The Boony fun and games are over – no more playin’ sound files at the little bugger – it’s time to crack Da Boony Code. Presented here are the collected findings of people smarter than myself. It will hopefully culminate it the complete unravelling of the inner secrets of the mystical plastic batsman.
These projects aren’t going to require a degree in electrical engineering – Tim’s got that – and he’ll tell us how to do this with just a soldering iron and a couple of bits picked up from Dick Smith. Though before we get soldering, a few warnings…
CAUTION: THIS MAY WELL DESTROY YOUR BOONY!!!!!!!!!!
No responsibility will be taken for dead Boonies, burnt fingers and dead animals. (Though remember, “Boony Authority” has told us that your Boon will be dead after the ODI series anyway, so…)
Point 2: DO NOT REMOVE THE BATTERIES as Boony needs to know the time to work. Pulling out the batteries can confuse the poor fella. Hopefully this will help us extend Boonys life, but at this point its best to keep them in.
Point 3: I DONT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ELECTRONICS. So if you’re worried, only follow Project 2 below, as that was designed by Tim – and he know bucket loads about electronics.
Point 4: If this is your first soldering efforts, do a lil’ practice first – the Boony board is very small and you don’t want to go shorting connections and turning it into Chucky Boon.
Project 1: Amplify the Boon
Whats better than a Talking Boony? A really really loud Talking Boony! We’ll start with this project as it’s a trick that is really easy, and the sound quality of an amplified Boon is so much better than Tinny Boon. Ha ha, Tinny Boon.
For this project we require two lengths of wire, and a female RCA plug. I just went to Jay Car and rummaged through the components until I found something that looked like the things on the back of my stereo. You might want to get a RCA lead while your here, so you can plug Boony in when we’re done.
Right-o, lets go. Get the 2 wires and carefully solder them to two solder points that already exist on the speaker. It’s a bit fiddly because of that great big lump of plastic the speaker is glued to.
Then solder the other ends of the wires to the two holes in the RCA plug. I’m not sure if there is positive and negative stuffs you need to think about. I didn’t and my Boony is crackin’ out his happy sayings to the world.
Project 2: See when Boony is awake
Tim is our strongest hope in the Quest for the Secrets of the Boon. He’s presented this excellent tutorial on adding an LED that shows when a talk window is happening! Take it away Tim:
Connect some longish wires to the LED, so you can chuck it wherever you want. I suggest black for the cathode (shorter leg) and red for the anode (longer leg). You will need a series resistor for the LED to work. To install a RED LED, use a 560Ω. This will pull a little over 5mA. To use a BLUE LED use a 180Ω for the same current.
R = (4.5V - Vled)
--------------
Current
Remember, the more current you pull, the less time Boony will last.
Connect the cathode to the GROUND point (click on image above for diagram), and the anode (via a resistor) to the other point. Put the LED wherever you want, but make sure the wires do not touch (use electrical tape or something). Sit back and play the tones to Boony whenever he lights up! Solder the powerup points when he is not powered up, this way it should minimise the chances of causing damage to him.
Project 3: Make him talk when he’s awake
Once you can see when Boonys awake, you don’t want to have to find tones to play at him – luckily, once in a talk window you can connect a wire between the two points shown in the diagram – and he’ll let you know what he has to say!
Better still; get two lengths of wire and a simple push button. Solder one piece of wire to each of the points, then join the other ends to the push button. When the talk window is open, press away!
Some Boony Technical Info
Tim has provided this indepth run-down of whats going on: There is a local oscillator on the board (the cyllindrical thing soldered on the top of the board) that runs at 33,000 Hz. 5 mins is therefore 1,000,000 counts. If the reset switch is triggered, after this time the memory is read over and over, but I have not seen him do anything else.
During this initial time, the audio stage is powered up to allow for some programming to sync him to the current time. This makes sense as if there are a few thousand of these made, there would have to be a way to time them to the same time.
I have sped up time for one of my Boonys by removing the oscillator and connecting up my own micro (I personally hate PICs, I am using a Zilog Z8.) to speed him up. The initial time is now 25 seconds, but I haven’t tried to send and programming in that time. I will try to send random 8bit numbers (the memory is an 8bit memory device) tonight and see what happens.
A normal working Boony will read the memory once, very quickly, every 5mins (or 1,000,000 counts). I have only tested this during a cricket game (my girlfriend won’t let me fiddle with hers until after the season) so I will sneak hers in tonight and examine closer. I hope I don’t stuff it up!!!
A re-powered Boony will powerup his audio stage for 1,000,000 counts upon release of the S1 connection. He won’t speak during this time, but he is listening for something. After 1,000,000 counts, he powers down and reads the memory, but it doesn’t look right. He seems to be repeating over and over, as if looking for something, like a start address.
What do you want Boony to do?
Tim has started designing a PCB to plug into Boony with various things like switches, light sensors, remote control receivers to activate him when he unlocks the Boony goodness. The question is… What do you want Boony to react to? One person wanted to get him to watch the cricket and respond to wether the ball was a boundary, wicket, dead ball etc… This is a bit hard as it involves image processing, but it sounds cool.
To be continued…
If you’ve got any other Boony projects, please let us know! Together we can save Talking Boony through Reverse Boonjaneering!
137 Comments
My Boony seemed to be a talk-on-timer Boony; he only talked once every hour and never responded to the beeps on TV. I followed the Project 2 and soldered some wires with a switch on his base, and now during a talk window I have Boony talking on demand! I love it! Except I have to wait for a talk window… or do I?
I noticed the “See when Boony is awake” project shows when the Boony talk circuit goes “Live” (ie. when the point in the photo jumps to ~5v). If we run a link from the 5v source (+ end of the batteries) to this “Boony Live” point, wouldn’t that keep Boonys talk window open all the time? I know the batteries would die quicker but he wouldnt be that hard to run from a 5v AC adapter…
I’m gonna try it, let ya’ll know.
David,
The “forcing” of the talk window will not work as the CPU (black blob) has to power up this point on it’s own. Thus, any signal processed by the audio stage (right hand side of the board) will be ignored.
This was the first thing I tried.
The secrets of Boon are revealing themselves to me, gradually. Mr Speaker will be the first to find out (‘cept for my street when I run down it naked shouting “EUREKA” – Archimedes and boyancy – when I know the answer)
I am very close to decoding the program code. I should be able to code him to think that it a match day of my choice, but any major mods will require an additional controller.
I’ll keep you all posted.
Doh!
Tim: I probly should have put this here first…
Tim: Did you say you have a seperate MCU connected to your boonie? From what I can work out after removing the epoxy (and sacrificing the micro underneath) the chip must have an onboard DAC as the speaker is driven directly from the chip. You’d have to assume that the 24C01 would hold all of boonies quotes, when read it would provide a digital form of his quote to the processor which then runs it through a DAC to the speaker. My plan is to connect a PIC to the EEPROM and read and store its data so we can then feed this through our own DAC, allowing us to have Boony speak all his quotes. From there the possibilities are endless! I can’t see a lot of point in keeping the analogue circuitry for the “beep†drive, as once the cricket is finished I doubt we’ll hear those tones again. We just need a reasonable input trigger and we can resurect our boonies for ever!
Are the boony sounds stored in the EEPROM? According to the specs for the 24C01 chip it only has 1, 2, or 4K storage – That wouldn’t be enough to store all those quotes even in 8bit crunchy goodness – would it? I thought that his words must have been under the epoxy. How are samples usually stored in these sorts of gadgets?
Not definite, but I’d reckon they would be, couldn’t see much other need for the EEPROM otherwise, you’d assume the chip itself would have enough memory to run it’s program being a pretty basic program. Could be wrong though, it happened once before ha ha.
Did my Boony “talk on demand” and “display talk window” mods, now just waiting for the cricket to start!! Bring it on!!
Wal,
I’ve just removed the EEPROM from the board, the left side is shorted (A0, A1, A2 and GND) to the WE pin (write protect). When the WE pin is connected to GND, the array can be read from and written to. I have examined the initial data signals after powerup and determined that it is trying to WRITE to the EEPROM. The bitstream is as follows:
START, 1010000 (according to the Device address, Figure 7 for 1K) then a ZERO = write. The data stream then slowly rises (representing a release to read ACK bit) then repeats as my EEPROM is removed.
I will now read the EEPROM and see what it contains.
It’s sad because we need to do a lot of research on the noble Boonhattan Project before the VB Series is over soon. :’(
Hey Tim,
I had tested your talk-window connectoin by manually holding the LED and resistor in place. Today I went to solder him up – I did the ground connection no problem – but the other joint seems tricky. If I solder a wire into that lil’ hole next to the resistor I will surely make a blog-o-solder that will touch both components next to it (C4 and R2) – is that okay? Or do I have to a magic tiny solder?
Also, what if I want to use a green or yellow led? are they the same as red (besides, you know, the colour thing…)?
‘
The colour of the LED will change it, but RED, GREEN and YELLOW are all very similar. BLUE has a greater voltage drop (Vled) accross is when it’s on, so it requires a lower resistor for the same current.
Also, there are a number of other spots on the PCB you can connect it to, use your multimeter to find out, it’s just that the one mentioned was the closest to the GND point I used.
By the way, I made a mistake in my previuos post, the EEPROM is actually being READ FROM, using the random read. I thought that was to read a random address, but it means to read an address at a random point in time. Therefore, for some weird reason, you have to pretend to write to it, then read from it (see datasheet).
The EEPROM is only 1K and therefore isn’t nearly big enough to store all his quotes, even at maximum compression.
I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, spent some time at in on Friday, but the poopie hit the fan during the arvo and I had to leave. I’ll try and get back to it tomorrow night.
PS: The whole Boony technology actually comes from the Voltron talking things they apparently had years ago.
Mr. Speaker: The easiest spot I found was the three holes placed for a pot – If you have a look two of these are on a common track. Either of these will do the trick as it is on the output of the FET that gives power to the rest of the circuitry.
Tim: I wonder what the EEPROM could be storing then? Very curious to find out what’s on there.
Had a good play with Boony on friday and again during sundays thrashing, and found that with the signal point used to activate boonies speaking, by altering the way you short his signal wire to ground you can simulate the three signals required to get him to say his three categories of quotes. It’s just a pulse duration thing I think, seems to be if you flick it really quickly then you get one quote, a slower pulse (still has to be quick though) gives another one and then a long pulse gives another one.
BTW – The left side pins A0 – A2 are used for setting the individual chip address, allowing for the use of up to 8 chips on the same databus. We use the same chip but with a larger capacity for a data logging device, 8 chips on a PCB.
Wal,
You are correct, there is a point that goes into the “blob” which I think is active high and indicates the presence of 8KHz (pin 1 of bottom right IC). The duration of this pulse represents the desired quote. I think it’s around 500ms or so. However, the whole trick is to program Boony in the initial 10,000,000 counts after powerup. How complicated do you think the data structure would be (ie: clock recovery encrypted stream or just a standard 8bit vector)?
I’ve written some code to hopefully read the 24C01A, but I doubt this will help our quest too much.
you guys are rockin boony’s world, and ours with reverse boojaneering, if any of you guys are in melbourne ,i would hounered to buy the active contributors a beer. [V B okay]?
Yeah, I’m in Melb, I don’t drink VB.
I actually scammed all my Boony’s for free!!
I’m in Adelaide, also don’t drink VB, also scammed all mine for free. They make very handy reminders for when the crickets about to start, I have a couple on my desk at work, one in my ute and several scattered throughout the house.
Tim: Do you think that it would have a start time programmed into it and it was simply a matter of sending a reset command to it while it was in its startup phase (first 10,000,000 cycles?) Have you tried putting a pulse into it after powering one up to see if this does anything? Or do you reckon it would be a full byte command (I reckon that would be too hard to send via the audio input wouldn’t it?) If the voice data is stored in the onboard chip… we could be in trouble! Once the series is finished there’s not going to be any way to get the data back out of him. Have you had a chance to read the EEPROM yet?
Wal,
Not yet, I’ll be going into my research lab tonight.
If the EEPROM contains the times at which to powerup and the blob counts internally, then the EEPROM can be simulated with another micro or FPGA. In that case, the easiest way is to send a zero byte to it instead of what is in the memory.
I think I did try to send a few of the beeps from the TV during the powerup phase, but I don’t think it did anything.
If the blob is an ASIC or something, then the startup pulse could be quite complicated indeed.
PS: You got an email address?
mine is :
gatekeeper_man@hotmail.com
I’ve updated the reverse-boonjaneering post include a whole swag of technical info from Tim, as well as a request for comments: How should Boony be triggered once he’s secrets have been discovered?!
awsome stuff Mr. Speaker ,
to answer the question is simply here all of his quotes on demand whether by pushbutton [microswitch on ya fridge door] or remote RF or IR [programing him to IR ch9 on your tv remote would be so fun but impracticle].
I want to here the pies and watermellons one
SO many quotes – so litle life cycle {:(>
ps all,
just found this info,may or may not help
200,000 talking boonys
37 quotes
@ http://smh.com.au/text/articles/2005/12/09/1134086812393.html
I’ve completed the push-button mod on my boony, REAL happy with the results, good work Tim. My $3 push-button switch from Dick Smiths fits perfectly into the mic hole…like it was meant to be. I tried the LED mod, but I too couldn’t get the resistor into the hole shown. Can someone please (with the use of a diagram) show me where else a fat-fingered electro-illiterate boon-a-holic can solder the resistor so I “can see when boony is awake”.
DPOK,
The “hole” you refer to is actually a via to route tracks from one layer to the other of the PCB.
There are three holes with nothing loaded into the. Two of which are connected together. Use these instead. The point outlined in the project was merely the first point I discovered whiles Booning around.
I’m not sure I have spammed this on your site yet – apologies if I already have. But I’m sure some of your readers will find our site amusing :)
http://www.davidboonfacts.com
If you can think of a funny one, by all means submit it!
cheers.
I feel like a proud father – only got my boonie doll late last week here in Seattle – he just spoke his first words. Off to the local aussie pub (www.kangarooandkiwipub.com) with boonie tones in hand to amuse the other aussies.
Was thinking that perhaps we should be recording the boony quotes as much as possible so once he has become silent, we can still use them later down the track. Has anyone recorded any boony sayings yet?
Okay, had a busy arvo, I have 29 boony sayings recorded. Here’s a list of what I have so far…
1. Oh that’s a good pill, very good pill
2. Brings a tear to me eye
3. Anyone seen me thongs
4. How’s that beer going
5. That’s gone in my book
6. He’s seeing em like watermellons
7. He’s throwing down pies
8. On your way son
9. Have a swing mate
10. Is it time for a beer yet
11. Todays code word is “Legend”
12. Shades of Boony
13. I feel like playing totem tennis
14. You’re joking aren’t ya
15. I’ll drink to that
16. Have you got a pool table
17. Good nut
18. quack, quack, quack
19. Looked out from here ump
20. Nice
21. Got any nacho’s? I like nacho’s
22. Show us a replay of that
23. Pass us a biscuit please. A monte Carlo would be nice
24. When are we going to the pub?
25. Shooooot
26. Don’t bother chasing that
27. Where’s me beer?
28. I can bowl better than that
29. When’s the drinks break?
What am I missing? I know I need “Better get a beer, the cricket’s about to start”
heres some i posted on the first day
13 Jan talking boony quotes
Time to get a beer, crickets about to start
Got a beer yet ?
Show us a replay of that (x2)
Show us a replay of that (x1)
Anyone seen my thongs?
Show us a replay of that
When’s the drinks break?
I’ll drink to that
Got any nachos, I love nachos
Now get me a VB, the crickets about to start
Where’s my beer!!
Today’s code word is bat (X3)
I feel like playing table tennis!!!
Is someone able to post a URL to the tones which trigger him, or to the recorded quotes? If you need somewhere to put up some files, i can provide a fair bit of webspace.
Thanks
email – user51@hotmail.com
Has anyone worked out how we can keep boonie alive post todays match yet, boonie needs operating on and fast the last thing the world needs is boonie to flat line on us!!!
I have found if you short the S1 contacts the 4.5V across the points to connect the LED “Awake” indication disappears. Once the short is removed, the 4.5V comes back. There is about 2.17V across the “push to talk” contacts when the 4.5V is present. I tried this on my Shy Boony. He doesnt respond when I short the “Push to talk” contacts. Maybe I have killed my Boony whilst changing the batteries. Last time I heard him talk was about three matches ago. Little help??
Ha ha, my loony boony is still talking!! He was quiet yesterday, just the occasional comment, but the day before he spoke for about 20 seconds every 5 minutes, and about 2 minutes ago he waffled on for a good half minute. He’s alive. HE’S ALIVE!!!
DGC,
Once you short the S1 contacts, Boony will powerup, but he is not looking for the normal tones and therefore will not speak during this first powerup window.
What you have done is reset your Boony to factory defaults and he needs some kind of pulse to time-sync him. The only way to program him is via the microphone.
You need to play around with shorting the top-left pin of the bottom-right-microchip to either 4.5V or 0V. This is the output of the trigger circuitry that detects the tones.
This may, or may not, create a “loony boony” or it may well destroy Boony.
For further details, email me at
gatekeeper_man@hotmail.com
Is it worth me pulling the batteries and refitting them to start from ground zero, or does TIM want to interorgate my un modded boony now the circuit has timed out(is this what they do?)
Mark,
What you could do is take the batteries out, fit the LED in project 2 and see how long it takes before it thinks a cricket match is on. Mind you, the things were created a while ago (like August) so it might be a while.
Hey mark, I shorted s1 on my Boony and a couple of days later he started talking – yesterday he thought it was the first final – Ive got a couple of boony days left!
I was also messing around randomly (very randomly!) a lot on the circuit board so i might of done something magic my accident – because Tim’s findings are that reseting the S1 puts him limbo.
DAMN, i cant find a 560 ohm resistor [or even close] in my resistor draw[meens a trip to jaycar, woo hoo shoping]
Mr. Speaker– on shorting S1,was that a long or short grounding ms or seconds ,this may account for not rewinding [resetting] fully ?
TIM– on time setting OEM style,does the three holes near the mic have tracks to any reset pins on any relevent I Cs
and how about the two pins at the other end of the board “S1″ or is this the s1 we speak of ?
my thinking is the boony boards would have to be “loaded’ with the voices and phrases directly by some electronic writer / reader ( SD memory cards and the like ) in the prosess of manufacture and then locking in all that boony goodness,THEN writing in the time coding possabily by a similar method
I feel each boony board may have been SET by being placed on a jig of connections that set them without any indirect audio.
rather they may have had all there info written silently by some method (P W M or sub carrier signal )because audio quality would suck ass though the elctret mic
Mark: A bigger resistor (say around 1k) will still work, it will just mean the LED wont be as bright as it will be drawing less current.
The duration of the short on the S1 (yep, it’s the two holes on the board marked S1) doesn’t make a difference as far as I can tell, once you’ve got your LED hooked up you will be able to see this. When the short is present the LED will go out, as soon as the short is removed it will turn back on. The 5 minute startup period begins once the short is removed.
The three holes up near the mic are for a pot, or variable resistor. This is used to adjust the voltage on the input of the mic, not sure what the purpose is, maybe was required for fine tuning of the resistor value used for current limiting and voltage setting. Tim, any further comments?
As for the programming, I’d say the processors and EEPROM were probably programmed before being loaded onto the board, they almost definitely wouldn’t be programmed via the input of the mic. If it’s a custom processor it may even have been masked programmed, which means it was hard programmed when the chip was manufactured. The audio data would be stored digitally in the processor and then spat out via either an on-chip PWM or DAC.
Wal,
I agree with you about the pot and the programming. As the audio circuitry is basically an envelope detector (AM radio) only sensitive to 5KHz, it would not be pratical to load any data through it.
done the L.E.D. mod on boony now i have to wait, zzzzzzzzz
he spoke once about 14 hours from reset but at 2.30 in the morning i missed what he said (I DID NOT KILL HIM,YEAH)
My Loony Boony that I reset yesterday said “Today’s codeword is four” – anyone know when that one was?!
Mr. Speaker do you know how you made loony boony or was it a freak?
Wait, I just re-read my comment there… My Loony Boony that I reset AGES AGO, yesterday said “Today’s codeword is four” – I didnt reset him yesterday.
I just shorted the S1 switch (I may have done other stuff by accident too) for a second. It was a non-cricket day (I think – 28th?). I thought I had killed him but a couplea hours later he started talking again… but he was a few games behind!
(here’s where I wrote bout it on 28/01)
has “boonie authority” had any revolations on boony lately can he confirm anything from the inside,namely post ODI natter
I have been randomly trying things posted above and some of my own stuff, including replacing batteries and having the batteries out for longer than five minutes and SHORTING S1. Today (17/02/06), my Boony went of at about 530am. He was looking for his thongs. I took him to work with me and sat him on my desk in preparation for more open-Boon Surgery. On of my workmates just happened to be stirring his cup of coffee near Boony and he went off!!! Was it the smell of coffee in the morning that woke him?? Im prety sure he also said the codeword was ‘VB’. Wasnt that from the first match? I may have another two months of Boonisms! Tried later with another mug of coffee – same result and he was blurting out stuff I had never heard him say all summer!
I put new batteries in my Boony on the day of the third final and he has spoken on a few different occasions since. Including a really talkative day today Sunday 19/2/2006. Got home about 3pm and still saying things at 8.30pm. Often coming out with multiples of the same saying or two or three different sayings at the same time. Haven’t heard the code word yet…
Could changing the batteries have reset him back to the start of his calender???
Nashdale.
Following up… same day 19/2 Boony just said “todays code word is cheers” which was from Friday 20th of January. Will have to wait to see if he speaks up again on Tuesday which would be the the next game day in the old schedule.
A word of hope, two (2) Boony’s have been donated to the project. Both are brand new, one from my bottl’o (who had two left, but I got it as a farewell present as I moved house on the weekend) and another from a kind friend who had a surplus of them.
I WILL suceed in the mystery of the Boon, I just dunno how long it will be!
has every one stopped posting as a wake to this 4″ pisstank,coz im not gonna give up on him ,he commands our respect (and tinkering)
for he may have drunk his last can and bowled his last over
it dont mean he has his throat to tell us how much he enjoyed our mateship,LONG LIVE KING BOONY!
I still wish to honour the micro pi55-pot, although I am waiting patiently for Mr Speaker to update the reverse boonjaneering page to reflect the follwoing:
1, The idoits guide to “See when Boony’s awake” (I didnt understand Tim’s post well enough). I dont know where the 3 points everyone is talking about.
2, The idiots guide to “Boony Resurrection”.
Our hope is with Tim and his brave, brave Boonys. Until then, my boony will stay as-is.
Godspeed Boonjaneers! DGC hinted that he woke up his Boony! Maybe he holds the secret…afraid I can do nothing except support, as I have not a sausage of electronics knowledge.
I will pull apart one of my non-violated boonys on the weekend and do a step-by-step guide to pressing the S1 switch, and soldering on a light – though we don’t know how to wake boony really… My other boony is still going!! I thought he was only a couple of days behind schedule, but he was speaking yesterday. I’m sure he must be about done now though. If I get a couple more days of talking out of him I’ll suspect hes on a loop or something.
Hello Boongineers!
Was back in aus in Jan and was lucky enough to find a lost boonie and take him in. Had many “fun” nights with the little fella back in london, when he reminded me at 3 in the morning when i should get up and watch the cricket.
Are there any updates on the boongineering? How are we comming along with being able to get boonie on demand? There are plenty of people over here waiting and i know boonie wants to wake up for the world cup and see what the fuss is all about!
Cracked open Boony this arvo – am going to leave him without batteries to see what happens. What is the big magnetic cirlce for? Also there is a black spot possbily covering something on the circuit board…
Shmoo
The big magnetic circle is called a speaker. This is where the sound comes from. The black thing is where the quotes are stored.
Also, although I’m only a lowly engineer, I do remember from my first year electronics class that anything that requires batteries will not operate quite as well without them. I suggest you remove them for about 1.32sec then replace them. Once this is done, stare at him and time how long it takes for him to speak.
Remember, you must not blink or move during this time or Boony may laugh at you!!
(Note: We may have invented the tamagotchi, but us engineers still enjoy a good laugh!!)
haha! Well I know nothing about electronics except how to make circuits from breadboards, which I can see are quite useless in small appliances.
Tim,
I noticed a few capacitors on the Boony circuit. In tech 9/10 all we did on capacitors was their function and how to draw them on a circuit diagram. I know that they store power from one direction and then send it on the direction (i think) so what effect would this have on Boony/or what would happen without them?
Shmoo,
There is more to caps than meets the eye. In an AC signal environment, they block DC and allow AC to pass. Regardless, these caps (I assume you mean the green ones) are necessary as part of the filter to detect the 8000Hz beeps. Without them, Boony would no longer detect these beeps, but as posted earlier, he doesn’t need to as we have discovered the output trigger from the filter.
Righto. one more question (hehe) DGC said he shorted S1, which I notice is a little hole in the circuit. Would I be able to do this with batteries or would I need a power pack? And one more (so I lied) I can see lines and holes all over the circuit. Are they like putting wires next to each other on a breadboard?
Well, my Boony went to sleep for good a couple of days ago! Damn it! I know he’s asleep now, because that day he didn’t announce the start of the game, no programmed comments, and I only realised he was up because of Tim’s LED mod.
Also, Tim did send this in an email ages ago, which looks like gold info – sorry I never posted it sooner:
Update on my email from 19/2. Boonie kept working on the same number of days as would have been the original schedule. Got to the day of the last code word I had ” Legend”. So on friday 2/3 I again took out the batteries and replaced them. within ten minutes he uttered “Nice” and then nothing else. Today two full days later he came to life during game timeframe and and spoke like normal including “better grab a beer the crickets about to start” between innings time. After 9.30pm he said “todays code word is Cheers” so it seems I am back on the 20th of January again.
As a non technical person am wondering how after taking the batteries out three times now and seamingly resetting the timer, how the timer still can pick approx. starting time, start of second innings and codeword times.
Heya,
Sorry I haven’t posted earlier, but I’ve been busy. Seems that non-Boony related work has been firing on all fronts.
Shmoo, to “short” S1, just connect it with a peice of wire, solder one end into one of the holes and leave the other end loose. Then all you have to do is just the loose end to the other hole. If you have the LED mod it will light up for 5mins then go out, but Boon won’t speak during this time.
The ‘holes’ all over the circuit board you refer to are called “vias” and connect traces from one side to the other.
I have now sped up Boony to 3.5 seconds (originally 5mins) and he still seems to function, but I haven’t heard him speak yet. It would be too fast anyway.
I’m going into the lab tonight to ‘tinker’ around.
hey has anyone figured out how to get boony to talk now that it is march 13th.
please desperate to take it back to UK to show the boys.
cheers
aza
Hello all,
Sorry I haven’t posted for a while.
Boon WILL LIVE AGAIN! I am prototyping a “plug-in” board for Boon so he will repeat his quotes for all to hear. Don’t hold your breath yet, but I’ll stick at it.
Way to go Tim. I hope theres no stress, its not like anyone is waiting on it!
Boonie doll groupy
Way to go Tim, all the mute boonie’s in the world are counting on you!!!!
I can see the herald-sun headline now
“Boonie’s to undergo radical voice box surgery!”
Well done Tim, you’d make millions if you mass-produced that :p
top show tim, were all beheind you 100%,you are now achiveing a similar status of heroship as the man himself.
keep up the good work
I played the wave file to my boony and it doesn’t talk. Is there any way i can make it talk? is he awake?
he hasn’t talked since the cricket finished.
Sorry dude, but Boony carked it back in February. But the good doctor Tim is attempting to bring him back, so watch this place.
Hey there,
I have built a test board for one of my Boons, and realised that even if you take the batteries out put them back in again, he will eventually stop working. The value in the memory is being increased by one every powerup. Blasted if I know why yet, but I’ll keep at it.
I’ll email a pic of the test board to Mr Speaker.
Hey Tim – I was just going through the superabundance of boon-related material that has been gathered here and I realised that My First Boony has never actually been activated – I dislodged the power a couple of weeks before the series started and have never put it back to together again. If it will help the mighty cause then I’d gladly send it to ya!
was boony made to self-implode after Feb?
i would have thought if you remove the batteries, and replace them, it would reset boony
I’m afraid boony is a bit like the robot from “Short Circuit” – he’s more man than machine. Once he’s dead, it’s off to the great air-liner in the sky for all the free drinks he desires (check the other boon-related material around here for the gory details)
Tim, however, is attempting to re-animate the corpse of the great man… Be patient, for ZombieBoon may strike at any moment.
Mr Speaker,
After the first 5mins, the second location in the memory is read and then increased by one (1). The first value is always zero. As the memory is 8bit, this gives a possiblity of 256 possible values. I have removed the memory from the board and re-wired it up so I can read it without inhibiting Boon’s abilities to operate. This particular Boon had 133 in the memory, but I dunno how many times I’ve reset him. I’ll play around with different values to try to get a “talking window” to activate within the first little while, but if this fails, then I may need to check the values in your mighty Boon’s memory. Thanks for the offer, but hopefully I won’t need that just yet.
Tim
My Boony put waves his Grey Nick’s up and volunteers himself to be tested (if you require).
MartinBoon
Hello,
BOONIE IS CRACKED!!!!!!
Well, it’s been sooo long since the cricket finished, but I’ve found out what makes the little piss-pot speak!!
Firstly the technical info:
The EEPROM holds the current time as a 16bit number (65535 possible values). Every 5min (Boonie time) this value is incremented by one. When this time equals a preset time in the “blob”, he will powerup and you can trigger him to speak. Then when the time is up, he will power-down and continue counting.
Current Progress:
I’m sitting here at uni watching him tick over every two seconds, waiting for the first powerup window. When this occurs, it’s a matter of programming in this value, triggering, and presto. Only problem is that it will take a while!
The Final Product:
We will be able to hear the “triggered” quotes, but to get the “non-triggered” quotes (codewords, cricket about to start etc…) is a little more tricky.
When will it be ready?
Well, the bad news is that it isn’t easy to do. It involves small soldering, additional micro-controlers and stuff. I will make a small PCB to fit inside the doll to connect up.
I’ll keep everyone updated on the status and keep watching (my eyes, MY EYES!!!)
Still Watching…..
Well,
EUREKA!!!!!
I have successfully reverse boonjaneered the mighty Boon. About 11:00am this morning he asked me if it was time for a beer yet. I ran down the street to buy the little fella a whole slab!!
There is more work to be done yet, but the secrets are known. No more playing sound clips, no more watching LEDs, I can successfully open a talk window on demand and make him speak. WooHoo!!
Tell you more whan I’ve had a few with the little guy!!
Well done tim,
May the Monte Carlos, nachos and VB frow freely to you.
Thats awesome. Great work Tim.
Well,
I’m up to the end of the 4th match. I can get him to say all the timed quotes (start of matches, code words…), but I haven’t started on a trigger yet, I’m gonna wait until I get all the times first.
Any thoughts on what I should do? I was thinking making a stand with a little screen, a few buttons and lights, to mount him on. But I dunno how far to take it.
How about a stand, push button etc. Make a heap of them, sell them on eBay. Make a shitload of cash and a plethora of Boon owners extremely happy
Could do,
But I’ve only got 4 Boony’s. Dunno if they all work.
4 Boony’s…thats a top order batting line up.
Well,
I’ve run through all the memory and mapped out all the timed quotes and talk windows. I’d forgotten how many games there were.
BOON HAS BEEN FULLY REVERSE BOONJANEERED!!!
Now I have to decide what to do next…
11/4/06
Any updates?
What I don’t understand is that in a mass produced assembly line, normally electronics that need triggering or programming have electrical contact points on the PCB (sometimes molex pins) so that the robot can make contact and do its thing.. Booney PCB has none of these.
There’s one other possibility, at the end of each days/weeks production, they have all the boons out in the open and just blast out a start tone. Each production run the memory chip would have a new counter value ready to be started at the end of that production run.
By the way, I read a comment from a Fosters dude that there are exactly 250,000 booneys manufactured.
-chris
Chris,
there is no need to “blast” Boony with a startup tone, all that need be done is to re-program the memory seperately.
I have a “random loony Boony” on my desk, that, at a press of a button speaks a random quote!
Quite cool!
Tim
Any chance of you reverse boonjaneering my boony?
i am in melbourne too.
Yeah Tim – any updates for us?! Send us some pics of your modded super-boon!
Hey all,
I’ve finished my protoype, he speaks a random quote when a button is pressed. There is no way that the board I’ve built will fit into the doll, so I’m heading into uni tonight to start work on a small board to fit into the statue. Dunno yet, but it may well have to run from a plugpack so I can fit the extra board in where the batteries are, but I’ll try and make it small enough to still be battery powered. Maybe a 9V instead???
I was thinking about a two-mode operation. You switch him on and he will chatter away at random intervals (5min, 45min apart) but you can also press a switch to hear an instant quote. Either way, the final mod board won’t be ready for another week. I’ve got a few small bugs to tweak out of the code. Anything else you want, let me know.
Yes, I’ll be able to reverse boonjaneer peoples Boonies, but I’ll be putting two up on eBay to see what happens.
I’ll take a picture tonight, but I don’t have a video camera to take a video of it working.
Hello,
I’ve finished hacking the Boon. I can now dial up a quote on demand!
I’ll be making a “mod-chip” to fit inside the doll to create a “Random-Boon”. If interested, contact me at:
gatekeeper_man@hotmail.com
a great job tim ,you have a resurection boon,and just after easter at that ,is this a sign from the great beer tap in the sky that so lovingly driped life into him,
LONG LIVE RESURECTION BOON
Thankyou for the fantastic response about the mod chips.
I will post the details up here when I get the PCB made. The installation of it will require some small soldering as well as the removal of the EEPROM WITHOUT DAMADGING IT!!! This is essential. If people feel that they have the skill (and the equipment) to do this, then I can ship them the chip and the instructions on how to install it. Those who dont, can mail me their Boony and I will “mod” it for them.
I have had another plan. I want to make an alarm clock so one can set the time to hear specific quotes (or random ones to wake up) ie: hear “when are we going to the pub” at about 5pm every night, etc.
(Thanks Mark for the idea)
This won’t be ready for a fair while, but I reckon it will be worth the wait!
Peoples,
The current prototype chip gets Boony to say “Hey get me a VB, the cricket’s about to start!” on powerup and then he will yell random quotes randomly between 0 and 30sec apart.
I’m thinking of increasing it to between 0 to 1hr as it gets a bit annoying. It also has a button that, when pressed, also speaks a random quote.
I’m thinking of making the button cycle through the quote list, that way, all the quotes can be heard. It will be the same order each time.
Any thoughts???
email me at the above address
Oh golly-gosh! Boony Lives again?! 2 reports of waking Boonys this morning (one of the mine!) – Is there any end to the amazingness of this lil’ statuette of goodness?
7:10am May 7th…BOONY LIVES!! Un-modded Boony is awake, and after a beer and a pair of thongs. Long Live Boony!
Has he reached the tether of his counting and gone back to the beginning again?
Yep same here mitch, I thought I was dreaming! but boonie is back! when was the first game? 7th of Jan? Do we have a 5 month timer or something??
Haha who cares! he’s back baby!
The first game was the 13th of January – Boony must have a counter that was used as the timer which has overrun and gone back to 0, like a good game of PacMan…
Whats the official word on this one Tim?! How many seconds has it been :)
HE’S ALIIIVVVEEEE!!!
At 0720 this morning the 7th of MAy my unmodded, previously quiet Boony sprung to life and announced the cricket was about to start. He’s said four other things since then but only heard by equally amazed wife. My father-in-law also has one that went off three suburbs away at exactly the same time. Wonder if the one on my desk at work said anything?
OH MY GOD, HE SPEAKS,HE SPEAKS,HE SPEAKS,HE SPEAKS,HE SPEAKS,HE SPEAKS,HE SPEAKS,HE SPEAKS,HE SPEAKS,HE SPEAKS,HE SPEAKS,
my tamper boon was picked up and “played” with by my daughter on sat 6-5-06 and today 7-5-06 he told me the cricket is about to start and has spoke twice an hour since 7:30 this morning ,i will let you know what he thinks todays code word is when he spits it out.
PS ,he speaks
Hey Boonie is alive. He started talking this morning again… He sits on the mantle over the fireplace. He has stated several times that he needs nacho’s and a VB to watch the Game. But alas there is no game.
Let the games begin is it the stat of origin he is getting ready for??
Regards
Roundtwoit
haha…mine too. Boony is back from the dead
Also posted on the other page :
Try http://www.veilinteractive.com/
Cheers
jg
My Boony has been talking all day as well, much more talkative now than during the VB series . . . I was thinking the battery may be dying but having read Tim’s comments on this page perhaps the counter has clocked over? I’d be keen to mod him so he spoke on button push as well as said random things.
From this blog thread: http://mrspeaker.webeisteddfod.com/2006/01/14/talking-boony/ it was asked: “Why today??????????????????â€
Tim tells us the timer EEPROM has 65535 possible values. Using my trusty calculator..
Divide this number by 2 (1 read/1 write cycle ?)
Multiply by 5 (each 5 min increment)
Divide by 60 (mins)
Divide by 24 (hours)
Leaves 113.776.. (days since the Jan 13th game)
If you can keep him powered up, it looks like Booney will restart every (approx) 114 days!
i had a silent boon as well as my tamper boon,after tamper boon said “–totem tennis” ,i checked silent boon’s batteries = dead batts,replaced them and waited 45 mins latter silent boon said “– totem tennis” ,it just prooved to me that his counter / clock does not stop running even when the batteries were at 0.01 volts
so people ,check the batteries ,if there under 4 volts replace them ,it doesnt seem to affect his clock/timer
The resurrection is a mistake; authorities are investigating.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/boon-companion/2006/05/08/1146940475866.html?from=rss
Here’s to Boony, more powerful than you expected!
Nice Find!!! I love this bit:
Maybe they need to spend a bit more time around here before they make outlandish comments like that :)
He’s awake again!
why is it that mine wont respond to the tone gen even when he is in a talk window even after he has just spoke
is it that i may have to put in the “see what boony says in a talk window button” coz the tone section has expired???
Mark,
The tone gen is unreliable. There is one specific frequency he responds to. (8KHz) but there are multiple durations of this tone to trigger the types of quotes (batting, bowling, wicket…). I found playing the tones to him would only work sometimes, but with the mod chip, he works every time. Plus, I can get any quote I want on demand.
Attention all,
Boon mod chips are up and running!
Email if interested me at:
gatekeeper_man@hotmail.com
For a video of the ModdedBoon:
http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=15ogsgi
Mmmmmmm, push button boony,he is great
the best mod ever ,coz he wont speak unless pushed!!!
no more getting nachos at 3 in the morning
I LOVE MY TIM-BOON :)
My Boony went nuts. I got home from work and he was just talking garbled nonsense real slow. I took his batteries out and replaced them with fresh. Have I killed him?
No, I have not. He wants to know if I have a pool table, bless him. I haven’t even got cricket for him to watch.
have you managed to get the mod chip to work and make it viable for everyday people to get a hold of I would like to make my boonie talk on demand
Ian,
The modchips are ready,
Hi I want to use Boony in my band Toydeath. any chance of getting a mod chip? Toydeath only use electronic toys!
http://www.toydeath.com
Holy shit! I’m on the Toydeath mailing list – you guys ROCK!
Tim does the mod chips – I got him to mod my Boony. Check out my “review” of the modded man.
I’d love to see what you do to the poor fellow, knowing how you torture other platic noisy things!
13/9/2006
Got another Booney on Ebay, arrived Tuesady 12/9/2006 checked batteries absolutely flat 0 volts. Changed to some brand new Enegizer’s and waited. Booney has just asked ‘when is the drinks break’ at 9.10 pm and again at 9.15 pm13/9/2006 Unreal!!
Tim
I have been reading all these comments and you seem qite the Guru. I do not have the pleasure of owning a boonie yet, but have noticed that some are avaliable on ebay. Is it worthwhile purchasing one now? are they likey to work or would the batteries be dead? LAstly can you change the batteries and give him enternal life??
King Wato,
Yes, the batteries (3xAAA’s) can be changed without any problem.
Most of the batteries should be dead by now, they only came with “el-cheapo” batteries.
G’Day Tim. I am interested in your chip for Boonie please send the details on what is required.
cheers
Steve Miller (as in band)
Steve,
Please contact me at:
gatekeeper_man@hotmail.com
Basically, installation service of the chip is $65 (you post me your Boony), else I can supply a “modded” one for $85 (I’ve got a couple of spares floating around…)
Either way, please email me for details.
My new mission is to crack the Boony and Botham before the ashes starts, anyone know when that is???
Tim’s on the case! If they use infared then I you have to make them activated by standard remote controls :)
I think the first match is November 23 – Australia Vs England in Brisbane.
There are a lot more match days then the last series – I wonder how they will keep them powered?
If you want to see the new boony and Beefy, video available here:
http://www.mollyzine.com/2006/10/11/boony-and-beefy-make-their-video-debut/
Enjoy.
Molly
Does anyone have or know where I can get last years VB Boonanza Can still full? Had a very unfortunate incident and now need another one to complete my set. Thanks.
My email address is matsac@hotmail.com
Thanks
Hey Matt,
Did this unfortunate incident involve you, the can and your stomach??
PS: Hope you love your Modified Boony!!
Well as a matter of fact it was one of my mates!!! He’s no longer a mate! Ha Ha.
I’ll let you know when my modified boony comes!
Thanks Tim, you’re a champion.
Anyone know or able to email me a pic on how to tell if the batteries are flat in my original boonie?
Can anyone in layman’s terms tell me what I need to go buy in dick smith / tandy etc … and what I need to point it at on the circuit board to test there is voltage coming from the batteries?
thanks
Anthony
anthonygreen77@hotmail.com
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