Creating your own Handheld Electronic Games – Pocket Nim

RE: Creating your own Handheld Electronic Games – Pocket Nim

shabaz — Sat, 07 Sep 2019 01:15:10 GMT

I got fed up never knowing what switch to use.. so I've collected up all the various ones I had, and finally organized them.

They are all low-cost ones, so ideal for basic projects. Farnell part numbers are in the photo below too. The red circled one is a convenient power switch for low-power projects, the yellow circled one is good as a reset button on PCBs, I use that one all the time.

The ones that suit typical round low-cost plastic button caps, are circled in green and blue. The button caps fit tight and slightly higher up on the green circled switches. The caps need gluing if used with the blue circled switches.

For the green circled ones (Multicomp), the button caps are about 2mm higher than for the blue circled ones (Omron).

For the ones with no circles, I have not found any low-cost round button caps that are easily available. (Round being more useful to me than square, since a drill can be used for the enclosure, rather than cutting out squares.

[View:/resized-image/__size/896x868/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-66a578b9-b7d2-4c44-852d-511577aa570a/4331.contentimage_5F00_204450.jpg:896:868]

RE: Creating your own Handheld Electronic Games – Pocket Nim

fyaocn — Fri, 06 Sep 2019 05:02:15 GMT

Really great work well done.

Even share each step in detail.

RE: Creating your own Handheld Electronic Games – Pocket Nim

three-phase — Thu, 05 Sep 2019 19:30:45 GMT

Another great project and write up to add to your ever expanding list. Very informative and easy to follow.

Kind regards.

RE: Creating your own Handheld Electronic Games – Pocket Nim

stevesmythe — Thu, 05 Sep 2019 17:48:54 GMT

I'm very impressed. A wholly original project designed and built from scratch to a high standard.

BTW, I used to love Byte magazine. Did you ever get that in your local shop?

RE: Creating your own Handheld Electronic Games – Pocket Nim

ralphjy — Thu, 05 Sep 2019 16:06:48 GMT

Very nicely done in all aspects and awesome documentation. I wondered about the cutouts while watching the video. A good application for CNC [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-66a578b9-b7d2-4c44-852d-511577aa570a/contentimage_5F00_938.png:16:16]! You did such a good job that I thought that the PCB manufacturer had done it.

Love to watch you and Frank and others mentoring the kids. Gives them a great approach to learning. I always used to read Scientific American at the library but will admit to not continuing in my adult years. I'll need to check out what the current version looks like.

Ralph

RE: Creating your own Handheld Electronic Games – Pocket Nim

genebren — Thu, 05 Sep 2019 15:08:44 GMT

shabaz,

Great project and write-up. I too am a big fan of Martin Gardner. I have a couple of his books which are collections of his earlier columns and writings. Some absolutely stuff in those books. I will have to dust them off and read through them again.

Great work! It was nice to here your nephews sounding so happy playing (and winning) with the new game.

Gene

RE: Creating your own Handheld Electronic Games – Pocket Nim

dubbie — Thu, 05 Sep 2019 10:26:48 GMT

Shabaz,

A great project and a great game. I am also a great fan of BlueTac for fixing components in place when soldering, and I must get one of those wire stripping tools.

Dubbie

RE: Creating your own Handheld Electronic Games – Pocket Nim

balearicdynamics — Thu, 05 Sep 2019 06:22:14 GMT

Great project. I loved Marting Gardner with his Scientific American columns by 1980. September 1980 was the first issue of Scientific American published in Italy. Then during the '90s I bought tons of the previous issues in English. And all the Martin Gardner published books [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-66a578b9-b7d2-4c44-852d-511577aa570a/contentimage_5F00_2516.png:16:16] Nim and Go seems to e the two strategy games loved by Gardner and his columns I read when I was young introduced me to the exam of Games Theory at the University.

With a small extension - without changing the design nor the logic of your box - adding a couple of connectors (and probably a few lines of code) it will be nice to explore who win putting two devices one against the other. If I am not wrong, there is an algorithm that gives a high winning probability to one of the two players, the one who starts last (maybe). Nim is great yet simple game as there is not a winning strategy, like tris instead.

Enrico

RE: Creating your own Handheld Electronic Games – Pocket Nim

koudelad — Thu, 05 Sep 2019 06:15:35 GMT

Very well written. Great build!

RE: Creating your own Handheld Electronic Games – Pocket Nim

fmilburn — Thu, 05 Sep 2019 05:41:39 GMT

Great project and write-up Shabaz! I know your nephews really enjoyed it. Just Awesome :-)