
Toy Roller Skater Switch Adaptation
A modification to a child’s toy to connect “Jelly Bean” type switches.
The Challenge
Jelly Bean switches provide a large visual and sensitive switch to help children who might otherwise struggle with fiddly and/or hidden buttons on toys, and modifications are often pretty straightforward and can be done by anyone with a little bit of skill with soldering iron.
There are quite a few switch adapted toys available off the shelf these days too, such as those sold by Inclusive https://www.inclusive.com/uk/hardware/switch-adapted-toys.html so REMAP doesn’t tend to do as much of this sort of work as we might have in previous years.
However, we were approached by a local assisted technology company who were struggling to switch adapt a particular toy for a young client of theirs. As soon as a Jelly Bean switch was added, the circuit would self-trigger – the likely cause being a combination of poor circuit design and electrical interference being picked up by the switch wiring.
The solution
The quickest and simplest solution was to use the Jelly Bean switches to activate reed relays wired closely to the circuit board of the remote control for the toy. Reed relays draw very little current – around the same as an LED – so this would not significantly impact the battery life. The remote control circuit board was re-housed in a project box alongside a new Vero circuit board holding the relays, and sockets added on the side for the six functions of the toy.
The benefit
This solution worked, and due to the number of the toy functions, would also lend itself to connection to AAC toy control switch boxes such as the BJ Toy Box.
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