robothut Posted November 4, 2018 Share Posted November 4, 2018 There have been a few designs for the Sonicon toys, but the early Electro mechanical ones "no IC's or transsistors, or microphones" versions are my favorite. A few images of the sonicon toys. The system works by using a Helmholtz resonator. This is a tuned enclosure, think of a drum. Then add two electrical contacts that can freely open and close in a way that if the resonator were to receive a sound that is in tune with it the two contacts would vibrate. The two electrical contacts control a DC relay, so if no sound is present the contacts keep the relay ON and if the electrical contacts vibrate then the relay will turn OFF as a DC relay does not like fast switching control signals. The relay can then be used to turn a drive motor ON or OFF or in the case on Sonicon toys it can be used to reveses the direction of motor rotation. If the motor runs one direction then the toy moves forward, if the motor runs the other direction the drive wheel unit rotates to a new direction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted November 4, 2018 Author Share Posted November 4, 2018 US2995866.pdfUS3444646.pdfhere are some PDF patent files for the electro mechanical designs. US2995866.pdf US3444646.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted November 4, 2018 Author Share Posted November 4, 2018 And as the years went buy they all changed from electro mechanical to electronic control. One of the first was a Dog that would respond to sound and it used a microphone and transistor / relay circuit. It has a 9 volt battery for the electronics and 2 D cells for the motor's. Then came the units like you will find in the TOBOR robot , a crystal earphone is used as a MIC and a SCR is used as the gain stage and motor drive. Now days a small condenser MIC and IC circuits are used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted November 4, 2018 Author Share Posted November 4, 2018 Here are some pictures of the guts of a Sonicon Buss. You can see the Helmholtz resonator on the right side. It has a plastic vent cap to protect the floating electric contact's. You can see the floating contacts with the blue plastic cover removed. and a back view of the resonator opening. You can see that the resonator is mounted so that it can be angled. This is a way to adjust the sensitivity of the floating contacts. You can also see the relay mounted on top the 2 D cells battery box. The motor drive unit is sealed and up front. It uses ratchets to control if the unit drives forward or rotates the drive unit to a new direction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted November 18, 2022 Author Share Posted November 18, 2022 Since the Alphadrome site no longer links the PDF files here are 2 of the images. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now