I have chosen to do the SKATE/HORSE light board because I already had ideas on how to implement it and I would use it more than the my other project ideas. To understand what challenges I would face on the electronic and software side, I decided to wire up a simple circuit to show how the player button mechanic would work. Essentially, a light represents a letter, and every time a player gets a letter someone will press their button and light up the corresponding light. Eventually, I hope to have wooden housing to store all the electronics and hold the leds and buttons in place.
My intention for the final project is to have four player sets, 5 lights and a button for each of the four players. I can already anticipate some of the challenges for this project. One is whether to enable more than four players to use this board. I have thought about adding arrow or scroll buttons to enable it. However, I would need some way to indicate which player is which. Another expansion idea is to have a leds on the top of the board that spell SKATE or HORSE. During gameplay, the SKATE/HORSE leds would flash when a player lost or won. Also, I am thinking of some cool animation ideas for when the board gets reset such as cascading lights.
I still have some challenges that I have not delved into yet for this project. One challenge is having enough ports for all the leds and buttons. I have looked into some options such as Charlieplexing and found that shift registers can do the trick. My second challenge is finding plastic caps for the leds to make them appear more like arcade lights. I have not yet found them, but I am thinking about potentially 3d printing some to hold leds. The third challenge is how to mount the leds to a wood panel, I have not found a great solution yet so I am open for suggestions.
Shopping list:
- Spade Crimp connectors
- Wire
- 74HC595 shift registersÂ
- Laser Cutting WoodÂ
- Led matrix for top lettering
- Led diffuser caps
- Hinges to open housing
- Clasp
- Tweezers
- Laser cutter
- Optional: 3d printer (if I cannot find led caps)
- Optional: premade box
A few suggestions about mounting the LEDs to the wooden panel:
-Drill a hole (or better yet, CNC or laser cut the holes) that’s the size of the LED and stick it in there from the back
-If you want to be really slick, drill the hole *almost* all the way through but leave like 1mm of wood on the front side. The light will shine through the thin layer of wood but be invisible when not illuminated.
-There are also little LED mounting brackets you can attach to give a polished appearance to the panel. Here’s one example: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G9KKHLS/
I really like how interactive your project will be, it is interesting how you wired the board to be able to light up every time the button is pressed.
U think it is very cool that you went down the path of a game and it is a very unique idea. It is good that you are looking ahead to possible issues that may come up. Good luck.
I think this idea is so cool! For the light covering you could maybe use something similar to that of a flashlight /or a the part of the flashlight to make them look more arcade-like.