Toy Mods
Insufferable! Gah!!!
Toymakers, the lawsuits are gonna happen. You had better start making your toys quieter. I know you have to compete with other noisemakers on the store shelves, but you have gotten into a war of escalation that will result in damaged ears in our children and a devastating class action suit for you.
I have done toy mods before. The Leap Frog Fridge Farm Magnetic Animal Set also uses a 16 ohm 1/4 Watt speaker, so the resistor values and connections are exactly the same as before.
UPDATE: This toy has a dual-volume switch. I tested my mod with the volume setting high and it is now as loud as the low setting: still too loud. The low is just right. If I cut the loudness in half again, you won't be able to hear the low setting.
Solution? Disable the high volume setting. Well, that sounds easy, but this is a glop-top construction. I reverse-engineered the switch (a dual pole, dual throw - or DPDT) and found out that all I had to do was cut a trace on the circuit board. When the volume was set high, another circuit was added in. One trace cut later, and the high setting is the same as the low.
Toymakers, the lawsuits are gonna happen. You had better start making your toys quieter. I know you have to compete with other noisemakers on the store shelves, but you have gotten into a war of escalation that will result in damaged ears in our children and a devastating class action suit for you.
I have done toy mods before. The Leap Frog Fridge Farm Magnetic Animal Set also uses a 16 ohm 1/4 Watt speaker, so the resistor values and connections are exactly the same as before.
UPDATE: This toy has a dual-volume switch. I tested my mod with the volume setting high and it is now as loud as the low setting: still too loud. The low is just right. If I cut the loudness in half again, you won't be able to hear the low setting.
Solution? Disable the high volume setting. Well, that sounds easy, but this is a glop-top construction. I reverse-engineered the switch (a dual pole, dual throw - or DPDT) and found out that all I had to do was cut a trace on the circuit board. When the volume was set high, another circuit was added in. One trace cut later, and the high setting is the same as the low.