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migration.user — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 18:06:03 GMT

Current Revision posted to Documents by migration.user on 10/1/2021 6:06:03 PM

Community Feedback 02 - Logic Gate Board Game

tariq.ahmad — Fri, 18 Jan 2019 16:22:11 GMT

Current Revision posted to Documents by tariq.ahmad on 1/18/2019 4:22:11 PM

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

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Community Feedback

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Ben and Karen look through suggestions from the community about the Logic Board Game. Suggestions include using connections similar to snap circuits to make junctions possible and magnetic clasp to make it easier to join circuits. Another suggestion involves using a simple wire matrix connected with push pins for the circuit connection.

Community Feedback comes from fisher0251 and DAB!

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fisher0251 has some ideas on how to improve the game for its audience. He taught middle and high school for 11 years before going into engineering. He also has four sons between ages of 2 to 13 so he's seen a ton of educational games. He suggests that the connections be made similar to snap circuits, to make junctions possible. Magnetic clasps would make it easier for kids to join the mechanical straps.

DAB suggests a simple wire matrix that can be connected with push pins for circuit connections. This would be along the lines of a physical PLD matrix to connect inputs and outputs of the logic gates. You could figure out a simple design and possible 3D printer setup with a peg board structure.

Tags: stem academy, tbhs, education kits, logic gates, game design, theheckwithkaren, logic gate board game, pld, stem projects, communityfeedbacktbhs, magnetic clasps, steam education

LGBG Update: LCD and Gate image test

makerkaren — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 21:39:59 GMT

Current Revision posted to Documents by makerkaren on 8/7/2017 9:39:59 PM

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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Ben is finding new and interesting ways to generate graphics for the logic gate board game. This just keeps getting more interesting. Here's the prototype Ben is working with today.

Want to help with the build?

We are having to use a smaller screen than is desirable. This means our inputs will have to be smaller. I found magnetic bag clasps that are great, but they are a bit big. Now we're looking for an alternative for connectors. Regular header pins are not durable enough nor large enough for a child to be able to manipulate them easily. So we need connectors that are around 1/8"-1/4" in diameter and easy to use. The kicker is that they have to be inexpensive in bulk and preferably SMD. We looked into using 3mm jacks like often used for audio cables. The problem is finding SMD jacks that mount perpendicular to the board rather than flush. Tricky tricky. Have any ideas? Post in the comments below!

Tags: header pins, lcd, tbhs, logic gate boardgame, logic gates, the ben heck show, boardgame, discrete logic, liquid crystal display, logic gate board game, behind the scenes, theheckwithkaren_logic_gate_bg, logic gate, connectivity, theheckwkaren, surface mount, board game

Logic Gate BG: Ideas List

makerkaren — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 20:27:49 GMT

Current Revision posted to Documents by makerkaren on 4/19/2017 8:27:49 PM

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 Game Build

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I want to gather all the ideas you all post for the build. If I missed something, let me know in the comments.

You guys are great. Keep the ideas coming!

Overall Design restrictions:

Parts Needed: (so far)

Connectors - wires with a solid connector on each end, connectors on the board that the wires easily attach to that can be easily interfaced with a circuitboard (preferably with little to no hand soldering required)
Display - Need a way to indicate difficulty level, cycle (3-4 total per puzzle), score, and possibly the gate puzzles themselves.
Indicators - LEDs or something else to show given signal, user generated signal, and desired result.

Other Design Factors

Target audience: Age 7+. Need to factor in the dexterity and strength of children.
COST: We are aiming for the sale cost of the game to be $100-150. This means that all parts should come to a cost of under about $30.
Overall size - Ben wants it to be portable. All components have to fit in a small encasement that can easily be held in the hand while playing.
This is going to be a manufactured product, so all components need to be easily sourced, not scrapped from old products.
Needs to have a physical interface, because otherwise it's just a video game/app.

CONNECTORS

Design restrictions:

Inexpensive, $0.05 or less each.

Not labor intensive to assemble or no assembly required.

Ideal price: <$0.10 each

Ideas

Magnetic purse clasps
Stackable
Revisit using banana plugs
Have them gendered to designate inputs vs outputs (gordiegii)
Fiber optics w/ RGB LEDs & photodiodes.
Y cables in place of bus bars

DISPLAY

Design restrictions:

We'd like to drive it with a PIC32 using LCC (Low Cost Controllerless) method.

Use DMA to send data to PMP and drive the clocks with interrupts. (Other suggestions welcome.)

Approximate resolution: 480x272

Larger than 4", preferably 6".

Does NOT need to be touchscreen - PROBABLY GOING TO USE TOUCH means we need fewer real buttons

Does NOT need to be color.

Ideal price: ~$10>

Optional: Versatility. Using a screen rather than a static graphic to represent the logic gates allows for more options and possibly requires fewer connections on the game surface.

Progress:

Using a PIC32MZ Starter Kit Dev board, interface adapter, ancient Microchip breakout board, and a PICTail board with a LCD soldered to it.
MPLAB X v3.55 using Harmony 2.02 development platform.
Harmony will pre-configure code for you, including graphical systems. But the documentation is fragmented and dense, so getting it up and going takes awhile.
We've found a very common 480x272 LCD that has a touchscreen variant. The PIC32MZ2048EFM has enough RAM to display 16 bit color images on it. If possible, I'd like to use 8 bit colors and use the extra space as a double buffer (so you don't see things as they're being drawn)
Had to tweak the code, but got it working with our custom rig.
Raspberry PI with a touch DSI screen (jim_teasdale)

LCD To-Do:

I want to have the display sideways, portrait mode.
Harmony seems to have configurations for this but they don't work. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?
Aria graphics library has a lot of functions but is probably overkill. Maybe we can abstract down a layer...
JPG works but looks bad / is slow loading. Would prefer to use PNG but haven't gotten them to work.
Images can be stored in Flash and there's probably enough to store whatever icons we need.

INTERFACE - CURRENT PROGRESS

Design restrictions:

Used by children with limited dexterity and finger strength.

Will need many wires and game board connectors.

Ideas

Have a breadboard-like interface with logic gate "pieces" that can be placed to solve a puzzle.

Other Design Considerations/Suggestions

Connectors with electrical current flowing them being a safety hazard (tm14)
- Give Felix speech bubbles.
Voice/sound not required to play ( fisher0251)

Tags: connectors, design considerations, the heck with karen, portability, theheckwithkaren, Design, display interface, leds, logic gate board game, theheckwithkaren logic gate bg, display, theheckwithkaren_logic_gate_bg, logic gate

Logic Gate Game Steps

tariq.ahmad — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 20:58:58 GMT

Current Revision posted to Documents by tariq.ahmad on 3/29/2017 8:58:58 PM

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!

Back to The Ben Heck Show homepage

Logic Gate Game Build

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Logic Gate Game

1. GETTING STARTED

- Discuss original idea / episodes (use footage flashbacks)
- Talk about what we liked / didn’t like
- Why we believe it’s a good project
- Map out project goals / major design challenges
- Design drawing and sketches
- Decide major parts and begin sourcing:
  - What part of original project do we actually need
  - Single PCB design
  - Board game ideas from Karen
  - Gameification
  - Update path - SD card? SD bootloader update file?

GOAL: Create product roadmap & design spec

2. CHOOSING A MICROCONTROLLER

- What does the system need to do?
- Speech? Video? Is there a display or just LED’s?
- Cheapest MCU that will get the job done.
  - SD card access for puzzle / updates
  - 3 banks of 8 bit I/O (use shift registers?)
  - Do as much with MCU as possible - less external glue logic
- Experiment with several MCU’s, then order more of the one we like best

GOAL: Find the right MCU and order in samples

3. CHOOSING PLUGS & WIRING PROTOTYPE

- Figure out the cheapest way to make the plugs that won’t be total crap.
- Wire up plugs and test with kids who have small hands.
- Get feedback from this for later on.
- Wire up prototype with selected MCU and plugs.

GOAL: Have a basic idea of the working unit to drive PCB and case design.

4. PRODUCT CASING DESIGN

- Work on this before designing PCB, or at least start some ideas
- Will come back to this later as well, after PCB’s are made
- Does unit have batteries? Rechargeable? AA? What type?
- Where is this unit played? Who is target market?
- Do case mockups on laser, figure out what’s most appealing.
- Is there a lid or something that holds the wires?
- Make it reminiscent of old Radio Shack electronic learning kits.

GOAL: Have a basic mechanical design figured out that will drive how the PCB is designed.

5. PCB DESIGN

- Based off connectors, decide how small we could possibly build this project.
- Layout connectors, then MCU, then power/batteries.
- EAGLE tutorial, mostly a screencap episode.
- Start this one week, work on other aspects, come back to PCB later on.
- Send off for test PCB’s from China (takes 2-3 weeks) or a e14 prototype vendor in US.

GOAL: Have a working PCB that we can price and use for the prototype.

6. PROGRAMMING & PUZZLES

- Create a base operating environment for the game, state machine.
- Text file parser to read human-readable puzzles off SD card (first version was very crude and byte-locked)
- Adding speech and sound FX to the game, see what fits best.

GOAL: Have a working PCB that we can price and use for the prototype.

7. Refinement Stage

- Work on puzzles, make sure they’re achievable.
- Is it timer based, or more like Sudoku or Solitaire?
- Case design and art refinement
- Cost reduction analysis
- Product testing - maybe loan to a school?

GOAL: Have a working prototype that can be costed out for manufacturing consideration.

Tags: plan, logic_gate, steps, heck, ben, logic_gate_board_game