This story shows how I finished my version of the Simon Game which I described in the story you can re-read here: https://lucstechblog.blogspot.com/2018/12/simon.html
Now the game setup was finished, meaning hardware and software worked without any bugs, I started thinking about a casing for the game. I did not want to leave it as a bread-board prototype as my girlfriend liked the game and wanted to play it more often.
First step was to put all the hardware on stripboard. Well that was easy as the schematics are not complicated. Fritzing was used to document all the parts.You can find Fritzing here: http://fritzing.org/home/
I used two pieces of stripboard.
The first was used to put the buttons on.
Make sure you cut the strips below the buttos so you will have independend contacts and no short-circuit.
The second piece of stripboard was used to put the Attiny85 on as well as the resistor and capacitor for the neopixels.
Here also make sure you cut the strips below the Attiny 85 to prevent short-circuit.
Also be aware that you are looking at the top of the stripboard, being the component side. The actual strips are on the bottom side.
The neopixels were just soldered as a string with some wires between them like I showed in the Neopixel intro which you can re-read here: http://lucstechblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/neopixels-ws2812-intro.html
When the hardware was finished I could start drawing my casing. I am using Tinkercad for this . Tinkercad is outstanding for simple designs. And as I am no industrial designer my designs generally are simple. You can find Tinkercad here: https://www.tinkercad.com/#/
I started with a casing for the batteries. I power my Simon game from 3 AA batteries as they will last a long time. The Attiny85 does not consume much and the Neopixels are never lit all at the same time. The box is printed and the contacts are made from bended paperclips.
Next a simple box as casing that would fit the batteries and the board with the Attiny85.
In real world it looks like the picture above.
And last the lid for the box. I added an on-off switch in the power line. I just had to do some minor filing before all fitted.
And here is the end-result.
The STL files (to print your own casing) can be found on github with this link:
https://github.com/Lucvolders/Simon
Simon version 2 ???
By popular demand (meaning pressure by girlfriend) I am thinking about building version 2. This will have a speaker that will play a tone when a color is shown (or the button is pressed) and a display (read Oled .96 inch) for keeping the score. But please do not hold your breath while waiting for it.
Besides that it will be more expensive to build due to the screen and the use of a bigger microcontroller as we will need more I/O pins.
This was the last post for this year. I whish you all a happy christmass and hope to welcome you all again in good health in the new year.
Till next time
and don't waste all your time playing ;)
Luc Volders