Magnetic puzzle game (over 100 puzzles)

This is version 2 of my magnetic/electronic geometry puzzle inspired by ShapeShift. You can see the original work here: https://www.printables.com/model/1129626-geometry-shift

Improvements for version 2

I was asked to make another as a gift for a friend. I took the opportunity to make a few improvements.

• The magnetic grid matches the 8x8 format of the electronic grid.
• When powered up it displays a rainbow until the button is pushed to start the game. This shows off the LED colours a bit more.
• The parts are printed so everything can be printed face down. This means beautiful smooth patterns can be transposed onto the surface.
• The parts are optimised so that when they are printed there is almost zero warping, and they can be made to look as beautiful as possible.
• The battery cover is now held by magnets, eliminating the need to use a tool to open the battery cover to change the batteries.

Introduction

A simple and fun electronics project you can make in a weekend. The aim of the game is simple… place your pieces on the magnetic play area to make the shape shown on the LED display.

Sounds easy? Programmed with three difficulty levels, you must only use 4, 6 or 8 pieces to make the shape, and it is trickier than it seems!

Each difficulty level has around 35 to 40 puzzles, giving over 100 puzzle shapes to solve!

How to use

• Switching the power toggle, the LED matrix will show a rainbow demo. Pushing in the push button will start the game at the easiest difficulty.
• Press the button once to change the pattern, and cycle through them. Hold the button for more than 3 seconds to change the difficulty, and cycle through the difficulties.
• When a long press is detected, the LED display will show the selected difficulty level by indicating how many pieces are needed for the given puzzle (4 pieces = easy, 6 pieces = medium, 8 pieces = hard).
• The pieces can be placed directly over the lit squares, or they can be placed on the magnetic play area.
• Simply place the pieces into the magnetic play area to replicate the shape on the screen.
• I suggest printing two magnetic play area plates.
• The device requires 4x 1.5 AA batteries.

Parts required

The device requires very few parts:

• 1 x LED Matrix, 8x8, WS2811 (or similar) - I used this one Amazon link
• 1 x Slide switch -  I used Salecom H251A SPDT Vertical PCB Slide Switch available from bitsbox
• 1 x 16 mm Push button (for this project I specifically wanted to make a gold theme Amazon Link)
• 1 x Arduino Nano or similar (I used a Sparkfun Pro-micro).
• 4 x AA battery holder (Amazon link)
• 4 x AA batteries (Amazon link)
• 4 x Self tapping M2 x 16mm screws (Amazon link)
• 4 x Self tapping M2 screws (any length but 4mm is probably optimal).
• 4 x Magnets 6x3mm (Amazon link)
• Hot glue, Solder, some wire (small flexible wire is probably most suitable, I used stranded silicone 20 AWG wire).
• Super glue
• White PLA (to allow the light to shine through the matrix)
• An accent colour (I choose Geeetech Silk Gold)
• A main colour (I choose Eryone Blue/Purple burnt titanium)
• Steel sheet 80 mm x 80 mm x 0.5 mm (you can order this from AliExpress link in 100 mm x 100 mm sheets which can be easily cut with tin scissors).

Printed parts

The following parts need to be printed:

• electronic_top.3mf
• electronic_middle.3mf
• electronic_b_left.3mf
• electronic_b_right.3mf
• electronic_matrix.3mf
• magnetic_matrix.3mf
• magnetic_board.3mf
• magnetic_bottom.3mf
• piece.3mf

Print instructions (tips)

The 3mf files have been uploaded as projects to show you the colours changes and the settings used to print in PLA. It is recommended to keep these settings, but if you want to change keep in mind the following tips.

• Print the parts with visible sides face down. That way you can use a beautiful patterned or smooth build plate. Avoid using bed adhesives such as glue stick or Magigoo, except on the following.
• The “electronic_middle” has no visible sides. Since it is a large rectangular part it will warp away from the build plate. To avoid this use plenty of glue stick to keep this from happening.
• Print the parts individually and at 0.3 mm layer height, especially the “electronic_b_left” and “electronic_b_right” parts. Printing them as quick as possible means the plastic has less time to start warping.
• Optionally, print the pieces top face down with concentric infill on the bottom layer. It is actually better to print these at 0.2 mm (or lower) and all on once to save time but to have some nice detail.

General assembly

1. Print all the parts.
2. For the pieces, simply glue a single magnet into each one with superglue.
3. Use superglue to glue four magnets into the “electronic_b_right” part. Polarity of the magnet doesn't really matter yet, but it is useful to have them all aligned in the same polarity direction.
4. Use superglue to glue in four magnets into the “electronic middle” part. Note the polarity! they should attract to the “electronic_b_right” which is the battery cover. If they dont attract then the cover cannot close.
5. Take “electronic_top” and screw this to “electronic_middle”, use the holes for the switch and push button to align the parts. Use the M2 x 16mm screws for this.
6. Take “electronic_b_left” and screw that onto “electronic_middle”. Hopefully it is obvious where this goes at this stage.
7. Finally, the “electronic matrix” goes into the rectangular hole in the top of “electronic_top”. Before placing the matrix into the enclosure , make sure to put the 8x8 LED matrix underneath it and guide the three wires through the square hole in the part “electronic middle”. A little bit of hot glue in each corner will hold it down sufficiently.

Magnetic assembly

1. Print all the parts
2. Cut the steel sheet to 80 mm x 80 mm
3. Place the steel sheet between the parts “magnetic_bottom” and “magnetic_top”, and screw together.
4. Place the board/matrix on the top and secure with some glue.

Electronic assembly

1. Glue the switches into their designated holes in the part “electronic top".
2. Guide the LED wires and battery wires through the round hole in the part “electronic middle”.
3. Solder all the wiring together with the switches and micro-controller in the small compartment under “electronic_b_left”. The wiring shall match the simplified drawing below.
4. Upload the code to the microcontroller.

Finished! Enjoy it :-)

Attribution

This project uses the Arduino coding environment and the Adafruit NEOPIXEL libraries. The model itself is licenced under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.