Light-Up Film Prop Buttons

This post is mostly photos but I wanted to document a build a did back in February. I was contacted by someone working on a film who needed a prop. A large (202mm x 202mm x 83mm) device with two buttons that would light up when pressed. Banana for scale. This is a laser cut (and etched) banana but it’s approximately banana-sized. US quarter for scale… just in case you don’t like bananas used for scale. Usually (when I build USB devices) the bottom cover is just a flat piece that gets screwed on. For this one I ended up using connectors for the wiring and mounting the electronics (and power) on the bottom cover. Since the firmware was simple enough I didn’t think it would need to be updated, but it is possible. This is handy if I ship something and things change and the customer wants some other behavior. I can just email new firmware with instructions for installing it. Here’s the actual bottom… and what I am most proud of. I didn’t want the customer to have to remove the whole cover…