Last year this awesome story by Miria Grunick appeared in one of my feeds. I was immediately inspired to create one for Cam and this year I finally built him his very own Blinky Box.
I made a few changes to her design: a switch in the upper left toggles a solid color vs. flashing lights mode. Plus the knob in the upper right rapidly changes the frequency of flashing.
I had the top laser cut as I have no idea how to cut a plastic box. (If you're in Seattle, get it done at Metrix Create Space so you can watch them do it - and it only costs $7 or so)
Here's a video of it in action:
If you want to make your own, the code's on Github; feel free to fork as it's definitely not optimal. I also included the .SVG for the laser cutting; I recommend making the holes for the arcade buttons a little bigger as mine stick - 0.5mm should be enough.
You can get the bill of materials on Miria's Github repo; if you make my version you'll also need a switch.
For anyone who tries it and gets stuck, here are some photos of some of the major breadboarded items. Should be enough to get you over any hump:
