The final Altoids‑tin console runs the Space Trash game after five hardware iterations.
FATHER-SON TEAM BUILDS ALTOIDS‑SIZED ROBOT FROM SCRAP
*A two‑month DIY sprint turned a discarded robot and ThinkPad into a pocket‑sized game console. The project survived five redesigns, broken wires and a mis‑wired display.*
A father and his 12‑year‑old son spent roughly two months turning a free robot and a discarded ThinkPad into a pocket‑sized gaming device. The effort began at MIT Swapfest, where the pair walked away with a robot kit and a sense of possibility. Their goal: cram a functional microcontroller, display and power supply into an Altoids tin, a challenge that demanded five redesigns, broken wires and a mis‑wired screen before success.
The project unfolded in public‑facing stages—v1 through v4—each documented with video and blog notes. The duo’s relentless iteration turned a hobby into a case study of DIY engineering under tight physical constraints.
From MIT Swapfest to a free robot
The journey began at MIT Swapfest, where a father and his 12‑year‑old son spotted an assembled robot on a couple’s booth. The couple explained the robot came from a kit built by their daughter years earlier and, seeing the boy, handed the robot away for free. The duo also bought a used ThinkPad laptop at a low price to power their work. Disassembling the robot revealed a 128×64 display but no control board. An AI query produced a bogus 20‑pin layout for a 10‑pin device, forcing hours of manual search until a stranger’s schematic on Arduino’s forum supplied the correct pinout. With the pinout, they displayed the Space Trash game from the U8g2 library, marking version 1.
Why did they choose an Altoids tin?
A YouTube video showing a tiny computer fit inside an Altoids tin sparked the next move. The pair grabbed a random tin, then switched the robot’s brain to an Arduino Nano and ordered LiPo cells and a PowerBoost regulator to shrink the power chain. The son handled all CAD and 3D‑printed parts. Version 2 fit inside the tin but the lid would not close. Solderable breadboards replaced messy wires, and a real grocery‑store Altoids tin—slightly taller—replaced the makeshift container for version 3. The lid still jammed, and a desoldering mishap ripped a copper pad from the display, prompting an order for a replacement from Adafruit.
What technical hurdles slowed progress?
The new Adafruit display defaulted to I²C, not the SPI mode the circuit expected. Rather than rewiring, the team desoldered two jumpers to force SPI, a painful step that exposed a faulty soldering iron. A new iron finally delivered even heat, allowing rapid soldering of ultra‑fine 30 AWG wires to replace broken connections. Two wires between microcontroller and display snapped the day after the first successful run, prompting a failed hack of splicing wires together. The son corrected the mistake, re‑soldered the correct wires, and learned debugging by connecting one wire incorrectly before fixing it.
How did the final version look and function?
Version 4 closed the Altoids lid after a struggle, hot‑glued the display to the lid, and finally ran the Space Trash game without error. The son placed two real Altoids in 1×1‑inch zip‑lock bags inside the tin as a tongue‑in‑cheek nod to the container’s brand. After five iterations, none of the original components survived, but the project demonstrated a complete end‑to‑end build: from free robot parts, through iterative hardware redesign, to a functional handheld console housed in a candy tin.
Frequently asked questions
How long did the father and son work on the Altoids project?
They spent about two months on the project.
What display did they use in the final version?
They ordered a new 128×64 display from Adafruit after the original was damaged.
How many redesign iterations were needed before the console worked?
The final product came after five iterations.
The Altoids project proves that resourcefulness can outpace budget. By scavenging a robot, repurposing a ThinkPad, and repeatedly re‑engineering hardware, the team delivered a functional console in a candy tin. Their story underscores a broader truth for makers: every failure is a data point, and every data point brings the final product closer. Future hobbyists will likely follow the same path, trading polished kits for gritty, iterative problem‑solving.
Sources: [Hacker News – Altoids Project, https://uvdn7.github.io/altoids-project/]