'Orbital' Arduino Escape Room Puzzle Prop

This tutorial explains how to build your own electronic escape room puzzle that tests your reactions and dexterity, similar to the "cyclone" arcade machine.
Players must press a button when a rotating LED stops at the correct target. Inputs that are too early or too late are accompanied by visual feedback, and the game can be adjusted to slow down the LED on subsequent attempts. If the LED is stopped on the target correctly, it proceeds to the next ring, and a new target is chosen. Repeat this three times and a relay is activated that releases an electro-magnetic lock.

This puzzle uses an Arduino Nano, three WS2812B ("Neopixel") rings, and an arcade pushbutton. It can be built very easily for only about $20.

Timings
00:00:00 - 00:02:11 Introduction and Demonstration
00:02:12 - 00:04:45 Hardware Overview
00:04:46 - 00:07:33 Component Wiring Diagram
00:07:34 - 00:36:54 Arduino Code Listing
00:36:55 - 00:38:11 Wrapup and Conclusion

[markanthonynilo]

Sir, I always enjoy your video. I wish I had a professor like you. Keep those videos coming.
I wish I can code like you. I really love everything that you do. Your one of the coolest I knew here on YT.

[gonzagueyernaux]

Thank you so much for all your videos. Such inspiration, such great ideas, and of course always with your natural sense of pedagogic explanations. Being a "homemade escape rooms" builder myself I am both grateful and admirative of your excellent work. This video in particular is so inspiring and creative, I love the use of programmable LEDs in a very neatly designed way! Keep it up, Alister, much love from Belgium!

[lwo]

A cool way to change this puzzle would be to have all three orbits happening at the same time, with 3 potentiometers to control their respective orbit speed, you have got to slow them all down/speed them up so that they all orbit in an alignment, I'd imagine with the different numbers of leds in each ring though, you'd have to do some clever stuff for it to figure out what "alignment" is in the code, maybe have a +/- 1 or 2 leds for the outer rings

[iantcroft]

Thank you for an excellent tutorial, I really wish I could get my head round the programming. You really are incredibly clever to be able to create something like this.

I am trying to learn this stuff using best practices and I wish to thank you for sharing your skills.

[NLGeebee]

I have a project in my STEAM class to make an escape room, where each team has to make a puzzle that is used as an input for the next puzzle.
So maybe you could use rotary encoders to set the target LEDs, then catch them in each ring to open the mag switch to release the next piece if the puzzle.

[TekGeekDad]

awesome - love how you daisy chained the leds together to act as one off of one pin. Wow 10 amp supply. Out of interest do you do a single plug into the wall AC outlet that drives both power supplies (5v and 12V) or do you do two separate plugs to have absolutely no chance of noise?

[sebastiansteffen]

Can we get en Workshop Tour? would be very interesting.

[Mogeli]

Hey was the filament you used for the rings just a standard "clear" PLA or did you use something different? It may just be the camera but it looks slightly different to what I have printed before with clear PLA

[treynewton]

Awesome! really. + remotely located button/trigger out of line-of-sight to force co-op timing

[carlosmansillaoryan]

hola tienes algun diy batak game o catching the stick ?? tks

[Sir-Dexter]

nice better...because ....I went in one Escape Room and Just Picked all the pad locks ...