DIY Super Hydrophobic Labyrinth Game

In this video I show how to make a classic coffee table game with a hydrophobic twist. Check out my sponsor Brilliant and use my link to get 20% off membership: www.Brilliant....
I'm sure I'll be asked the question of why not just spray a store bought labyrinth game with a hydrophobic coating, and yes that is possible if you don't care to make your own. For those that try it will be tricky to get an even coating but it should work fine with multiple coats.
A big thanks to my Patreon supporters who continue to support my videos through thick and thin! You all are awesome. A special thanks to my top Patrons: Syniurge, Matthew Leitzke, TheBackyardScientist, Enzo Breda Lee, John Johnson, & Thibaud Peverelli!
Check out my Patreon page at: / nighthawkprojects

[@Scott_C]

Hard mode: Put a paper towel on a strategic wall so that it will absorb it if the drop comes in contact with it.

[@spicklesandwich]

Or Sponge. Can be squeezed out.

[@shonaoneill5151]

Ha ha ha I spat my tea over my tablet! Thanks for that 😁

[@parkerlreed]

Or make all the walls out of sponge.

[@turmat01]

@@shonaoneill5151 bullshit

[@theralhaljordan7337]

Or you could just add another hole

[@christhebirb]

Use food coloring to dye the drops, put them on opposite corners on the board, and try to win the game by mixing them in the center!

[@LordDecapo]

that sounds epic!

[@Djhg2000]

Came here to suggest the same thing!

[@ogorangeduck]

like mercury meltdown, but in real life!

[@NibblyBitz]

Have you played mercury the game on PSP because that is legit what you need to in the game as you play as a mercury blob

[@nicynodle2]

Or for the extra challenge, you have to switch their positions WITHOUT mixing them

[@kamo7293]

If the floor was transparent (maybe using acrylic or something) you could have a second layer maze underneath, or have bridges and underpasses. Or maybe use the tops of the walls for a second layer maze, with ramps up and down

[@vincenttrigg4521]

I had a similar idea! By similar i basically mean the exact same XD Heres what i said You could try multiple heights like with ramps without borders on the higher floors. Options for this type include: -if you fall of the higher part then you land back down on the board below. -require ramps or bridges to get over certain walls to get to the end. -going too fast would launch the water off the board. -having a see-through plastic second floor could let you play under on the first level(the water would have food colouring to let you see through the plastic.

[@HokoraYinphine]

@@vincenttrigg4521 I'm just wondering if the hydrophobic coating will make the plastic/acrylic look frosted making it really hard to see what's under He did say at 5:23 the coating made the surface that's been sprayed a "milky white" and also commented on how uneven the coating was on the pegboard Another idea I had to add to your comment was instead of letting the water drop down to the bottom floor from a top hole, it would be a simple tube/pipe the length of the spacing between the top and bottom floor. It can pose as a very simple object when on the bottom floor. I'm hoping Hawkin will make another video following this :)

[@GRBtutorials]

Hokora Yinphine MPP Well, maybe there are other more suitable coatings that are transparent.

[@HokoraYinphine]

5 years later and i somehow came across the same comment to mention the same thing, turns out i already said it haha

[@finndriver1063]

By putting small dabs of powdered colouring on more risky parts of the course, you could create bonus sections and rewards. Or take it further, start with something dissolved in the liquid, and place something that it could react with along the course!

[@AgentWest]

Drop of vinegar with baking soda traps? Or same drop of water with fizzy tablets as traps? Either way, your simple idea does sound fun.

[@calebof300]

Man, the constant hydrophobia in this video makes it hard to watch. It's 2019, we should be over this!

[@theaquarian5849]

🎶 Rim shot!

[@armokgodofblood2504]

Can we just get a video of the parrot?

[@drew899]

Couple of things hat would be cool to see: 1. Drinking straws to transport the drop across the board. Would have to be built into a side wall so it doesn’t get in the way of the maze itself. 2. Cover a small section of the board with a piece of wood so you have to do that section blinded (optionally, add a small mini maze to the bottom of the cover) 3. A water tank and a cheap plastic pipette where the water gets fed directly to the bulb with a one way valve and when you squeeze the bulb, a perfect water droplet is formed in the same place every time 4. A small timer and wipe board to keep track of time and scores. A “leaderboard” of sorts.

[@smith7108]

Timer could be triggered by the droplet running over a section and completing a circuit.

[@pw7225]

Smart trick to let me watch your parrot during the ad. Usually, I close the video when the ad appears.

[@anasmrright]

What ad? All I saw was the silly parrot.

[@RowanB6]

@@anasmrright same here, but now that you mention it, I have a strange urge to go to brilliant.org

[@daivomjoshi8677]

Add some FLUORESCENT DYE to that water and play game under a UV LIGHT...It will be lit...😍 Please do it🤩

[@TopSpot123]

Just try tonic water.

[@daivomjoshi8677]

Yep 👍🏻

[@TopSpot123]

@@Baitrix1 Tonic water contains quinine which floreces under a black light.

[@smuecke]

Yours are the only videos where I never skip the sponsor ad, because of your parrot 😀

[@redcastlefan]

Why not add more traps types ? For example replace some of the floor or walls with a sponge since, you know it absorbs the water .

[@jcims]

Do it with the Leidenfrost effect instead, built in time limit!

[@TestSpaceMonkey]

Exactly what I came down to comment. Specifically those surfaces with the array of little sideways-tilting groves to act as a launch or speed ramp. Could even combine this with your dual-drop idea and have one drop close a switch on the heater for the Leidenfrost surface so that the other can get launched across unconnected parts of the maze. Heck, have it launch you to a whole other maze board and make it a multi-player game. One could really go nuts with small-scale fluid effects: acoustophoretic levitation, cavitation (vaporization trap or limiting visibility with time spent in an area) and/or capillary action (to get the droplet through a hidden shortcut). Also, how hydrophobic are magnetorheological fluids? Maybe have a dynamic section reshaped by hitting switches/conducting plates so that it blocks/unblocks different areas in sequence. The possibilities!

[@Cyberw4y]

What would you do that with? Liquid nitrogen?

[@pedroff_1]

@@Cyberw4y he could just heat the surface the water is on, the leidenfrost effect can happen whenever you have a liquid hitting a surface hotter than its boiling point, so water with hot metal plate could work

[@Cyberw4y]

@@pedroff_1 yeah, but this one is wooden.

[@pedroff_1]

@@Cyberw4y that's true, he'd have to make a new one he could heat as much as it's required. I thought you were implying you could only get the effect on liquid nitrogen, sorry for misunderstanding it!

[@Ben-gd6wl]

YOU SOULD ADD: (1) “mini motorized treadmill” that forces you to move a little faster in a certain area. (2) “mini fans” that blow the water drop around. (3) “mini water pump” that pumps The droplet into a different area. (4) “carring objects” make the droplet carry around certain object to complete game modes or to do certain tasks. 🤙

[@LordDecapo]

i think that would be hard, cause water could get in the crack at the ends of the belt, but if you had some air being blown out of a small hole via a 90deg adapter out of the bottom, then u could have a variable speed crossing zone.

[@vincenttrigg4521]

Should have small sensors so if any of those are activated then it makes sound effects

[@Ben-gd6wl]

vincent trigg yea totally 🤙

[@simontist]

This is like the PSP game Archer McLean's "Mercury".

[@romajimamulo]

That's what I was thinking of! I think it got a PS3 sequel, right?

[@GreekGadgetGuru]

LOVE THE INTRO! I noticed your posting frequency went to about 1 a month. Are you going for the high quality "Mark Rober" approach to making content? He post 12 videos a year. Very picky with his content subjects.

[@Nighthawkinlight]

I'm busier these days and recently had a few projects I spent a lot of time on that didn't work in the end. I'd like to post more frequently if I could. It's good to see channels like Mark's that do so well choosing quality over quantity. For a few years it seemed like that method was falling out of favor on KZbin.

[@GreekGadgetGuru]

@@Nighthawkinlight Yes most definitely falling out of favor. I think he has some contacts in journalism that spread his content like wildfire across the internet. His content is very relate-able to a mass audience too.

[@MattsAwesomeStuff]

@@Nighthawkinlight - I don't think anything has changed (with respect to, things not being as bad as they have been the last 2 years). Mark succeeds in spite of the algorithmic penalty, and if he took the "Say less and say it often" low-effort bloggy content, of literally just turning on the camera and blathering for 10 minutes a day with no content of value, I suspect he'd be far more popular. There are very few of us who choose to make good content despite what KZbin seems interested in promoting. The good news is that, at the end of the day, we can look back on our content and feel like it mattered and wasn't disposable to the world.

[@GreekGadgetGuru]

@@MarkRober *A legendary KZbinr has appeared*

[@roboactive]

*_A stupid improvement for the game:_* Use a hair dryer or a fan under some of the holes, so that if the water passes over it, it will split up (or fly over the barriers, i dont know).

[@Jonathanist]

I love that you went back to the old format of narration over video, keep it up!

[@TheMrMKultra]

8:10 your parrot thinks it's a bat

[@joonasfi]

A firmware update might fix that, sounds like a glitch

[@terranovarain6570]

Hey if he wants to be a bat thats his choice let him be this is 2020 we should be past this kind of judgment Cutest little battie ever 😋

[@kdawg3484]

So simple, yet so many extra dimensions added. Ben, you're the master at this sort of thing. You must shave with Occam's Razor in the mornings.

[@username-rs4vf]

You could make a funnel at the bottom which catches the water so it doesn't leak all over the table and you can reuse it for the next game

[@marhar2]

It would be interesting to see a multi-layer maze, where the water flows through a hole down onto a second level. Or something where water flows through a tube to a second part of the maze. Or a vacuum pump to go up a level!

[@axiljan5709]

Have to say, it was very satisfying to see that bubble of water float aroud!

[@MrDoboz]

make it on a heater copper board, so you have an included timer as your water blob slowly boils away

[@JustinY.]

Looks like your mercury looks broken, I'd go check it out.

[@tejasbhandare251]

Hey

[@christhebirb]

Your mercury is in retrograde.

[@mrgigkg5300]

Not here before famous

[@cybersans8198]

Never have I ever seen a video without his comment.

[@TraXXXtar]

dont wanna make it to obvious about the likebotting here ay? ;)

[@thesiq9764]

Always love the randomness of your projects

[@Shalexios]

I am always fascinated by your ingenuity. This was such a pleasure to watch!

[@TechIngredients]

Beautifully done! Great videography as well.

[@BlayneMahoney]

Mercury for the PSP was one of my favorite games on that and this is so much like it.

[@nullsnaggle5198]

When you split it its like a checkpoint where you can continue playing from that spot

[@MrRolnicek]

Hills and valleys in the board would probably create an exttra layer of challenge.

[@MadScientist267]

Dude this is so sweet... Fell in love with these type things when Enigma showed up... And always wanted to build a physical table... Now I have an excuse 😁

[@TheFonz89]

One of my favorite games; this is a really cool take on it. Springs might wear out over time; a handheld version could be lightweight. Small scale could be cool too. Overall, awesome project.

[@55Ramius]

Pretty cool version of this game. Hmm, little contact points in surface could trigger lights or sounds as the conductive water drop passes over them.

[@abunn3]

If you spread two contact points out far enough in a section, you could ensure that you've reached that part of the maze with enough water to flip the switch.

[@terranovarain6570]

I was thinking the same thing

[@HammyTechnoid]

This is awesomeness at its best.... even if I don't build one, it's nice to know I could... great job!!!

[@DiiRTyPLaaYeR]

This is actually a project I will definitely try to build soon

[@askquestionstrythings]

Best game update and use of hydrophobic paint that I've seen.

[@pujanpatel649]

This is like Archer Maclean's Mercury on the psp

[@antsinmyeyes9547]

Woah this works so well

[@skimbulshanks]

I see this as an idea for a smart gadget geocache. Arduino with a water sensor at the target hole. It would turn on a servo to release a latch holding the bison tube. Thanks for the inspiration.

[@Eddievargas1]

Great idea. Only other thing I can think of is adding a jump some how. Also maybe use some food coloring in the water!!!

[@rwxsed]

That was the best damn piece of ad in youtube history of ads!

[@lawsonporter6113]

That's awesome! Always love seeing your videos!

[@FreedomandBaconHomestead]

I thought of your channel this morning! I was wondering when your next video would be. Nicely done.

[@TopSpot123]

I absolutely love everything about this project! Such a simple and clever concept. It looks to be more fun than the traditional ball bearing! BTW, there is a video game series called Mercury that plays similarly to this, but with several additional mechanics that wouldn't be feasible in real life.

[@user-cl3gz9ey1w]

Another drop in another place in same time 😜 Add all axels Make the edge of the hole tilted down Different liquid Like soda or oil Or honey Or mixed drops Different Temperature Every thing

[@jaylopo1245]

I was thinking about adding razor blades to certain parts of the maze to be able to cut the water into smaller pieces. Not entirely sure how it would be useful, but I will edit this once I try it. Nice video!

[@Mogu003]

You could mask a circle area at the goal so that the droplet would "stick" to it once it reaches. Adding a tiny bit of flare.

[@MrKoolbrez69]

Paint a starting size circle in the start to show how big you should start with the water and at the end draw multiple size circles with point values given to each for the finish size of the droplet. higher values given to no water loss sizes of course.

[@Leonardokite]

That was totally awesome dude! What a great idea. AND a fun project to do along with a kid. Thanks for that!!!

[@rickyrrrr5164]

This is an awesome puzzle my only thought is maybe adding some sort of water capture device that way you can play a lot without creating a mess

[@ba2hln14]

It’s kind of cool actually. The amount of liquid you have at the start determines how many lives you have. The less liquid you use, the harder it is to maintain that amount till the end. If you run out of liquid, you lose.

[@omnirath]

Amazing as always ! Simple projects with cleverness !

[@serraramayfield9230]

Few ideas: 1) I noticed that in some of the final shots of your maze, the inside walls didn't perfectly cover or fill the holes below them. Perhaps you could fix that by adding more pegs to the bottom and/or creating a sort of LEGO-esque set of interlocking wall pieces? 2) Depressed & raised bumps on the board could give more challenge as well as forcing the player to train his/her precision much more. 3) Slightly textured corners - say, with a piece of thin felt or cloth - would add a little bit more "grip" with some types of movement. 4) Styrofoam/wood bumpers glued to the bottom of the springs would prevent them from scratching surfaces. That's really it for me, I love this toy idea already!

[@5637718]

OMG, never knew u had a Caique bird, I Love them

[@cheeseweasel69]

Well you asked for comments and got some gold! I think this already needs a rebuild to include some. :)

[@BenjaminGoldberg1]

Replace the opaque pegboard with acrylic, and illuminate the edges.

[@DoItProjects]

Well I’ll be damned if this isn’t the coolest thing I’ve seen all week.

[@velvetcasuat]

make a thing that measures how much water you manage to get to the end ... and correlate that with the time to give the score.

[@smith7108]

I was thinking about this, like a super narrow section it drains into at the end with score board.

[@jansonreason5052]

You could add areas that are lopsided or at a slight angle to add difficulty to controlling the droplet

[@dallaswoiken7533]

Very cool,I love seen what new ideas u come up with next

[@LucasDirkx]

@SmarterEveryDay gotta love this!

[@agvulpine]

2 Players. 2 Drops. Separate starting corners. Player's may place 1 to 2 fingers from each hand in two very specific spots along the rails of their corner (1/4 to 1/3 distance away from their corner). Both players start and play at the same time, limited only by their finger placements and distance before their spring bottoms out. Games can be cooperative or competitive. You can use food coloring of different colors for each player -- don't touch drops! (For competitive games, your droplet starts at the corner distant from you, while your opponent's droplet starts nearest to you.)

[@molliarti]

Its a super cool home made game!! Nice idea wow! Loved!

[@pocket83squared]

Nine seconds in. Wow. Now show me how. Holy cow. Not Haiku.

[@roboactive]

Hi

[@Astoria_Varanus]

Yes it is

[@LarsSveen]

A maze where you have to navigate two drops at once would be a nice added challenge. And since it's water, you could navigate them to combine at some point.

[@Freizeitflugsphaere]

Wow great idea👍🏼

[@TheHarleyEvans]

having some sort of tray beneath to catch the water would be good, maybe adding some neodymium magnets in too to cause areas of extra friction, maybe adding sponge-walls as a trap too.

[@amber3650]

the only channel where I watch the advertisement, well, I watch the bird play in your hand and ignore the ad, that bird is heckin' cute

[@cplson2706]

I watch the ending only because of the bird. 😂

[@smith7108]

This is amazing! Be interesting to have a section where you would need to have the droplet hit a barrier hard and squash to avoid falling through a larger hole close by. Also wonder if it would be possibly to create clear raised sections over the board where you would eventually pick a hole for the droplet to return to. Perhaps a small hole you needed to put some of your droplet into to complete a circuit that would temporarily remove a barrier. Yeah I know this is likely too much and water + electricity = bad but had to say it. Any way buoyancy could be used? Maybe to float a trapped ball in a section about the board and move it to another area?

[@jordyv.703]

It's a colourful Ari! 🦜🦜

[@stupidkidlol]

So the drop of water just lands on the table underneath? Would be cool if you had a plastic container underneath that could be drained or would redispense the water (like the marble was in the original game) so it can be reused. Awesome idea for a game though! Definitely making one

[@vennic]

Play with beer and have a friend lay under the table. Drinking game!

[@facelessjack442]

Add a second level for the water drop to fall through so when you reach the end you remove the tough layer and start again on the next

[@Nighthawkinlight]

That's clever, you could make a whole tower. I like it

[@facelessjack442]

@@Nighthawkinlight exactly

[@WorldGenesis]

Now do it with mercury, and we have a real-life version of Archer Maclean's Mercury XD

[@chriswonder2747]

You should make these for high end toy stores

[@LordDecapo]

This is epic, so many comments are saying great ideas. I want to make one with all the best comment features XD

[@Rhoxe]

Add heater below it

[@Philippositivity]

It’s not a labyrinth( unicursal), it’s a maze, labyrinths are a single pathway, unicursal. 😎

[@lifelock8649]

r/iamverysmart

[@NarutoUzumaki-hj2hb]

Try putting holes next to walls so it’s harder to pass just by touching the walls or you could make some holes bigger

[@aidanwansbrough7495]

That's pretty cool!!

[@g4mmalotus937]

I would add something underneath to catch the water when it falls through the holes.

[@ieuanhunt552]

You should play it with mercury. If you don't want to send one to Cody's Lab he is a little crazy when it comes to mercury.

[@lumachromax2]

make traps by leaving some places without the coating

[@TommyCallaway]

Ooo - you could add sponge traps to some walls that absorb the water on contact as well.

[@ajithm.v2167]

make a spliter(split the drop to 2 separate drops) in the game so the player has to play with 2 droplets.which have more difficulty

[@AnthondeVries]

i love your bird, what kind is it? can you do a vid about training him/her?

[@Nighthawkinlight]

He's a caique. I'd like to do a video on him sometime.

[@AnthondeVries]

@@Nighthawkinlight i own a small lovebird(aga pornis) i really like parrots

[@alekmoth]

@@Nighthawkinlight i'd watch that. I look forward to seeing the bird each video.

[@hanginlaundry360]

I had a caique, missing him watching your fella. They love to romp and wrassle about! Mine had a crazy temper. They are not a parrot for beginners!

[@CaptnApathy]

I wonder if you could make a sort of room that can only open from the weight of the droplet outside of that room, and inside is another droplet. this would be like an extra life, but would also increase the difficulty depending on how you arrange the maze. so you'd have to decide if you want more life, or more agility.

[@peterbaum9367]

I think this will be the first thing I actually rebuild from your videos :D (soup-can forge is a very close second)

[@epauletshark3793]

I built the soda bottle launcher, and made a second that had major modifications.

[@gegas1989]

speedruns would be good there

[@SushiKing123NorskGaming]

Amazing!

[@ljk8059]

Adding food dye to the drops would allow for two players to "fight" one another... and bumping into each other's drops would void the game immediately as you could never separate it back out again (splitting the drop would render two similarly coloured drops). Red and blue, for example, would work well. Each player could have a different start and end point, marked with colours too.

[@svatsideas]

That is amazing idea!

[@bringtheideas460]

Add a razor blade traps that would split the drop

[@glenngriffon8032]

it's genius to have your bird being silly while talking about the sponsor.

[@brapamaldi7666]

would have been awesome to learn a little about hydrophobic materials in this video. i know what they are, but not how they work, when they were discovered etc. still a good video tho, just seems a missed opportunity for some teaching mixed in with the practical and fun parts.

[@Nighthawkinlight]

Yeah I would have liked to get into that. It had been too long since my last video and I didn't want to take too much more time.

[@brapamaldi7666]

@@Nighthawkinlight thats fair enough. i found a few good videos that got me up to speed on it, fascinating stuff. ive know about it for a while now but never really took the time to look into it in more detail, till now, thanks to your video. cheers!

[@scotthappy6885]

It reminds me of those mazes with mercury balls in them. Now here's a safe version of it.

[@VagabondTE]

If you had a narrow absorbent strip at the end of the maze you could actually turn it into a sort of point system. Give people a bunch of extra water to start for an interesting competition. Maybe less holes though. What I would do is have some extra pegs and fill in the more challenging holes in narrow spots. It would make the game easier but it would be a lot more wild with all the extra water drops bounceing around. You don't need a droplet divider, you just need more water. This would all be a genuinely fun party game.

[@bogus_not_me]

I'm curious about one thing you didn't mention - what do you do about the water that falls through the board? Some did even in your demo...

[@huscat1609]

You can fit a small container with a measure in the final hole. Then start with a drop of fixed size (e.g. 10ml) and find out how much you can get to the end, giving you a final score in milliliters :v