glob of hot glue slabbed on to protect some of the soldered parts.

  …and there you have it! I’m really glad I chose this toy. I learned a lot…from the way the toy was designed physically to pack all that stuff into it, to the type of technology they chose to use. I really liked seeing how such simple parts could make a such a complex little toy!

  Rate this:

  Maze Hsiao is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
  • 

    Maze Hsiao 11:33 pm on September 12, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    it’s really neat! i like it a lot!

• 

  Yury Gitman 4:00 pm on September 11, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

  Dissection: The Cute Drum 

  I took apart a Cute Drum that I purchased at Riteaid for $7.99. Its simplicity appealed to me, and you can’t go wrong with a musical instrument. I think I might like to cover it in fur and make it a musical monster one day…

  This is a little video of it working, while it’s put together:

  http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1712610&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1
  Cute Drum from Joana Kelly on Vimeo.

  (More …)

  Rate this: