Switch Adapted Giggle Pig

by daveat

4.0K1510

Intro: Switch Adapted Giggle Pig

Switch adapted toys are expensive and the variety can be only determined by a few companies that essentially do what I have done here.   Although like many toys last only as long as the kids are interested in them.  As switch toys go this has it all for simple cause and effect.  The vibration, motion and auditory stimulation are great.  I have made lots,lots,lots of these and they fly off the shelves.  They can be great cause and effect play, interaction and therapeutic toys for training kids with different mobilities!

STEP 1:

For this Instructable you will need the following:
1. Drill with 1/4 inch or drill bit
2. Glue Gun
3 Soldering iron and solder
3. wire strippers and two peices of small guage wire
4 Jelly bean Switch or similar to test your work
5. small electronics sized phillips screw driver
6.  giggle pig, cow, dog or the like.
7. 1 female 1/8 ' mono jack port

STEP 2:

remove all screws holding the pig together , being careful not to separate connected power supply.  Now remove screws holding the blue vibration motor housing.

STEP 3:

now with the housing out of the way we need to unscrew the switch located under the nose

STEP 4:

here is the switch exposed when the black is depressed it activates.  we will be soldering two wires, 1 to each side.  (sorry its a bit blurry) the two orange wires are my wires I soldered on top of the existing blue ones.

STEP 5:

Now take the orange wires and solder them to the mono jack tabs as shown, typically I solder these to the two innermost tabs of the jack.  This may take some time to solder if you are unfamiliar with soldering techniques, however a third hand (small clamp) can be helpful here, I didn;t have mine during this one.

STEP 6:

Reassemble the blue housing and test your connection, be sure to take care with the existing wires which can be delicate.   Keep orange wires up and out of the way as you are reconnecting everything.

STEP 7:

I have found this area to be a good spot to drill your hole  to accept the jack ream the hole slightly bigger if it is tight.  When drilling the whole take care to not "punch through when a bit drills in plastic it tends to catchn and pull itself in which would not bode well for the electronics if you bust a hole through the board.

STEP 8:

ighten down the little nut on the jcak and reconnect the 4 screws to the top and your all set!! Enjoy  :  )

10 Comments

creid18 10 years ago

Hi thanks for taking the time and posting this article. I'm in the process of adapting some toys for my son who has brain damage. That switch looks ideal where can I get hold of them?
Many thanks chris

daveat 12 years ago

Shadowynd, That is is à exceptional response!! I tend to to on and on, with explanations!! À bit of dysgraphia.

daveat 12 years ago

I have never really kept count, but 60 that's awesome. I adapt alot of other stuff, sometimes to refresh the inventory in the library and sometimes for specific people/families

AssistiveTechnologyServices 12 years ago

We do toy adapting for all the local schools. We also do a lot of toys at Christmas. The AT center where I work has a lending library of switch-adapted toys (free) to the community. We also adapt toys for families throughout the year (also a free service).

daveat 12 years ago

How ironic as i operate an AT library, funded through the tech act, all of our AT is free to the public. So that even if you break your ankle you can come borrow crutches cane wheelchairs..whatever. Adapting the toys is both fun, and helps keep inventory fresh when i don't have grants coming in to buy new stuff.

sbrichie 12 years ago

What exactly is this supposed to do?

AssistiveTechnologyServices 12 years ago

This toy is normally turned on by pressing the nose (or the heart shaped jewel on its tummy, can't tell which). The problem is this means that someone needs a certain level of manual dexterity to do this. If you have a child with a disability such as cerebral palsy, they might not be able to hit a small target like that (e.g. hold the pig with one hand, press the button with the other). Such buttons are also difficult are for children with no hands or fingers or who have had a stroke.

Once a toy has been switch-adapted (as in this instructable), it can be turned on using any of a number of switches. Maybe the child can't press the little switch on the toy, but maybe they can press a switch that is 10" across. Maybe they can use a switch that they press by moving their head. Maybe they can twitch an eyebrow - there are switches that work with that. Point being, there are lots of different type of switches for various types of access. The industry standard is for such switches to terminate in a 1/8" male plug. This instructable shows how adapt a toy so that it can be controlled by such a switch.

benip90 12 years ago

This project is excelent, it not just children with dextrity problems
my daughter has probems activating her giggling cow resorting to throwing it on the floor or asking someone to press its nose

balloondoggle 12 years ago

Nicely made instructible!

I've been doing these mods for years for my daughter because the mark-up on the toys is ridiculous and the variety is slim, as you mentioned.

Keep it up!