Add Headphone Jack to Bop It and Toggle On/Off Primary Speaker

My first Bop It not only had the distinct honor of being my favorite toy, one that I played with every day for hours while pacing around the house in a concentrated trance, but also held the honor of being my parents' least favorite toy.  Why would such an amazingly fun toy make my parents want to bop their own brains in?

"BOP IT!  TWIST IT!  PULL IT! TWIST IT!  TWIST IT!  TWIST IT!  TWIST IT!"
"IMMA COME TAKE THAT BOP IT AND DESTROY IT IF I HEAR ONE MORE PEEP FROM IT!"

Bop It had no "silent mode," no way to plug in headphones or make it such that one person, alone, could play it without the whole room knowing that he was about to twist it again.  As a small child this didn't bother me at all, but as a 22 year old with a recent Black Friday $10 Bop It, living in a college dorm has necessitated a more subtle Bop It.  That is why I felt it necessary to install a headphone jack and devise a way to mute the primary speaker.

What you start with
Bop It with
-  no headphone jack
- Twist It, Pull It, Bop It, Shout It

What you end up with after mod
Bop it with
- headphone jack that always outputs Bop It instructions
- Twist It, Pull It, Bop It, and NO Shout It
- Shout It slider turns primary speaker On/Off

NOTE - This mod disables Shout It mode by re-purposing it to turn on/off the primary speaker.  This is ok because a)  Shout It mode is stupid and b) if you're concerned with making your Bop It quieter by including a headphone jack, Shout It mode is probably not something you're interested in.

Step 1: What You'll Need

Necessary
- Bop It - $20.47 on Amazon
- 1/8" (3.5mm) stereo headphone jack - $2.99 for two at RadioShack
- 1 kOhm resistor - $0.99 for five at RadioShack
- Soldering iron/solder
- Wire strippers
- High gauge braided wire
- Small phillips screwdriver
- Drill with 1/4" bit
- Pliers (or fingertips of steel)

Recommended
- Fine tipped tweezers for wire management and holding wires while soldering
- Electrical tape/hot glue to insulate solder joints

Comments

[Lithium Rain]

Awesome. I've wondered how to do exactly this!

[1ofakindwork]

I wonder if instead of the resister, could you just use headphones with volume control...This way you can select you volume...You could also use a potentiometer with variable resistors to control the loudness....I'm thinking of trying this on my own project. I'm new to all this, but nice job!

[christop]

Hi jzzsxm, instead of repurposing a switch to disable the speaker, you could use a headphone jack with a built-in switch. When you plug headphones in, the switch opens automatically, and you can use that to disable the speaker.

I couldn't find this type of jack at RadioShack, so you would have to buy one from somewhere else (eg, Jameco, Digikey, or Mouser). Here's the one that I ordered recently for a project:

https://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=10001&productId=1766147