Need help with electronics!

Hello awesome RPF members!

Im looking to build a Minecraft Chest, but I would like it to do 2 things:
1) I would like it to make the same sound as it does in game when you open the chest, and
2) I would like there to be a light on the inside that turns on when the chest is opened.

I dont have any technical/electrical saavy and was wondering what electrical components I would need to make these 2 things happen (on a budget). Any feedback pointing me in the right direction is welcome!

 

Check out some arduino tutorials on YouTube as well as some maker sites such as Adafruit or maybe spark fun. I know adafruit has good ones on switches and simple LED circuits, which seems like would be right up your alley. That will be your best bet to learn how to wire up something like that!

I hope this was somewhat helpful!

 

The light one is very simple, they sell reverse lights, I bought one from rockler wood working, you mount it by the lid just like a refrigerator one and when you open the chest the button will pop out to turn on the light. I suppose you could find some kind of cheap recorder or sound effect machines (like those handheld ones. and hook it up to the same switch, and just extend the wires from the button. You may even be able to get one of those hallmark cards that record your voice and record the sound effect and set it up so when ever you open the lid it will play. I know its not as nice as setting a adurino circuit board but it is doable with little to no electronics skills

 

Yeah, that's the thing..."cheap" and "little skill" don't map that well. There's a couple of low-fi sound recorder chips -- RadioShack had them, you can find similar on eBay or Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Module-...ee_s_cp_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=14JJG032REN1GA0HADAA

For best results, it helps to be able to hack it a little; clip the microphone leads and run line level audio directly into it. But it works okay to just put the mic tight up to a sound source and simultaneously hit "play" and "record" buttons. I used one of these things in my Morrow Project Med-Kit -- I think it was one from Allelectronics http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/rm-2/record/playback-module/1.html

These days, there's even self-contained modules (I saw them at Amazon) with battery and button and all in a small plastic enclosure.



As for the light, the best switch is probably a lever or roller lever. These are momentary switches that have a long "feeler" sticking out. Here's one being used as a trigger switch:



The majority of small switches have three terminals; one is common, the other two are "normally open" and "normally closed," usually abbreviated NO and NC. Set the switch into the box so that it is pushed when the lid is closed, and wire the bulb to the "normally closed" side (a moment of experimentation will do just fine; leave the switch un-pushed and brush the terminals with bare wires connected to battery and bulb. You can use the same switch to trigger the recording.



As an additional complexity, consider using an LED instead of an incandescent bulb. It will provide more light with more saturated color. An LED will, however, require a ballast resistor. Those can be easily calculated with online calculators but that does mean understanding a wee bit about voltage, polarity, simple DC circuits, etc.!