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Logic Gate Board Game 04: LCD's Driving Me Crazy -- Episode 293

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element14's The Ben Heck Show

Join the Ben Heck team every week for amazing hacks! Watch them build and mod community-inspired projects using electronics!

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Logic Gate Board Game
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In this week's episode the team considers a library from Microchip and how the game will work. Microchip has a library that allows you to drive an LCD glass with just a microcontroller, no need for an external controller or extra RAM.  They also discuss gamification, make some diagrams of how they want to space up the screen, what goes on the screen, where to put the plugs, and figure out how the puzzle is going to work on the screen. Have advice on how gamification will work?  Let us know in the comments below!

 

 

Ben attempts to use the PIC32 MZ starter kit as a mass storage device with a computer.  Acting as a mass storage device, more puzzles could be added just by dragging and dropping from a computer. There are multiple USB ports on the end; there’s one if it’s a device and one if it’s a host such as your computer.  Ben want’s the microcontroller to act as a device like a USB thumb drive.  There’s also a programming header and a UART with a USB converter.  The hope is that there will be a single USB port on the logic gate board game that can be used for charging as well as transferring data.

 

Ben goes over programming the microcontroller using MPLAB harmony, which includes a good number of examples in its library.  The problem is it doesn’t really tell you how to use them.  What they can do is set up an area of NVM non-volatile memory, the flash that holds the program, and set it up as a small file system.  This allows them to access it from within their program to get files. The USB could also use it as a file system so the user can put files there. Although, they may want to have separate file systems so there’s an area of memory that a person can’t destroy just plugging it into their computer. Getting examples to work isn’t that difficult, the real trick is combining them all.  This includes some kind of sound, LCD, USB, and file system.

 

After aligning the LCD screen he sets up another NOR gate using the MPLAB IDE. They need to do more work on the gamification and how the screen is going to be set up but if they can combine the schematic editor with a graphics driver and create a markup language that can store puzzles in as small space as possible, they’re at a good jumping off point.

 

Karen helps Ben with the gamification using Logic Gate pieces cut out to scale. The further they get away from the Hackmanjii concept, the more difficult it becomes to grasp the gamification.  They discuss giving the game the ability to drive real external devices. Karen slaps Ben with a reality check as things veer off course and they struggle to figure out a purpose for the game.

 

 

Disclaimer

Parents

  • Thank you Karen for pointing out the goals of the project after getting too deep into the hardware/software too soon before a good design was developed--your reality check.  Ben wants to design this bottom-up and you top-down.  Bottom-up can lead you off course but may take you to unexpected, desirable directions.

     

    Working out game flow on paper is needed to make sure it works, is fun, and you learn by doing.  What makes it fun, like a puzzle, is when it is solved and you can easily see it was the correct solution.

     

    So what if the correct solution produces a little song/tune.  The notes and durations should be in a file so they can be picked apart and played in a different order (is this like a midi file).  Anyway, when the gates are connected in the correct order, the tune will play correctly.  When not, the notes are played in a different order, depending on how the gates are setup.  Maybe order would be too difficult.  What if a note is played when a set of inputs yield the correct output and no sound otherwise.  You would step through every combination of the inputs, each step is the next note in the sound.  If there are more steps that notes, then repeat the tune using the remaining steps.

  • in reply to tm14

    Another way to verify solution with sounds would be to step through each possible set of inputs at a fast speed (needed if you have more than 4 bits of inputs).  At each step, if the result is correct, give a very short happy sound (ding).  When a step is reached and the result is incorrect, play a unhappy sound (buzzer) and stop to let the player adjust the gates or add more gates then press the button to re-test.  When all steps have correct result, the player wins points.  The number of gates the player used can determine points.  A minimal solution gets the highest points, while extra gates get less.  Perhaps reduce points by 1 for every extra gate used.

     

    You can use a difficulty level to multiply the points.  Score one difficulty level for every input bit used.  So a NOT gate is level 1, but a 4-input NAND gate is level 4.

     

    Multiple solutions are possible.  So you can't just compare the gates used to stored literals in the program.  Compare based on inputs yielding desired outputs.  When they match, the player is effective.  When the player is effective and uses the minimal number of gates, the player is also efficient.

     

    Maybe instead of just counting gates, match them to DIP packages with associated unit prices.  Then the combination with the least cost is the efficient solution.

     

    P.S.  I should have mentioned that this game would consist of a randomly generated list of outputs based on a set of inputs, with the player choosing the number of inputs, the higher number would be more difficult.  A one bit input would be simplest.  The goal is to plug in gates in different combinations to have the desired outputs for each possible input.

Comment
  • in reply to tm14

    Another way to verify solution with sounds would be to step through each possible set of inputs at a fast speed (needed if you have more than 4 bits of inputs).  At each step, if the result is correct, give a very short happy sound (ding).  When a step is reached and the result is incorrect, play a unhappy sound (buzzer) and stop to let the player adjust the gates or add more gates then press the button to re-test.  When all steps have correct result, the player wins points.  The number of gates the player used can determine points.  A minimal solution gets the highest points, while extra gates get less.  Perhaps reduce points by 1 for every extra gate used.

     

    You can use a difficulty level to multiply the points.  Score one difficulty level for every input bit used.  So a NOT gate is level 1, but a 4-input NAND gate is level 4.

     

    Multiple solutions are possible.  So you can't just compare the gates used to stored literals in the program.  Compare based on inputs yielding desired outputs.  When they match, the player is effective.  When the player is effective and uses the minimal number of gates, the player is also efficient.

     

    Maybe instead of just counting gates, match them to DIP packages with associated unit prices.  Then the combination with the least cost is the efficient solution.

     

    P.S.  I should have mentioned that this game would consist of a randomly generated list of outputs based on a set of inputs, with the player choosing the number of inputs, the higher number would be more difficult.  A one bit input would be simplest.  The goal is to plug in gates in different combinations to have the desired outputs for each possible input.

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