Library escape room prop, LED/Breaker panel programming

I'm completely new to the world of Arduino and am looking for some basic guidance on a project I am creating for my local library (where I work as the IT guy). I am designing my 3rd escape room and am trying to make the jump from expensive prebuilt electronic props to designing my own custom props with Arduino components.

The players will begin in a dark "bunker" with only flashlights. The first puzzle is to turn the generator on using a breaker box that contains real circuit breakers. When the players have moved the 6-8 breakers into the correct positions (either up or down), the lights will come on. I have purchased an Uno Starter kit and Mega Arduino as well as a 16ft strip of 5vdc LED lights (30 lights per meter) and some basic relays & caps. I have not procured the breakers yet (hoping to find some old ones locally) but I feel the basic setup is feasible. From what I have read online, the fastled library is the place to start but I have no idea how to add in the logic of the breaker positions into the program.

If anyone can help I would greatly appreciate it. The budget has tightened up so I am funding this project out of my pocket and the room is free to the public so any help will go to a good cause.

Thank you,

Dan

Easiest: wire the breakers in series, in such a way that they all have to be in the "on" position (be it up or down) to complete the circuit. Detect that as if it's a single button.

I understand what you mean in that once all of the conditions are met then there is a single output to the Arduino. My question is how to do that with some of the breakers being in a different position than others. I don't have breakers to test yet but I assume there will be an open when the breaker is off and a short when it's on. I don't know how to wire an "open" into a series circuit.

Maybe only having 2 breakers that need to be off so that I have 3 logic circuits, 1 high for the "on" breakers and 2 lows for the "off" breakers?

Thanks for replying,

Dan

you can connect a 5V power to the main incoming buss bar at the top of the breaker panel
connect all the lines together.

connect one line to each breaker you want and then bring them back to the Arduino.

When a breaker is in the correct position, it would show that is has completed a circuit.

now, if someone were to turn on all the breakers, wholesale fashion, it would show 'good'
if someone turned on, only the special, ones, it would also show good.

to require some to be off, and some to be on, would take more work, but still doo-able.

there is a way to make it so that 6 breakers could take one Analog input pin.

great first project and once you mastered this one, some of the others will seem simpler.

as a note, maybe a 'donation to the build' bucket ?

maybe 'insert quarter here for a clue' ????

If you turn it upside down, the up becomes off and down becomes on. Or the other way around.

Or: all the breakers that have to be on go on in series on one pin. One wrong and the circuit is open, while it must be closed.

All the breakers that have to be off go in parallel on another pin. One wrong and the circuit is closed, while it must be open.

Or you could give them all a separate pin, that'd make changing the code a lot easier.

I think having a single series circuit for the "on" breakers and individual circuits for the "off" breakers is the way to go.

That being said, my biggest hurdle is the coding. I have zero coding knowledge. I'd like to learn the basics but I have no illusions about ever being good at it. My thought is to start with the fastled library but add in the circuit breaker logic so that the leds light once all of the conditions are met.

For instance, if the breaker outputs were on 3 circuits, 1 high for the on breakers in series, as well as 2 separate low outputs for the off breakers, how would I add that into the fastled code?

I'm looking at the fastled library code and it might as well be in Russian. I don't want to be that guy that just hopes others will do the work for him but I don't even know where to start. I've done the starter kit projects but they just teach you how to load pre-packaged code.

I really appreciate the replies you guys have made so far.

Dan

Circuit breakers are NOT UNIVERSAL!!!! You need to find ones that fit the panel you are going to use.

Old breakers may not work properly.

Paul

I was going to build my own panel and mount whatever breakers I could find into it. There will be no AC power applied so it doesn't seem like the type of breaker would matter as long as they have an open and closed stat that I can wire 5vdc to.

DanWard48:
I was going to build my own panel and mount whatever breakers I could find into it. There will be no AC power applied so it doesn't seem like the type of breaker would matter as long as they have an open and closed stat that I can wire 5vdc to.

Hell of a project, as breakers "snap" into place in the breaker box.

Paul

If I can find a small panel then I will use that, otherwise I'm sure I can figure out a way to secure them into a wooden box. I'll hot glue em if I have to :slight_smile:

I’m sure I’m complicating the issue, wiring and programming but it would be cool if they lit up sequentially as you get it right. Or all off when one is not correct requiring a reset. Kind of a memory puzzle. This would be best with a 3 position auto centering type switch rather than breakers. That way there’s a skill involved not just random guessing.

not sure what city you live near, but if you know anyone who knows an electrician, they replace panels all the time.
possible to get old stuff.

as was mentioned, breakers are not universal, each manufacturer has a certain way to clip in, and distances are different.
still a great idea.

I would have to think about if you could put a resistor on each of the desired ones so that once only those 6 are on, do you get the desired results.
then put sensors on all the others in a similar fashion so you can know if some of the wrong ones are set.

maybe require the user to set 4 breakers, then push a test button. make it so it requires some effort to get the combination.

really sounds like a fun project.

programming for this can be really easy to start.

feed your 5 volts into the mains on the panel, tie them all together.

put a 1K resistor on all the breakers.
tie the 6 you want together after the resistors. tie that connection to a 1k resistor that does to ground.
you create a voltage divider. connect the center point to an analog input pin.

if you have one correct, you would have a 50% range 1k from 5v to the junction, 1k to ground
as you get each of the next connected, there would be a step.

if you have the same thing for the bad ones, you could know if too many were bad.

look at the analog input example sketch. you could do that on 2 pins and know how many breakers were good, how many breakers ere bad.

until you get breakers, you could use switches. you could make such a test with just some switches you have on hand.

Thanks for the ideas.

I was also thinking I could use basic switches to test with.

I have 3 position breakers on my generator sub-panel at home and it would be great to add that complexity to the puzzle (There will be clues in the room to tell the players the correct positions) but I'm not sure how likely I am to find those on the cheap. Ultimately I could find some interesting looking switches and call them "breakers" if using real breakers turns out to be a problem.

DanWard48:
I have 3 position breakers on my generator sub-panel at home and it would be great to add that complexity to the puzzle

What do you mean by "3 position breakers"? This sounds like a different sort of switch.


When you refer to "breakers", I tend to think of circuit breakers like this:


These are actually a standard size amongst manufacturers - for obvious reasons.

I think you might certainly find plenty of them second-hand from your local electrician and in working condition simply because they are expected to use new stock in new installations. With the box as well to make it look authentic.

You cannot mount them upside down to invert their function because that would be an obvious clue.

You probably do want to connect them individually so that you can change the combination for repeat challenges. If connecting them to an Arduino (which is only one option), you connect them to ground and an input pin each, not 5 V. This is much safer (for the circuit, not you as it will not hurt you either way!).

But you do not need an Arduino for this; you can simply connect them to a plug-board (or a DB connector) in a locked box so that the combination can be changed. The concept of putting those in series that must be on and in parallel those that must be off is excellent; you use a relay to switch off the output if any of the "must be off" are in fact, on.

You also might want a sound effects device to emulate mains hum and generator whine.

Paul__B:
What do you mean by "3 position breakers"? This sounds like a different sort of switch.

When you refer to "breakers", I tend to think of circuit breakers like this:


These are actually a standard size amongst manufacturers - for obvious reasons.

here in the States, we have a dozen manufactures and each has a proprietary design.
we have what is called 'stab-in' and are most common in residences. each manufacture has a different shape and style of clip.
then we have 'bolt-on' that requires the electrician to use a screw driver and to put a screw into the (often) live bus to make a connection. again, each manufacture has different dimensions, so breakers are not interchangeable.
What you call 'obvious reasons' we call loss of market share.
The only standard is that of the rating and that aligns to wire sizes that then aligns to loads (amps)

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A breaker panel here in the States, has a main bus and the breaker would be connected to that by one pole. the ability to feed them as if they have two wires that are not connected to each other is not easy. it would be something that could be done for such a project.

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I like the idea of feedback, the 'spinning up' of a generator, or a hum, that shows things are getting closer.

I think what would be really cool, would be to have some pyrotechnics so that when you do something wrong, there is a sound of an arc and some flashes from inside of the panel.

Or how about a number of lights that react to the switches.

Randomly. For extra confusion.

So switch on 4F2, and the kitchen lights come on. Switch it off, and the kitchen lights go off. Switch it on again, nothing happens. Switch it off, and the bedroom lights come on. Switch it on again, nothing new happens (bedroom lights stay on) - or maybe the bedroom lights go off and the reading light comes on.

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wvmarle:
Or how about a number of lights that react to the switches.

Randomly. For extra confusion.

So switch on 4F2, and the kitchen lights come on. Switch it off, and the kitchen lights go off. Switch it on again, nothing happens. Switch it off, and the bedroom lights come on. Switch it on again, nothing new happens (bedroom lights stay on) - or maybe the bedroom lights go off and the reading light comes on.

this is what makes the Arduino so special for this sort of project.
you could have it so you can turn on the lights in the room you are in, but any other breaker turns them off.
with the escape room concept of easy, medium, hard and expert, the arduino could be made for easy mode, so any switch turns on the lights, medium, need the special two, or have indicator lights, etc. hard the special #, expert, the correct number, but in a specific order.
don't forget that warning label "EXTREME CAUTION 1,000,000 OHMS"

The "3 position breakers" that I was referring to look mostly like standard breakers but have an up, middle, and down position. They are used when the power is out and I need to switch those breakers to pass generator power into the panel. Basically they have a "main power", "neutral", and "gen power" position so that they cannot ever be connected to both power sources at the same time. They came with the little generator sub panel that was installed when I had the whole system modernized last year.

I have seen the breakers like in the picture for overseas boxes and even in the pre-made props you can by for this purpose. I wish I could get one of those without buying it new but that seems unlikely. I have even seen one of those boxes with breakers that have an up, middle, and down position.

Although all those extra effects sound cool, I'm really just looking for this prop to turn on the overhead LED lights. People will be in the dark with only flashlights so this puzzle is meant to be solved pretty quickly.

The more I investigate this the more likely I am to simply build a control box for "Bunker Power" with toggle switches on it and avoid the added complexity of using real breakers.

TBH, a lot of what you guys have suggested is over my head so I'm trying to enlist some local help to give me a hand. I'll show them the suggestions I've been given here and see where that goes. I'll post updates as I progress with the build.

P.S. I'm also building a rotary phone/Arduino prop so I'm sure I'll be back for help with that :slight_smile:

Sounds like fun, can't wait til the next installment... yeah enlist help and make it cool! Don't forget the bells and whistles.