Hand-cranked Toy Piano Hack Keeps the Tunes Coming Forevermore

Energy & Sustainability Fun & Games Music Technology
Hand-cranked Toy Piano Hack Keeps the Tunes Coming Forevermore

Hand-cranked Toy Piano
When a battery operated device runs out of juice, most of us reach for a fresh pair of AA’s. But when his daughter’s electronic toy piano had drained its batteries, Dominik instead installed a hand-cranked dynamo to power the instrument ad infinitum. He hacked apart an Ikea flashlight to co-opt its cranked generator and installed it inside his daughter’s plaything. Now a little bit of elbow grease keeps the tunes coming while saving the environment and a little bit of money to boot. Not only that, but he also used the remaining parts from the flashlight to upgrade a vintage bicycle light. It doesn’t get much more resourceful than that, folks! [via Ikea Hacker]

12 thoughts on “Hand-cranked Toy Piano Hack Keeps the Tunes Coming Forevermore

  1. Anonymous says:

    This idea was heavily played on in the movie Pandorum. The ultimate prize would be integrating this into a laptop or more realistically an ipad type device.

    1. VRAndy says:

      I’ll bet you could easily make a hand-cranked Kindle.

      1. Anonymous says:

        Please do, it has to be integrated into the body and efficient, otherwise none will use it.

      2. Chris Roach says:

        It might be easier to build a separate hand-cracked USB charger. With something like a kindle or ipad, form factor and weight are major design considerations. To add a dynamo and crank handle would be slightly absurd.

  2. Anonymous says:

    This is a great idea, I was disgusted to find my sons Angry Bird plush toy was designed so you cant change the battery, it took a scalpel and needle and thread to replace: http://www.whatifixedtoday.com/bzl

  3. VRAndy says:

    This is a good idea!  Why don’t they make toys like this?  You’d think it would be a good selling point.

Comments are closed.

Discuss this article with the rest of the community on our Discord server!
Tagged

Matt Richardson is a San Francisco-based creative technologist and Contributing Editor at MAKE. He’s the co-author of Getting Started with Raspberry Pi and the author of Getting Started with BeagleBone.

View more articles by Matt Richardson

ADVERTISEMENT

Maker Faire Bay Area 2023 - Mare Island, CA

Escape to an island of imagination + innovation as Maker Faire Bay Area returns for its 15th iteration!

Buy Tickets today! SAVE 15% and lock-in your preferred date(s).

FEEDBACK