Here's the first mod that just about anyone can do, it'll increase the brightness of yhe LEDs without needing to know how to solder.
You will need:
- A screwdriver
- Address labels (or any large white unmarked paper stickers)
Steps:
- Take out all the toys.
- Place the lit side face down
- Undo all the screws on the non-lit side of the Recogniser.
- Flip it over and take off the top part of the Recogniser that held the Jets+Cycles.
- Unscrew the panels in the legs and the corners and cover the underside of them with white paper stickers.
- Now take smaller pieces of white sticker and put them underneath the heads of the LEDs (don't take them out, leave them be), making sure not to cover the orange plastic.
- Do the same for the circuitboard and the large push button.
- Put it all back together making sure not to damage the wires.
- Get out your microfibre cloth and remove all the fingerprints
Basically the LEDs aren't lighting the orange plastic very well because the black plastic doesn't bounce the light around enough, sticking white paper to the inner surfaces makes the light bounce round more - the mod is definitely worth the time as it makes it glow brighter and more evenly.
Click pics for more detail:
I've also been testing some other mods and will post one or two of them, one test I did was to wire a miniature PIR to the button so that the light+sound is activated whenever it detects motion - this doesn't impact the battery life (it has an estimated standby time of around 2 years with 2x Duracell's).
You can also solder in a single wire to make the LEDs stay on whenever it's switched on, not just when you press the button.
I've also ordered parts to power the LEDs from USB without stopping the batteries from working when not plugged in, going to have to install a 2nd switch for that mod as I can't find an exact replacement DPDT version for the existing SPDT one.