🎁Got it as a gift?

Welcome. You can make music from a banana, a houseplant, or your friend's hand. This page is the fastest path.

First, identify your device. All five are bare circuit boards:

• 👐 TouchMe — small board with two gold pads. You touch the pads.
• 🍉 Playtron — larger board with alligator clips. You clip the wires to objects and touch the objects.
• 🌿 Biotron — black box with cables that clip to plant leaves. The plant plays the music.
• 🌀 Orbita — round device with a motor. It plays itself.
• ⚖️ Scales — board with a weight plate. Heavier objects play higher notes.

If you cannot identify your device, see Which Playtronica do I have?. Each device page opens with a photo.

Make sound in five minutes

1. Plug the device into your laptop with a USB cable. Use the cable from the box — a charge-only cable looks identical but carries no data, and the device will not be detected.
2. Open Chrome (Brave and Edge work too). Playtron: go to play.playtronica.com — Playtron plays through Play. TouchMe and Biotron: go to dotpiano.com — it is the simplest web instrument and the easiest place to hear your first note. More instruments are at synth.playtronica.com if you want to explore further.
3. Click Allow on the MIDI permission popup that appears in the browser.
4. Pick one:
   • TouchMe — touch both gold pads with bare skin. The LED stays dark when you plug in — that is normal; it blinks when you touch the pads.
   • Playtron — clip one alligator wire to a piece of fruit. Hold a gold corner of the device with one hand (a gold corner is the ground, and either one works). Touch the fruit with the other hand. Playtron's LED stays dark when you plug it in — that's normal. It blinks each time you complete the circuit and a note plays, which is how you know it's working. The full steps are on the Playtron page.
   • Biotron — plug both contact cables into the board first (a single contact on its own produces no signal), then clip the two contacts to a houseplant. Wait 30 seconds for calibration.
   • Scales — place an object up to 3 kg on the weight plate.
   • Orbita — open a DAW or music app first (Orbita needs a sound source), then place a coloured magnet on a track and press Start.

You should hear a note. If not, see "No sound" below.

💡 Why Chrome? Playtronica devices talk to your laptop through a feature called Web MIDI. Chrome supports it. Safari and Firefox do not yet. Use a computer. On a phone or tablet, Play plays with the touch screen; for other apps, see Mobile apps.

What to try next

• Try everyday objects. Anything that conducts a small amount of electricity works: fruit, water, aluminium foil, your skin, a damp leaf, a coin. See Objects you can play.
• Connect to music software. Ableton, Logic, GarageBand, and FL Studio see the device as a MIDI keyboard. See Connecting to a computer.
• Try more instruments. dotpiano.com is the simplest starting point for TouchMe and Biotron. synth.playtronica.com has a larger library of sounds for every device. See our full picks.

No sound — quick check

• Browser: are you in Chrome? Safari and Firefox do not support MIDI.
• Permission: did you click Allow on the MIDI permission popup? If you clicked Block, see No sound or MIDI not detected.
• Order of operations: for web synths, plug the device in before the browser opens the synth page. If you plugged in after, close the synth tab and open it again. Play does not need this: you can plug Playtron in at any time.
• Cable: the device ships with a USB data cable. A charge-only cable looks identical but carries no data — if you are using a different cable, swap in the one from the box.
• Playtron only: are you holding a gold corner of the device with bare skin? Without that contact (the ground), Playtron makes no sound at all. For more checks, see the Playtron no-sound checklist.

If none of that works, open the troubleshooting hub, or email support@playtronica.com. We read every email.

If it is not for you

That is fine. Four options to consider first:

• Try it once with another person. Many of the best moments happen when a second person holds the other end of the circuit. Invite a friend, a child, a flatmate.
• Pass it on. A music teacher, an artist, a curious child, a nephew or niece — many people would value this device.
• Use it once. Pull it out at a dinner. Plug it into a banana. Watch the room. Some people only need that one moment.
• Try it again in a week. The first session is not always the one that lands. The sound packs in Play and the synths at synth.playtronica.com are very different from each other.

If it still does not click for you, see Returns and refunds for what to do next.

Ask the community

🤝 Other Playtronica users have probably hit this before. The Playtronica Friends Facebook group has 4,400 members and is the fastest source of creative and technical help. Search the group's history first (use the magnifying glass at the top — try playtron mobile no sound, all leds lit, touchme biotron no sound, koala sampler midi, or whatever fits your problem). If your question is not already answered, post a new one with a [Device] prefix in the title. See the community page for what to ask there and what to email instead.

Still stuck

Email support@playtronica.com. We aim for 24 hours, but a reply may take up to 3 business days.