S**t, It’s a Reverse Swear Box!

For most folks, swear boxes are a great way to help curb profanity use. Whenever you say something naughty, you then have to insert money in the box as penance. Well, a Maker by the name of Howie has decided to have his do the exact opposite—press a button and the device generates a four-letter swear word on a 14-segment LED display “for you to use in conversation at your leisure.”

The aptly named Reverse Swear Box is driven by an ATmega168-based PCB and powered by a CR123A battery — all of which are housed inside a wooden case with some foam.

In terms of software, the gadget has about 45 words it can select at random. According to Howie, “Proper randomness isn’t easy for a microcontroller (or a computer) to do on its own, so I measure how long the user has pressed the button, in microseconds, and use that value to help choose a word.”

Those wishing to recreate their own Reverse Swear Box can check out all of the project’s schematics, firmware and other information on Howie’s website.