Building a board of buttons/switches/etc.

[cpgoose]

Howdy,

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. My newphew's bday is coming up (he's 6), and I wanted to make him a basic board of buttons and switches. He just loves to press buttons and flick switches, as I'm sure every kid does. I was thinking of just hooking up lights, fans, and anything else I can find so when he hits the buttons or switches the lights or fans come on and off.

I was thinking of getting a piece of plywood about 1ft by 1ft, and then mounting the switches and such on there.

I was curious what your thoughts were on the switches, buttons (and anything else you could think of), as well as a power source (maybe a 12volt battery from Radio Shack, or can I get away with something smaller like 2 triple A's or something)?

Any ideas would be great! Thanks!

 

[Andy1845c]

The power scource will depend greatly on what you make the switches do.
Small flashlight bulbs will draw a fair amount of current (enough to drain a battery in short order). You could use LEDs, maybe use differnt colors hooked to seperate switches. That will help keep power demands in check.

I would be sure to keep safty first and formost if this is for a 6 year old. Fans could cause injury (cuts, tangled hair, ect.) And while its tempting to suggest you power this with a "wall-wart" transformer, it might be a bad idea if the child were to decide to play with the plug.

Possibly a bank of D cell batterys, or one or several 6v lantern batterys would be a good choice for this project. You could use mainly LEDs and add a few small flashlight bulbs, maybe on momentay push button switches so they can't be left on. Maybe have some flashing LEDs and some seady burn ones.

 

[w_d_w]

You can buy breadboards cheap at Radio Shack, as well as most of the things needed to set this up. If you're planning on making it battery powered, you could buy a smaller breadboard, and while having less lights and switches, it could be a portable device for him to play with. In fact, you could even find a case for a gearbox made of a clear plastic, drill a few holes, place the breadboard, and cover the entire thing in plastic (minus a slot for batteries), and the kid's got a brand new toy.

The above is mostly right about lamps. Are you using LED's or lamps? LED's normally only draw about 3 volts of power max, so if you hooked up a dual-9V setup on the board, you're looking at 18 volts that can be replaced whenever it dies. It won't last forever, but you have to consider that 6 year old's attention spans aren't that long.

Make sure that you don't put any infrared LED's on the circuit mistaking them for red or some other color. Infrared at that level probably couldn't hurt the kid's eyes, but it's probably going to be drawing more power than you anticipated and producing no light for the kid to giggle at.

If you're going to put switches on this, I'd suggest not using toggle switches, but self-resetting switches. The child probably isn't going to realize to turn a toggle switch off, let alone a main power switch, so you could be looking at LED's drawing power from that 18V source for long periods of time if you use the wrong switches.

RadioShack should supply everything you need for this project at a reasonable price. If you're not concerned with the safety hazard of it, Li-ion batteries are pretty cheap, and small so that you can add many of them at once. They have a lower voltage stamp, but you could probably fit up to 25V on that board before you run out of room for them. Another idea with that is setting each switch up on it's own individual power supply from a Li-ion battery. You're gonna have just enough to power an LED with a li-ion, so you should have plenty if you use multiple. The problem with them in this situation is that the child is small and doesn't think for himself yet. These tiny batteries that are all shiny like a coin are going to end up in his mouth, and while they won't shock him, they will choke him.

You could also incorporate a horn into the design that played different tones under different circumstances. There's plenty of threads here explaining how to produce varying frequencies, and if you had the time and wanted to go to the trouble, you could add a speaker with circuitry designed to make that speaker play different tones for different actions.

Lots of things you can do with this project, but if it's going to just be basic, then the above should be suffice information.

-Will

 

[cpgoose]

Thank you so much for the replies! You've definitely given me some good ideas.

I guess if I use a breadboard (which I've never used before), I'm concerned about how to "encase" it. I see that you mentioned using a gearbox made of clear plastic, but I'm not quite sure what you mean. You mean pull one from something that exists, or can you just buy one?

I was just thinking of using a piece of thin wood or something, and then drilling holes in it for all of the "visible" parts on the outside. Then, all of the guts and the connections would be behind the front panel. Then I could close up the front piece somehow to make it like a box and make it portable. I guess I could also just get some kind of plastic case (like a pencil box or something) so it would be lighter.

Ooh, the horn idea is cool too. I'll look for some of those threads. Do they sell small horns

See attached for a very rough draft of what I'm trying to do...

 

[Andy1845c]

Do they sell small horns

.

Yes they do Look for a small piezo buzzer. You could hook it up with a potentiometer to provide a crude but fun way to change the sound a bit.

I would use wood or plastic to make the panel and enclose the insides like you mentioned. Whats the "spectrum" in your drawing?

 

[pc88]

At the local surplus store I found a circuit board that would play different tune fragments and flash different leds depending on what contacts were pressed together. It clearly was the internal guts of some toy. If you have a local surplus store you might check to see if they have something similar in stock, or even some other electronic toy you can hook up switches to.

 

[cpgoose]

The spectrum was just gonna be a bunch of different colored LEDs...maybe in some kind of spectrum or rainbox pattern.

Thanks for the idea about the piezo, that sounds cool...no pun intended

Do you know what the motor would be called that would make the whole thing vibrate? Someone mentioned it having an off-balance weight to make it vibrate.

 

[stevez]

If you go to the Jameco website and put "vibrating motor" in the keyword search box you'll come up with the items you need.

 

[cpgoose]

Cool, thanks...that site really has a lot. I found the vibrating motors as well as the piezo and magnetic buzzers on there. I just hope they're not too loud

Out of curiousity, what characteristics should I be looking for in the parts (lights, switches, buzzer, etc). I guess along the lines of voltage, amerage, etc (things that I'm not thinking about).

Thanks again for all the help!

 

[picasm]

For the vibrating motor, you may find one in an old scrap mobile phone.

You can get novelty greeting cards that play tunes - connect the pcbs salvaged from a few different ones to a rotary selection switch.

Use some automatic colour changing leds rather than just single colours. (cheap from ebay)

Get an RGB led and connect it to three variable resistors to enable mixing the colours.

Add an old rotary telephone dial with the contacts connected to flash a bulb.

Use various different switches, slide switches, large robust toggle switches and rocker switches (some can be illuminated).

Add some sort of puzzle circuit so that only the correct sequence of switches operates something.

 

[HiTech]

I made one of those contraptions years ago for my daughter when she was a toddler. I used a plastic project box, installed a myriad od switch types, LEDs, and a buzzer. She loved it. In fact we did a science project spun off from that idea. She had an Elmo toy that made sounds when you press the switch. So we fashioned up a display board and glued the individual components to it lined up like a math equation. To the right of the equal sign we had the finished, working toy. This let the other kids and judges see what the toy was made of and in what order. It won a prize and then was nominated as a state-wide entry. She took 3rd place, winning a nice banquet dinner and a US savings bond, plus a video clip on the local newscast.

 

[w_d_w]

A breadboard is a bare circuit board with holes in it to set your components and conductors. You can find them pretty cheap at Radio Shack... normally they're brown or green fiberglass (I think) boards with a bunch of little holes in them. They should be labeled accordingly.

Another option for the vibrating motor is a pager. I could mention a few other things that you could get the motor out of, but I probably wouldn't be throwing too many ideas around after that. Anything that once vibrated will have a vibrating motor. As far as stronger ones go, you're gonna need to look into the afore mentioned unspeakables. Best I got on that... can't really think of any vibrating motors that are stronger than the ones they put in those things.

As far as gearbox goes, they're a brand of external hard drive. At least, the gearbox is the only brand that I've seen with a clear plastic cover on them. Gearboxes come in many different variations and can be found at most PC stores. Take the HD out, strip the internals, and you've got a box about the size of a HD to cover anything you need. They're normally plastic, but I've seen them made of aluminum and even diamond-plate. Most all the materials they're made of can be drilled, so a switch or LED hole would be easy to make.

Covering the device is definitely a good idea. I wouldn't be too afraid of him being shocked by a DC source, but he may figure out that those LED's come off if he tugs on them enough, and decide to eat one... and I can't say that LEDs are edible.

If you decide not to go with the gearbox for the cover, there are many other options. You could actually build a multi-level plywood box so that he would have to look through a slot to see all the flashing lights and stuff. That'd make it better because he'd be safe, and the LED's would have a shade over them to make their effects even more extraordinary to a 6 year old.

I think, though, that if we give you too many more ideas, the kid will be 20 before you even get the thing built. I think you've got the basics, and you know what you need for what you want it to do. Give it a shot, and post pictures.

-Will

 

[cpgoose]

Awesome, thanks for the additional ideas.

I have no clue what you're talking about for strong vibrating motors...do you mean those back supports you can put on your chair to massage your back?

I will definitely get to the store soon and start working on this. It's the first time I've ever done something this "electronic" before, so it sounds like fun. I will definitely post pics when I'm done.

 

[stevez]

Larger (several HP and up) versions of the vibrating motor are used to shake storage bins, railroad cars, etc to get material to flow. I think Will was referring to adult toys.

 

[Andy1845c]

The starter from a truck, 2 pillow block bearings and a heavy chunk of iron makes a nice vibrating motor that will shake the box on a quad axle gravel truck

 

[Mad_un]

Hey

Nice project... i wouldnt have thought about doing something like this; i would
have just gone and brought something.

Instead of having all normal switches, why not have some LDR's so things turn on when hands or fingers are placed over them and turn off when they are removed. Obviously having lots of these will mean lots of different circuits but one or two sould be easy along with adding some novelty to the toy.

 

[cpgoose]

The starter from a truck, 2 pillow block bearings and a heavy chunk of iron makes a nice vibrating motor that will shake the box on a quad axle gravel truck

Now that's what I'm talkin' about!

 

[cpgoose]

Hey

Nice project... i wouldnt have thought about doing something like this; i would
have just gone and brought something.

Instead of having all normal switches, why not have some LDR's so things turn on when hands or fingers are placed over them and turn off when they are removed. Obviously having lots of these will mean lots of different circuits but one or two sould be easy along with adding some novelty to the toy.

Hey, can you elaborate on the LDR? I'm not sure what that is, besides what you said about it working when you put your hand over them. I tried looking on Jameco, but I guess I'm looking in the wrong spot. Great idea!

 

[Krumlink]

I would also include some Blinky lights too. some Flashing LEDs are easy to hook up. Make sure you stay within the specs of the voltage.

 

[Andy1845c]

Hey, can you elaborate on the LDR? I'm not sure what that is, besides what you said about it working when you put your hand over them. I tried looking on Jameco, but I guess I'm looking in the wrong spot. Great idea!

An LDR is a Light Dependant Resistor or photocell. While the idea suggested would be cool, its going to complicate the project greatly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoresistor