Foreword:
The original idea I had for my whimsical project was a device with buttons that seemingly correspond to LEDs, however, when you press a button the corresponding LED doesn’t blink. In fact, any of the LEDs might blink, plus a buzzer might sound, plus a servo might whiz around. The point was that your initial expectation upon pressing a button would go unfulfilled. So it would be a random box where the signifiers were misleading. My final project ended being the same as my idea, however, I turned it into a game of sorts where if the LED thank blinks corresponds with the button you pressed then you’d get a point. Once you have five points, you win and a victory tune plays.
- Tone() affects PWM on pins 3 and 9
- Hot glue guns are your friend
- Random() generates a pseudo-random between an interval you specify
- The design is important because while my circuit was similar to last time, the design of the box around it makes it look so much better.
Code:
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#include <Servo.h> int led1 = 10, led2 = 11, led3 = 12, servoPin = 5, buzzerPin = 6, yBtn = 7, gBtn = 8, bBtn = 9, score = 0, scorePin = 3; int devices[] = {led1, led2, led3, buzzerPin}; //array of devices on the board Servo servo; void setup() { for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) { pinMode(devices[i], OUTPUT); } servo.attach(servoPin); pinMode(yBtn, INPUT); pinMode(gBtn, INPUT); pinMode(bBtn, INPUT); Serial.begin(9600); } void loop() { if (digitalRead(yBtn) == HIGH) { btnPush(yBtn); } if (digitalRead(gBtn) == HIGH) { btnPush(gBtn); } if (digitalRead(bBtn) == HIGH) { btnPush(bBtn); } analogWrite(scorePin, (score * 51)); if (score == 5) { victoryTune(); score = 0; //resets score } } //this function handles the behaviour of each button press depending //on what value random() returns void btnPush(int btn) { int val; //stores the random int returned by random() delay(260); val = random(0, 4); //if val is the element in the array that stores the buzzer pin //play a tune and move the servo if (devices[val] == buzzerPin) { tone(devices[val], 220, 500); delay(250); tone(devices[val], 165, 500); delay(250); noTone(buzzerPin); servo.write(45); delay(1000); servo.write(135); delay(1000); servo.write(90); } //otherwise blink the led that corresponds to the element in the array at val else { digitalWrite(devices[val], HIGH); delay(100); digitalWrite(devices[val], LOW); delay(100); digitalWrite(devices[val], HIGH); delay(100); digitalWrite(devices[val], LOW); delay(100); digitalWrite(devices[val], HIGH); delay(100); digitalWrite(devices[val], LOW); } //if the button pressed corresponds with the LED that lit up the score is incremented if (devices[val] - btn == 3) { //based on the way I laid out the pins it turned out that each pair of button and LED were three pins apart so I took advantage of that score++; tone(buzzerPin, 262); delay(200); noTone(buzzerPin); } } //this function just plays a tune and flashes lights when the target //score is reached void victoryTune() { tone(buzzerPin, 131); digitalWrite(led1, HIGH); delay(250); digitalWrite(led1, LOW); tone(buzzerPin, 165); digitalWrite(led2, HIGH); delay(250); digitalWrite(led2, LOW); tone(buzzerPin, 196); digitalWrite(led3, HIGH); delay(250); digitalWrite(led3, LOW); tone(buzzerPin, 262); digitalWrite(led1, HIGH); digitalWrite(led2, HIGH); digitalWrite(led3, HIGH); delay(1000); noTone(buzzerPin); digitalWrite(led1, LOW); digitalWrite(led2, LOW); digitalWrite(led3, LOW); } |
Schematic:
Review of Atoka’s Device:
Description: Atoka created a fun little game where you had a wire disguised as a hook around another wire that was bent and misshapen into a weird shape. The aim of the game was to move the hook over the shaped wire without making it touch, similar to a maze game I saw online where you can’t let the mouse curser touch the sides of the maze as you traverse. If you touched the wires, it would make a loud buzzing sound and a red LED would flash.
Was it amusing?: The game and circuit were really simple, but still it was a lot of fun to play. I tried more than once to beat it without letting the wires touch. I really appreciated how effective her device was and its simplicity translated to elegance in its execution.
Were the affordances useful?: The game really only consisted of a switch basically. Touching the wires would close the circuit and cause the buzzer to beep and the LED to light up. Therefore the switch allowed us to be able to play the game. The buzzer and LED were both useful as well as they allowed a means of notifying the user (light for the LED and sound for the buzzer).
Were the signifiers helpful?: This is the area I feel Atoka lacked in. The LED and buzzer did go off when you closed the circuit, which notified that you have done something wrong, however, besides that nothing else gave any sort of indication of what to do. The design was so simple that it was not hard to figure out but at first glance a user will have no clue how to use it.
Verdict: I really liked Atoka’s game overall. It was simple and effective. The affordances were adequate for what the device was meant to do but even one sign saying “don’t let the wires touch” would have been a helpful signifier to relay the aim of the device.