Kid's patch-panel maker Christmas present

Erik sez, "Here's a Christmas toy I made for my toddler son. It is a custom patch panel, wiring, and button pushing toy created in the 'maker' tradition! I am a broadcast engineer and recently noticed that my two-and-a-half year old son was fascinated when I was moving cables around behind the family stereo. He wanted to help out so I let him for little bit. It was so much fun to watch him play that I was inspired to create a toy that is a custom patch bay and activity panel. The robot even talks! When he gets a little older I'll probably add a micro-controller for more advanced interactivity."

Maker Christmas Toy (Thanks, Erik!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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digi_owl

Was there not a science “toy” that worked in much the same way?
deejayqueue

I LOVE this toy! I love how there are so many different cable types, XLR, RCA, BNC and RJ45. I would have loved so much to have something like that as a kid. Awesome dad, lucky son.
pebird

Tres cool!
nanner

i love it! the Pluginator 5000! brilliant :D Great job Dad! It looks great, i’m sure it’s awesome fun to play with too!
http://twitter.com/cccorlew curtis corlew

In 1960 I dreamed of this. I wanted a big box of toggles and lights and I would have been so happy! Well done.
http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios

Fantastic gift! Your son is going to treasure this forever.
nixiebunny

When I was a boy, data didn’t exist.

This is a wonderful gift, as it can get updated every year with more and more complex guts that require the growing brain to spend time to figure out what’s going on inside the box.
s2redux

To be able to truly imitate Dad’s work, Cole’s next birthday should bring a gift of adapters — something to split TRS quarter-phone to dual RCAs; an XLR turnaround to convert to “Pin 3 hot”; a few BNC terminators for playing nice with distribution amps; co-ax barrels; etc. <g>

Great gift! (Although something tells me there’s enough love here that an empty box and a stick would also have been perfect.)
ScottCh

…and that was the last year we heard anything from the family stereo. On the other hand, the laser printer started printing in a different language every week.
urbanspaceman

Hooray for dads who honor their kids’ geekitude and don’t try to make them “normal” (i.e. forcing them to play football, go out for the wrestling team, etc.)
- telechi
  
  I’m always surprised to hear references to this happening anymore. I suppose I’ve been extraordinarily lucky in my own personal experience (when I came out to my dad his response was “hell yeah” followed by a high-five) and I was raised in an extraordinarily tolerant-seeming community, but this seems terribly, horribly outdated to me. It’s rather sad to think it’s the norm.
  Beautiful gift, though, I’d have killed for one of those if the concept of murder had been fully formulated in my head at that age.
crummett

Oh, that is so cool!
GyroMagician

As a professional experimental physicist, this box captures exactly what makes me want to go to work in the morning :-) May your son have many hours of fun, sparks and pops ahead of him.
InsertFingerHere

With the cables arranged in just a special way, the box should play a recording of his father saying “Cole, its Daddy. I love you very much son. I always will.”.
http://www.geeksmodo.com/ GeeksModo

that’s what a nerdy kid needs to keep up with the tech thirst…
noah django

Erik, you’re an awesome dad!
I could actually use something like this for all my incompatible-with-each-other analog and digital equipment. Why does every device not come standard with multiple inputs and outputs? [shakes fist to the heavens]

Merry Christmas!
Felipe Esquivel

I can’t figure what this contraption does.
Evil Paul

Adorkable
http://shadowfirebird.tumblr.com shadowfirebird

Dad made me one of these c. 1975. Best. Toy. Ever.
Halloween Jack

Erik:

Please travel back in time to 1967 and make something like this for me. My dad was a great guy, but he didn’t really get into electronics.

Regards,

HJ
- Halloween Jack
  
  P.S. I’d still buy one.