Programmable Toys: Blinky Box!

This is a project I made for my two year old nephew. He really likes bright lights and buttons, so I wanted to make something special for him with plenty of both. I made it from a clear box so he could see the parts inside. As he’s a curious boy, I wanted this to spark a lifelong curiosity about how things work.

Since this toy is fully programmable, it can evolve as he gets older. The behavior now is simple: change light colors and patterns based on the knob state and button presses. Once he’s a little older, I can reprogram this to be a memory game where he has to reproduce certain patterns. If it survives early childhood, perhaps I can even teach him to program it himself…

I wrote more about the construction here.