Perusing the Parts List

Your biggest shopping decision for this project is what to place the project in. The hand puppet idea is nice because it’s hollow and has a personality, as opposed to using just a plain wooden box. However, you could technically put the insides of the project into anything. For example, you could cut open a stuffed toy, take out the stuffing, and put the project inside. Assuming you take our route and go with a hand puppet, though, pick out one that you like with enough room to fit the electronics enclosure and with openings that allow you to place switches in the hands, face, or other areas. We found one at a local toy store made by Sunny and Co. Toys, Inc., their item #GL1902. After you choose your housing unit, shop for the parts for the project itself, several of which are shown in the upcoming Figures 7-3 and 7-4:

figure 7-3

figure 7-4

10 kohm potentiometer (R8)

Two 33 kohm resistors (R6 and R7)

Five 1 kohm resistors (R1, R2, R3, R4, R5)

10 ohm resistor (R9)

0.01 microfarad ceramic capacitor (C6 and C7)

Five 1 microfarad tantalum or electrolytic capacitor (C1, C2, C3, C4, C5)

0.047 microfarad ceramic capacitor (C10)

Three 10 microfarad electrolytic capacitors (C8 and C9)

100 microfarad electrolytic capacitor (C11)

Battery pack for three AAA batteries We use three AAA batteries in this project to supply 4.5 volts. If we used a four-battery pack as we do in other projects, the supply voltage would be about 6 volts, above the maximum supply voltage allowed for the SpeakJet IC.

SpeakJet sound synthesizer IC1

You can find a list of distributors on the manufacturer’s Web site, www.speakjet.com.

LM386N-1 amplifier IC3 Of the many versions of the LM386 amplifier, we chose the LM386N-1 because it works with the supply voltage of 4.5 volts used by this circuit.

MAX232 driver/receiver IC2

SPST (single-pole, single-throw) slide switch, used as the on/off switch

830-contact breadboard

Eight 2-pin terminal blocks

Knob (for potentiometer)

8 ohm, 1 watt speaker

Three tactile switches (S1, S2, S3) Many of these tactical switches are very small; for example, a 6 mm × 6 mm switch is less than 1⁄4" square. We bought 12 mm × 12 mm switches (part #TS6424T2602AC) made by Mountain Switch at Mouser (www.mouser.com).

Enclosure We used Radio Shack part #270-10807.

Six phono plugs

Six phono jacks

DB9 female connector

There are about as many DB9 connecters out there as there are fish in the sea. We used RadioShack part #276-1538.

DB9 serial port cable

Four 1⁄2" 6-32 flathead screws

Four 6-32 nuts

An assortment of different lengths of prestripped, short 22 AWG wire