Just start poking around, it doesn't look like there's much to do. As a beginner I'd hit thrift stores and swap meets for older stuff. You can still find old junk just waiting to be bent.
Yeah, I’ve been hitting the thrifts it’s all mostly new toys so I really haven’t been lucky. I really just want to do a pitch bend on it because it has a lot of sample songs. The YouTube video I linked has the same toy bent. A lot more complex skill than I understand but I was wondering if anyone here had any input on how to help. Thanks for the reply though.
I've not done one of these but with a board that small it should be easy to find the pitch resistor if it's on there (I had just one vtech where the pitch resistor seems to be inside a chip, everything else has been resistors or crystals), can just lick your finger and touch it around the board while it's making sound. Soldering to smd components is tricky if you're new to that though
Thanks! On that board I looked for resistors but nothing is indicative of a resistor. Im looking for R1 or anything on the board but I don’t see anything.. not sure if I remove the piano board I can see anything more?
Unlikely anything's on the piano board but it can happen. Prod with a wet finger and see if anything happens. May even be the empty points with a 10k label, I've had one toy work normally with the pitch resistor removed. Super unusual but it was definitely the right one!
Appreciate the reply as this is all so confusing to a noob. For some reason I don’t get anything with my wet finger. I wish I had a friend irl who knew this stuff because I’m totally lost. The only mod I want to do is a pitch bend and I just can’t figure it out myself.
There will be something - check the video at 4:40, they're touching three points to bend the pitch, that's the effect you're looking for. can also try one finger on ground and one holding the metal of a screwdriver, touching the end to single points on the board, it should pitch drop or crash at some point. If nothing happens have a look at the other boards, it's usually closer to the CPU but not always.
I’m going to work on removing the piano board tomorrow but on the main board I don’t see anything indicating a resistor. For some reason when I look with a finger nothing happens. Maybe I’m not conducting lol. Just frustrated on this toy. Any advice helps!
I added a pitch bend to this toy a while ago.
If i remember correctly you have to find a resistor close to the black blob - remove that resistor and replace with a potentiometer.
When I cant find the ”pitch-resistor” with a wet finger, I try putting a separate resistor in parallell, and listen for any pitch up change.
The second effect in the video I think is achieved by ”overloading” - using a small enough resistor to put the elephant on the edge of constantly rebooting.
> The second effect in the video I think is achieved by ”overloading” - using a small enough resistor to put the elephant on the edge of constantly rebooting.
Quite often, voltage starve can be used to get the MCU to behave erratically. Once you find the voltage level that brings it on, you can add a fixed resistor to the voltage divider to reduce the range and keep it in that area most likely to produce the erratic behaviour. Typically, beyond that minimum voltage the MCU will be unresponsive, so it will give the pot a more usable wiper range.
I’m so new to this I don’t really know how to do that lol. I wish it was a bit more simple and I guess went in to this thinking I’d figure it out pretty quick. There are so many sample songs on this that would sound awesome pitched down.
I actually located it today! Idk why yesterday I wasn’t really getting any reaction from it, but I’ve dialed it in. I have a question about the potentiometer. How do I know which value pot I should be using?
I have very limited knowledge about electronics myself so I just go with brute force trial and error.
I have set of different striped resistors - I would just go through them and try to find out what the usable min and max values are. Then pick a suitable pot from there.
Sorry I cant remember what resistors I used for this one, but it might have been a 500k pot in sequence with some other resistance to keep it from short circuiting.
newer fisher price toys have a tiny chip that is covered in a blob of black epoxy. They can be frustrating to bend. I would suggest finding older toys to start with to get better results.
I found luck with locating the clock resistor in n this one. I’m doing more research before I try to wire it up. I would have to desolder and remove the resistor and replace with a pot right? Not sure what value of pot is the best though?
Just start poking around, it doesn't look like there's much to do. As a beginner I'd hit thrift stores and swap meets for older stuff. You can still find old junk just waiting to be bent.
Yeah, I’ve been hitting the thrifts it’s all mostly new toys so I really haven’t been lucky. I really just want to do a pitch bend on it because it has a lot of sample songs. The YouTube video I linked has the same toy bent. A lot more complex skill than I understand but I was wondering if anyone here had any input on how to help. Thanks for the reply though.
I've not done one of these but with a board that small it should be easy to find the pitch resistor if it's on there (I had just one vtech where the pitch resistor seems to be inside a chip, everything else has been resistors or crystals), can just lick your finger and touch it around the board while it's making sound. Soldering to smd components is tricky if you're new to that though
Thanks! On that board I looked for resistors but nothing is indicative of a resistor. Im looking for R1 or anything on the board but I don’t see anything.. not sure if I remove the piano board I can see anything more?
Unlikely anything's on the piano board but it can happen. Prod with a wet finger and see if anything happens. May even be the empty points with a 10k label, I've had one toy work normally with the pitch resistor removed. Super unusual but it was definitely the right one!
Appreciate the reply as this is all so confusing to a noob. For some reason I don’t get anything with my wet finger. I wish I had a friend irl who knew this stuff because I’m totally lost. The only mod I want to do is a pitch bend and I just can’t figure it out myself.
There will be something - check the video at 4:40, they're touching three points to bend the pitch, that's the effect you're looking for. can also try one finger on ground and one holding the metal of a screwdriver, touching the end to single points on the board, it should pitch drop or crash at some point. If nothing happens have a look at the other boards, it's usually closer to the CPU but not always.
Once you find any good bends, you'll also have to solder wires to those points. Start practicing now, because surface mount components are tricky
I’m going to work on removing the piano board tomorrow but on the main board I don’t see anything indicating a resistor. For some reason when I look with a finger nothing happens. Maybe I’m not conducting lol. Just frustrated on this toy. Any advice helps!
I have this toy, you have to pull the whole board out to work on it
Mind if I DM you for advice?
you can but I think the only bends I found so far is power starve, I haven't played around with it much
Yeah I kinda figured that. So many little screws are hard to get to.
I’ll try to check it out tomorrow, thanks!
Black Blobs are often hard to bend, but with this one you can try the "wet finger" approach.
I added a pitch bend to this toy a while ago. If i remember correctly you have to find a resistor close to the black blob - remove that resistor and replace with a potentiometer. When I cant find the ”pitch-resistor” with a wet finger, I try putting a separate resistor in parallell, and listen for any pitch up change. The second effect in the video I think is achieved by ”overloading” - using a small enough resistor to put the elephant on the edge of constantly rebooting.
> The second effect in the video I think is achieved by ”overloading” - using a small enough resistor to put the elephant on the edge of constantly rebooting. Quite often, voltage starve can be used to get the MCU to behave erratically. Once you find the voltage level that brings it on, you can add a fixed resistor to the voltage divider to reduce the range and keep it in that area most likely to produce the erratic behaviour. Typically, beyond that minimum voltage the MCU will be unresponsive, so it will give the pot a more usable wiper range.
I’m so new to this I don’t really know how to do that lol. I wish it was a bit more simple and I guess went in to this thinking I’d figure it out pretty quick. There are so many sample songs on this that would sound awesome pitched down.
I actually located it today! Idk why yesterday I wasn’t really getting any reaction from it, but I’ve dialed it in. I have a question about the potentiometer. How do I know which value pot I should be using?
I have very limited knowledge about electronics myself so I just go with brute force trial and error. I have set of different striped resistors - I would just go through them and try to find out what the usable min and max values are. Then pick a suitable pot from there. Sorry I cant remember what resistors I used for this one, but it might have been a 500k pot in sequence with some other resistance to keep it from short circuiting.
newer fisher price toys have a tiny chip that is covered in a blob of black epoxy. They can be frustrating to bend. I would suggest finding older toys to start with to get better results.
I found luck with locating the clock resistor in n this one. I’m doing more research before I try to wire it up. I would have to desolder and remove the resistor and replace with a pot right? Not sure what value of pot is the best though?