Create V1 of Game Board

[ellen-lau]

Create a V1 for the Space Rover Game Board

[ellen-lau]

WEEK 1: First Iteration

Thoughts:

• only have 3 main place obstacles that are simpler (due to rover sensitivity -- see note on rover sens below), and mostly have movement blocked by physical obstacles
• cascading LEDs as obstacles? (sun flares, moving asteroids, swirling black hole)
• green lines = potential path lines for user
• red dots = all possible spots for obstacles (ie. blocking path lines so forcing user to move in different directions)
• size of rover in comparison to board = around the size of orange planet (if the rover is any bigger, it seems like there wouldn't be enough room for maneuvering)
• rover sensitivity? this may effect the angles of the planet placements, so the gesture control and rover movement will probably end up influencing the board layout (to make the game "playable")

[ellen-lau]

[ellen-lau]

Meeting Notes:

• make sun middle
• make Saturn openliberty
• leds turn off when travelled over
• easy, med, hard
• make planets more dispersed so easy mode is harder (separate them with more physical obstacles)

[ellen-lau]

WEEK 2: Next Iteration Based on Comments

New board with the sun in the middle and with physical obstacles blocking more planets:

LED mapping of board:

• v1 LED priority as of now for the large physical obstacles (sun/black hole) will just be their outlines (most economic option)

[ellen-lau]

Game Board Ratio: for reference, 3x2.5 of a ~MacBook 16"

[ellen-lau]

WEEK 3:

next version (players traverse board from earth to OL, make planets smaller):

diagonal traversal ([start = top right, end = bottom left], must overlap path again to get items)

one path traversal ([start = top right, end = bottom right], pick up all the items as you go)

[ellen-lau]

WEEK 4:

Some thoughts/roadblocks this week:

Resource LEDs

• Since we have many LEDs on the board, the Arduino UNO's 13 pins will most likely be insufficient to power all the LEDs (5V per pin = 1-2 LEDs per pin depending on the voltage drop of each LED) so need to try using shift registers to increase the number of LEDs that can be powered

• here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAT07gy4DII), 3 pins are converted into 40 digital inputs (which control 40 leds) with 5 shift registers

• alternatively, we use LED strips (SMD5050) with MOSFETs (https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/connect-led-light-strips-arduino/) (https://www.amazon.ca/SMD5050-Non-Waterproof-Changing-Flexible-Controller/dp/B07QSB55HX?th=1)

Obstacle LEDs

• Since obstacles aren't variable (shouldn't turn on/off) then maybe red led strips/fairy lights are better (can be embedded into board) that are powered by a static power block so they are just turned on and off when needed for V1 of this project

• since the board is of a considerable size, and the LEDs are so small in comparison, if we were to do 5mm LEDs for the obstacles that are clustered/bright enough to be sensed by the rover, then that would mean a lot of LEDs

• could also do some sort of static light source filtered through a clear red sheet

[ellen-lau]

Mock Board:

Layout and Rover Size

Movement

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/31871360/155606550-a4026712-9a08-44f1-bafe-b59c0f94d6b2.mov

Some Sketches of Rover:

[ellen-lau]

WEEK 5:

Example Lights:

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/31871360/157751919-ff176485-9310-4125-ba36-ce1558c165da.MOV

Board Specs:

Notes/Questions:

Lights

• using addressable LEDs
• got the lights to work with the arduino
• working on getting it down to just the Nodemcu -- theoretically, it should work since the LEDs are addressable, so you technically only need one pin for the length of the strip
• dealing with a power issue that doesn't occur for the arduino, figuring out that at the moment

Board

• decided to split into 4 so it can fit into a carrier (each will be 13"x22"x2.5")
• board materials: wood (cheap, can be heavy (but there are light alternatives, fire hazard?), acrylic sheets (expensive)
• 3D printing the board will be expensive as well
• printing the space rover layout (staples?) can separate into 4, or print one big sheet to cut ourselves

[ellen-lau]

WEEK 6:

Full Board to be printed:

Example Planet Lights

Side View

Notes:

• Got WiFi and the websockets working (used a local js websocket client to test everything out)
• Working on soldering and assembling the rest of the board
• End materials: nodeMCU + logic level shifter + LEDs
• need to buy 3 pin wire connecters

[pgunapal]

@yeekangc @GraceJansen @mdenby FYI.

[ellen-lau]

Final V1 Game Board build:

Final materials:

• foam board (top box)
• cardboard (bottom box)
• plexiglass (top layer)
• WS2812b LED strip
• 3 pin connectors
• NodeMCU
• 74HCT125 logic level shifter
• gutter roll (barrier)