About

TOW the lights is a small arcade box where you have a virtual Tug of War with another player. Who of you is quickest? In thuis guide you will learn how to make one yourself and even code it. It’s like simon says, but more fun. The ultimate battle of the reflexes.

Can’t code? Don’t worry, finished code is also provided
I recommend reading the whole document first before deciding what to buy for your own projects

Things you need

4	arcade style buttons radius 15mm
15	LED’s (different colors optional)
2	breadboards (protoboards if you want to solder more)
1	Arduino Mega
1	on/off switch
1	9-volt battery
1	9-volt battery adapter

	hot glue gun
	case (wooden box or own design)
	wood drill
	Drill bit 5mm
	Drill bit 30mm or wood file
	Tape
	Double sided ape
	A lot of male to male cables for your Arduino

Optional

	3D printer

Let’s start Making

Step 1: Case

First step is deciding what kind of case you want to work with. You need to make sure there’s enough room for all your parts. Mine has a lid. This does mean we need to take the hinge into account when wiring our lights to the Arduino. You don’t need the same box as me, if you have any ideas, go wild!

I started designing my own box, so it feels right to play with two players. This does leave you with lots of empty space inside, but it gives a better player experience, but before making.

one myself I noticed there’s a box on amazon with roughly the same measurements. The box I ended up with is 300mm x 200mm x 150mm

Drilling the holes

Drilling the holes You need to make 4 holes in your case for the buttons (2 for each player) and 15 holes on top for the LED’s.

Let’s start with the buttons

you need to decide where the center point of the hole will be and do that for all 4 holes. My center point is 30mm removed from the left or right edge, and 55mm from the top. Draw a cross at those points so you will know where to drill.

If you are making drilling using a 30mm drill bit, make sure the center point of your bit is aligned with your cross. If you don’t have a 30mm drill bit like me, you need to draw a circle with a 30mm diameter yourself, and drill smaller wholes within that circle until you have a hole of roughly 30mm, use your wood file to smooth out any imperfections.

Next are the lights

We need 15 holes on top of the box, 1 for each LED. My LED’s have a diameter of 5mm. Yours would most likely be the same, but double check, since you can also buy bigger LED’s (or smaller once, but it’s not recommended).

You need 4 LED’s for the players, 2 on each side, and 11 LED’s for the array of lights.

For the 4 player LED’s, I drilled 4 holes 35mm from the left/right edge and 40mm from the edge in length. For the 11 array lights, I drew a line in the middle of the top plane in length and drilled a hole at the absolute middle of the top. Then drilled 5 holes to the left and 5 holes to the right with 20mm of space between each hole.

The result looks like this.

Step 2: Paint

Cover the holes from the inside using some tape

You can really personalize your case by giving it a paint job. But don’t be forced to do so if you love the feel of RAW UNADULTERATED WOOD. As for me, I’m boring and love clean design, so I painted mine white. And I still like the texture of wood, so I only gave it 2 thin layers of white paint.

For the artists among us, if you want to draw on your case, I recommend a good grounding layer with at least 2 layers on top of that with the color of your choice. This will give you an evenly colored box to draw on.

At last, you want a finishing layer to protect your paint. I use Molotow graffiti cans myself with Molotow clear varnish as a finishing layer. As for art, wait until the 2 layers of color are dry and completely cured then start drawing. As for art, I recommend Posca markers, but Molotow markers would also work.

Step 3: Parts

Let’s start with the 9-volt battery. If you own a 3D printer, this is the time to use it. You can design your own 9volt battery holder, or use this model to print out, it holds your 9volt battery and you can later tape it down on the bottom of your case. You’ll still need an adapter to connect the 9-volt battery to your Arduino.

If you don’t have a 3Dprinter, you can buy a holder for your 9volt battery at a hobby store near you for around $1/€1.

As for your Arduino, if it came with a bracket, hold it in place on your bracket with some tape, or screw it down. And use the double-sided tape to tape it on the bottom of your case. If it didn’t come with one, you can always print one yourself, buy one or just screw it to a thin piece of wood and tape that one on the bottom of your case.

You also need an on/off button. I didn’t want to drill another hole into my box, so I printed an extra holder for the on off button which I glued to one of the sides within my case. You yourself could pick a place to make an extra hole, or get a switch which you could also glue / tape in your box

Step 4: Assembly

If all your paint is dry and varnished and made sure that you have everything read, its finally time to start assembling your box & parts (don’t forget to remove your tape). Place your 15 LED’s in the holes you drilled from the inside out. I recommend color coding your LED’s. I used White LED’s for the players, blue LED’s for the center point and the most left and right LED’s, and green, yellow and red for the 4 remaining LED’s in-between. Use your hot glue gun to glue them all in place.

If you are using a Protoboard, skip this step for now

Grab your 2 breadboards and place one at the center of the edge nearest to the hinge. Place the other one on the bottom of your box at the wall of the hinge. If you used another box design, make sure you can run wires from the top breadboard to the bottom breadboard.

Grab your 4 arcade buttons and place them in the 4 holes from the outside.

Step 5: wiring

For wiring you need to keep track of your wires through the 2 bread boards. Eventually you need this wiring scheme. You can start soldering the lights to the cables and the buttons to the cables, but not to the Arduino

If you are using a protoboard, this would be the moment to start prototyping a cirquit

Step 6: Coding

At last, coding. We need to program your Arduino. If you wired everything according to the scheme above, this should be the final step.

Download and open the Arduino IDE and connect your Arduino. Make sure you select the right Arduino, in this case it’s the Arduino/genuino Mega/Omega board and select the right com port. Try uploading the blink sample sketch to check if you have a successful connection. If you bought a third-party Arduino and cant upload your sketch, try selecting a different bootloader / check your manual for the right settings or drivers.

If you don't want to code, you can skip and download the final code.

We’re going to start with the basics, declaring the variables of our ports.


                        const int button_1 = 12; //controls for player 1

                        const int button_2 = 11;

                        const int button_21 = 3; //controls for player 2

                        const int button_22 = 2;

this is for our buttons. The reason you want to declare this at the top of your document is so you can later on reference to button_1. This way, if you want to change the port of button_1, you don’t need to change it for every single line. You just change the variable on top


                        pinMode(button_1,INPUT);

We’re going to do this for every single port we expect to be using


                        const int light_1 = 6; //lights for player 1

                        const int light_2 = 5;

                    

                        const int light_21 = 9; //lights for player 1

                        const int light_22 = 8;

                    

                        const int l1 = 32; // array of lights

                        const int l2 = 34;

                        const int l3 = 36;

                        const int l4 = 38;

                        const int l5 = 40;

                        const int l6 = 42;

                        const int l7 = 44;

                        const int l8 = 46;

                        const int l9 = 48;

                        const int l10 = 50;

                        const int l11 = 52;

                    

                        // integers

                        int button1; //player 1 controls

                        int button2;

                        int button21;//player 2 controls

                        int button22;

next up we want to set up a little bit of logic before coding. We want the player to score when they press the right button for the right side of the light. This means we need to check for “button downs” not button holds. If the button is pressed the button state will also be set to active, and it is set inactive if the button is released. This way the trigger will only go off if the button is being pressed and the state is inactive, so the first press


                        //button state is for anti-spam

                        int buttonState; //checks if button is released for player 1

                        int buttonState2; //checks if button is released for player 2

                        //light randomizer

                        int light; //randomizer for player 1 lights

                        int light2; // randomizer for player 2 lights

following this are a couple of integers we need for the game to work, like combo multipliers if a player is on a good press streak and game states for the different states of the game.


                        int rope; //position of the rope

                        int power; // player 1 combo multiply

                        int power2; // player 2 combo multiply

                        int multiplyLimit; //combo limit

                        int game; //checks for start of game and game over.

                        // game == 0 game hasnt started

                        // game == 1 game has started

                        // game == 2 player 1 wins

                        // game == 3 player 2 wins

                        // game == 4 start animation

In void setup we…Set up the game, we declare which ports are outputs and inputs. Everything here runs one time, when the Arduino is turned on.


                        void setup() {

                            // all inputs

                              pinMode(button_1,INPUT);

                              pinMode(button_2,INPUT);

                              pinMode(button_21,INPUT);

                              pinMode(button_22,INPUT);

                            

                            // all outputs

                              pinMode(light_1,OUTPUT);

                              pinMode(light_2,OUTPUT);

                              pinMode(light_21,OUTPUT);

                              pinMode(light_22,OUTPUT);

                              pinMode(l1, OUTPUT);

                              pinMode(l2, OUTPUT);

                              pinMode(l3, OUTPUT);

                              pinMode(l4, OUTPUT);

                              pinMode(l5, OUTPUT);

                              pinMode(l6, OUTPUT);

                              pinMode(l7, OUTPUT);

                              pinMode(l8, OUTPUT);

                              pinMode(l9, OUTPUT);

                              pinMode(l10, OUTPUT);

                              pinMode(l11, OUTPUT);

                            

                              Serial.begin(9600);

                            

                              light = random(1,3); // sets light at random for player 1

                              light2 = random(1,3); // sets light at random for player 2

                              rope = 50; // sets the rope in the middle

                              multiplyLimit = 5; // combo limit

                              game = 0; // game hasnt started yet, see above.

                            }

In void loop we put everything the Arduino needs to check for every calculation cycle. This runs in a loop from top to bottom. First we start with the intro of the game, game state 0. If the game state == 0 (if the game state is equal to 0) we want it to make a blinking animation, and start the game when all 4 buttons are being pressed


                        void loop() {

                            //game hasnt started yet

                        

                              if (game == 0) {

                                  button1 = digitalRead(button_1); // reads if button is pressed for player 1 & 2

                                  button2 = digitalRead(button_2);

                                  button21 = digitalRead(button_21);

                                  button22 = digitalRead(button_22);

                                

                                  //blinks lights

                                  digitalWrite (l1,LOW);

                                  digitalWrite (l2,LOW);

                                  digitalWrite (l3,LOW);

                                  digitalWrite (l4,LOW);

                                  digitalWrite (l5,LOW);

                                  digitalWrite (l6,LOW);

                                  digitalWrite (l7,LOW);

                                  digitalWrite (l8,LOW);

                                  digitalWrite (l9,LOW);

                                  digitalWrite (l10,LOW);

                                  digitalWrite (l11,LOW);

                                  delay(500);

                                  digitalWrite (l1,HIGH);

                                  digitalWrite (l2,HIGH);

                                  digitalWrite (l3,HIGH);

                                  digitalWrite (l4,HIGH);

                                  digitalWrite (l5,HIGH);

                                  digitalWrite (l6,HIGH);

                                  digitalWrite (l7,HIGH);

                                  digitalWrite (l8,HIGH);

                                  digitalWrite (l9,HIGH);

                                  digitalWrite (l10,HIGH);

                                  digitalWrite (l11,HIGH);

                                  delay(500);

                                

                                  // starts game if both players hold both buttons

                                  if (button1 == 1 && button2 == 1 && button21 == 1 && button22 == 1) {

                                    rope = 50;

                                    game = 4; //plays intro animation

                                  }

                              }

Next up is the game intro animation, state 4, this is an animation where the array of LED’s becomes a dot in the center. Notice that in de code above we change the game to 4, so the loop will now loop through the code in game == 4


                        //game intro animation

                        else if (game == 4) {

                            button1 = digitalRead(button_1);

                            button2 = digitalRead(button_2);

                            button21 = digitalRead(button_21);

                            button22 = digitalRead(button_22);

                            digitalWrite (l1,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l2,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l3,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l4,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l5,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l6,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l7,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l8,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l9,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l10,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l11,LOW);

                            delay(100);

                            digitalWrite (l1,HIGH);

                            digitalWrite (l11,HIGH);

                            delay(300);

                            digitalWrite (l2,HIGH);

                            digitalWrite (l10,HIGH);

                            delay(300);

                            digitalWrite (l3,HIGH);

                            digitalWrite (l9,HIGH);

                            delay(300);

                            digitalWrite (l4,HIGH);

                            digitalWrite (l8,HIGH);

                            delay(300);

                            digitalWrite (l5,HIGH);

                            digitalWrite (l7,HIGH);

                            delay(300);

                            digitalWrite (l6,HIGH);

                            digitalWrite (l6,HIGH);

                        

                            game = 1;//starts game

                        }

Now comes the actual game, this will be most of the code so I’m going to break it up in parts. Starting with the extra button variables and the lights. The lights have a randomizer so every time the player presses a button the lights will randomize between the left or right button, when the light == 1 the left light will be turned on, and If the light == 2 the right light will be turned on.


                        // game has begun

                    

                        else if (game == 1) {

                            button1 = digitalRead(button_1);

                            button2 = digitalRead(button_2);

                            button21 = digitalRead(button_21);

                            button22 = digitalRead(button_22);

                        

                        //player one lights

                    

                        if (light == 1) {

                            digitalWrite(light_1, HIGH);

                            digitalWrite(light_2, LOW);

                        }

                    

                        else if (light == 2) {

                            digitalWrite(light_2, HIGH);

                            digitalWrite(light_1, LOW);

                        }

                    

                        //player two lights

                    

                        if (light2 == 1) {

                            digitalWrite(light_21, HIGH);

                            digitalWrite(light_22, LOW);

                        }

                    

                        else if (light2 == 2) {

                            digitalWrite(light_22, HIGH);

                            digitalWrite(light_21, LOW);

Next up are the player controls. As explained above, we want the button state to be turned of when both buttons of a player are released, otherwise they could just press and hold a button and hope for the best. When the player hits the right button, the light will slowly start moving towards them, and if they press the wrong button, it will push the light towards the other player.


                        // player one buttons

                        if (light == 1 && button1 == 1 && buttonState == 0 || light == 2 && button2 == 1 && buttonState == 0 ){

                                digitalWrite(light_1,LOW);

                                digitalWrite(light_2,LOW);

                                rope = rope + power;

                                if (power < multiplyLimit){

                                power = power + 1;

                                }

                                delay(5);

                                light = random(1,3);

                                buttonState = 1;      

                        }

                    

                        else if (light == 1 && button2 == 1 && buttonState == 0 || light == 2 && button1 == 1 && buttonState == 0){

                                digitalWrite(light_1,LOW);

                                digitalWrite(light_2,LOW);

                                rope = rope - 1;

                                power = 1;

                                delay(5);

                                light = random(1,3);

                                buttonState = 1;      

                        }

                    

                        if (button1 == 0 && button2 == 0) {

                            buttonState = 0;

                        }

                    

                        //Player two buttons

                        if (light2 == 1 && button21 == 1 && buttonState2 == 0 || light2 == 2 && button22 == 1 && buttonState2 == 0 ){

                                digitalWrite(light_21,LOW);

                                digitalWrite(light_22,LOW);

                                rope = rope - power2;

                                if (power2 < multiplyLimit){

                                power2 = power2 + 1;

                                }

                                delay(5);

                                light2 = random(1,3);

                                buttonState2 = 1;      

                        }

                        
                        else if (light2 == 1 && button22 == 1 && buttonState2 == 0 || light2 == 2 && button21 == 1 && buttonState2 == 0){

                                digitalWrite(light_21,LOW);

                                digitalWrite(light_22,LOW);

                                rope = rope + 1;

                                power2 = 1;

                                delay(5);

                                light2 = random(1,3);

                                buttonState2 = 1;      

                        }

                    

                        if (button21 == 0 && button22 == 0) {

                            buttonState2 = 0;

                        }

Next up is the is the code for the light. So first of all, This, this is not the most efficient code. For those among you who would like to try some code yourself. Try making a function that turns on a specific light in an array variable depending on the value of the rope. As for this tutorial/instruction, hardcoding will be the way to go.


                        // rope code

                        if (rope >= 0 && rope < 10){

                            digitalWrite (l1,HIGH);

                            digitalWrite (l2,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l3,LOW);  

                            digitalWrite (l4,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l5,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l6,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l7,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l8,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l9,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l10,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l11,LOW);

                        }

                    

                        if (rope >= 10 && rope < 20){

                            digitalWrite (l1,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l2,HIGH);

                            digitalWrite (l3,LOW);  

                            digitalWrite (l4,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l5,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l6,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l7,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l8,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l9,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l10,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l11,LOW);

                        }

                    

                        if (rope >= 20 && rope < 30){

                            digitalWrite (l1,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l2,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l3,HIGH);  

                            digitalWrite (l4,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l5,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l6,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l7,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l8,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l9,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l10,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l11,LOW);

                        }

                    

                        if (rope >= 30 && rope < 40){

                            digitalWrite (l1,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l2,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l3,LOW);  

                            digitalWrite (l4,HIGH);

                            digitalWrite (l5,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l6,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l7,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l8,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l9,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l10,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l11,LOW);

                        }

                    

                        if (rope >= 40 && rope < 50){

                            digitalWrite (l1,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l2,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l3,LOW);  

                            digitalWrite (l4,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l5,HIGH);

                            digitalWrite (l6,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l7,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l8,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l9,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l10,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l11,LOW);

                        }

                    

                        if (rope >= 50 && rope < 60){

                            digitalWrite (l1,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l2,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l3,LOW);  

                            digitalWrite (l4,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l5,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l6,HIGH);

                            digitalWrite (l7,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l8,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l9,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l10,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l11,LOW);

                        }

                    

                        if (rope >= 60 && rope < 70){

                            digitalWrite (l1,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l2,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l3,LOW);  

                            digitalWrite (l4,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l5,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l6,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l7,HIGH);

                            digitalWrite (l8,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l9,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l10,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l11,LOW);

                        }

                    

                        if (rope >= 60 && rope < 80){

                            digitalWrite (l1,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l2,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l3,LOW);  

                            digitalWrite (l4,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l5,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l6,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l7,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l8,HIGH);

                            digitalWrite (l9,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l10,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l11,LOW);

                        }

                    

                        if (rope >= 80 && rope < 90){

                            digitalWrite (l1,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l2,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l3,LOW);  

                            digitalWrite (l4,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l5,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l6,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l7,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l8,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l9,HIGH);

                            digitalWrite (l10,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l11,LOW);

                        }

                    

                        if (rope >= 90 && rope < 100){

                            digitalWrite (l1,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l2,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l3,LOW);  

                            digitalWrite (l4,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l5,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l6,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l7,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l8,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l9,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l10,HIGH);

                            digitalWrite (l11,LOW);

                        }

                    

                        if (rope >= 100 && rope < 110){

                            digitalWrite (l1,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l2,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l3,LOW);  

                            digitalWrite (l4,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l5,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l6,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l7,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l8,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l9,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l10,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l11,HIGH);

                        }

Next up, we want one of the players to win when the light (rope in code) is at one of the two players.


                        //  player 1 wins

                        if (rope <= 0) {

                            game = 2;

                        }

                    

                        // player 2 wins

                        if (rope >= 109){

                            game = 3;

                        }

                    }//end of loop 1

Now the animations for the winning player and then reset the game state to 0.


                        //game over animation

                        else if(game == 2) {

                            button1 = digitalRead(button_1);

                            button2 = digitalRead(button_2);

                            button21 = digitalRead(button_21);

                            button22 = digitalRead(button_22);

                            digitalWrite (light_1,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (light_2,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (light_21,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (light_22,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l1,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l2,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l3,LOW);  

                            digitalWrite (l4,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l5,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l6,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l7,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l8,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l9,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l10,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l11,LOW);

                            delay(100);

                            digitalWrite (l5,HIGH);

                            delay(100);

                            digitalWrite (l4,HIGH);

                            delay(100);

                            digitalWrite (l3,HIGH);

                            delay(100);

                            digitalWrite (l2,HIGH);

                            delay(100);

                            digitalWrite (l1,HIGH);

                            delay(100);

                            game = 0; //resets game state

                        }

                    

                        else if (game == 3) {

                            button1 = digitalRead(button_1);

                            button2 = digitalRead(button_2);

                            button21 = digitalRead(button_21);

                            button22 = digitalRead(button_22);

                            digitalWrite (light_1,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (light_2,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (light_21,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (light_22,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l1,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l2,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l3,LOW);  

                            digitalWrite (l4,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l5,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l6,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l7,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l8,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l9,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l10,LOW);

                            digitalWrite (l11,LOW);

                            delay(100);

                            digitalWrite (l7,HIGH);

                            delay(100);

                            digitalWrite (l8,HIGH);

                            delay(100);

                            digitalWrite (l9,HIGH);

                            delay(100);

                            digitalWrite (l10,HIGH);

                            delay(100);

                            digitalWrite (l11,HIGH);

                            delay(100);

                            game = 0; //resets game state

                        }

                    

                    }

Now you’re completely finished coding
The result will look something like this. The final result will look something like this

Step 7: Finalizing

Now that you’re done coding, its time to make sure everything works. If everything works, make sure your solder is connected. If you used a protoboard, its now time to tape/glue/screw that in place. Turn on your Arduino using the power switch, close your box/enclosure/case and enjoy your game.