| Our midterm proj for Networked Objects was to make a networkable Pong controller so that we could play a big game of Pong as a class, over a network. The physical interface did not matter as long as your ‘controller’ could send instructions to the Pong server (in the form of left, right, connect, disconnect) over a network (the internet). So the project was really open; some groups in my class made some interesting controllers: snowboards, bottles, guns, etc, which were fun; I on the other hand, as always, made my controller simple and rational (and don’t forget beautiful). The technology part of this project was somewhat simple, so I had time to build a solid, robust, and feel-good object that will last into the future and maybe be useful for other projects.I am really proud of this one. I know this because I keep showing it to people and I can’t stop looking at it myself. Besides its good looks, the controller also feels good. I got lucky in finding a really nice spring-loaded potentiometer, from a keyboard, for the knob-thing, so manipulating the little digital Pong paddle is accurate and responsive. Actually, I got lucky all around with this project, I found the right wood dowel and the right connector (MIDI)… so the whole sha-bang came out great.The process of fabrication on the Pong Stick (my name for the controller) was also a dream. I felt so good and in-tune the couple days I was making it; working intuitively and efficiently is where I do my best work, I wish I could to that all the time. I was happy.For those of you who like the know the techie stuff, the Pong Stick works like this: Inside there is a spring-loaded potentiometer with a gray knob/wheel attached to it. Three wires come off the pot: a 5V supply, and two signal lines. Those two signal lines go down the cord (along with the 5V supply), through a MIDI connector, to my Arduino microcontroller. The microcontroller then looks at the voltages coming from the two signal lines, turns them into values, then interprets those values to see if it should send ‘l’s or ‘r’s to the Xport. (Side note: the further you push the wheel to the right, the faster the microcontroller sends ‘r’s, and visa versa) The Xport then sends the ‘l’s or ‘r’s over the internet (or any network) to the Pong server, which is running on a computer. This Pong server is what hosts all the Pong controllers in the class and displays the graphics and game (this is the black screen in the video… I did not design the gme/graphics by the by). There are also two switch connected to my microcontroller which connect and disconnect me to the Pong server. |
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