10/20/2
Boredom killed the Kuda! Kuda is a mini-pet which responds to voice commands like "Kuda!..dance!" or "sing!" or "turn around!" This one was given to Matt for his birthday. It was amusing, but it gets annoying. If you don't play with it for a short time it starts to whine, then it gets disobedient. As it has no off switch (oops, you can turn it off) Matt decided to dissect it.


The operating theather is clean and Matt's hand are electrically sterile.


A view from the back, you can see the really thin wire heading down to the motors for the legs and wheels.


The terminator version of Kuda, his face just comes right off. 2 LED's for eyes, the microphone is pointing straight up. The black lump is the chip which runs him. The ear levers are still in place, sticking up from the motor compartment. Sticking out the bottom is the winding for one of the motors. In between the two motors was a piece of plastic with two permenant magnets in it. Small, cheap and effective.


Kuda's face in the foreground with the on/off button stuck through it. You can see the 2 white wires leading the speaker pointing down through the chin. The yellow L shapes are the levers to actuate the ears using the leg/wheel motors.


A shot of both motor windings, and the speaker holes. Poor Kuda

I can't actually prove it, but Matt put Kuda all the way back together again and it worked. A short time later, someone read the manual far enough to learn that you can hold the power button down for a few seconds to get the annoying little bugger to shut up, er down.