If you're customers of ours or fans you may know we're building a bee room. I had an idea for a puzzle when I was designing the room, and I really expected to have Yancey program it. But, when I explained it, he, in the nicest way possible, told me it was very simple, and to do it myself.
So I did.
The basic premise is that you find a token, and when you place it in the right place, four lights light up in sequence. Those lights are arranged in a way to indicate direction and from there, well, I'm sure you've seen one of these before.
So, I cut some cardboard from the box our latest shirt delivery came in, got out the hot glue, and got to work.
You'd be surprised how many props start with leftover cardboard and hot glue. I had some leftover LED lights I had purchased for something else, originally designed to go in a car. Amazon sells them in packs of 10.
I wired these to an arduino, set up a reed switch to trigger it, and coded a sequence for them to flash in. And it worked. I designed an electronic prop, built it, coded it, installed it, and it works. And yes, it's simple. But it's clean and efficient. It has an array. It has a function. And I made it. From scratch.
Not bad.