Aric Caley

Well, turns out the pots are actually a little TOO permeable to the water. Initially, the plants were getting too much water! So I cut the tubes down so the outer pots wouldn't fill up so high. This way the water is only at the bottom and can wick up as the plants use the water.Which makes me wonder how a real olla works. It seems like the water would really quickly drain out of the ollas into the dirt, no different than if you had just put water into a hole. Maybe there are different types of ceramic that would leak less water? Or maybe you would paint them with waterproof coating to control how quickly the water would leak out?

We won a first prize! My son's head nearly exploded! Thank you so much.

My son desperately wants to win so he can get a 3d printer.. :) I wouldn't mind that either...

Pretty cool. I was thinking about doing something similar with one of the analog synth chips (TI SN76477) from way back, which I still have. I was designing a board for my Sinclair back then to use the AY-3-8910's but I never got hold of those chips (this was in the early 80's).

Totally awesome. Love to see somebody else making this! Please post more pics of the finished product.I still need to make the mobile app that I intended to do that would let you upload images to it.

Make sure you have the most recent version of the GxEPD library because the flexible e-ink display was a fairly recent addition to it. I couldn't get anything to work until that new version was released (which happened only after I built this and couldn't get it to work..)

I'm on a Macbook but I also had issues initially getting things to work (Atom with platform-io). Even now I have to use "List Serial Ports" (from the platformio menu) and then whatever I find in there, I have to set it in the platformio.ini file:upload_port = /dev/cu.wchusbserial14130For some reason the number changes, maybe its because I dont plug it into the same port each time?Maybe that helps.

also I've had issues with USB cords. Make sure you have a good cord, some cords are only for charging and wont work.

Oh look, they have a larger display all of a sudden:https://www.waveshare.com/product/2.9inch-e-paper-d.htm

I found a better option for the e-paper display and adapter:https://www.crystalfontz.com/product/cfap104212d00213-flexible-epaper-display#undefinedhttps://www.crystalfontz.com/product/cfa10084-epaper-adapter-boardThis would be much more compact. It does not include a cable to go from the display to the board though. And the adapter board is open source so it could be directly integrated into a custom board design using a more compact ESP32 module. We don't need a breakout with all the I/O pins available.Here's also a pretty small QI compatible inductive receiver:https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33002939788.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.31543c00XkgSSZAnd a lipo charger:https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32709366716.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.7ec93c00NzpOJHBare ESP32 modules can be found everywhere..

I'm not sure what you mean by "sample"? Did you mean a kit containing all the parts? I have thought about doing that. I am actually seriously looking into getting a high quality mold made for the cup and doing a custom PCB to make a more compact design. I may do a kickstarter.

Hey, man. You wanna help me 3d model a better cup design? I was never able to locate an existing cup that would work.. besides this cheap one but it was only sufficient for a prototype.

This party literally occured saturday before the contest ended so I didn't have much time to make the instructable. I will probably do a more detailed one just for the butterflies as these are already planned to get reused in another party.. :)

I didn't even get runner up for the contest. :(No matter. I am researching how to make a more permanent, marketable version of the cup.I would like to get the cup injection molded in clear acrylic. It would be a single main piece, IE no insert, with a double wall. On the bottom would be a cap. I have found a thin Aerogel insulator pad that will fit inside, and then the patterned or colored insert could be printed on thin plastic instead of paper. With the Aerogel and double wall, it should insulate as good as a thermos! I haven't decided on a heating element, but the only "smart mugs" around seem to have this feature. But I would like to see it have a QI charging coil in the bottom. Also the capacitive touch buttons. Maybe a couple LED's. A temperature sensor. And an app to h...

I didn't even get runner up for the contest. :(No matter. I am researching how to make a more permanent, marketable version of the cup.I would like to get the cup injection molded in clear acrylic. It would be a single main piece, IE no insert, with a double wall. On the bottom would be a cap. I have found a thin Aerogel insulator pad that will fit inside, and then the patterned or colored insert could be printed on thin plastic instead of paper. With the Aerogel and double wall, it should insulate as good as a thermos! I haven't decided on a heating element, but the only "smart mugs" around seem to have this feature. But I would like to see it have a QI charging coil in the bottom. Also the capacitive touch buttons. Maybe a couple LED's. A temperature sensor. And an app to help you program the displays, including setting things up like notifications, weather reports, whatever you want to display in real time! The other smart cups don't seem to have any connectivity.I think I will seriously set up a kickstarter for this. I don't have any manufacturing experience so if anybody does I would like to hear from you.

I've actually got one of those boards. But I think that might be overkill unless you used it to create several buttons. It is pretty sensitive though so you should be able to get it to work through the plastic with the electrode on the inside. This in combination with the one piece injection molded cup (with a screw on or glued on bottom) could make for a water safe solution.I had even thought of putting games on this, simple ones mind you like CHIP-8 style. With a set of buttons that would work...

I'm already working on options. :) At least a kit maybe but I'm also looking at the cost to make a real molded cup. Also trying to find a larger display.

I was going to add a small button by the handle to manually cycle through the displays, but I think I like your idea better!

I thought so. I can't believe it but I haven't seen anybody do it before...

Yes I certainly did. I also thought about putting in a heating element so it could maintain the coffee temperature (also also put in a temperature sensor). I don't think that would all fit inside the existing cup though. As I mentioned my original design would use a "real" ceramic cup insert which you could remove for washing, with a more solid acrylic outside with handle. I am thinking now that the outside part could be injection molded acrylic with a screw on bottom. I would like to actually manufacture these!

I've never heard of this game before, so this is pretty interesting. I wish you could have shared the whole code of the game though!I am wondering why didn't you multiplex the button inputs and the LED matrix? You could probably then use just a regular Arduino and the wiring would be simpler. I am sure the code is small enough to fit...

The circuit playground does have a small speaker, though its not very loud. I didn't get it in the video but it does beep annoyingly as it counts down, and it attempts to make an explosion sound when you lose.

I'm planning on anonymously placing it on my brothers desk at work. I'm sure he will "pay it forward" around the office...

The LED strip lights up the sides of the cube. Originally I thought I could bring the light from the Circuit Playground to the sides using bent pieces of acrylic as light pipes, but this got to be too complex. Instead I am using the on board lights to show what game mode its in. I'll find other uses for them probably.I stuck with the Circuit Playground because it just can't be beat when you count the cost of the speaker, the microphone and the accelerometer (unless of course you got discrete components and etched your own PCB and such).

I'll update the parts list with the approximate cost (and fix the links, I see they are not working), but here's an estimate:Circuit Playground: $20 (both in a store like Fry's or Microcenter and online from Adafruit).NeoPixel strip: I got one from Microcenter for about $7.HM-10 module: ~$2 from various chinese companies, around $4 or so on ebay.Cardstock: $5 for like 100 sheets at Target. I only used two sheets so technically only a few cents worth..Reflectix tape at Lowes: $3.50. Same here, I only used a tiny bit of the roll.Acrylic sheet: $3.38 at LowesBattery holder: $1Other miscelaneous stuff I had on hand like glue and such.

Thanks! I will be creating an indiegogo campaign after I've built a few more and play-tested it.

Well thank you for that! Yeah I thought it would get more traction but you never know whats going to get people's attention. I thought I had a good chance of winning the contests (I did get runner up though). It didn't come out as nice as I had hoped. But I have some other projects that are much more interesting that I am working on. I'll probably eventually do a 2.0 of this one as well.

No you just tip it over to get them out.We had thought about cutting a slot on the side and then having another piece of cardboard inside at an angle so the balls would roll over to the slot but we were trying to keep it simple... :) But this would be easy enough to do.