Real Life Mario Coin Block

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello All,

I would like to create this project for my son's birthday party in July. I have limited experience with hardware at this level. I have replaced simple stuff on boards in the past (caps, motors, etc.) and I believe I can read the schematic from that instructable.

However, I don't really understand how each component works with others to make everything work - aside for the servo and the mp3 player.

Anyway, I wanted to know if I should get an arduino for this project or just get a breadboard and try to figure out the schematic on that?

The main reason I was thinking of using arduino is because I have always wanted to play around with one to learn more, but also because of the mp3 player. It looks like the one in the instructable is older/really basic and easy to setup to always play the one mp3 file. I have an older mp3 player I could use, but it has menus before getting to mp3 files so I don't think it will work. I figured I could probably load that sound directly on the arduino alleviating the need for a separate mp3 player?

My biggest concern, is making sure I have enough time to figure this out. Even though I want to learn how to do different projects on the arduino; I'm also in the process of learning SQL and then theres always work.

Sorry for the short story and thanks in advance for any advice.

Edit:
Seeing several views but no suggestions. Just wanted to clarify that I'm not looking for a how to, just whether using arduino is worth my time. Am I trying to force arduino into this and it's overkill? The schematic seems pretty simple - but I've never used a breadboard before either.

2

Arduino to read a sensor/switch and control an MP3 player would not be too hard.
http://www.mdfly.com/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&zenid=cdc537d9c97b5479407c5df990d7edab&keyword=mp3
These will play a song directly, either from a pin being activated, or from a serial command.
Connect to an amp/speaker.

I didn't go into the intstructables to see about the rest.

3

Thanks!! That's what it seemed like to me initially, but thank you for confirming. Ordering now. :smiley:

4

Since retro game sounds are "8-bit", you really don't need a MP3 player to do this. It can be made with an Arduino and a simple piezo speaker using the "tone" library.

Buzzer: Mini Speaker - PC Mount 12mm 2.048kHz - COM-07950 - SparkFun Electronics
(You can also find these at RadioShack)

Tone Library for Arduino:
https://code.google.com/p/rogue-code/wiki/ToneLibraryDocumentation

You can hear an example of the tone library here:

You can get lots of arcade tones (look for RTTTL format) from here:
http://arcadetones.emuunlim.com/nes.htm

I don't have a specific tone already programmed for the coin box sound, but I'm sure it wouldn't be hard with a little experimentation.

Good luck!

John