DIY Seeeduino Laser Gun and Targets!

Recently at our office I noticed an awesome laser gun sitting on a shelf. I decided I had to find out a little bit more about this project. So obviously I picked it up and exclaimed, “Woah! This is awesome! Who did this?!”. I was quickly directed to our application engineer, Nosk, who made it and he gave me a demo of the laser gun and the targets he made to go with it. It was even more awesome than I thought it was, and surprisingly easy to put together and code! My coworker had uploaded the build to Instructables, but I decided I had to share it here again as well – it’s too amazing not to!

The project is based on the Seeeduino Lotus, which is the Seeeduino and base shield combined, allowing you to easily connect our Grove sensors will no hassle. The ATMEGA328P is still the same as the Arduino and Seeeduino and it’s fully compatible with all Arduino shields and the Arduino IDE.

Laser Gun Features:

• Vibration feedback when shot
• Ammunition indicator (10 per clip)
• Able to reload at any time (100 ammunition total in code)
• It look awesome!

Target Features:

• Targets pop up to indicate which one to aim at
• Displays current points
• A buzzer sounds when target is successfully hit

With all the code provided and much more room to add Grove sensors and actuators it leave me to wonder what additional features can still be added? Maybe we can add a safety switch for the gun, or maybe a switch to change the firing mode. As for the target I’d love to see them able to move up and down, or maybe an indication if they are a friend or foe!

Inspired by OVERWATCH, we have made a very cool Wooden Laser Gun toy for fun these day!

The Wooden Laser Gun and the Gun Target are all based on an Arduino-like board called Seeeduino Lotus. The laser emitter on the Laser Gun is controlled to fire laser pulse to “activate” the Gun Target. And there are 3 light sensors on the Gun Target to detect the laser pulse. It seems very simple right? If you are interested in our project, please make one for yourself or your child! It’s worth to spend one day DIY it as a Xmas present.

Step 1: What We Need

Hardware parts:

• Seeeduino Lotus —— 2 pcs
  • $17.50
• 5mW Laser Module Emitter – Red Point —— 1 pcs
  • $5.80
• Grove LED Bar v2.0 —— 1pcs
  • $3.90
• Grove – Vibration Motor —— 1 pcs
  • $2.90
• Grove – Button(P) —— 2 pcs
  • $1.90
• Servo —— 3 pcs
  • $9.90
• Grove – Light Sensor v1.2(P) —— 3 pcs
  • $2.90
• Grove – 4-Digit Display —— 1 pcs
  • $5.90
• Grove – Buzzer ——1 pcs
  • $1.90

Total Electronics Cost: $97.60

Structural parts:

• Rubber band —— 2 pcs
• Support column M3*25 —— 14 pcs
• Support column M3*30 —— 3 pcs
• Support column M3*50 —— 6 pcs
• Support column M3*20 —— 4 pcs
• M3 screws and nuts —— many
• M2 screws and nuts —— many
• screwdriver
• 3mm thick wood planks
• 5mm thick wood planks

 

Step 2: Hardware Connection and Coding of Laser Gun

1. Connecting the hardware as the picture above.
2. Here we have two buttons, the button connected to D6 is as a trigger of the Laser Gun, each press of the button will fire laser pulse. And the D7 button is as a loader, each press of it will reload the Laser Gun.
3. The led bar is for displaying the bullets left in the clip. We have 100 bullets in total and the clip can be filled with 10 bullets at a time.
4. You may ask that what if I run out of my bullet, press D6 and D7 button at the same time, then the Laser Gun will be reset and you will have 100 bullets again.
5. What’s more, if you want to have a rest, press D7 button for about 3 seconds or no press the trigger for about 30s, then Laser Gun will be in sleep mode. Press the trigger again to wake up your gun.
6. That is all about the Laser Gun. Download lasergun.zip and upload gun.ino to Seeeduino Lotus. You will find that you can hardly tear yourself away from it. [Find the files on Instructables]

 

Step 3: Hardware Connection and Coding of Gun Target

1. We have designed 3 up-down targets for the Laser Gun. Each up-down target is made up of one light sensor and one servo. The light sensor is used to detect the laser pulse and the servo is used to turn the light sensor up and down.
2. When a laser pulse is detected, which means that you hit the target, the Grove – 4-Digit-Display will show your score and another target will turn up at the same time.
3. If you don’t hit the target which is turned up in about 10 seconds, the target will also be turned down.
4. Download target.zip and upload target.ino to Seeeduino Lotus. [Find the files on Instructables]

 

Step 4: Laser Cut the Wooden

Here we need to use laser cutter to produce the parts of laser gun and gun target.

The parts in image 1, 3 need to use 3mm wood to produce, the parts in image 2 need to use 5mm wood to produce.

The files of laser cut I already put on the following. [Find the files on Instructables]

Step 5: Install the Structure Part of the Laser Gun

Now we can start to install the hardware and structure parts of laser gun.

1. Install the laser head
2. Install the hardware, include power bank, seeeduino, button……
3. Install trigger and loaded plate.

Here I use rubber band to deal with rebound, maybe it is difficult to install, you can try to use a line fixed the trigger then install them.

 

Step 6: Assemble the Laser Gun

Here we start to install the trim section, we can stick them with glue.

Now Laser gun production is complete!

 

Step 7: Assembled Photosensitive Target

Now we begin to make the gun target, the order of installation is important, please note it.

1. Install the disc for the fixed servo
2. Install the servo
3. Install the light sensor
4. Combine the servo with the disc we just installed
5. Combine the light sensor
6. install the base

 

Step 8: Install the Other Structure Parts of the Target

Install the hardware parts, here we can use nylon belt fix the cable.
Then install the side panels.

 

Step 9: To Complete the Target Assembly

Install the top plate, complete!

 

View the guide on Instructables to grab the files and code!

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Seth Welday

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