🍊What objects can you play?

Each Playtronica device that senses conductivity favours slightly different objects. Pick the right object for your device and the experience is immediate.

⚠️ Do not connect any Playtronica device to anything plugged into mains power, anything wet near electronics, or anything that has its own battery (other than your laptop). All examples on this page assume the object is passive and at room temperature.

Three devices, three approaches

The rest of this page goes deeper into each.

Playtron — objects you can clip alligator wires to

These work every time:

• Citrus fruit — lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit. The acidic juice makes them strong conductors. Best for first demos. Wipe the pins dry after the session.
• Bananas — soft, juicy, photogenic. The skin and the flesh both conduct. The flesh gives a stronger signal.
• Apples and pears — slightly less conductive than citrus but still reliable.
• Tomatoes, watermelon, and grapes — juicy and reliable.
• A glass of water — clip the alligator wire to a metal piece partly submerged in the water. Touch the water surface or the rim of the glass.
• Skin — your own or another person's. Damp palms work better than dry palms.
• Aluminium foil — predictable, very conductive, no mess. Crumple a sheet into a ball for an instant pad.
• Coins — copper, brass, or nickel. Clip directly to a coin, or stack coins on a surface.
• Living plants — succulents, cacti, monstera, pothos. Push the clip into the soil at the base of a stem and touch a leaf. Water the plant first for a stronger signal.
• Damp paper, damp cloth, damp leaves — anything you have wetted. The water does the conducting.

TouchMe — objects you can play with the gold pads

TouchMe's two pads are the input. Anything you can hold against one pad while you (or someone else) holds the other pad becomes part of the circuit:

• Your own skin — the default. One hand on each pad.
• Another person's skin — the signature two-person demo. Each person holds one pad and touches the other person. The touch between them plays the music. See TouchMe for the full demo.
• A glass of water — hold one pad and put your other hand in the water; clip the other pad to a metal piece in the water. Wet hands play stronger notes.
• Flowers and damp plants — TouchMe's own product description names "flowers" specifically. Hold the stem of a wet flower against one pad while you hold the other pad.
• Wet leaves — pressed against the pad with bare skin between you and the leaf.

TouchMe ships with 2 alligator clips so you can extend either pad to a clipped object, the way Playtron works on a smaller scale.

Biotron — picking the right plant

Biotron reads bio-electrical signals INSIDE a plant. The plant plays itself. The plant is not just a conductor; it is the source of the music.

The best plants for Biotron have three properties:

1. High water content — the bio-electrical signal travels through water. Well-hydrated plants make richer music.
2. Long branches or large leaves — bigger surface area, more signal variation.
3. Active stomata — tropical species kept warm and bright produce more electrical variation than dormant plants.

Strong picks: monstera, rubber plant (Ficus elastica), pothos, philodendron, snake plant. Weaker picks: succulents, cacti, aloe vera (work but produce sparser music). Avoid: grass, dried plants, very small plants, cut flowers in water.

See Biotron for the full plant-selection guide and the experiment that helps you find the most musical plant in your room.

Borderline objects (Playtron + TouchMe)

These work sometimes, depending on humidity, contact area, and the specific item:

• Bread or baked dough — fresh bread works, stale bread does not. Surface moisture matters.
• Cheese — soft cheese works, hard cheese does not.
• Wood — wet wood works, dry wood does not.
• Stone, concrete, brick — damp stone sometimes works, dry stone almost never.
• Books, paper, fabric — only when damp.

Objects that look conductive but are not

• Dry wood and dry bark. Look natural and earthy, but do not conduct.
• Painted metal. Paint is an insulator. Scratch through the paint or move the clip to an unpainted point.
• Anodised aluminium. The anodised layer is an insulator.
• Glass. Does not conduct on its own. The water inside the glass does.
• Plastic. Does not conduct, including metallic-looking plastic packaging.
• Rubber and silicone. Designed to be insulators.
• Dry ceramics and dry stones. Need to be wet to conduct.

How to make a borderline object work

• Add water. A drop on the surface, or a quick wipe with a damp cotton pad, turns most borderline materials into reliable conductors. Do not soak the object.
• Pierce the surface. For objects with a non-conductive skin (apple skin, painted metal), push the alligator clip through to the conductive interior.
• Increase the contact area. Two alligator teeth touching the object work better than one. A larger surface gives a stronger signal.
• Improve your ground. A weak ground reduces the signal. See Grounding — how and why.

The world of conductive materials you can buy

Beyond fruit and plants, there is a whole category of materials designed to conduct electricity on flexible surfaces. These let you build custom instruments, wearables, paintings that play music, and interactive textiles. Playtron and TouchMe accept any of them through alligator clips.

Conductive paint

Bare Conductive Electric Paint — water-based, non-toxic, dries at room temperature. Paint a keyboard on paper, paint shapes on cardboard, paint sensors onto walls. Each painted shape becomes a Playtron note when you clip to it. The 10 mL paint pen is the easiest way to start.

Conductive thread

Stainless-steel thread that sews into fabric. Embroider a circuit, then clip Playtron's alligator wire to the thread. Useful for wearable pieces. Available at Adafruit, Sparkfun, and most maker stores.

Conductive fabric

Knit conductive fabric — less than 1 Ω per foot of resistance. Cut it into shapes, sew them onto a garment, clip Playtron to the shape. Touching the fabric closes a circuit through your body.

Conductive nylon fabric tape

Adhesive, stick-on conductive material. Stick it to anything (a guitar, a sculpture, a wall) and it becomes a Playtron-playable surface.

Copper tape

Cheap and reliable. The Playtronica shop sells copper tape directly. Stick it onto a piece of paper, a cardboard cutout, a 3D print — any shape is a key.

Bare Conductive Touch Board (different category)

The Bare Conductive Touch Board is a standalone alternative-conductivity device that pairs naturally with Playtronica thinking. We mention it because curious customers often ask. It plays its own samples from an SD card rather than sending MIDI; not a replacement for Playtron, but a sibling in the same world.

Quick conductivity test

If you are not sure whether an object will play:

1. Plug in Playtron and ground yourself.
2. Clip one alligator wire to a known-good object (a banana).
3. Clip the other wire to the mystery object.
4. Touch the banana.

If you hear notes, the mystery object is conducting. If you hear silence, the object is not conducting.

Where this is useful

• Demos and workshops. Fruit is the standard first prop because it always works.
• Installations. Living plants, salt water, conductive paint, and conductive textiles hold their behaviour over long periods.
• Live performance. Practise with the same set of objects each time so the response is predictable.
• Education. This is the moment children realise electricity is a real thing that flows through real materials. A basket of fruit and one Playtron is worth keeping for this reason alone.
• Wearable and textile art. Conductive thread + Playtron + a sewn shape on a jacket = a piece of clothing that plays.

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

For specific creative builds — sculptures, custom instruments, choreographed setups — email collaboration@playtronica.com with the subject Creative build question. We have helped many people choose the right materials.