Assemble a Super Mario Brothers Coin Block Lamp

Intro: Assemble a Super Mario Brothers Coin Block Lamp

Ah, the classic Super Mario coin block. So tantalizing with its mysterious question mark - just a gentle bump with your fist will reveal its unknown contents. Will it be a

lowly coin, the rare vine, or perhaps a power up? If only such a thing existed in real life...

WAIT - IT DOES!

OK, so it doesn't actually spew coins and mushrooms, but it does light up and play some sounds that are sure to make you smile.

This Instructable assumes you've bought one of the kits for sale on Etsy . Here's what it will contain:

- 6 yellow acrylic laser-cut exterior pieces

- 4 white acrylic laser-cut interior pieces

- a number of black "shadow" elements for the interior

- custom printed circuit board

- 4"x4" touch sensor plate

- ATTiny85 microcontroller

- 10 extremely bright LEDs

- 10 68-ohm resistors

- 2 NPN transistors

- an 8-ohm speaker

- 2 100-ohm resistors

- 1 10M-ohm resistor

- 5v USB wall wart

- 12' two-prong extension cord

You're going to need some tools and supplies to get this build done:

- a soldering iron and some solder

- a hot glue gun (preferred) or some double-stick tape

- superglue - the brush kind is best

- a pair of diagonal cutters or wire cutters

- a wire stripper or a knife

- a few short pieces of wire

- masking tape (optional)

- spring clamps (optional)

- a vise for holding things in place while you work (optional)

Step 1: Prep the work space

You're going to need a few outlets and a bright light source to make your job easier. Soldering produces some fumes, so it's good to have ventilation as well. Also, I found

it very helpful to have a garbage can handy, especially once I got into the soldering phase.

We're going to be working with superglue, hot glue, and solder, so there's significant opportunity to ruin the kitchen table your wife so carefully picked out. I covered my

whole table with butcher paper to make sure that wouldn't be an issue... again.

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Image Notes

1. not pictured: tragic acetone stain from another project.

Step 2: Assemble the box faces

Before you get started, remove any contact paper from the acrylic pieces. The pieces ship this way to protect them from getting scratched up in transit.

The first thing we're going to do is assemble most, but not all, of the exterior of our lamp. The reason to do this first is that how you choose to assemble the sides will

effect the rest of the construction.

If you look at any of the four side pieces, you'll notice that opposite edges are opposite of one another so that all the sides will fit together and form a box. It doesn't

matter which side of the plastic you choose to use, or which direction the bigger squares in the corners point, since the box will fit together regardless, but the important

part is that you have to be consistent ! Otherwise, the only way the box will fit together will leave you with upside-down or mirrored question marks.

I like to have the square corners in the lower left and the upper right. Lay out your four yellow side pieces in a row, making sure to align them all the same way.

Locate one of the large white outline pieces. To get the best-looking result, we want the white piece to be nice and square with the yellow face. A neat trick for doing this

is to take the L-shaped black "shadow" pieces and use them to frame the opposite corners of the face. If you get them nice and square with the edge of the face and then

clamp them, they form the perfect guide for adding the white outline.

Orient the white outline so that the hook of the question mark is facing to your left. The side you're looking at now is the side you need to glue to the yellow piece. Using

your superglue, put a few spots of glue in the corners of the white piece. When working with superglue, a little goes a long way, so don't feel the need to go crazy. Then,

flip the white piece over so the glue side is down - the hook of the question mark should now be facing right - and apply it to the yellow piece. It should fit nice and snug

between the L-shaped pieces. Press down firmly for a few seconds and it should stick.

You should immediately remove the L-shaped pieces, since if you applied too much superglue to the white piece, it's likely some will have squished out and could sneak

under its neighbors. You won't want those L-shaped pieces inadvertently glued down!

Repeat this process on the other three faces.

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Step 3: Assemble the box faces, continued

Once you've gone through and glued all the white pieces to the yellow exterior pieces, adding the rest of the detail pieces is easy - the white piece should provide you

with the template you need. Simply apply a little glue to each of the pieces, then place them into the outline where appropriate.

The one tricky part is the floating white piece at the center of the question mark. Do this piece last, after you've put in the long shadow that hugs the "inside" of the

question mark's hook.

Step 4: Mark the top and bottom

Now that you have your sides all ready, we come to a very important step - marking the outside of the top and bottom faces.

The top and the bottom pieces will only connect to your box one way once you've decided which is the inside and which is the outside by gluing on the internal pieces.

We can't close up the lamp yet, but it's really important that we figure out which side of the top and bottom will be facing in.

Take two of the side panels and fit them together by hand - no glue needed. Then locate the top - the panel with a hole in it - and try to fit it with the two sides. It will only

join one way, so if it doesn't match, just flip it over. When it does match, you've found its final orientation. So that you can remember, put a small piece of masking tape on

the outside of the piece.

Repeat this process for the bottom, noting that this time, you're going to be marking the bottom of the piece.

Step 5: Glue the top and sides together

Alright, so let's put the box together! The hard part of this step is the first joint you glue, but the rest get a lot easier after that one.

Locate two of your completed side panels and the top. With the top and one of the side panels, fit them together and then tape over the joint from the outside with a piece

of masking tape. If you're careful to do it tightly, then it should make a pretty good right angle. Then, with the other side piece, apply superglue to the in-cut parts of the

dovetail joint along one side. Then, just connect the pieces together.

After pressing for a few seconds, the glue will have set, and your two sides should be joined at a very nice right angle. Now you can remove the tape and take the top off,

then apply more superglue along the top edge of the two glued sides and actually glue the top on.

Congratulations, you've made a nice strong corner of your lamp! Now that you have this arrangement, it'll be easy for you to put the rest of the sides on. Note: do not

glue the bottom on, only the sides!

Glue the other two sides onto the box, then stop and admire what you've made in front of a bright light source.

Step 6: Populate and solder the resistors

It's time to get started with the guts of this lamp. We'll be soldering in a few minutes, so now is a good time to turn on your iron. Also, we'll be referring to the schematic a

lot from this point on, so have it handy in another window or print it out.

I like to do my boards starting with the lowest components first, especially if they're all the same height. That way, you can just flip the board over and put it component

side down and let the table hold everything in place.

While your iron is heating up, we'll get started with the first bunch of components that need to be added: the resistors. Most of the resistors are there to control the

amount of current flowing through the LEDs, but there are others that serve to do things like speaker volume control and sensor tuning.

Locate your strip of 68 ohm resistors (color code: blue gray black gold). There are 10 of these to place around the outside perimeter. For each one, remove it from the

tape strip, bend the leads down 90 degrees, and then thread it through the holes in the right spot. Resistors don't have any polarity, so you can't put them in backwards. I

like to bend the lead over right next to the body of the resistor using my thumb, but fine needle nose pliers can work for this, too.

Once the 68-ohm resistors are done, let's add the 100-ohm resistors (color code: brown black brown). These resistors connect our microcontroller pins to a pair of

transistors, one for the LEDs and one for the speaker. The ATTiny85's pins can only source about 50mA, which is pretty small, so we have to amplify that current to get

bright lights and loud sounds, respectively.

These two resistors may be loose or in a short strip. They belong

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