My first TI Speak and ... toy turned out to be the the Super Speak and Spell. Piecked it up for a couple of bucks at the Goodwill.

The Hex screws holding the case were a pain in the ass. I couldn't get them undone so with the help of my handy dandy tabletop drill press I just dripped them out. Recasing this Unit will the final step. Besides there is not a lot of room for components to begin with in the orignal case.

The first big problem with bending these is the damn diode or fuse that keeps goes out the minute you try any crossings of the pins.

After a few minutes of troubleshooting the component was found and jumped as seen in the picture. The fuse that I used was a .34Amp one, it kept getting blown so I just jumped the connection and was done with it.

It may be just be but I couldnt for the life of my find any bends that are simular to previous talking toys like the Talking teacher or Touch and Tell. I haven't bent the original speak but it seems that those are a lot easier to work with. Most of the bends on the Super Speak produce about a short burst of garbled up noises after which the unit promptly crashes. Never to less by carefully playing with a low resistance pot ( about 15k or less. Most of the connections are considered open is the resistance value is about 100Ohms. Not Kohms. )

With this in mind I've began a different approach to this Unit. A simple 555 Timer and a relay IC are used to switch the connection on momentarily and a variable rate with variable duration times.

Here is a shot of the board pretty much before I started. Once bends are found, I will post another shot.

So far the Unit produces nice computer noise random tones at variable speeds. Very cool. Also when the Unit is in the crash mode other bends change up the random noises without crashing the unit this time. Sounds are nice and meaty, a lot of bass.

The bends tend to work in pairs. Once shorted they glitch the unit out before it crashes. The who idea for this unit is to have a 555 timer with a relay shorting these various connections.

Time to recase this. I figured that for my purpose the keypad will have to be added later on. The case is perfect shape for the innards of the super speak and spell.

After going nuts with the drill press this is what ended up happening to the case. Many patch points and 3 pots. Also instead of cutting the square screen hole I decided to just do something more decorative.

Looks alright hopefully I'll be able to mount some LEDs tomorrow and add a glow to the inside. The rest of the unit is basically wiring everything together and crossing my fingers in hope of a successful unit.

All said and done most of the holes were drilled out and ready.

555 Timer and relay setup. One set of blue connectors uses Pulse the other set is a relay patch point.

Circuit Jammed in there and all the wires hotglued in place. Always make sure to test things before using copious amounts of glue to secure. Sucks having to disassemble all the solder points.

Battery pack

Very first shots.

The red LED turned out to be extra bright. Almost trippy. Creates a strobe effect at certain frequencies that screws up your vision.

Final construction finished.

Battery pack and shielding glued in. There is also a metal plate that goes over that so it looks really nice from the bottom. 4 rubber feet also added.

Internal Blue light added for a dramatic effect.

The operation of this unit turned out to be as expected. Random sequences of glitches and streams of rargly gook. Digital noise all on all. Definatelly enjoyable at the right settings.

Sound1

Sound2

Sound3

Sound4