When I was very young, my grandpa made me a toy which consisted of a project enclosure, some buttons, some LEDS, and a couple batteries. The lights lit up when you pressed the switches, and it was my favorite toy ever. Now, I’d like to create a new one for my 1 year old nephew. I’m looking on ideas for cool little things I can add to it to make it more exciting.
A few restraints: I’d like to avoid using a microcontroller, since it raises the project complexity/cost and would go largely unnoticed by a 1 year old. The toy also should default to an off state without needing a power switch; buttons and switches will make things happen, but when he crawls off to play with something else, I don’t want the batteries draining. Finally, the buttons need to be baby safe!
So, any cool ideas or products I could add in? I’ve got buttons and LEDs now, and may pick up the arcade joystick and wire it into something. I considered adding a speaker, but I’d have to wire together some sort of tone generator. Thoughts?