What better way to encourage jumping around in the house than by adding your own Super Mario style question block lamps?
It’s a fun and easy project to do because it makes use of an IKEA Sangen lamp — it just needs some slight modifications and a bit of art work to turn it into this iconic question block. You will be working with mains voltage though, so please be careful!
The lamp itself is made out of fabric which means it can be taken apart easily, and then dyed that classic orange hue. Using a stencil you can spray paint on the question mark and then it’s just a matter of adding a springy-latching-pressure-switch (that’s the technical term for them right?) in line with the light bulb. Results may vary, but [Anred] has a great guide on how to make it to get you started.
Now all that’s missing is a sound effect to go with the switch!
Or if you want to really over do it — check out this Super Mario coin block hack, which actually spits out coins at you!
You could use this for a nice soundeffect:
http://www.conrad.de/ce/de/product/191044/Tonaufzeichnungsmodul-10-s-im-Gehaeuse-BRM06M-002-Baustein-45-VDC-Aufnahmezeit-10-s
thanks, I’ll test this out. But I want to build it without the batteries.
incandescent light bulb might not take this kind of treatment well, cfl would be slightly better, but with mercury inside i wouldn’t do that myself, best option would be some led bulb
Depends on the bulb, There are many places where incandescent bulbs are subject to worse so before you start campaign to save the incandescent bulbs you should start with automobiles in off road sports :D
good thing they sell cheap led bulbs at IKEA too then. pretty good light quality too.
of course I use an LED lamp (see part one). Normal bulbs would, consider depending on the size too much current for the switch and they would get too hot.
Mercury or similar I use on principle not already, also these do not switch fast enough on.
Anred
Change the frame mount so that the light bulb stays stationary and only the frame moves to activate/deactivate
I can see this going horribly wrong…
Why?
I like it!
This gamification of real life will only lead to people being desensitized to game play. After a month of lurching his body up and punching this box monotonously, the average gamer will find their Mario scores dropping. Why? Because unconsciously they’re thinking of the effort that Mario must go through to jump up, and they won’t do it. They’ll come to be less bold in jumping endless pits, etc. due to an unnatural association with real life. The horror!
Actually this looks pretty neat.
Best comment ever!
I hate to over simplify as I always seem to do but wouldn’t it be cheaper/easier/safer to modify a tap-light with super bright LEDS and just use the existing hardware that tap-lights use as a push button switch? cuz………thats how im going to do this.