Hey, new to the forum. Was looking for some guidance on what parts I would need for a project or if an Arduino would even be the correct thing to use. I have experience wiring and experience programming however my knowledge of C/C++ is limited. Most of what I know is VB and SQL however what I am trying to do does not seem too complicated. Basic idea is as follows.
Escape room in a box, essentially solve puzzles to get combinations to open sections of a locked box to reach a goal. Was making for my daughter since she wants to do an escape room type thing with her friends but I wanted it to be portable.
Electronic items I was going to add for the atmosphere.
-switch or button to start the program (it's timed so this would start a countdown, play a sound)
-16 x 2 lcd or something similar to display the timer/ messages
-2 to 4 different banks/colors of leds to light up under different circumstances, pressure switch, magnetic switch, timer at a certain time. Assume using relays?
-a speaker to play simple wav or MP3 files
-battery powered for portability. can use like anker power pack or standard AA, 9V batteries (could be more than one power supply). Would only need to stay powered on for 1.5-2 hours at most at a time
Any advice would be greatly appreciated as this would be my first adventure in microcontrollers.
Get an Uno and a starter kit to start with. Start at the top of your list and make sample projects for each part. Don't try to do it all at once. Make sure that you know how each part works. When you have all the pieces working separately, then you can put it together and you will have a better feel for which Arduino and other parts to use in the end.
Main questions is whether or not this is possible on an Arduino? If so any recommendations as to type. I can and will gladly reach stuff and take things on at a time to get them work but wasn't sure if I would be wasting my time on something that wasn't possible on that platform. Buying a kit and spending money on items that I don't need nor have a use for doesn't seem like a good plan.
Paul_KD7HB:
After the girls recently burned to death because they could not get out of an escape room, the whole idea scares me.
Paul
All the ones I have been in have either a simple panic device or the door is alarmed, but not locked.
Figuring out the clues to exit is mental, not a physical lock.
You admit defeat and exit at your will or time expires
or you figure it out and take the win.
What you propose looks feasible to me, and perfectly suited to the Arduino.
For the power part: consider using a USB powerbank. Easy to charge. Connect it to a USB cable coming out of your box, and the moment it's powered on (the button on the power bank) it'll be up and running. Keep a few LEDs on at all times to keep the power bank alive (they need to be loaded with something like 50-100 mA or they switch off).
Music: DF Player Mini. If mono sound is enough, connect a 4 Ohm (8 or 16 also works but a bit less volume) speaker to it.
Thanks for the replies, didn't get the notifications for some reason that there were new posts. Seems that I can get a OSOYOO kit from Amazon fairly cheap and along with that and a couple other items (like the DF Player Mini and speaker) and would have all the parts that I would need. Would be less than $35 or so. Would be a nice learning experience for me and planning on scaring the crap of the kids haha.