Modify a See 'n Say So It Says Whatever You Choose

The Mattel See 'n Say is a classic educational toy designed to help toddlers become acquainted with language. It resembles a clock and contains several different images. By pointing the arrow at a picture and pulling the string, a toddler can hear what noise the pictured thing makes. Parents can purchase different varieties of the See 'n Say, containing everything from farm animal sounds to the alphabet. But the selection is fairly limited, so what is a parent to do when their kiddo learns every sound? They can follow John Park's guide to modify the See 'n Say so that it says whatever they choose.

The concept behind this project is easy to figure out: you're just replacing the original electronics with new electronics that allow you to load different audio clips. You can then print a different picture set to stick on the See 'n Say, so the images match up with the new sound clips. In practice, you can make your own custom See 'n Say with whatever pictures and audio clips you want. Even if you don't have kids, there is certainly some fun to be had here for adults. We envision a novelty version for bachelorette parties or birthday celebrations.

John Park works for Adafruit (one of our favorite maker suppliers), so this project obviously uses Adafruit components. Those include the new Adafruit KB2040 microcontroller development board (designed for keyboards), the Adafruit I2S Class D Amplifier, the Adafruit MiniBoost 5V charger/regulator board, and Adafruit's Perma-Proto Breadboard PCB. We really like that last component, because it it mimics the power rails of connected rows of a standard breadboard, which makes it a lot easier to connect your components to each other.

The build is straightforward when you understand what each component does. The MiniBoost provides power from a lithium battery pack to the KB2040 dev board, which stores the audio files. The See 'n Say's own PCB tells the KB2040 which position the user sets the arrow to and when they pull the string. When activated, the KB2040 plays its audio clip through the I2S amplifier, which then goes to the original See 'n Say speaker. The Perma-Proto board makes wiring easy. Finally, you can print a new illustration sticker using Brian Kesinger's awesome design.

Yes, this just about triples the cost of a new See 'n Say toy, but that is a small price to pay to unlock the totality of human language.