Pressure Plate Momentary Trigger Assembly for LED Light Strip

Each Halloween, I help stage a Halloween game room with black light / glow-in-the-dark decorations and games. This year, I made a Hungry Pumpkins bean bag toss game, and I wanted to make it so that the face features of each of the three pumpkins would light up when a bean bag was thrown into the mouth or eyes. The goal of the game is to make all three pumpkin faces light up with by throwing just three bean bags (no misses). I made this pressure plate switch assembly to accomplish this.

5v LED strip lights were adhered to the back surface of the front panel of the game for each of the three pumpkin compartments. Then, the strip lights are plugged into individual switch assemblies, and the switches are plugged into a power source. When a weighted object lands on one of the pressure plates, it pushes down on the momentary button switch and completes the power circuit, turning on that strip light. It is a very basic electronic circuit with a momentary ON switch inserted in the circuit. See the photos for the components that I used. The photos are arranged on this page in an assembly order.

NOTE:     There are three lever nut connectors. I used these so that I could easily replace a component if damaged. Using simple small wire nuts, or soldering the connections would cost less. I used double-sided mounting tape to adhere the connectors and USB female pigtail to the under-side of the component plate. Then, for added strength, secured them and the cables at various points with small zip ties.

The basic assembly (what you should print):

• 1 - Component and Pressure Plate Assembly (these are intentionally sturdy to withstand bean bags landing on them)

• 1 - Base - Standard - 22mm Rise (or the taller, stronger "Base - Heavy Duty - 31.75mm Rise") NOTE: the depth of the base is slightly longer than the depth of the Component and Pressure Plate Assembly so that the assembled switch can be positioned against a wall surface and the hinge will not touch, rub, or bind on the wall.

Additional pieces (what might come in handy):

• 1 - Transport Safety Stop (this protects the button switch when not in use or transporting)

• 1 or more - Weighted Plates (adds weight to compensate for bean bags that are too light, or for variations in the spring tension of the momentary button switches; besides printing the different weighted models, the weight of the plates can be manipulated and fine tuned in your slicer software using the walls/perimeters and infill percentage settings)

• 1 or more Basket Catchers (these fit on top of the pressure plate to help catch objects and keep them on the plate; I am not using them for this game, but I have them, in case I do in the future. You can see them installed in the second included video).

I printed with basic PLA, 0.4 nozzle, 0.2 layer height, 3-5 perimeters/walls depending on the component, and varying infill percentages from 15% to 100% depending on the model (see model files for suggested infill percentages).

NOTE:     The orange paint of the pumpkins is fluorescent and UV reactive, but I didn't have time to set up the UV lights. The included .gif video sufficiently shows the switches in action.

NOTE:     When making the video, the camera was closer to the game than where players will be standing to throw bean bags. this made it so that the eye pupils were not aligned well. When playing the game, standing farther back, it looks better.