Portal 2 "Pillar Button"

Edit: Instructable rewritten by JGWalrus

Hi! My name is Gaston Sueldo, I'm 16, I live in Argentina and yesterday I made this.

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Step 1: Get your materials!

What I used: (Quite necessary)

1 meter (3.28 feet) of 10.16 cm (4 inches) of white PVC pipe
1m of blue LED strip
1 electric converter
1 on/off switch
1 hamster wheel (I'll explain later)
A sheet of blue cellophane
A cap from a vacuum bottle (type of Thermos bottle)
A spring
Some wire
Wooden dowel or handle
Paint; Red, Black, Crystal Clear and White
Piece of 5cm x 5cm (2" x 2") lumber

Optional Items:
Cheap Mp3 player
Speakers

Tools:

Duct Tape
Electrical tape or Heat shrink tubing
Soldering iron and tin
Hot glue gun and glue
Dremel or Sand paper
Drill
Scissors
Hammer and Nails
Tape Measure
Hacksaw
Paintbrush
Pencil

mariejessie says: Aug 13, 2012. 3:57 AM

Beautiful in it's simplicity, it is a lovely instructable.

As Clazman asked (but not yet answered) what would I use this for? I've not seen anything like this before, nor have I heard of it. I'd love to know!

big kahuna burger (author) in reply to mariejessieAug 13, 2012. 10:00 AM

i didn't fully understand the question but basically in the game: Portal and Protal 2 the button normally releases a cube or a gel and is pretty similar to the one i build. In real life my portal button gives ligth and plays music in my room. If you didn't ever play the game here is a video that has it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeedaeAVli0

You can see the button at 0:43. So yeah you can change a lot of things in it to make it better but i wanted to make similar to the in game button

big kahuna burger (author) in reply to big kahuna burgerAug 13, 2012. 10:13 AM

Also my next future project can be seen in that video at 1:19
Is the giant red button on the floor, that will open the door of my bedroom and will turn on a path of ligths from the button to the door, by putting a cube on it.

If you didn't play portal isn't really good to build this, i mostly made this instructable to help persons (like me) that want to have a "portal themed bedroom"

mariejessie in reply to big kahuna burgerAug 13, 2012. 12:37 PM

Ah, now I understand! Thanks for the clarification!

clazman says: Aug 12, 2012. 10:11 PM

Not being at all familiar with pillar buttons and their purpose so my thought might sound stupid.

Why not make the slots discontinuous? The ribs would help maintain the circular cross section of the tube.

A router and a fixture, i.e. v-block, could help make the slots more professional.

Nice job, for whatever this device accomplishes.

ironicnet says: Aug 12, 2012. 3:55 PM

Nice to see an argentinian here!!!

Nice project, keep them going on =)

116

mikeasaurus says: Aug 12, 2012. 10:51 AM

Just like the real thing, awesome!

Also, congratulations on your first Instructable! You should mention it on the Rewards for New Authors page!

big kahuna burger (author) in reply to mikeasaurusAug 12, 2012. 11:45 AM

Muchas gracias

JGWalrus says: Aug 12, 2012. 10:43 AM

Awesome...Thats all I can say. I'll have to make this soon.

LandMime says: Aug 12, 2012. 7:30 AM

Nice job... I really like that size button. I just turned 60 years and big is much easier for my hands and eyes. Thanks :o)

big kahuna burger (author) says: Aug 2, 2012. 9:54 AM

Thanks so much.
Does anyone knows if i can ad this to the "20 portal projects"?

articz82 in reply to big kahuna burgerAug 8, 2012. 4:07 PM

no, because then it would be 21 portal projects.

pie R []ed says: Aug 7, 2012. 8:42 PM

Wonderful! I like how you manged such a great quality build wit such simple materials! One idea: You could hook up the led's with a transistor like in this ible: http://www.instructables.com/id/Music-LED-Light-Box/ and get a light reactive set up.

Best,
pie R []ed

big kahuna burger (author) in reply to pie R []edAug 8, 2012. 10:14 AM

that's a good thing about LED's. You can get really creative if you know what you are doing. This is the first time i used them so i just made it simple, but the guy in the electricity store show me a lot of stuff like diferent colours leds, regulators so you can make the color leds dance and change, even a lazer thing that i didn't understand :S

Make inmprovements to this projects in accordance of your electricity skills!