Chad Valley My Learning Keyboard and Unknown Fisher Price talking cube

[Timodon]

Hello there

Having been hanging around for a couple of months leeching info and making a nuisance of myself with questions on the message boards I felt the need to contribute with the results of my first two bends on toys. These are probably only interesting for complete n00bs - all you Data line cutting/ spare IC hoarding/ crystal clock swapping experts probably won't see anything too exciting here!

First off Chad Valley, bought at a car boot sale (think you call them "Yard sales" in the US) picked up a Vtech "My Learning Pal" at the same time got both together for £4.50. I fried the Vtech but managed to finish this one with only 3 poorly positioned extra drill holes due to impatience:-

Circuit Bent Chad Valley My Learning Keyboard

It was a fun bend, I found an example of another online somewhere which gave me an idea of what I was looking for and I worked the rest out myself. I'd say this was an ideal first bend. The pots (if you can't tell) are for pitch up, pitch down (voltage) and a weird metallic droney distortion.

Next is Fisher Price, got it at Oxfam for £3 (not worth that but it's a good cause). This was trickier because of the construction - it's easy enough to get the bottom off but everything is is glued solid so it's awkward to work on the circuit boards inside. In the end I just settled for a voltage crash pot as it was all I could really do. I struggled to find a place to put the pot that I added, ended up gouging some of the plastic out of the inside to make room for the pot after drilling two badly placed holes, my lesson as far as impatient hole placement is well and  truly learned!

Circuit Bent Unknown Fisher Price talking cube toy

Apart from how tricky it is to work inside it this was an ok bend but I wouldn't buy another if I saw it. It's obviously not got the potential of a Speak or Vtech apple or something like that because it's too much of a pain to actually probe the board but it still makes some good pitched down voice sounds with the volt crash added. hope the vids not too quiet for you to hear!

Anyways, cheers everyone

[Circuitbenders]

That chad valley thing has some nice space drones on it 

I think everyone ends up drilling holes in the wrong places when they first start. I've built entire patchbays in entirely the wrong places in the past. Its not much fun when you wire a 30 way patchbay up only to find you can't close the case anymore. 

In regards to your dead v-tech, have you checked out the resistor/fuse that a lot of them seem to have, theres definately some info about it if you do a search on here.

[Timodon]

Dead Vtech - I haven't but I will, thanksl. It's in bits and I did end up cannibalising some of the wire from it (it was easier to use than the stuff I had bought) but I'm sure I could put it all back together if there's a chance it might work again.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one turning their toys into swiss cheese. For me it seems like one of the biggest hazards for n00bs aside from accidental frying or breaking the machine to get it open... and just like everything else in circuit bending it's all specific to the machine you're working on and requires patience and forethought.