Inside a Bumble Ball - with schematic
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- Опубликовано: 25 авг 2024
- The circuitry in this toy was more sophisticated than I was expecting. Mainly for safety and electrical interference reasons.
These were apparently first marketed as a dog toy, then evolved to become a kids toy too.
The construction is mechanically quite complex to allow activation of a free spinning assembly inside the ball. The circuitry has lots of protection for overcurrent if the motor stalls, and its notable that as the current increases the voltage at the source (negative) connection of the MOSFET will rise, potentially acting as current regulation.
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#ElectronicsCreators
When you took the battery cover off, I imagined the thing start running and batteries flying all over the room. I couldn’t stop laughing.
Simp detected
@@AllahDoesNotExist go touch grass, you clearly need it
@@AllahDoesNotExist?
@@AllahDoesNotExist edgyyyyyy 🙄
Well there you have it, kids (of all ages) prefer toys that explode all over the place. I have to say, I was slightly disappointed the gears didn't fly out everywhere 😃
This brought back memories, a colleague at the RNIB had a new Guide Dog and we had one of these in the toy library and we sacrificed it for the amusement of the dog. She would walk around the office with it in her mouth head vibrating wildly.
😂
That must have been FUNNY to see! The dog's head, ears, whole body vibrating! Sounds like the dog really liked it too.
I know you mean the dog, but there _are_ two ways to read that 😅
A dog brain massager.
@@jimsvideos7201You mean, the dog was the “her”? Huh, I must’ve read it the other way. 😅
I’ve only ever seen one child interact with those toys. It scared the poo out of him and he threw it in the lake. We all fell about laughing. Little man was quite proud of himself for having smited the evil thing.
Some things never change, I had a "Brainy Bug" around 1957 and it scared the crap out of me. It was a lighted animated giant ladybug. I do believe I "killed" it as a child. The "brains" in the bug were purely mechanical but it was motor driven.
I've mostly seen them demo'd at toy stores but yeah i never liked the noise they made even as a kid.
I had one of these when I was a kid back in the 90s or so. I used to think it was the funniest thing in the world, no joke. The way it bounced around randomly on its own and the way it made my hands and arms feel all funny from the vibration was immensely entertaining.
@@stopasking968same
The staple of every KB Toys front of store display. Right next to the yapping dogs and staircase slides.
Memories...
When we went to the mall, my brother always wanted to visit K B Toys. I myself preferred Spencer Gifts, more grown-up stuff in there...
I can't believe they put so much engineering into a kids toy, that's a remarkable amount of protection.
Usually I roll my eyes when I see a CE mark on a toy. But I wouldn’t be surprised if this one actually is compliant. Clive also notes the lack of softeners, still present in a lot of imported toys.
Out of college I entered the defense sector, working at Raytheon in Rhode Island. There existed a sort of revolving door among the few nearby companies that hired engineers of various disciplines, including many of my friends. One such company in the mix was Hasbro in Providence. What intrigued me was the seamless transition of individuals who worked on military programs, delving into the intricacies of Radar, Sonar, Communications, and more, while feeling equally at home designing toys. As I recall, Hasbro did often push to reduce the component count to save pennies, but at the same time were focused on safety and meeting whatever applicable standards. It was evident that a major U.S. toy company, such as Hasbro, was vigilant about avoiding any negative publicity that could potentially cause harm.
Can’t have the kids lawyering up against your profits.
If one ever failed in an unsafe way (bearing in mind a baby can't run away if it overheats and starts smoking) then the retailer would crucified by the media and the manufacturer would be dropped by the retailers.
@@nickdee5764it's not really about the profits. It's about not hurting the kids to begin with.
My daughter (now 27) had one of these as a toddler. No one in the house can say where it came from, and we had no idea what it was, until I figured out it could be opened, bought batteries and....my mother in law nearly had a fit laughing at the bloody thing. What a weird toy! As in the beginning, we have no idea what happened to it, it just as mysteriously disappeared from the house...
... and reappeared on Clive's bench.
You know what they say, bumble balls only stay until the wind changes 😂
The one Bumble Ball whose vibrations ended up being _SO PRECISE,_ that it eventually created a wormhole, causing it to reappear at some unknown point in the universe... 😅
Also, initially, I *_somehow_* managed to misread "daughter" as "father"... Where halfway through your comment, became quite perplexed at HOW YOUNG your dad would've had to be when you were born if he is *only NOW* 27, for _you_ to be old enough to articulate this story so well!!
Mind you, this is all being computed in my head in a fraction of a second, but it sure got tied into a knot momentarily! 🤦♂️😅
There's a Dr. Who episode in there somewhere...
I think we know where it went... I suggest to take a look in the MIL's bedside drawers.
Electronics in that toy so well protected that even that Freudian slip cannot penetrate it.
I bet the PTC is also protection against kids pushing the button too often. Good for the motor and the parents!
Similar reasoning for the noise suppression. If Dad's laptop spontaneously reboots every time the kid activates the toy, the kid won't have the toy very long.
My eldest son had this as a lad. He adored it, made him cackle and belly laugh as a toddler. Who knew the tecbnology inside.
For the record..I changed the batteries often ,as it brought joy to the eventual 4 more sons I had. 😊
My nephews would have liked that as toddlers, I can imagine them running around chasing it.
Someone gave me and my younger brother one back in the day, but I was a few years older and ended up taking it apart at some point 😂
@@volvo09 Should we call you "Clive II" ?
Kids taking their toys apart is a good sign for the future.
@@user-gx6jb6wc5g Many a toy was sacrificed for my early education. You'll know if they have "the knack" when they start putting it together again.
I bought one of these for my little brother when he was a toddler.
He thought it was the greatest thing ever.
The shape seems reminiscent of a naval mine.
And if anything we're to go wrong electrically, let's say hypothetically because someone submerged it in water, it would become a naval mine.
@@jwalster9412 Nah, not enough lithium cells in there to do that.
...and some kid somewhere is crying in horror as they watch you perform an autopsy on what appears to be their beloved bumble ball
An autopsy on a bumble "boy" would be much worse. 🤣😂
The bumble ball used to send me screaming from the room. This is sweet sweet vengeance for 4 year old me.
@@limpport it's like it had a mind of its own
@@rodnyg7952 yes! It was that on top of how it suddenly goes 0-100% chaos
@@rodnyg7952just like furby
I had a bumble ball years ago, it even played the song “Wipeout” by the Safaris as it bounced around. This video took me back
I believe the capacitors on the motor also act to reduce the actual sparking, increasing the life of the motor brushes. A small capacitor on brushed motors was quite common a long time before anyone cared much about generating stray RF noise, though portable AM radios were more common back then.
It all started when I realised is more fun taking my toys apart, than it is playing with them. Thats how my journey into electronics started, and I never looked back❤
I used to have one of these, loved it and used it as often as any of my other toys. In my mind it had a rudimentary form of artificial intelligence as with enough coaxing and prodding it could navigate a maze of books, lego and other assorted childhood flotsam.
I don’t remember what it had inside exactly but it was nowhere near as complex as this, and had to be turned off after use. I remember rigging up a string to the switch so that I could hide it in a box and activate it remotely, much to the annoyance of my parents.
What a fascinating teardown and its just a children's toy. When you started I was just imagining a motor driving just an off weighted geared housing, then boooom!!!! EM suppression, circuit board, caps, resistors wow, great tear down Clive.
If I remember correctly I opened one of the first ones and that's how it was made.....
That looks nicely made for a change.
I wish I still had my 1st Gen Bumble Ball! The original was a few inches larger in diameter, it had a simple on-off switch with no timer, a battery pack (I can't recall if it was AAs or C cells...) and a huge 1/3rd radius lead counterweight. Mmm, lead... That rowdy sunovabitch would randomly proink itself a foot in the air without warning, and I'm still convinced that the obscene amount of headshots I took from that thing are the reason I struggle with math. LOL
That thing looks like a combination of an everlasting gobstopper and a naval mine.
"A term used in the Catholic church..." Oh Clive, you rogue!
20/30 odd years ago when "brushed" motors were the norm in the RC car/plane world, very common to see capacitors and Schottky diodes used this way. Anything to keep arcing of the brushes to a minimum, I suspect to try and eliminate radio signal interference.
Ahhhh, that makes sense. A brushed motor is how they're getting so much torque at low voltage. It's like a cheap electric drill.
You just know that someone, somewhere, has already been to Casualty with one of these rattling around in their arse.
Shudders
@@zebo-the-fat At the thought, or because of the Bumble Ball? :D
What the hell did I just read?
Thanks for that, I've now got to try to get cauliflower cheese off the keyboard.
What a mind blower.. your video brought back this long forgotten toy.
I had one of these back in the 70's. Although they were certainly much bigger back then
and didn't "time out" which is probably an added feature by the modern health and safety worriers
of our modern times. I have no idea as to what happened to mine. There's a good chance that I
disassembled it and later threw it out.
I HAD A BUMBLE BALL. The teardown I didn't know I needed.
Great to see you have reached over a million subscribers. Well deserved Clive. Great content as usual.
Earlier versions of these were also used as alien props in 'The Fifth Element'. (When the two stoners were clearing out the space cruiser). Peace All
Yeah, they kinda let the film down with the costumes there too. Fishermans waterproofs and tool belts.
I wonder how many parents who do change the batteries just force the screws back in and strip more of the plastic each time.
Probably most of them - surprisingly few people know how to properly re-drive self-tapping screws into plastic (PSA: turn slowly counter-clockwise until it clicks back into the old thread). This is a prime example where a threaded insert should be used.
@@ChindoCaine somebody is a Fan of Franlab, as am I 😀
@@ChindoCaineI used to repair printers and would always teach that to people because nothing angered me more than stripped plastic threads...
Especially with self tapping screws.
The amount of circuitry is truly amazing!
Clive such a nice video. Who would have thought there would be such circuitry.
Once worked in a pitch black warehouse yard at night.
In a country area so no light pollution and local church graveyard was only some 200 meters away.
Double deck trailers arrived with boxes of toys loose packed on the top deck.
These were pushed off onnto ground below , to be palletise and sorted. The impact caused any toys like this to activate.
So in the pitch black of night one often heard weird noises.
Some like a cackling witch voice or the Chucky dolls allways had hair on back of necks standing up.
i LOVED these things as a kid...first time actually seeing it on a simple push button timer...i remember them being this hard to use on and off switch, always having to hand it to my grandfather (god rest his soul) to turn it on and off for me haha!
My sisters kids had one of these at least 20 years ago and it would pause periodically and giggle obnoxiously.
OMG we'd drive a friend's dogs absolutely crazy with these things! They had hardwood floors too LOL! Ours also had a speaker in them and would do this eerie munchkin laugh while bouncing. And, me being me, discovered if the power switch is in between the OFF and ON positions just right, it would only do that laugh repeately and never bounce (so we could leave it in that "Easter egg mode" for hours without draining the batteries). We creeped out some jerk neighbor kids with that one night 😈
That thing is really well built for such a simple toy. All screws, no glue or clips, and not skimping on the electronics either.
When they first came out in the nineties, we brought one for our eldest( she was 2yrs old at the time) for Xmas . Set it off in the hallway and she ran,screaming in the other direction. Bloody thing terrified her 😂😂😂
I had a similarly-constructed ball (but without rubber feet, just a ball) with a slim, long hairy little rag with button eyes attached. THe battery pack actually also had a few metal rods in it for extra weight. And that thing was supposed to look like that rag thingy was a little animal playing with the ball, although it was in reality the ball that played with the rag thingy.
In the very early 1980's there was a weird spinning disk toy made from heavy plastic and two nylon strings. You twisted it around a good few times and then pulled outwards on the strings. The effect was to spin the disk which rewound the strings. You could keep it going, getting faster and faster if you were suitably coordinated. The disk itself had some lights a bit of circuitry and a couple of batteries inside. When you had it spinning fast enough a weight inside was centrifugally (centripetally?) pressed against a spring switch and caused the lights to begin flashing. Very cool!!!
Unfortunately they were shoddy made and frequently when their operator got them going _really_ fast the weight of the batteries caused the plastic to fail and the whole thing exploded into the child's face with drastic results... I recall 'Watchdog' or its precursor had a VERY SERIOUS TALK with the British Public about them.
This thing brought that experience to mind!
My son had this when he was a baby! He used to hold it in his arms and his chubby little belly would jiggle 😂
Just a few weeks ago I was givng an explanation to my friends about the amazing toy (the Bumble Ball) I had as a kid. They had a good laugh (and I, a shock) when we looked it up, only to find out it was made for dogs! Thanks Clive, for confirming I didn't simply receive a dog toy for Christmas one day.
Everlasting Gobstopper
Gave one of these to our son when he was a toddler.... scared the crap out of him but the dog loved it - memories of a very soft affectionate dobermann running around the house with it in her mouth, ears and jowls flapping all over the place 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I remember them being a big thing back in the 90s, never had one, but they were always in the Argos catalogue, had I actually been given one as a child, I'd have probably taken it to bits because I'd be too curious as to how the heck it worked... :P
Same here, it was below my age range so I took it apart. :)
I lost it at the the Bumble boy / catholic church comment @ 9'25'' - hilarious
Nice surprise to see this, I bought 2 for the kids this Christmas and they both love it! Glad to see it’s got some decent internals!
Holy crap, I need to get this for our dogs! They would go mental if they saw this!
My toddler pointed at your thumbnail, so the design of the toy is quite effective!
My daughters loved the bumble ball and Daddy ( me) did replace the batteries. 😊
If you're looking for interesting toys to disassemble, (and possibly unable to reassemble) check out the old Armatron toy from the 80s. A robot arm with six degrees of motion controlled by two joysticks that can be twisted. All powered by a single toy motor, and an ungodly amount of gearing. No electronics to speak of, but the mechanical operation is a pretty amazing feat for an old children's toy.
"the child is going to have learn to expect explosions." LOL
Dogs toy > kids toy...pretty much interchangeable :)
As my school work experience I repaired particle accelerator components and nobody there had your mesmerizing voice! So much so mosfet is now my favorite piece of electronics! You make it sound like a race of fae!!😊
lol. i couldn't stop sniggering when you called it a 'bumble boy' for a second time right at the end.
I haven't seen one of these in years, probably two decades lol
Wow. always thought it was just an offset weight, not the whole mech an battery!
That's how my mind justified the fixed push button working. I have a kind of X-ray sense for boards and mechanics that works even before taking a things apart. As I'm Clive-old, I also say 'Wow' sometimes opening seemingly simple designs..
The designers sure have alot more faith in that battery holder to keep working under vibration than I would, especially when the contacts begin to corrode from atmospheric moisture or battery seepage.
The one I took apart about 10 years ago did just have an offset weight on the motor. No timing chip either, just a slide switch
Looks like it could be used for shaking spray paint saving your wrist or attached to a mold table to help remove the air bubbles from the mold, or even for candle makers, removing the air bubbles from the wax.
I feel this toy explains the generations that had to play with it.
8:52 Nah, it's a 135 amp, 1 volt component. It says so right on the package! 🤣
We had one of these as kids in the 90s, It looked exactly the same but darker colors
I had one of these that we got from Cracker Barrel waaaaaaaaay back in the day. My American Eskimo *loved* to chase it. Fast forward 10 years and I showed it to my shiba inu... I'd never seen her run so fast in my life. 🤣
Hope you're talking about dogs !
Scared my cat! Nicely built and I like the EMI suppression.
It needs some kind of contact or proximity sensor to properly amuse the cat, so the cat could see how long it could stalk without setting it off.
@@davidg4288 sounds like a cool hack.
The excessive protection may be due to the motor constantly cycling between heavy and light(occasionally maybe negative) load, which may be throwing nasty transients onto the power feed that would cause annoyance to the stability of the onboard electronics.
I am not 100% sure the motor would see a negative load from when gravity pulls down the pack on the occasion that the axle is perpendicular to gravity so that the motor to pull directly against gravity on one half and brakes against gravity on the other half of the rotation of the pack. What I am sure of is that the amperage and feedback are going to be swinging all over the place as the motor loads and unloads, mostly when the axle is not oriented parallel to gravity but also when there is solid resistance to motion of the toy in one direction and less resistance in the other direction.
It's a real-time clock away from being an alarm clock of the sort to be banned under the Hague Conventions.
My kids loved it and so did my pets.
That's crazy circuitry ... Very nice.😊
Put this on your snare drum for your avant garde jazz solo.
I totally forgot about those. I had one as a kid. But mine just had a button, pressed is on, pulled is off.
I remember that, its old school! Thanks for breaking it down
I had one of those as a child. My dog loved it and figured out how to work the little switch with her teeth.
Have you um ...... "tried it out", Clive? I like how it moves, just imagine that in the right places 😃
How refreshing to see actually well-thought-out schematics' and with so much RF protection too! Thanks for sharing the video. 👍
✅ - I remember this as a toy when I was a child, I even remember dad taking it apart to help me replace the batteries
We had them here in the US about 20 years ago and called a Giggly Wiggly. On/Off was not limited to a duration of time - it kept running until you pushed the switch again. Very soft vinyl nubs. They were marketed as a dog toy. Unfortunately it was too much for my jack russel. It became obvious that it was bad for the mental heath of my dog. Far too over stimulating. It was either going to be a mental breakdown or a heart attack. If you could turn it off with a remote control it would have been ok but as long as it was running, Sprocket was insanely convinced that he had to kill it and protect everybody else from it.
Busy little children bumble about like bees having a bumble ball.
"Bumbleboy" is actually a Marvel character: an Insect-powered mutant and member of the X-Men in the future
I bought my daughter one of the original of that toy over 30 years ago! Wow! Did I get in trouble... 🤣
Tom Paxton wrote a song about a similar toy he called the song "The Marvelous Toy". Brings back tearful memories.
I worked in the toy industry for many years. Years ago(1984) in an area that was away from the big names was an innovation area that drew little foot fall. I talked to an elderly gentleman that was promoting his Jumping Ball. I think I was the only person that spoke to him.
His design and concept was eventually bought by Hasbro.
Lets face most kids are animals so from dog toy to human toy is not a great leap. 🤣🤣
I bet Bad Dragon will be using the motor vibration system in thier toys. 👀 very interesting thing 2x👍
That's gonna ramp up the intensity for onlyfans content creators!
OMG imagine one of them motors in one of their XL 'toys' 😳
The mind boggles...... as would certain other parts 🤣🤣🤣🤣
How many of these have been surgically removed in A+E?
I remember these being at K•B Toys when I was kid, almost 25 years ago!
That thing is realy well made for a toy
*_Aola_* would be a really pretty girls name... At least in my opinion 😊
Also, I wonder if that could've been made without ICs, save for the PTC and what was soldered directly to the motor, by using a wind-up clockwork setup (no different than an Egg Timer)??
Pushing the outer button winds it up, which a cam gear pushes down on a contact switch and powering the motor, which once the timer runs its course will rotate the cam lobe enough to break contact, cutting the power.
Hilariously, I wouldn't be surprised if that would cost *more* to manufacture, due to the gears and clock spring! 😅
Hats off on them using the entire inside bits as the counterweight; QUITE brilliant! I did *not* expect that!!
Which I imagine that actually _helped_ in making it's movements more erratic, vs using a traditional shaft-mounted weight...
"🎶Bumble around with the Bumble Ball, baby,
Bumble bumble bumble around!
Silly little ball and I don't mean maybe,
Makes you laugh when you pick it up or put it down!🎶"
I'll hold out for AREOLA semiconductors.
Ms Mad Lemon laughed quite hard at the old video game company Ariolasoft.
Woah I had one of these as a kid, green ball, with highlighter trio bumps. I also took mine apart, great to see it basically hasn't changed. This is something I had completely forgotten about till I saw this video. man. good stuff.
These contraptions have existed for at least three decades, as I remember my brother and sister (now in their late 20s) having one as toddlers. I don't recall if it turned itself off after a certain time period or if it just jumped across the floor until somebody caught up to it and turned it off. Clearly one of the better designs, if you can stil buy them!
The fact that I find that level of interference suppression and stall protection surprising suggests I'm far too used to the sorts of absolute barebones designs used by modern consumer goods - it's definitely refreshing to see a piece of plastic tat that's actually got some level of care in the design for once
Using the batteries as a counterweight makes me wonder how well it'd work if someone used cheapo ZnCl cells, as they don't weigh anywhere near as much as decent Alkalines!
My goodness! Funny video today! Thanks for the giggles. That church comment had me rolling.
using the batteries as a counterweight is really clever but i guess it'd be hard to put them anywhere else
I've wanted to see one of those things dressed up like something else. I don't know what, I'd rather be surprised but I'm sure the mechanism could fit inside all sorts of non-suspicious devices.
The offspring had one of these years ago, loved it!
"The child is simply going to have to learn to expect explosions" 🤣
Nice of Clive to sacrifice his toys for us.
Dang, this brings back memories of a red and yellow one I had as a kid.
Wow, a well designed and manufactured piece of plastic tat!
Clive with his Bumble Boys, how can we trust him from now on. :P
More complex than I expected!
I had loads of these as a kid, along with the orange and purple ball with furry squirrel like bit attached that would roll about, dismantled and reassembled many a time!
Now you just KNOW I'm giggling my butt off with "Bumble Ball" and "Bumble Boy"!
Been there, done both!
ROFL
>> falls giggling
😅😂🤣🎉😁🌈
That remark at 1:00 is too true. I've met quite a few families that had one of these in their home but I really only remember one that actually worked. In fact, I remember one that was designated to the duties of a bath toy.
I only ever bought one and it worked perfectly, although that was 20+ years ago. When the nippers hold it "bumbling" they don't know what to make of it.
How refreshingly safe!
"It will be a journey of discovery, in children's toys." Need documentaries segments on this channel. Discoveries in Toys.