Looking for a truly child-friendly MP3 player….

Hello,

in my search for a truly child-friendly MP3 player (possibly an Android app on an old smartphone), I unfortunately didn’t really find anything. Then I came across hoerbert and, like most others, was initially put off by the price. Even the kit isn’t exactly cheap!

The alternative with the cloud-bound cube and the NFC-coded “play” figures initially seems significantly cheaper.

My choice was clear: hoerbert had to be it, and in self-assembly:

True to the principle: “Recycling comes before new construction!” I freed an old wooden slide box from its slotted interior and installed hoerbert. The frame is made of beech wood with dovetail joints, and the plywood from the 60s is of a quality that you can’t find in hardware stores today.

The interior space is not quite as spacious as in the original hoerbert. Therefore, some wood had to be cut out from the frame for the switch and the potentiometer.

The real problem, however, was that the frame is divided in the middle and the two halves (body and lid) are connected with mini hinges (piano hinges) that protrude slightly on the back (now: bottom). To ensure the device’s stable stand, I fitted thin(!) plastic gliders with a countersunk hole and screwed them in.

Even the child-proof lock of the hoerbert was not easy to solve but finally succeeded. However, getting a flat-head coin-slot screw was a hopeless endeavor even with the internet. But an Allen screw does the job too.
The wooden handle from the hardware store (2 euros) was attached so that the device’s center of gravity is almost exactly under the center of the handle, making it easier for children’s hands to handle.

Everything was carefully sanded down to the raw wood and treated 3 times with a food-safe and saliva-safe wax, and the cap nuts were treated with a liquid screw lock.

Retrofitting the automatic shut-off

The hoerbert was actually ready to be gifted when I became aware that there is now an automatic shut-off feature that absolutely had to be added retroactively.
However, this did not fit at all with the soldered switch in the housing:
Trying to remove the switch with a soldering iron and desoldering pump was not very successful as the soldering was quite extensive due to the bent contacts. So, I cut the contacts with a mini flex, which in such cases is always the method of choice to avoid heat damage. Additionally, however, the switch was attached to the board with hot glue. Using a hot air gun was out of the question due to the too large surface heating with all risks. Instead, I heated a 4mm drill bit at the shaft end and used it to heat the hot glue through the board hole, so the switch came off the board easily. Through this hole, I then screwed the board into the frame with a small spacer. 2 cables had to be extended (secure the solder joints with heat-shrink tubing!) and the new connections had to be made.

The automatic shut-off works as expected and should significantly extend battery life.

Conclusion:

hoerbert convinces with concept and sound. The battery holders are so good that you should actually keep a tape like Tesafilm or similar in the box to quickly pull out the batteries. I glued a piece of insulated bell wire along with a small super magnet into a 10mm wooden dowel. The magnet adheres very securely to the speaker housing and is quickly at hand if needed.