Introduction: Mini Wack-A-Mole

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Have you ever played whack-a-mole at an arcade and thought to yourself, "I wish I had one of these at home?" Well, now you can! With this mini whack-a-mole game with a timer and light-up buttons, you can bring the fun of the arcade right to your living room.

Supplies

Electronics:

Misc:

  • 1/8 in birch wood
  • Packing tape
  • Duct tape
  • Wood Glue
  • Super Glue
  • Parchment paper

Step 1: Box Creation

  • Make a Console2 box through boxes.py with front height set to 60 mm and angle set to 25 degrees.
  • Laser cut rectangles and desired designs along the side of the box (so the lights can be seen from the inside).
  • Laser cut 4 holes on each side of the top of the box for the mole buttons and one in the middle for the start button.
  • Laser cut a rectangle above the start button for the time LED backpack.
  • Laser cut a small hole in the back for the wiring.
  • Put the box together using wood glue.

Step 2: Set Up the Box

  • Line the inside of the box with the LED lights using duct tape.
  • Place the buttons and LED backpack in their respective places.
  • Super glue the buttons down and duct tape the backpack from the inside.
  • Daisy chain the Botton board and the LED backpack together. 

Step 3: Code

  • Copy Code from above
  • Download the corresponding libraries from Adafruit Bundles
  • Use sd card with desired sound effects for the "play_sound", "play_sound_defeat", and "play_sound_high_score" functions
  • Upload code into Mu and save as code.py.

Attachments

Step 4: Put It All Together

  • Attach the Pico W to the breakout board and connect the wires of the data cable, STEMMA QT, LED lights, speaker, and start button to their corresponding pin holes.
  • Line the rectangular holes with parchment paper and tape with see through packing tape.
  • Place all components inside the box and have fun!