Take me to the Steps

LED Puzzle Box: Play

Light Emitting Diodes,

Such an interesting component that yields some of the best creations imaginable. From LED throwies to LED sculptures and costumes. I even came up with a saying for Maker Faire, LOLROTFL, Lots of LEDs Rapidly Oscillating Throughout Faire Land. Puzzles and games are also great, providing endless enjoyment for all.

Today we are going to make a puzzle game that uses LOL and it’s quite fun to try to work out a strategy for playing. You’re going to need a transparent container to house all the LEDs in, so you can either pick one up, or design one yourself with a 3D printer and transparent filament. If you 3D print one, you can go nuts with different shapes and designs for your container. I will show some examples after I tell you about the basics of how to make one of these puzzles.

So get your LED collection out and tell your family that game night is coming up, because we are going to make an addicting toy that will provide entertainment for hours and will get some competition going!

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Project Steps

Gather LEDs

First, pick out your LEDs. Get the ultra bright kind, so you can easily see them, and select a few colors. I opted for White, Orange, Red, Green, and Blue. Use various amounts of each color so some will be harder to get, while others will be easier so that we can make a points system.

Pick a container

Remember, in order for an LED to light up, it needs to be able to connect to both sides of the battery, so you will want a container that allows the LED leads to get to both sides. For example, a water bottle is great except for the lid part, because the battery can fall into the neck and then the LED lead can’t get to that side facing towards the outside of the bottle.

Throw them in

Now throw all your LEDs in the container with a battery and mix it up.

Design a container (optional)

If you have a 3D printer, you can design your own container with different hollow cutouts like a sphere, square, or a polyhedron. Also, when you go to slice it for your printer, you can try out all those interesting infills you have!

Play with it!

Now it’s time for game night! One person has the cube and they need to mess around with it until it lights up. Another person spots the player and writes down their score. The player with the highest points, or who lights up that one white LED wins!