**Building an Arcade Game Console**

To control this LCD, we use a potentiometer, which determines the contrast of the screen. Don't forget to adjust it at the end, otherwise you'll think the screen is broken because you'll see absolutely nothing. We also have an input check, including a main switch and push buttons to select the mode and pause the game.

Our console uses an LM7805 voltage regulator to produce 5 volts for controlling electronics. Just follow the schematic if you want to build this. Here are all the components you'll need for the spillage, and you can also find them nicely listed on my strik table sight (link is in the description).

**Building the PCB**

I started by creating a PCB with copper dots and using a saw to make it fit inside my case. I then used screws to secure it inside before soldering anything to it. Before soldering, I had to make the holes for the ports.

To do this, I got myself white tape to cover the case. This way, I can easily mark the positions of all the ports. The font will look like this later. I started drilling holes for the push buttons and potentiometer. The big square for the LCD was a bit difficult but with a dremel and file and a lot of time, it's possible.

Next, I drilled a small hole at the right side of the case for the wires for the motor to come out later. After that, I soldered wires to the external components like the two push buttons, potentiometer, DC jack, and main switch. Don't forget trinket tube, and I also twisted the wires afterwards to keep them together.

Lastly, I soldered male headers to the ends of all wires to connect them later to the main PCB. The LCD gets a bit of special attention. I connected the pins which connects to 5 volts later together on the LCD this includes pin 2 and 15, and the same goes for the ground pins 1, 5, and 16.

**Assembling the Console**

I got myself an 8-pin ribbon cable and connected it to the necessary pins. Lastly, I soldered my contrast potentiometer directly on the LCD. It's time to build the PCB. Well almost before that, I made some female headers which will later connect to our external ports.

But now we can solder this time. I did not make both layout diagram for you guys but it is not that complicated to build yourself and you can use my finish board as a reference picks on Instructables all you need to do is inspecting the schematic and carefully connecting all the pins of the components to each other or the schematic tells you to easy right.

I mostly use rich wire and solder traces to connect the pins but at the end I also use wire because it was not possible anymore to do it otherwise. The last step would be to connect the motor wires to pin 3 and 6 of the L293D and I also mark which orientation the female and male head I have to connect later.

**Testing the Console**

I gave the board power and checked whether there really are 5 volts while they supposed to be. Then, I inserted all ICS and used my FTDI breakout to program the Atmega with the code a friend of mine mate and apparently it all works fine awesome.

Now we secured all the external parts on my case and I only used hot glue for the LCD that is a new record for me. It was time for some power, so I got myself this 9-volt power supply which can give me one amp, which is enough because the whole project is only formal and 50 milliamps maximum.

Last step would be to drill a hole into the battery holder case and pushing the wires inside there. I connected one wire to one side and the other to the other terminal and we are done! It's super fun to play and you can even use it as a drinking game to enjoy your favorite juice, as always. Thanks for watching, be sure to follow me on Facebook Twitter Google+ to know what I'm up to and also to send me suggestions and questions stay creative and I will see you next time.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI recently bought this game for kids which is called looping Louis and even though it is designed for kids it is really fun to play with some friends it's also super simple you just need two double-a batteries which power the motor inside the construction this pilot then goes in circles and you have to prevent him from hitting your coins otherwise they fall down if you lose all of them it is game over but the speed of the plane is kind of slow for adults so let's change that by hacking this kids toy and balloon controller which not only had to control the speed by a potentiometer but also has three random modes which randomly speeds up or slows down the plane let's get started firstly let's see what the motor can handle I hooked up by power wires to the positive and negative terminal of the battery holder then I fired up my power supply 2.5 volts was the normal voltage and it draws around 100 milliamps I increase the voltage up to 9 volts and not higher because the game was beginning to shake and got unstable this way it draws around 350 milliamps and the speed is really fast which will make the game more difficult later so let's use 9 volts here is the schematic that I made for this project looks complicated but let me explain the first I see here is an atmega328p you also find them on all arduino uno boards this guy controls everything the second I see is a l293d which is an h-bridge motor driver it can handle six hundred milliamps which is more than we need so it's fine and it can control the motor in both directions forwards and backwards the backwards mode will later give the game a short break because this way the pilots does not knock over the chips pin one receives a PWM signal from the mic controller to control the speed and the pins 2 and 7 determine in which direction the motor spins moving on to the LCD it will later tell us what mode we are using and how fast the motor spins the only tricky thing about controlling this LCD is this potentiometer here it determines the contrast of the screen so don't forget to adjust it at the end otherwise you will think the screen is broken because you will see absolutely nothing then we also have an input check a main switch to push buttons to select the mode and pause the game and the lm7805 voltage regulator to produce 5 volts for controlling electronics just follow the schematic if you want to build this - here are all the components you will need for the spillage and you can also find all of those nicely listed on my struck table sight link is in the description at first I got myself a PCB with copper dots and used the saw to make it fit inside my case then I use screws to secure it inside but before soldering anything to it I have to make the holes for the ports and this time I really did that nicely so I got myself this white tape to cover the case this way I can easily mark the positions of all the ports this is how the font will look like later so I started to drill holes for the push buttons and the potentiometer the big square for the LCD was a bit difficult but with a dremel and file and a lot of time and I mean a freaking lot of time it is possible next is the square for the main switch and after that the DC check hole at the end I drilled a really small hole at the right side of the case this is where the wires for the motor will come out later and the case is done let's solder wires to the external components like the two push buttons the potentiometer the DC jack and the main switch as always don't forget trinken tube and I also twisted the wires afterwards to keep them together lastly I soloed male headers to the ends of all wires to connect them later to the main PCB the LCD gets a bit of special attention I connected the pins which connects to 5 volts later together on the LCD this includes pin 2 and 15 and the same goes for the ground pins 1 5 and 16 then I got myself an 8 pin ribbon cable and connected it to the necessary pins lastly I soloed my contrast potentiometer directly on the LCD finally it is time to build the PCB well almost before that I made some female headers which will later connect to our external ports but now we can solder this time I did not make both layout diagram for you guys but it is not that complicated to build two-sport yourself and you can use my finish board as a reference picks on Instructables all you need to do is inspecting the schematic and carefully connecting all the pins of the components to each other or the schematic tells you to easy right I mostly use rich wire and solder traces to connect the pins but at the end I also use wire because it was not possible anymore to do it otherwise the last step would be to connect the motor wires to pin 3 and 6 of the l293d and I also mark which orientation the female and male head I have to connect later now it is time for a test I gave the board power and checked whether there really are 5 volts while they supposed to then I inserted all ICS and used my FTDI breakout to program the atmega with the code a friend of mine mate and apparently it all works fine awesome now we secured all the external parts on my case and I only used hot glue for the LCD that is a new record for me then it was time for some power I got myself this 9 volt power supply which can give me one amp which is enough because the whole project is only formal and 50 milliamps maximum last step would be to drill a hole into the battery holder case and pushing the wires inside there I connected one wire to one side and the other to the other terminal and we are done it is super fun to play and you can even use it as a drinking game to enjoy your favorite juice as always thanks for watching be sure to follow me on Facebook Twitter Google+ to know what I'm up to and also to send me suggestions and questions stay creative and I will see you next timeI recently bought this game for kids which is called looping Louis and even though it is designed for kids it is really fun to play with some friends it's also super simple you just need two double-a batteries which power the motor inside the construction this pilot then goes in circles and you have to prevent him from hitting your coins otherwise they fall down if you lose all of them it is game over but the speed of the plane is kind of slow for adults so let's change that by hacking this kids toy and balloon controller which not only had to control the speed by a potentiometer but also has three random modes which randomly speeds up or slows down the plane let's get started firstly let's see what the motor can handle I hooked up by power wires to the positive and negative terminal of the battery holder then I fired up my power supply 2.5 volts was the normal voltage and it draws around 100 milliamps I increase the voltage up to 9 volts and not higher because the game was beginning to shake and got unstable this way it draws around 350 milliamps and the speed is really fast which will make the game more difficult later so let's use 9 volts here is the schematic that I made for this project looks complicated but let me explain the first I see here is an atmega328p you also find them on all arduino uno boards this guy controls everything the second I see is a l293d which is an h-bridge motor driver it can handle six hundred milliamps which is more than we need so it's fine and it can control the motor in both directions forwards and backwards the backwards mode will later give the game a short break because this way the pilots does not knock over the chips pin one receives a PWM signal from the mic controller to control the speed and the pins 2 and 7 determine in which direction the motor spins moving on to the LCD it will later tell us what mode we are using and how fast the motor spins the only tricky thing about controlling this LCD is this potentiometer here it determines the contrast of the screen so don't forget to adjust it at the end otherwise you will think the screen is broken because you will see absolutely nothing then we also have an input check a main switch to push buttons to select the mode and pause the game and the lm7805 voltage regulator to produce 5 volts for controlling electronics just follow the schematic if you want to build this - here are all the components you will need for the spillage and you can also find all of those nicely listed on my struck table sight link is in the description at first I got myself a PCB with copper dots and used the saw to make it fit inside my case then I use screws to secure it inside but before soldering anything to it I have to make the holes for the ports and this time I really did that nicely so I got myself this white tape to cover the case this way I can easily mark the positions of all the ports this is how the font will look like later so I started to drill holes for the push buttons and the potentiometer the big square for the LCD was a bit difficult but with a dremel and file and a lot of time and I mean a freaking lot of time it is possible next is the square for the main switch and after that the DC check hole at the end I drilled a really small hole at the right side of the case this is where the wires for the motor will come out later and the case is done let's solder wires to the external components like the two push buttons the potentiometer the DC jack and the main switch as always don't forget trinken tube and I also twisted the wires afterwards to keep them together lastly I soloed male headers to the ends of all wires to connect them later to the main PCB the LCD gets a bit of special attention I connected the pins which connects to 5 volts later together on the LCD this includes pin 2 and 15 and the same goes for the ground pins 1 5 and 16 then I got myself an 8 pin ribbon cable and connected it to the necessary pins lastly I soloed my contrast potentiometer directly on the LCD finally it is time to build the PCB well almost before that I made some female headers which will later connect to our external ports but now we can solder this time I did not make both layout diagram for you guys but it is not that complicated to build two-sport yourself and you can use my finish board as a reference picks on Instructables all you need to do is inspecting the schematic and carefully connecting all the pins of the components to each other or the schematic tells you to easy right I mostly use rich wire and solder traces to connect the pins but at the end I also use wire because it was not possible anymore to do it otherwise the last step would be to connect the motor wires to pin 3 and 6 of the l293d and I also mark which orientation the female and male head I have to connect later now it is time for a test I gave the board power and checked whether there really are 5 volts while they supposed to then I inserted all ICS and used my FTDI breakout to program the atmega with the code a friend of mine mate and apparently it all works fine awesome now we secured all the external parts on my case and I only used hot glue for the LCD that is a new record for me then it was time for some power I got myself this 9 volt power supply which can give me one amp which is enough because the whole project is only formal and 50 milliamps maximum last step would be to drill a hole into the battery holder case and pushing the wires inside there I connected one wire to one side and the other to the other terminal and we are done it is super fun to play and you can even use it as a drinking game to enjoy your favorite juice as always thanks for watching be sure to follow me on Facebook Twitter Google+ to know what I'm up to and also to send me suggestions and questions stay creative and I will see you next time