Portable escape room

A Star Trek-themed escape room built into a portable, weatherproof case. Players work through an away mission at a shuttle control console, solving linked puzzles until the console unlocks a secret compartment holding a prize or gift. It began as a personal project, but it was built like a product: self-contained, rechargeable, and quick to reset for the next group.

Features

• Shuttle console: an LCARS-inspired control panel in smoked translucent acrylic, with classic red labels, a backlit status display, and a 24-segment LED bar graph
• Functional isolinear chips: 12 translucent chips that the console reads when players insert them into the chip bay
• Power grid: a panel of removable patch wires hidden behind a cover
• Data pads: two handheld PADDs that hide clues and chips
• RFID and NFC: 11 readers for cards and coins, plus an NFC tag players can scan with a phone
• Mimetic crystals: three RFID-tagged crystals that can be hidden nearby, with clues or GPS coordinates, to take the mission beyond the table
• Library: small book-cover props with ISBNs, matched to title clues placed around the play area
• Audio: sound effects played through built-in stereo speakers
• Secret compartment: an electronic lock releases a spring-assisted compartment to reveal the prize
• Companion website: an online user guide and scan results that deliver clues
• Reusable: the software can be updated with new scenarios and puzzles

Specifications

• Case: Apache 3800 weatherproof hard case
• Panel: 1/8 in. smoked transparent acrylic over 1/4 in. plywood
• Controllers: SparkFun RedBoard Turbo and RedBoard, connected over a Qwiic (I²C) bus with I/O expanders
• Display and lighting: 16×2 RGB character LCD and Adafruit 24-segment red, yellow, and green LED bar
• Readers: three coin and eight card 125 kHz RFID readers, a SparkFun Qwiic RFID kit, and an Adafruit NFC board
• Audio: SparkFun MP3 Shield, 3.7 W class D amplifier, and two 4 Ω 3 W speakers
• Power: rechargeable 2.5 Ah battery pack charged over USB-C, plus a separately charged Emergency Power Cell
• Fabrication: 3D-printed PETG and PLA parts, laser-cut panels, and custom circuit boards etched in-house