Hey everyone!

I have a general question, seeing how you all would approach the problem:

My 2 year old son decided to rip off the shiny red LED from my 6502 board. How exactly he managed to do that so easily is beyond me (I wasn't around when it happened). Along with that, I find my electrolytic capacitors (the tall ones) wiggled about some at times, which isn't really great either.

How could I child-proof my *next* board? Are there certain practices that we/I could incorporate into the design to make it less sensitive to toddlers?

Here is an example or two:

1) Sometimes LED's have little notches on their pins that keep the LED from going completely through the holes. This allows it to bend a bit, but apparently I needed it tighter to the board, right?

2) Capacitors have super long leads, so I could theoretically let them out some and bend them 90 degrees and somehow strap it down to the board? Or are there fat, short capacitors that could replace my tall, thin ones? I'm talking about one 10uF and one 100uF capacitor at 5V, nothing serious.

I don't want to just stick it in an enclosure, the idea here is to make a new board more resistant to children, not just hide it away from children. Obviously if I just keep it out of reach, it would never get destroyed anyways. That's not my point here. So maybe not "child-proof" but "child-resistant"?

I haven't seen a need to worry about IC's, bypass capacitors, or resistors... yet.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Thanks everyone! [ Strange question, I know. ]

Chad

Over the years I exercised three protocols with perfect success. They did keep things out of destructive hands, so may not be what you are looking for.

1) I kept my stuff in a locked cabinet in the early days.

2) When my kids got a little older I built a separate room in the basement.

3) After my kids spent all my money going to university and had their degrees in hand I invited them to explore living by their own means.

#2 is not always an option but a buddy of mine portioned off a 4' x8' lab space for himself with two 4(ish)' benches in a large apartment living area by putting up temporary walls and door. Worked a charm.

Howa about SMT?

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Bill

I applaud your generous attitude. You do wanna assess the risk of harm, though. And maybe the risk is pretty small; I don't know. But for example I suppose a pulled-off LED could get swallowed.

But as far as "pulled-off" threats are concerned, I had the same thought as Bill: use Surface Mount parts!

-- Jeff

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In 1988 my 65C02 got six new registers and 44 new full-speed instructions!
https://laughtonelectronics.com/Arcana/ ... mmary.html

Well, kids will be kids.... part of their learning experience, i.e., touch, grab and mangle anything you have. Decades ago, my twins got interested in my turntable (still a vinyl junkie) while I was at work. Mom had better things to do apparently... thus ended the stylus on a new moving-coil cartridge and a slightly mangled tonearm. What followed was some education from my side and a stern look and firm attitude about certain things being off limits. Even at 2 years old, they got the message.

I would likely recommend you have "show and tell" with them and your projects... once they've seen them and watch the lights go on and off, chances are they won't be as interested when you're not around. However, there's always the "button pusher and knob turner" and nothing will ever prevent them from doing that. You just have to figure out what works.

I tend to use smaller components for my digital projects these days. I can't imagine any toddler being able to pull a component off any of my current PCBs.... sans the can oscillator. The again, you can just take the safe approach... as you certainly don't want them trying to eat any of your parts. Hopefully you find something that works for you. Keep in mind that there are axial capacitors as well as radial capacitors... but they take more board space. I will second SMT parts, much harder to remove!

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Regards, KM
https://github.com/floobydust

* You can solder down DIP just as easy as SMT components.
* 5-minute epoxy is your friend.
* Mount an acrylic cover over the entire board.
Bill

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http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

++1!

These are the main reasons for my first tactic - a locked cabinet.

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Bill

Most of my stuff is in the closet of course, or up high, I was just thinking of having it still 'out and about' yet semi-protected-ish.



"It'll pass!" Joking aside, right, another reason why I'm seeking advice.



Excellent point. I'm not in favor of that personally, but perhaps *some* parts could be SMT, while retaining my DIP IC's how I like it.



Hm! Well, yes for sure, they might lose some interest. My 4 year old, who uses my 6502 computer daily, would never rip an LED out. It's "her computer" so she takes better care of it. My son however is like a bull in a china cabinet



That is a great idea, super easy too! I'm thinking hot-glue since my wife has a gun for that. That would definitely be the easiest.



Ew! Being a teacher, I appreciate the smell of the dry-erase markers. BOLD is best, don't go for that 'low odor' stuff. Har har.



THAT is a good call, thank you. I think going forward I will see about using the axial capacitors, or at least having that as an option. I have plenty of board space on this upcoming model and I only have 2 of these electrolytics anyways.

Great suggestions everyone, thank you for the wisdom! I appreciate the help.

Chad

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

Why not? Some children thrive perfectly well in captivity, I’m told.

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I like it when things smoke.
Blog – Zolatron 64 project

Do you mean public school?

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

I was thinking prisons, but I suppose if the students WANT to act like animals, then yeah, "zoo" fits the bill too.