How to build a functional movie prop "Remote Mine"
(If you can't find the parts to make your own, as a few are hard to track down, head over to my other project where you can 3D print the parts instead:
https://www.instructables.com/id/3D-printed-Goldeneye-007-Remote-Mine-With-beeper-/ )

If you remember the way it feels to sit 2 feet away from your mothers TV, with all your friends jamming on the "C" buttons, and joysticks of your favorite N64 controller, then this is the Instructable for you!

Goldeneye 64, a legendary FPS that set the standards for games of its type for years to come. With both single and multiplayer modes that included a slew of guns, characters and environments this was the game that would be dreamed about by every tweenage boy all through math class. (And social studies, english, history, etc)

Out of any weapon in the game, the one that stands out in my mind the most is the "Remote Mine".

Throw it, and jam the "Z" and "A" button at the same time to detonate in mid air! Now how sweet is that?

Well I threw the dust cover off of my N64 the other week, and was inspired. It has been quite a while since Ive worked on a little project, and followed through, so I figured hey why not make a remote mine prop?

I started with some research, The actual movie prop is made from an old joystick. Either a PC Commander, or a Saitek. It took some doing to track one of these bad boys down, so all in all finding this most-important component will be your hardest task. Consider this an instructable with a dash of scavenger hunt!

Ready to start? Grab your "PP7" and credit card and lets go!

Step 1: Gather Up Components

Here is a list of the things you will need. Some can be substituted so don't get to distressed if you can't find the EXACT components listed below:

-5mm red LED Assembly (Radio Shack)
-"SPST" Push-on/Push-off switch (Radio Shack #275-011A)
-PC Commander or Saitek joystick (Ebay, garage sale, Craigslist)
-Mini-6-LED Chaser circuit (It comes as a kit so get your soldering iron handy)
-Primer/Green/Gray spray paint
-8mm drill bit (Roughly)
-Electrical tape
-Small electronic buzzer/ beeper (optional/ pick a beep you like)
-Hand full of magnets (Size and strength up to you)
-9V battery
-Styrene sheet (or other hard thin material)

The more specific components have been photographed below:

Step 2: Prep First Component

Grab your newly acquired joystick, and a smallish phillips head screw driver, and dig in! Start with just the 4 screws on the bottom of the joystick that ARE NOT ON THE LITTLE FEET! You don't need to take them out until later.

Once you've got this bad boy open, start tearing her guts out with what ever you have on hand. I used a pair of pliers, because I became impatient when the baby screws inside began stripping.

Step 3: Place Lower/upper Halves Back Together

Its really up to you but the rubber feet and blue switches here can be taken out, or left in. I took them out. On the actual prop they are removed and the holes filled in before painting.

Step 4: Choose Your Paint!

Well I know normally painting doesn't come till the end. But as I said before, I'm very impatient... SO! I decided to paint her up!

Here is your choice. In the movie, the top half of the mine is actually green! I never knew this before I saw an up-close shot of the movie prop. While in the game its ALL gray.

Being a fan of the game first before the movie, I have decided to go with two shades of gray for the mine, instead of the traditional green.

Step 5: Drill Holes for LEDs

For this step I used a ruler to measure from the center hole to the sides of the mine to find where I wanted to place the LED's Then, I used a circle template and drew a circle to the holes could be drilled evenly, and uniformly.

I drilled my holes at around 8mm diameter. But a little filing was required so the LED bezels would snap into place nicely.

Once that was done, I gave the top half another quick coat of paint.

Step 6: Button, and Button-plate

So now you have your mine, with holes drilled for the LEDs!
But how to activate it... Well you probably don't have your detonator watch on, so lets arm them like Pierce does in the movie. With the big red button. Because the hole is a little larger in diameter than the button, and there is no where to mount it, a "Special" styrene sheet mounting board was created. Holes were measured out, and then drilled so I could use the existing mounting points on the underside of the upper body half. Once the holes were drilled the button was screwed into place, and screws screwed into screw holes. Yes, many screws in one sentence.

Make sure to spray paint the top of the assembly before putting it together or you will see the white styrene once it is installed!

As a side note I have seen a few different buttons used for this device. So you don't need to use the standard red cover that comes with this one.

(Any semi-rigid or rigid material will work for the button plate, just make sure its thin enough to fit inside the body without taking up much room)

Step 7: Install LEDs

Next up is to mount the LEDs into the body.
Grab all your LEDs and either feed the wire through the hole, or take the bezel off, insert it into the hole, and pop the LED back up through it.

The LED's themselves are 5mm diameter while the bezels are around 8mm.

One thing I noticed is that the LEDs stick up a little to tall for my liking, so I put the bezel in place first, then pressed them up into the bezel so they did not protrude to far out. I'll leave that up to you.

The great thing about these bezels is that they are pressure fit so they can be taken out and readjusted if need be.

Step 8: Wire Up Circuitry!

So I wont bother giving you instructions on how to build the circuit... only how to modify it once its built. Having a lot of soldering experience, but no circuitry experience, it was a lot of fun to build this kit!

Make sure not to open the kit until your ready to work... I did on the subway and guess what, I had to buy another kit because I lost the ENTIRE BOARD!!!

UPDATE: This morning I was sitting on my couch reading, and I hear something small being pushed around under the couch by my cat. And guess what it was!? The missing circuit board!!! So now I have TWO sets of LED Chasers!
(This happened after I finished the project so If it improves the design I will make sure to add alternative instructions after I experiments a little more on this unit!)

Just to make sure I actually built it right, I only used the components it came with (i.e. I did not install the larger LED's that we installed into the housing in the last step, but instead used the very tiny LEDs included in the kit)

The one thing I did add to this circuit was a little beeper, just to see if it worked or not... which it did. So if you do know what your doing, don't bother installing the LEDs that came with the kit, seeing as they will need to be de-soldered at a later stage.

Check out the video below to see how the circuit should work (And optionally, should sound when its all wired up properly)

IMG_3007.MOV
Download

Step 9: Wiring to Mine LED's

Although in the last step I shower the circuit chasing all 6 lights in a linear pattern... Somewhere I ran into a problem that sort of messed things up...and I couldn't fix them, so I worked with what I had and changed the pattern. Lights still light up and chase, but its semi-circular on the mine, instead of making a complete circle.

In fact I am very happy with the pattern I got stuck with!!!

Step 10: Glue on Magnets

Next step was so re attach the bottom plate, and glue on some magnets. Now while these are not exactly "Super strong rare earth magnets", they may be from a fridge door... which means they are good enough for me.

As an alternative, you can always unscrew the section I glued over, and insert stronger, smaller magnets INSIDE the housing.