There’s so much affordable dev hardware out there these days that you can do a lot without even touching a soldering iron. This is a prime example. Texas Instruments software Engineer [Jordan Wills] recently completed this wirelessly controlled marble labyrinth.
Marble mazes like this are a popular targets for electronic tinkering. We’ve seen smartphones used as the controller, and others that dispense chocolate candy. This time around [Jordan] stuck with the store-bought game to simplify the build. A coworker helped by swapping the two control knobs with servo motors. These interface with a Stellaris Launchpad that has a SensorHub booster pack (shield) and CC2533 radio transceiver module. The same hardware makes up the remote unit as well. This turns the remote into an air mouse by reading the gyroscope, accelerometer, and magnetometer from the booster pack.
He doesn’t specifically mention it in his project log, but we think the magnetometer is used to sync orientation between the base unit and the user remote. Even though the board for the base unit is mounted at 90 degrees compared to how you hold the remote, you should still be able to adjust for the readings in code, right?
Put the remote on top of the maze and a sensor on a sheet of foil stuck inside under the holes for the ball return. Let it learn to play it’s self. When it’s learnt remove the foil :D
Does anybody know how the gimbals work on this marble maze? It looks like the inner one (with the hinge on the left) can’t possibly be connected to its knob or servo, but it clearly is.
This might be what you are after:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jlu-3nJxh7s&t=30