Mini Wire Loop Game

It was my last project where I broke the solder pad of my Arduino Pro Mini "RAW pin". I was having a basketball shootout game before I came back to my soldering project. Then I soldered on the wrong pin and I have to desoldered and finally I broke the pad on RAW pin.

Our hands will be trembling after sport games or when we are too tired or even starving. Then we need some rest before we do some crafting project or soldering small electronic parts. Then it brought me this idea, a mini wire loop game to test how bad your hand is shaking so that I can decide to go on with my soldering project or take some rest. This game is also fun for my kids :D

• Some Cat 5 Network Cable (1 Ft. is enough).
• A buzzer (6V).
• A 7.4 LiPo battery.
• A mini breadboard.
• A male jumper wire (I only mention one "male" because I cut off the other side).
• A red LED (additional).
• A 470 ohm resistor (additional).
• Double sided adhesive tape (optional).

For the tool used in this project is only a wire cutter. You don't need any tools if you can peel of the wires with your nails :D

Why Cat 5 network cable? Because inside the Cat 5 cable there are 8 single strand wire which each of them can hold the shape we make. And also they fit in the breadboard holes ^^

You can use any single strand wire instead of these but make sure it is not too large in diameter to be plugged into breadboard.

• Cut the single wire about one feet long.
• Remove the jacket and leave about 2 inches.
• Split that two inches wire jacket into half.
• Move the jackets to both ends of the wire, leaving about a quarter inch from the ends.
• Now make some bends and make the maze or you can do it later.

• Cut a little of the Cat 5 cable and make a loop as you can see in the photo. Leave a little tail, about 5 mm is enough.
• Plug the loop into bare end of a male jumper wire. I suggest you to slowly twist the loop in or it will stab into your fingers instead.

You can simply cut off the jacket and twist your jumper wire into a loop though ;) Just make sure your jumper wire is long enough to complete the maze without tangled of unplugged from the breadboard.

• Put your buzzer at the bottom.
• Put the LiPo battery on top of it.
• Put the mini breadboard on top of the battery.
• You can optionally put a double sided adhesive tape in between for portability purpose.

• Plug your battery positive pin (red wire) on lower left corner of the breadboard, and the negative pin (black wire) on the upper right corner.
• Plug your buzzer positive wire (red) aligned to battery positive wire (red). And your buzzer negative wire (black) on lower right corner of the breadboard.
• Plug the loop wire below or above the buzzer negative wire (black).
• Plug your maze wire on the board. The right pin is aligned to battery negative wire. The left pin is plugged anywhere on the upper left corner of the breadboard. Put the loop wire in before you plug the left pin of maze wire. Or you can start from the right side of the maze wire. I bent the maze wire covered with jacket into "N" shape as the parking/resting points, so that it won't start with a scream.
• Plug in the red LED. Anode goes to battery positive pin (red wire). Now plug your 470 ohm resistor to the LED cathode pin and the other lead goes to buzzer negative pin (black wire) or loop wire pin (brown).

Run the loop wire from one side of maze wire to the other side. If your loop wire touch the bare maze wire, then the buzzer will scream and the red LED will illuminate.

Further upgrade of this will be incorporating a programmable IC and LCD to count and display how many times you touch the maze ^^ but I will keep this as simple as possible.

For more challenging game, you can make a complicated maze wire or simply make the loop smaller and smaller :D

Have fun!