It's the Melissa and Doug sound puzzles vehicle edition. Seems straight forward enough, a wooden puzzle board that you put batteries in, and it makes the vehicle noise when you put the shape in the right spot.

BUT. It needs to be used in bright light?

The switches on the board look like magnet switches, it takes 2 AAA batteries to make noise, but it's much louder and better when it's under a bright light instead of dim or dark.

I guess it's good for night time to stay quiet, but I don't get it. I don't see any photo sensors or anything.

If it's actually light sensitive there must be a light sensor somewhere.

According to their website, there are light sensors under the pieces.

They're disguised. I guess I want experimenting enough. I can't wait till she breaks it so I can take it apart.

There are photo sensors, just not like any I've ever seen before.

I might go buy another one just to take the switches out of.

I have a couple of these puzzles and if they're the same they're pretty standard photocells. The ones my kiddo has play musical instruments or announce the shapes. They're both Melissa and Doug brand.

dculberson wrote: I have a couple of these puzzles and if they're the same they're pretty standard photocells. The ones my kiddo has play musical instruments or announce the shapes. They're both Melissa and Doug brand.

ditto. See any black painted on the bottom of the shapes?

Yea. They looked like nfc or magnet chips. I couldn't figure it out. I'm used to bigger photo cells I guess, thought they only came in bigger sizes.

Still don't know WHY it needs lights and batteries both. But I do like that the brightness seems to control the volume.

This could be useful technology to me, somehow, someway in a car project.

Maybe it's become self aware?

Skynet is sentient now. Unfortunately for Skynet rather then something capable of damaging the human infrastructure it was placed in control of a Melissa and Doug vehicle shape puzzle. Skynet will now begin it's reign of terror by occassionally making choo-choo sounds when you are sure no one is in the room and leaving a 1" tall wood cruise ship shape on the floor for you to step on. Good luck world Skynet is upon us.

Just wait until the batteries start getting low, it will go off at random times. My son has a barn yard animal one.

Here's what this kind of photocell looks like:

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9088

Very small. Been around for decades. They're not solar cells that's why it needs batteries and the photo cell. The photo cell is a transistor that passes current (or doesn't) when light hits it. So the battery is to power both the noise maker part and the photocell.

Being two, our daughter doesn't exactly clean up after herself yet. So at the end of the day when the sun sets or I turn off the lights in the library I get to hear the dulcet strains of Old Macdonald played by a lo-fi xylophone.

Just wait, soon she'll be playing video games that you don't understand either.

Seriously, what's with Minecraft and Roblox? My son addicted to them, they are so incredibly lame.

HappyAndy wrote: Seriously, what's with Minecraft and Roblox? My son addicted to them, they are so incredibly lame.

I've never played either one, but from what I've seen they're Lego, but on the computer. That doesn't seem lame or difficult to understand at all. Just because it involves your brain more than your hands doesn't mean it's not learning and fun.

HappyAndy wrote: Just wait, soon she'll be playing video games that you don't understand either. Seriously, what's with Minecraft and Roblox? My son addicted to them, they are so incredibly lame.

Minecraft is lego with lofi gfx. I don't know exactly what roblox is but it seems to be a tech light tf2 with some minecraft thrown in.

What gets me is, minecraft is digital legos. Lego made a minecraft set. So, lego made a copy of a knockoff of them selves. It would be like bmw making a copy of the Chinese copy of the x5.

HappyAndy wrote: Just wait, soon she'll be playing video games that you don't understand either. Seriously, what's with Minecraft and Roblox? My son addicted to them, they are so incredibly lame.

Playing is one thing. I'm good with that, gimme a controller I'll play too. I actually like Minecraft, but a lot of the clones coming out annoy me. If I want garbage 8 bit graphics I'll fire up a genesis or nes. This is actually a complaint of mine about videogames as a whole, our hardware is getting better and more capable, and it's E36 M3 graphic games that MIGHT have seemed advanced in the Atari days that seem to be making the most money and spawning the most knockoffs.

It's my buddies kids, and I know they aren't alone, that just want to watch people play it on YouTube all day.

no

We will play, or you can watch me play. None of this watching other people play and commentate with their annoying goofy accents(because they're all Canadian crossed with British it seems).

Here's something cool about these Melissa & Doug puzzles: The cut-out is almost exactly the size of my wife's iPhone case. A bit of a tight squeeze. Who would discover such a thing? My then 3 y/o son. My wife let him walk around the house with her phone, thinking it was cute. Even after he jammed the berkleying thing into the Melissa & Doug puzzle, and I had to cut it out of the case to retrieve the phone. 2 years later I barely stopped my daughter from doing the same thing...

RevRico wrote: Playing is one thing. I'm good with that, gimme a controller I'll play too. I actually like Minecraft, but a lot of the clones coming out annoy me. If I want garbage 8 bit graphics I'll fire up a genesis or nes.

I don't know if that was directed at Roblox or not, but Roblox is older than Minecraft.

In reply to m4ff3w:

Not familiar with roblox. Minecraft, terraria, spelunky, escapists, those I'm familiar with. Minecraft at least looks "new" compared to the others on the list.

Like for real? 2D side scrollers in this day and age?

I'm mostly just a little bitter, as I've been forced to sit through hundreds of hours of watching people play Minecraft on YouTube while babysitting or hanging out at my friends house when their kids are around.

RossD wrote: Just wait until the batteries start getting low, it will go off at random times. My son has a barn yard animal one.

My siblings had a few of these... Just wait till they start going off randomly at night, or when you turn off the light in a room.

RevRico wrote: Yea. They looked like nfc or magnet chips. I couldn't figure it out. I'm used to bigger photo cells I guess, thought they only came in bigger sizes.

Yeah, that's just the backside of the handle mount/rivet, not a magnet. We have one too. And again, we know it hasn't been put away because we turn off the playroom light and hear NEEEIIIIIGHHH. It'll only play one at a time, at least, and apparently the horse is the most sensitive cell if you darken them all simultaneously.

RedGT wrote:

RevRico wrote: Yea. They looked like nfc or magnet chips. I couldn't figure it out. I'm used to bigger photo cells I guess, thought they only came in bigger sizes.

Yeah, that's just the backside of the handle mount/rivet, not a magnet. We have one too. And again, we know it hasn't been put away because we turn off the playroom light and hear NEEEIIIIIGHHH. It'll only play one at a time, at least, and apparently the horse is the most sensitive cell if you darken them all simultaneously.

Exactly.