you can replace them with bigger LEDs or even a light bulb (paired with a relay for the Arduino Uno). Try a toggle switch instead, so you won't have to keep your hands on the push button.

Arduino boards can most definitely help ... and a reset pin for connecting a push button to reset the UNO in case you can't use the one on-board. Save for the ports, everything else is labeled ...

But if you can push ... light button presses would make it speed up even more. But there are really just the two speeds with the current programming. Inside the cool laser-cut box is an Arduino ...

I made this Arduino 8 bit binary led counter as a solution for one ... The decimal number increases from 0 to 255 each time the momentary push-button is pressed. For example the number 0 is 00000000 ...