HISTORY / INFO:
This was my sixteenth bend. I decided that I wanted to try to do some painting on a
project and figured that the Talk N Learn was something that would be a good candidate.
It was sone of my earlier bends. While I was happy at the time
when I first bent this toy, I had also learned alot
more and knew a little bit more about what I was doing. I was also being a cheap-skate at
the time as well. And I knew that I had a DPDT toggle in there that was really only
acting as a SPST. So, there were alot of reasons to choose this one for a remodification.
The first thing I did was attach some potentiometers to the same points as the body contacts. I guess I could have found the pitch resistor and replaced that, but I opted not to do that. I actually added to pots, one large one and a smaller one for 'fine tuning'. Since I did't replace the original resistor, there is a threashold where it reaches rock bottom and then starts going back up, even though you are still turning the pot in the same direction. Oh well. Keeps me on my toes.
One other cool thing that I noticed when toying around with it, it that the Y ans Z button turn into touch sensitive 'scratch pads' when in music mode. The 'Try' button does as well but it isn't as sensitive as the others and pretty much goes straight to warp mode, whereas the Y and Z buttons will pitch up more the harder you push. Not sure what's going on in there, but it sounds cool, so I don't really care.
After making the extra modifications, I sanded down all the pieces with the exception of the letters piece. I then painted the pieces either black or red. The red spray paint cost me a whole wopping 99 cents from Big Lots. Seemed to work out ok, though it came out with a flat look. The black was flat black, so in the end it all worked out. I think maybe a layer or two of satin finish would have been nice to add since I've already managed to put a couple small nicks in the paint job. *shrug*
PRE-MODIFICATION PICTURES:
MODIFICATIONS:
1) (old bend) Pitch up and pitch down body contacts
2) Pitch up and pitch down potentiometers - This is new for the version 2.0 upgrade.
A toggle switch turns on and off the pots. Goes from insanely fast to a daeth crawl.
3) (old bend) Vocal squeal - When the toy is in vocal mode, it emits a horrendous
squeal. It's horrifying and I still wonder why I hooked it up. But it can be
interesting when used in combination with the pitch potentiometers.
4) (old bend) glitch - When the toy is in music mode, it emits a a weird phaser
kind of sound. Then in voice mode it emits clicking sounds.
5) (old bend) 1/4" phono audio out - I yanked this pre-fabbed audio out from an
old 200 watt amplifier which only had a left channel. Since it wasn't made for
panel mounting, I super glued a round, hollow piece of plastic to one side and the
screwed it into place. Another butcher job. I was still not willing to fork out $3
for 3 audio out. I regret it now, but I am certain that every bender goes through
this phase (and some are still in this phase!)
POST-MODIFICATION PICTURES:
front view
SOUNDS:
small-talknlearn-v2.mp3
- Small sample of me going through all the bbends on this little machine.
FUTURE MODIFICATIONS PLANNED:
Not sure if I have any at the moment. I think I've done all that I want to with this
one. Not that it can't be bent more. There have been others who have found some other
interesting things, but I'm happy with what I have. It's not one of my major items
and was more of an experiment to
Last Modified: April 24, 2006