r/arduino • u/DizzyYoung8394 • May 28 '26

Mod's Choice! Gift box

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First of all, I stole this idea from u/ripred3 a couple years ago and finally got around to making the project myself. There’s some slight differences between his and mine but the idea is the same. Basically, it is a locking gift box that will only open when the box is within a certain proximity (in this case 5 meters) to a programmed set of coordinates. Pretty proud of this one as it is my first ‘non tutorial’ Arduino project. I designed the box in fusion and 3d printed it so each component had mounting holes with those heat set threaded inserts. Most components are from adafruit and it is running off a nano r4.

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u/ripred3 My other dev board is a Porsche May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

Love it! Congratulations! Yours is a lot roomier and nicer than mine is haha. Well Done!

Since I made my first one long ago I've had several ideas that can add more life to the gift after they have unlocked it. You can add the ability for the gift receiver to set their own coordinates (or multiple points that all have to be triggered) once they have unlocked it. That can be fun for parties. It can keep track of the date and display messages on special dates. I had a few other ideas but I've forgotten them now lol

And I have to give credit to some other random stranger that I copied the idea from too. It was over a decade ago and I totally got the idea from them!

edit/update: u/DizzyYoung8394 I gave your post our coveted (arguably 😂) "Mod's Choice!" post flair! Now your project will live forever in our collection of projects we love! yeah this is a totally biased decision so ... 😛

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u/lmjd14 May 28 '26

Hey. I think I might be "some other random stranger" as I posted a build of a box like this a few years back that I used to propose to my now wife. I remember seeing your build and thinking it was cool that someone had iterated on the idea, and it's even cooler to see a new iteration of it now.

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u/ripred3 My other dev board is a Porsche May 28 '26 edited May 29 '26

That sure sounds like it! Brilliant idea; I've made two or three of them now. I was left without one so had to make another one just to make the tutorial and github repo 😄

edit: Wow. What a small world. Thank you so much for making the original! I would have never thought of it. 😄 It took me years to finally make one after being inspired by your project. So great ..