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  • Author Author: tariq.ahmad
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From Strava to Motion: Creating an Arduino-Powered Arcade Game with Running Data -- Episode 607

Following on from building an air hockey table, Lorraine is recreating another classic arcade game: the Derby. Instead of horses racing along a track, it will be runners! Find out how to download your running data from strava and move a runner along a track in competition with your family and friends. This project involves a bit of everything: 3d printing, laser cutting, coding in C and using motors with the Arduino Wifi board.

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Bonus Content:

Bill of Materials

Product Name Manufacturer Quantity Buy Kit
DFROBOT Micro DC Motor, TT Geared, Encoder, 6V, 160RPM, 120:1, L Shape, Arduino Board DFRobot 4 Buy Now
Expansion Board, Quad DC Motor Driver Shield, Arduino Development Board DFRobot 1 Buy Now
Microswitch, Miniature, Long Hinge Lever, SPST-NO, Quick Connect, 16 A, 8 V Omron 4 Buy Now
Single Board Computer, Arduino Uno WiFi, ATmega328P, 14 I/O, 48KB Flash, 6144Bytes SRAM, 256Bytes Arduino 1 Buy Now
Rocker Switch, On-Off, SPST, Non Illuminated, Panel Mount, Black, PRA TE Connectivity 1 Buy Now
DC Power Connector, Socket, 2.1 mm, Chassis Mount, Solder Pro Signal 1 Buy Now
AC/DC Power Supply, Level VI, 1 Output, 15 W, 5 VDC, 3 A Multicomp 1 Buy Now
Pin Header, Right Angle, Board-to-Board, 2.54 mm, 1 Rows, 6 Contacts, Through Hole Right Angle AMP - TE CONNECTIVITY 1 Buy Now
Jumper Wire Kit, Male to Female, Multi-Coloured, 200 mm, 0.1" Dupont Connector, 0.2 mm² Multicomp 1 Buy Now
 

Additional Parts:

3mm laser acrylic for box, supports and runners
3d printed pulleys
3d printed supports for motors and runners
Timing belt 6mm, 640mm long x 4

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  • One enhancement that could take advantage of being able to have the lever switches at both ends of the track could be the ability to implement limit switches outside of software control, to protect the mechanism.

    If a limit switch is reached, then hardware could be used to disable the motor driver, preventing it from continuing to drive any further in that direction. With the current DFRobot motor driver board, it looks like you could monitor the AIN2/BIN2 direction signal and then interrupt the PWMA/PWMB signal in hardware depending on which limit switch was activated.

    This would still allow you to recover under software control by allowing you to reverse the direction of travel which would then allow you to drive back off the limit switch.

    'Team couch potato' here managed over 136km in the past 6 weeks. Those boots were made for walking, heatwave or not Slight smile

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    There was some nasty crunching when the numbers went wrong and the runners overran the track Fearful

  • in reply to lorrainbow

    Yeh, that was my first thought when I saw it. Anyone trying to modify the code is likely to over run the track at some point due to reliance on software. A bit like when people build their own H bridges on the cheap, eventually they will short circuit the transistors. Hence using limit switches with hardware control would protect the mechanism from programming errors.

    Some of the systems I've worked on in the past had three separate levels of safety. There were limit switches under software control for normal operation. There were limit switches under hardware control that would prevent further software control in one direction but would still allow reversing. Then there was a third layer that killed all power to the motor controllers should the motor still continue to run past the defined limit.

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  • in reply to lorrainbow

    Yeh, that was my first thought when I saw it. Anyone trying to modify the code is likely to over run the track at some point due to reliance on software. A bit like when people build their own H bridges on the cheap, eventually they will short circuit the transistors. Hence using limit switches with hardware control would protect the mechanism from programming errors.

    Some of the systems I've worked on in the past had three separate levels of safety. There were limit switches under software control for normal operation. There were limit switches under hardware control that would prevent further software control in one direction but would still allow reversing. Then there was a third layer that killed all power to the motor controllers should the motor still continue to run past the defined limit.

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