Secret d'Icey

Posted by Qwibuzz on October 31, 2010
Secret Dicey

After building the first version of the secret dice, it was time for an upgrade; Secret d'Icey!

Secret d'Icey has the same functionality as its bigger brother, but has some interesting upgrades: It is smaller, lighter, and has a nice chrome 'Icey' look. The batteries are easy accesible without giving access to the secret stuff inside. So no auxillary power connection needed to be included here in case the batteries run flat. A three dimensional accelerometer instead of a homemade tilt sensor is used. Another new nice feature is the automated power off function. When the dice is not used (change of dice state) for 30 seconds the power is shut off automatically. The same webshop that provided the accelerometer also had in store a tiny (robot) controller with an Atmega328 on board. This little device is originally designed to control a small robot, but was also very suited for the Secret d'Icey. The dual H-bridge seems overkill, but the single transistors in the H-bridge proved to be very useful.

Okay, at the moment this secret dice doesn't serve a higher purpose and is probably destined to stay a piece in the Deddies Lab hall of fame, so I may as well tell you the secret code: 6, 5, 4, 3, 2...... the last number is up to you.

Secret Dice

Posted by Qwibuzz on September 30, 2010
Secret Dice

For a friend's wedding we had to find a way to wrap a gift we were going to give to the happy couple. With inpiration from PICing4fun's microcontroller based secret box we decided to construct our own secret dice. As for the size, bigger was better, this gave us enough space to fit all the parts. Eventually a 20x20x20 cm impressive dice was handed over at the wedding accompanied by a handful of more or less meaningful hints that would reveal a secret code. We also did the kind request not to butcher the dice with a flame thrower or crowbar and suggested to figure out the clues during their upcoming honeymoon.

The basic idea is to tilt the dice according the code. When the dice is tilted enough times exactly according the code with the right number on the dice facing up, the lit will be unlocked and reveal the goodies that are put inside *. The lit is locked by a simple hobby servo, a clever constructed mechanical tilt sensor checks for the right state the dice is in and an always popular Atmega88 does the thinking.

* We are now three months further and the dice is still locked. Maybe the clues were not that clear after all, chances are that it will not reveal its secrets for another couple of months. Keep you updated.

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