Posts categorized under: blog

2016-07-29: Week 5: Day 20

CRUNCH TIME

1. By the end of today: working demo with sensing and a reaction
2. Tuesday: finish entire machines
3. Wednesday: write presentation
4. Thursday: practice talk
5. Friday: public final demo and talks

2016-07-20: Week 4: Day 14

Panic Time!

1. Due Friday August 5: a public presentation and demo.
2. Due Friday July 22: an abstract for the final presentation.
3. Weekly goal: playable prototype. Continuing the process of compromise on design features and requirements.
4. "Divine Comedy" group: new playfield and parts.
5. Matrix LED display and LED strand testing.
   1. LED ...

2016-07-19: Week 4: Day 13

Panic Time!

1. Due Friday August 5: a public presentation and demo.
2. Due Friday July 22: an abstract for the final presentation.
3. Weekly goal: playable prototype. Now begins the process of compromise on design features and requirements.
4. Matrix LED display and LED strand testing.
   1. LED matrix specs, and tutorial
   2. LED strand ...

2016-07-15: Week 3: Day 12

Agenda

1. Due Friday August 5: a public presentation and demo.
2. Due Friday July 22: an abstract for the final presentation. We'll go over this in more detail on Tuesday.
3. Weekly goal: design review today at 5PM with guest critique.
   1. Finish any clarifications to the drawing.
   2. Write a set of ...

2016-07-14: Week 3: Day 11

Agenda

Field trip!

Kickback Pinball Cafe, 4326 Butler St, Pittsburgh, PA 15201.

2016-07-13: Week 3: Day 10

Agenda

1. Choose a display component for each machine. See:
   1. https://www.adafruit.com/products/555
   2. https://www.adafruit.com/products/1912
   3. https://www.adafruit.com/products/1270
   4. https://www.adafruit.com/products/1269
2. Weekly goal: Friday design review.
3. Daily goal: precise paper sketch of designs.
4. Speaker melodies: see ToneSpeaker in ...

2016-07-12: Week 3: Day 9

Agenda

1. Weekly goal: Friday design review.

Questions we need to answer now.

1. How many games are we building?
2. How large is the playfield?
3. Is there a visual theme?
4. How many sensors?
5. How many solenoid actuators?
6. How many LEDs?
7. Any pins?
8. How many rubber bumpers?
9. Can it fit on one Arduino ...

2016-07-08: Week 2: Day 8

Agenda

1. Weekly goal: by end of today, each group should demonstrate a fully functioning game simulation which extends PinballLogic example.

Integer Functions

Mappings from integers to integers can be implemented many, many ways. Here are just a few simple examples. First, pure program logic:

int func(int score)
{
   switch(score ...

2016-07-07: Week 2: Day 7

Agenda

1. more Arduino C++ overview
2. discuss the logic example: PinballLogic
3. work on developing game logic ideas. some ideas:
   1. add scoring (with printout to the console)
   2. add a high-scoring bonus mode
   3. add stuck ball detection
   4. improve the timing of the ball drain sequence (e.g. prompt the player more clearly)
   5. add ...

2016-07-06: Week 2: Day 6

Agenda

1. Arduino C++ overview
2. discuss the logic example: PinballLogic
3. build the sample testbed circuit
4. work on developing game logic ideas

Testbed Circuit

2016-07-05: Week 2: Day 5

Project Plan Review

Agenda

1. brief progress recap
2. videos
3. discuss the pinball problem statement
4. tabletop pinball simulation
5. abstract program notation
   1. production rules / ladder logic
   2. time sequencing
   3. state machines

2016-07-01: Day 4

Agenda

1. everybody briefly describe their goals for the single-input single-output demo due today
2. gather materials, prototype, program
3. last half-hour: brief demo presentations
4. if time remains: consider the pinball problem statement

2016-06-30: Day 3

The main objectives continue to be the same today as yesterday, moving toward making a simple single-input single-output demo.

But in particular:

1. Today we're going to focus on using the Arduino to measure sensor inputs and drive actuator outputs.
2. We all need to continue practicing vocabulary, so I'd ...

2016-06-29: Day 2

Welcome

Welcome to the SAMS electronics lab! We will be working together to learn basic electronics and embedded programming and apply it to making a pinball machine. What we build may or may not look a traditional machine: it might be more of a kinetic sculpture, musical instrument, or multi-player game ...

Tiltcycle

Dan Burfield is an artist who re-invents pinball machines into new works. His studio Tiltcyle is located in Pittsburgh.

A few of many examples:

Shopping List

Things to consider buying or borrowing for the course:

Standard Pinball Parts

1. 1.063 inch standard pinballs
2. 0.675 inch small pinballs
3. standard flippers and flipper covers

Mechanical and Structural Parts

1. 12mm plywood
2. 3mm and 6mm acrylic flat stock (for assorted laser-cut parts)
3. wood screws for attaching parts to plywood ...