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Legend of Zelda Treasure chest with sound!

Step 6Adding electronics and lining the inside.

Adding electronics and lining the inside.
This step is completely optional but is really cool. If you don't care to add sound, you can  skip this and go straight lining the inside.

To prepare the electronics, the first thing you'll need to so is load your mp3 onto your mp3 player. You're going to want this to be the only file on the mp3 player, so that every time you hit play it plays this sound. Once you've got your mp3 player loaded up, it's time to disassemble it. Once you've got it taken apart you need to wire leads to the play button.

You need to wire the leads from the play button to your SPDT lever switch. This switch should have 3 pins, normally open, normally closed, and common. These will be labeled NO, NC, and C. You're going to wire to the pins C and NC. This way, when the chest is closed and pressing the switch, the play button is disconnected, while opening the chest will activate the play button. Once you've got your switch wired, go ahead and glue it into the chest so that the lever is depressed when the chest is closed.  Once you've done this, plug your speaker amp into the mp3 and secure everything to the bottom of the chest with hot glue.

With the electronics installed and working, you can start cutting pieces of felt and gluing them to the inside. 

To conceal the electronic parts, I cut out a piece of cardboard that fit snuggly in the bottom of the chest and glued felt to it. This false bottom will hide the inner workings and make everything look nice and clean.
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10 comments
Dec 16, 2011. 3:05 PMmulletking says:
Could you post what brand of MP3 player you used, or recommend cheap ones that we can pull apart?

Jan 28, 2012. 9:05 AMmednasrallah says:
I second this! I tried going to radioshack for a "cheap" one but all they had was 40$+ with like 8 gigs. Was wondering if there were something cheaper.
Sep 2, 2011. 11:03 PMknguyen24 says:
If i have a play button with a combined play/pause button, do i need to solder 2 wires onto it or just one?
May 9, 2011. 5:35 AMdoickle says:
Does the mp3 player have to have a separate "play" button where most mp3 players have a combined "play/pause" button for the system to work properly?
Apr 8, 2011. 7:36 PMlord_bow says:
Can you post a close up picture of the wiring for the SPDT and a recording module (or the MP3) that you used?
Apr 7, 2011. 6:10 PMClockWorkMan says:
Do you have to have a SPDT switch to make this work.
Apr 7, 2011. 6:41 PMClockWorkMan says:
also can i use any sound affect. I got two gift cards with sound affects one plays a short version of the song "we are the champions"by the queens i think. and the other one is fireworks going off. i took one of this cards apart to get the the sound unit and notices that there's only a thin little plastic strip that's is pulled to make the sound affect play. can i rig it where when i open the chest it will play the sound affect that i have chosen?
Apr 8, 2011. 3:12 PMClockWorkMan says:
this is the right card model. can i use the speaker from the card if i cant get ahold of anyother speaker?
Apr 3, 2011. 3:17 AMblastoderm says:
Might it be possible to replace an MP3 player with a recordable greeting card?
Apr 6, 2011. 9:08 PMGwendolyn85 says:
Oh god please add that to the tutorial once you're done it'd add over 9000 levels of awesomeness to this already awesome treasure chest!

By the way EXCELLENT tutorial! the only thing I need to find is a way to cut the wood, but once that's out of the way it'll be great. Thank you for sharing!
Apr 7, 2011. 8:48 AMMiss Pixel says:
I know that places like Home Depot will cut wood for you, you just have to buy the wood (and possibly pay a small fee for the cuts), they'll just need you to tell them the dimensions of each piece.
Apr 7, 2011. 9:17 AMAKDoug says:
Most lumber shops in the US cut for free. (if you shop local, it is better for the economy)
Apr 7, 2011. 11:05 AMGwendolyn85 says:
Thank you Ms. Pixel and AKDoug for the suggestions :D I was looking around here in my campus and I also found out we have a room full of wood tools, so I just need to find out if I can use it. I'll try to look for a lumber shop or Home Depot around here :D
Apr 6, 2011. 9:27 PMGwendolyn85 says:
I have a question, how do you manage to keep the mp3 player on? wouldn't it turn off by itself after a while? Also the batteries, once you run out... I didn't read the whole thing yet (just read fast while browsing the images) so maybe it's mentioned and I just missed it ^^U
Apr 5, 2011. 5:17 PMKyofuNoDaio says:
Awesome, I need to make one of these.

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Author:Zachariah Cruse(Zachariah Cruse)