Perhaps you remember playing “Simon” growing up. This circular game had four buttons with colors that lit up in sequence along with a corresponding sound. The challenge, of course, was to try to replicate the sequence that it showed you. When it made its debut in 1978, per Wikipedia the game cost $24.95, equivalent to around $90 today.
Now though, through the power of Tindie, you can make your own for only $11.82 plus shipping. Granted, this kit doesn’t come in a fun cylindrical shape, but all the basics are there: lights, buttons, and a speaker. A bit of wire and a 3D printer is all that it would take to make it round.
An ATtiny84A runs the program, and it’s open, source, so you could reprogram it if you like. You can find code here, and build instructions here so that you know what you’re in for.
It’s certainly an interesting product, but what really caught my attention was the seller’s motivation for making it:
One of the main motivations was seeing all the other great products available on Tindie. It really reminds me why I got in to electronics in the first place. I’ve been working in the tech industry for over 25 years, but unfortunately the products I currently work on are increasingly moving away from my passion of low level HW & SW. This product is my 1st attempt to address this 😉
I suppose it’s the natural way of things, but many of us studied engineering fields because we love building things, only to eventually find that most of an engineering career is spent doing something only vaguely related to that. At least now we can use the Internet to show off creations we make ourselves, and sites like Tindie to perhaps even make a profit!
