Originally published at: Watch kids' toys go haywire when plugged into high-voltage power supplies | Boing Boing
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(lawyers frantically rewriting the safety section to include not hooking toy up to higher voltages than what the unit was designed for and denying all liability or responsibility for injury)
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12V is high voltage now? USB power really has changed the world.
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It appears that the audio modules give up and die pretty quickly as the voltage rises. I’m curious whether the continued movement means that the motor controllers are more tolerant; or just that there aren’t any motor controllers and mechanical trickery is used to make ‘run all the time’ the correct behavior for the motor.
Also, is anyone else deeply puzzled by the market for ‘bee-stung dog’? Sticking a magnetic bee to a toy dog to trigger its fairly convincing cries of pain doesn’t seem like something any child you’d want to buy toys for would enjoy.
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Thre’s also the second issue:
Basically most of these contraprions have a simple motor and a set of cams to make the stuff move and a little IC that it’s used to play tunes. All made with cheap plastic. When they are overvolted the mechanical parts work until they self disassembles. I’m a bit concerned that a bored kid it’s going to disasseble the toys without increasing the voltage but simply by percussive means.
Really I think that all of these things aren’t exactly to left to an usupervised kid. I also could understand why that Tomas the tank engine toy was made. I’ve seen the price of a standard O-gauge or HO-gauge model, and prices are quite high, not for a cheap birthday toy…
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“Where does he get those wonderful toys?”
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That torture-a-puppy-with-a-bee “toy” is pretty disturbing at any voltage, including the “correct” one.
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AA batteries that power most of this type of toys are 1.5V and have been around longer than anyone here, so not really a surprise the toys are designed for low voltage. 
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Nah, battery powered toys have typically operated on 6V input (4x alkaline batteries in series), though 3-12V is probably more accurate. Nothing with electronics in it will want more than 5-6V unless it has a step-down converter geared for those higher voltages. You can see that by how literally every thing that plays a song or similar stops doing so at 8 or 10V, as that’s when the electronics die - but DC motors can handle a wide range of voltages (given adequate cooling).
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TIL. AAs are older than me gran
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“In East Germany, the outlets are 220v…”
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Perhaps JAMA could provide a pier reviewed study to help me understand why this is funny. Except for the bee on dog face toy, no idea why any toy designer would think that would be amusing.
Why does “My First Anaphylactic Reaction Puppy” even exist? That’s disturbing to watch all by itself.
But to teach a child to intentionally harm the dog by voluntarily placing a bee on its face is horrifying! That’s like a Marquis de Sade training kit!
Somebody please tell me these were made for licensed therapists to use to teach children not to hurt animals.
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Previously:
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My wife would like to borrow this power supply, but she won’t tell me why.
something something cruelty being the point
Reminds me of a transforming car-robot toy I had as a kid, that was supposed to drive as a car, transform into a robot, walk a bit, and then transform back into a car and repeat. It had a compartment for 2 AA batteries, so 3 volts. I noticed that it didn’t have the usual plastic separating the two battery sides, and that the compartment for 2 AA is about the same size as a 9 volt battery.
I got to see what a Transformer screaming in pain looked like, lights fading from its eyes, as it emitted smoke and was eternally still, before going to the theater in 1986.
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USB-c can change that
USB-C power supplies always support 5 V and some are limited to that, but support for higher voltages is where it’s at. The usual voltage steps of USB-C are 5 V, 9 V, 15 V and 20 V ; 12V support is optional and is more of a convention. These steps are referred to as SPR, and EPR adds 28 V, 36 V and 48 V steps into the mix – for up to 240 W; necessitating new cables, but being fully backwards and forwards compatible, and fully safe to use due to cable and device checks that USB-C lets you perform.
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“I understood that reference.”
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