F19: Road Max Fury

Project Title

Road Max Fury- Game using FreeRTOS

Abstract

Road Max Fury is a game based on a classic car racing arcade game developed in 1984 by Konami named Road Fighter. We planned to reproduce this game as a part of our CMPE 244 project. The goal is to reach the finish line without running out of time, avoiding other cars on the road or running out of fuel .The fuel is refilled by hitting petrol pump which the player can encounter at random location during the course of the game. The player also needs to prevent car from hitting the edge of the road to prevent the collision.

Objectives & Introduction

The primary goal of this project is to develop a racing game based on Road Fighter using FreeRTOS using SJ2 Board and to drive the LED matrix. The game's objective is to finish the finish line before running out of fuel and avoiding the obstacles and other cars on the road. The LED matrix is interfaced using the GPIO pins and the on board accelerometer is interfaced using I2C communication protocol.

Objectives:

• Write drivers to display road, car, traffic, score, fuel status on the RGB LED matrix and update the display continuously.
• Write drivers to give directions from the input devices ie accelerometer and filter the values to get accurate and desired values.
• Implement game algorithm for movement of car, random obstacle car and update scores and fuel status.
• Create FeeRTOS tasks for display, accelerometer values, game logic and understand the communication and synchronization between them.

Team Members & Responsibilities

• Namdev Prabhugaonkar
  
• Rutuja Shah
  
• Saumil Shah
  

Schedule

Week#	Date	Deliverables	Status
1	09/29	Road Max Fury project approved by instructor	Completed
Week#	Date	Deliverables	Status
2	10/12	Create project Wiki page Create a Bill of Materials Select and order Parts	Completed Completed Completed
Week#	Date	Deliverables	Status
3	10/16	Create and establish Github repository Create and setup Slack Channel Look through previous years projects and study it Distribute major roles among team members UI and initial game design	Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed
Week#	Date	Deliverables	Status
4	10/23	Make Repo on Github for all modules - Follow Naming Convention Understand the LED matrix data sheet Develop patterns on LED matrix using existing libraries for testing and understanding	Completed Completed Completed
Week#	Date	Deliverables	Status
5	10/30	Learn about PCB layouts and PCB building Game algorithm design Work on LED matrix panel and graphics library Develop patterns on LED matrix specific to our project	Completed Completed Completed Completed
Week#	Date	Deliverables	Status
6	11/06	Interface LED matrix display with SJ2 Board Learn about on board accelerometer and get values on terminal Interface and test accelerometer Understand the accelerometer values and develop a filter to obtain required values	Completed Completed Completed Completed
Week#	Date	Deliverables	Status
7	11/13	Understand and implement SD-card read Render SD-card data to MP3 decoder Design Schematic for PCB	Completed Completed Completed
Week#	Date	Deliverables	Status
8	11/24	Interface accelerometer with car movement Simulating a rectangle block as a car and manage its movement Implement random obstacle creation algorithm Car creation and movement Play game audio sounds giving commands from SJ2 board	Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed
Week#	Date	Deliverables	Status
9	12/1	Implement car collision detection Create PCB Layout and get it reviewed Develop Fonts for LED Matrix and Display game name on start screen Sync Game audio with different screens and game instances	Completed Completed Completed Completed
Week#	Date	Deliverables	Status
10	12/8	Integration testing Bug fixes Wiki report completion Perform game testing Start integrating display, PCB , MP3, accelerometer modules.	Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed
Week#	Date	Deliverables	Status
11	12/13	Complete final implementation of Road Max Fury Complete debugging of all game components Demo	Completed Completed Completed

Parts List & Cost

Part	#	Cost	Source
SJ2 Board	1	$55.00	Preet
Azerone 32 x 64 LED Matrix	1	$34.95	https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07F2JW8D3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
HiLetgo MP3 Decoder	1	$7.64	https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0725RHR4D/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Female Male DC Power Plug Terminal Adapter	1	$6.54	https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00W058HHQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
PCB	1	$19.00	https://jlcpcb.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA0NfvBRCVARIsAO4930nyv9BTfWyVz9KqLUyJRwS_FK0Hp6ldhHof8L-kW1jctHch8ahMC7waAhpSEALw_wcB
Digital Audio Amplifier	1	$
Push Button Switch	1	$7.99	https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SVTQ7B9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Audio Speakers	1	$7.99
40 Pin GPIO Ribbon Cable	1	$ 9.99	https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H53OK5U/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
3.5mm TS Mono Male to 2 Pin Screw Terminal Female AUX Headphone Balum Converter	1	$
	1	$

Design & Implementation

The design section can go over your hardware and software design. Organize this section using sub-sections that go over your design and implementation.

Hardware Design

The hardware design employs the use of 64x32 RGB LED matrix panel which is the most important part of the project, this uses four data lines namely A,B,C and D which can be addressed and used to control each LED which has following technical specifications:

Dimensions:

• 110.1 x 5 x 0.2 inches

Operation Power

• AC100-240V 50-60HZ Switch-able
• 5V regulated power input, 4A max (all LEDs on)
• 5V data logic level input
• 4mm pitch
• Module Refresh: 1560hz

LED Matrix

LED FrontPanel

PCB Design

For PCB Design we used the Eagle PCB Design software. It is not free software for commercial use but is free for students. Preet took a short session on PCB designing which helped to get us started. A great advantage of Eagle PCB is that we can importAdafruit and Sparkfun library into the PCB Design software. This allows us to use the built-in footprints and schematic components of Sparkfun and Adafruit which makes designing and ordering the parts easier. The software is easy to use for a beginner.

The steps involved in the PCB design process are described in the next section.

Schematic Design:

Our Schematic is simple. We added header pins, for making connections from the LED matrix, MP3 decoder to SJ2 board and external power power pins.

Display PCB schematic:

Game Display PCB Schematic

Display PCB has two independent circuits. One circuit is to connect SJOne board to LED panel connector and with two piezo buzzers. While another circuit is to connect one unused power cable of LED panel to SJOne board so that we don't have to power SJOne board from PC while we are playing the game. Our preliminary idea was to make this PCB, a Arduino kind of shield but for SJOne board.

Console PCB schematic:

Game Console PCB Schematic

In this game, console is used to move the basket to catch fast falling eggs and if there were any wires attached to console then it is very inconvenient for the user to play. so, we decided to make PCB which can charge battery and power the console while the user is playing. As shown in figure, the heart of the circuit is microchip's MCP73831 LiPo battery charging management IC. One LED is connected to it's Status Pin which glows when the battery is charging. A mini USB B port is used to connect to power resource (PC or any 5V mobile charger)via USB cable to charge the battery. while playing the game, the user must connect USB A port to SJOne Board's mini USB B port. To use the console on battery power user must turn on/off switch.

PCB Layout:

After schematic design, the most important step is to connect the PCB layout. In KiCAD components is not automatically associated with it's PCB footprint, so it's user's responsibility to connect right PCB footprint with the right components. In our case, we did not have the footprint of JLC connector and Rocker switch. so, we created it in a different window and saved it. The amazing feature of KiCAD is once we have done with PCB layout we can visualize PCB in 3D by pressing just one button. Below are actual screenshots of both, PCB layout & their 3D model.

Display PCB layout:

Dispay PCB layout without Copper layer

Display PCB layout with Copper layer

Display PCB front 3D view

Console PCB layout:

Console PCB layout without Copper layer

Console PCB layout with Copper layer

Console PCB front 3D view

Hardware Interface

In this section, you can describe how your hardware communicates, such as which BUSes used. You can discuss your driver implementation here, such that the Software Design section is isolated to talk about high level workings rather than inner working of your project.

Software Design

Show your software design. For example, if you are designing an MP3 Player, show the tasks that you are using, and what they are doing at a high level. Do not show the details of the code. For example, do not show exact code, but you may show psuedocode and fragments of code. Keep in mind that you are showing DESIGN of your software, not the inner workings of it.

Display Module

RGB LED Matrix:

SJ One Board Pin	Name	Description
P1_14	R1	Top half red data
P4_29	G1	Top half green data
P0_7	B1	Top half blue data
P4_28	R2	Bottom half red data
P0_6	G2	Bottom half green data
P0_8	B2	Bottom half blue data
P0_26	addrA	Address Input A
P1_31	addrB	Address Input B
P1_20	addrC	Address Input C
P1_28	addrD	Address Input D
P2_0	Clock	Shift clock
P2_2	Latch	Shift in row data/Active High
P2_5	Output Enable	Turn on selected rows/Active Low

Implementation

This section includes implementation, but again, not the details, just the high level. For example, you can list the steps it takes to communicate over a sensor, or the steps needed to write a page of memory onto SPI Flash. You can include sub-sections for each of your component implementation.

Testing & Technical Challenges

Issues, Challenges and solutions to get past them

1. RGB LED Matrix Display driver

2. MP3 Decoder

3. Low level Audio Sound

Conclusion

We were able to successfully design the Road Max Fury game using the RGB LED Matrix and the SJ2 board. This project helped us in having a better understanding of the FreeRTOS scheduler tasks that were used to handle the various components of the game. The understanding developed in writing the display driver from the scratch proved beneficial in resolving issues since most of the available libraries are in C++ and we encountered many problems while porting and debugging in the initial testing phase. Even though there weren't many proper datasheets and reliable tutorials for the LED Matrix, some previous semester's project report on the same display helped us gain momentum in the initial stages. We also got to work on the MP3 decoder while incorporating audio for the game design. Not only did this project help us in understanding the practical possibilities with boards like SJ2 board but also instilled in us a sense of team work and accountability for individually assigned task that helped the team overall.

Project Video

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Project Source Code

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References

• FreeRTOS documentations
• Adafruit LED matrix circuit connections
• Adafruit RGB matrix panel
• WikiPage by Preetpal Kang
• Adafruit GFX library
• MP3 Decoder Datasheet