Vtech Talking Whiz Kid Plus

goldenbaby · October 28, 2008, 04:12:52 PM

So far I've found a few bends for a glitch stream, and a few for streaming of words in the database, like "jump, jumping, jumped, jumper, feed, feeding, fed, feeder..."

(not my photo)

computer at sea · October 28, 2008, 04:55:38 PM

Yeah, that sounds about right. The plus is the red and blue one that folds shut, correct? In terms of glitchy sounds I think it has the Speak & series beat.

Mine will occasionally spit out a string of praises and gentle chides: "Good, Great!, Good Job, Uh-Oh!, Try again, etc"

If you're looking for a real playable instrument, none of the toys you'll find around will do much for you, but if you want an aleotoric jazz jam, this piece is about as good as I've found.

kick52 · October 28, 2008, 05:08:47 PM

I found some really interesting bends on mine.
There were some you could flick on, and then press the on button to have the screen scroll along, and when you scrolled so far it would go back to how it was before, but some characters would be corrupt or different.
Also, you could short the crystal clock (definitely do this bend, asshole) to get random loops/sounds/glitches, which really expands it. You could get weird noisy loops, and then mutate them with the normal glitch switches.

goldenbaby · November 07, 2008, 03:41:04 AM

Is the "string of praises and gentle chides" a specific bend in your creation, or just a random outcome? I've obtained mine only while bend various points, so it's hard to know if it's a random outcome of various bends, or triggered by one in specific.

kick52 · November 07, 2008, 07:43:20 PM

I found that it would happen randomly after you glitch it, and then let it sit there glitching out (with no bends on)

goldenbaby · November 08, 2008, 12:29:21 AM

That's what I thought. Although this bad kid is easy to bend, I don't find it has that much variation in sound when shorting the crystal clock, at least not more than it varies itself while glitching endlessly.

I found another loud tone that has a nice hot sound to it, am I gonna blow something or should I pot this baby?

kick52 · November 09, 2008, 09:55:11 AM

Hmm. Normally when I shorted the clock it went into crazy loops or it "held" the sound.
And you might want to pot that, just in case.

3rdness · November 11, 2008, 10:51:48 PM

hello,

I have really enjoyed bending these.

I got my first one at a flea market for $6!

In addition to a short looping circuit and crazy random glitch streams, I found a low and high pitch feedback oscillator. Then I connected an LED to one of the glitch points and a photoresistor to the low feedback circuit. In conjunction this makes rhythmic low pulses controlled by the glitches.

check it here:

http://mobiusband.com/blog/?p=371

A very cool toy to bend!

3rdness · December 16, 2008, 02:58:41 PM

I've done a third version of this mo' fro.

In addition to the high and low oscillator feedback tones, I added a 555 LFO that can trigger either a flashing LED (to hit the photoresistor), re-trigger the startup melody or glitch/loops, OR feed the feedback tones.

This thing is unbelievably fun to mess around with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtbQcHdpveI&feature=channel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx_osH5MI58&feature=channel

goldenbaby · December 17, 2008, 01:46:09 AM

Wow, that guy is pretty sweet. I saw another of these guys a month ago on YouTube, also with a photo resistor, but I think yours is more functional than the other one.

What does it take to make a 555 circuit? Like, how many components aside from IC, approx?
And can they be used on any circuit to create pulsing?

computer at sea · December 17, 2008, 07:16:50 PM

Do a search on this forum for 555 LFO and you'll find plenty of info.

3rdness · December 18, 2008, 02:37:55 PM

555 osc is really easy - like one cap, 1 pot and 2 fixed resistors or something.

Check out the speak and spell section of casper electronics for a really good diagram. In addition to the schematic, he draws it out so it was very helpful for me (as i had yet to figure out schematics at that point). His site is bad ASS.

There's a lot of other info online too.

Once I started building 555s, I've put them into practically everything I've built. Sometimes it modulates pitch, sometimes tempo, sometimes triggering sounds and loops. Really helpful for taking it up a notch.

--noam

goldenbaby · December 19, 2008, 05:25:12 AM

But, you choose what to modulate by connecting in to different points, right?
I'm gonna check out Casper to get an idea of how to connect it all up. Thanks a bunch, guys.

3rdness · December 19, 2008, 07:56:08 PM

Yeah.

I basically build a 555 and then poke the output around the circuit board just like when I'm searching for bending points. If you already have anything wired up, you can start there.

Make sure to connect the + and - of the 555 to the batteries of the toy your poking around in.

On this whiz kid, I found three different ways to use the 555 (LED to trigger the LDR, re-triggering the startup melody/loops, and triggering the feedback tones) Then I just hooked up a switch from the 555 to each of those points.

goldenbaby · December 22, 2008, 04:38:15 AM

How do I properly mount an LED? It just wants to fall back through my hole into the casing. Maybe hot glue?

Also, I wired up an output jack on this guy, and it sounded no louder than my guitar on the amp, does this mean it'll be okay? It's been working fine so far without any extra resistors, I don't want to end up frying it in the long run. I'll have a picture once I finalize this guy.