A class in Brazil was given the assignment to make a board game. [Marcelo], presumably, heard his son lamenting how lame it was going to be if the board was just cardboard with some drawings on, and came to the rescue.
Working with the class, they came up with the rules of the game. We’re not certain what those are, but it involves a regular game board, a flashing light circle with numbers, and a fusion between Operation and one of those disease transmitters commonly found at the doctor’s office. You can try to puzzle them out from the video after the break.
The brains of the board is an Arduino with an external EEPROM for all the sound effects and other data needed for this construction. Everything is laid out on a beautifully done home etched PCB. It’s too bad the other side of the board isn’t visible.
We’re sure the kids learned a lot working with [Marcelo]. It would have been nice if a traveling wizard came to some of our earlier classes in school and showed us just how much cool stuff you can do if you know electronics.
“a fusion between Operation and one of those disease transmitters commonly found at the doctor’s office”
You mean you’ve never come across a buzz wire? https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=buzz+wire&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj17v3_vYTMAhWCmBoKHbSSCt8Q_AUIBygB&biw=1366&bih=675
I think the author is referring to the children’s toy that has balls that slide around looping rails. Hence, a disease transmitter.
I’m well aware of what was being refered to as a “Disease transmitter”; I was just wondering why a buzz wire was being refered to in such a clunky way.
I know this is hard to comprehend but not everyone thinks the same way and knows the same things, even on sites ostensibly devoted to a particular set of interests.
I don’t *get* what the two transformers are for. They call them “isolation” transformers but the speakers are enclosed in the same box and so are already as “isolated” as the rest of the circuitry.
Then I thought perhaps they were impedance matching transformers but I looked at the specs of the driver chip and it can drive 4 Ohm / 8 Ohm speakers directly.
So anyway – no schematic – no BOM – no clue!
These transformers are to eliminate noises caused by ground loop problem. A transformer does this by magnetically coupling the signal across an electrically insulated barrier.
Well that is a very effective way to remove ground hum but the 2 very bulky parts that are also expensive relative to most other components.
Wouldn’t it have been just as effective to put something like a 0.56 Ohm resistor in series with the 5 Volt power to the min Amp board? Much cheaper!
I didn’t see the BOM but at least I now realize that they are between the MP3 player and Amp. I previously thought they may have been between the Amp and speakers.
There does not seem to be any loop to even cause an earth loop problem. Even a thicker earth between MP3 and Amp should have done it. If you still have problems after those two things then you need better shielding as the problem will more likely be signal induction.
Great project all the same.
Source code and more information:
https://github.com/marcelomaximiano/BoardGame
and this makes an entry on hackaday?…. we made that kind of things at school in the early 80’s witchout µprocessor of course but still.. nothing new here.. And worse.. that’s not even the children who made it but some father…
I just came from the future to say that this article was reposted on December 3, 2016