I want to expropriate various recordings from toys that use rubber nipples under plastic buttons. Soldering wire to these zig zag traces is impossible. Is there a trick to accessing them so they can be activated with Arduino? The project will involve three or four of these circuit boards. Each toy uses three AA's. I want to wire all to a single power source. What kind of battery configuration is best for this application? Will a bunch of AA's with a voltage divider work?
Is there a trick to accessing them so they can be activated with Arduino?
Did you consider a servo motor that pushes the button?
What kind of battery configuration is best for this application?
Depends completely on how much power every toy uses. You should provide more information to get a better answer
Unfortunately, I think that your best bet is to open the toy up and solder two wires across the switch then use an optoisolator to open and close the switch from the arduino. I've done this on digital cameras and toys. You can file a sharp point on your soldering iron and practice on some junk electronics.
Here's a toy gun controlled by arduino with sonar: Arduino "Counter Intelligence" II | Arduino project for catc… | Flickr
It takes some practice, but I've done it with digital cameras as well: Camera Hacking with the Canon A530 | Adding connections to c… | Flickr
(sorry, I have not figured out the link thing)
-Dr Speed