F20: Maddening Marbles
Contents
Maddening Marbles
Abstract
The player must maneuver a “marble” through a maze within a time limit. There will be multiple stages. Tilting the game board will move the marble through the maze. Colliding with walls will stop the marble, and touching certain objects will make the marble respawn at the beginning of the stage. There will be items the player can pick up to increase the time limit. Play ends when the timer runs out.
Objectives & Introduction
Show list of your objectives. This section includes the high level details of your project. You can write about the various sensors or peripherals you used to get your project completed.
Team Members & Responsibilities
- Scott LoCascio
- Game timer
- LED Matrix driver implementation
- Game graphics
- Case/housing for project
- Wiki editing
- Francesco Vescio
- Gameplay and concept
- Collision logic
- LED Matrix driver design
- Motion controls
- Wiki editing
Schedule
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Parts List & Cost
| Quantity | Item | cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5-Volt 20-Amp Power Supply | $20 |
| 1 | 64x32 RGB LED Matrix | $74 |
| 1 | SJTwo Microcontroller | $50 |
Design & Implementation
Hardware Design
The hardware for this project consists of an SJTwo microcontroller, an LED matrix and a power supply. The microcontroller handles the game logic, drives the display, and interfaces with its on-board accelerometer to control the game.
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.
The LED Matrix requires 13 pins to function, which are connected to 13 pins on the SJ2 board configured as GPIO output pins. All pins are active high, except for the OE pin. These pins are initialized in the led_matrix__init() function.
Either have a table/picture that describes the pins or just write a paragraph? Paragraph written here if that's what we want.
The display is enabled by the active low OE pin. When the display needs to be updated, it needs to be disabled and the data unlatched by resetting the LAT pin. Then, two rows of LEDs are selected by setting pins A, B, C, and D, which act as a 4-to-16 decoder. The R1, G1, and B1 pins control the LED in the upper selected row, and the R2, G2, and B2 control the LED the lower row (16 rows down). Then, the CLK and LAT pins are toggled on/off in order to load the data into the LED matrix and select the next column of LEDs. After all LEDs for a row are updated, LAT is set, OE is reset, and a delay is added to prepare for the next row. When all rows are finished being updated, the OE pin is set again to display the LEDs.
Software Design
The LED matrix driver, led_matrix.c, handles pin assignments, setting LEDs on and off, drawing mazes, updating the display, drawing and erasing the marble, and displaying the timer.
The game logic is contained in the marble.c file. The marble__init() function initializes the accelerometer, "zeroes" the marble so that the position you hold the LED board at is considered "flat," and sets the next stage to load to the title screen. The marble__handle_movement() method reads the accelerator reading, scales it to prevent choppy movement, calculates what the change in movement should be, and calls the marble__update_marble_position() function. This function checks the 12 spaces around for any obstacles that will limit its movement. If the ball will roll to the maze's goal, the next maze is loaded by a call to marble__draw_next_stage() and the marble repositioned to the starting position for that maze, which is determined by a call to marble__get_starting_coordinates(). The game timer is in the led_matrix.c file. The timer is displayed on the bottom of the board as a line of LEDs that slowly turn off. The LEDs start green, but when half of the time is remaining they turn yellow, and when a quarter of the time remains they turn red. When the timer runs out, the game over screen is displayed and the game resets back to the title screen.
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
Describe the challenges of your project. What advise would you give yourself or someone else if your project can be started from scratch again? Make a smooth transition to testing section and described what it took to test your project.
Include sub-sections that list out a problem and solution, such as:
<Bug/issue name>
Discuss the issue and resolution.
Conclusion
Conclude your project here. You can recap your testing and problems. You should address the "so what" part here to indicate what you ultimately learnt from this project. How has this project increased your knowledge?
Project Video
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Project Source Code
References
Acknowledgement
Any acknowledgement that you may wish to provide can be included here.
References Used
List any references used in project.
Appendix
You can list the references you used.
