Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 11 to 16 of 16

Thread: Gametype Idea Brainstorming for RDIF

  1. #11
    Insider PBSteve's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Location
    Los Angeles
    Posts
    3,084
    Quote Originally Posted by Davros View Post
    Right now my technical issue is power. Power kills me for all my ideas. The RFID reader I have cannot be powered through the USB port on the Raspberry Pi I am using. You are supposed to use a powered USB hub. So now I am working on finding out how to power a USB hub in the woods.
    I assume that's because there's an issue sourcing power? You might look into something like this?

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/1813952...&ul_noapp=true

    AFAIK it just creates a 5V rail on the VBUS line of the USB. A USB hub is just a 5V rail, so you could use the same component to drive both the USB RFID and Arduino. Depending on what you're looking at for all of your components, you might consider just a couple AA's and an off the shelf power regulator to run both the arduino and RFID. Plus I think there are converters available that create both a 5V and 3.3V rail.

    If you can get to the board for the RFID reader you could just skip the USB, stick it all in a little screw-together printed case and you're good to go.

    At any rate, the little off the shelf pre-built regulator boards are great because they're cheap, and you can just solder to them and they work. There are a bunch available here:
    https://www.pololu.com/category/84/r...power-supplies
    Ever so many citizens of this republic think they ought to believe that the Universe is a monarchy, and therefore they are always at odds with the republic. -Alan Watts

    I work for the company building the Paragon

  2. #12
    Insider Davros's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    Halifax, Nova Scotia
    Posts
    482
    PBSteve: Thanks, helpful links. These things may be applicable to other prop projects. It looks like my RFID problems will be solved soon.

    After reading FallNAngel's comments I looked at simpler stuff for the RFID reader. In terms of difficulty I would like to stick with a Pi, but by looking into the possibility of using an Arduino for reading RFID tags I discovered a solution to my RFID power problem. You see, the root problem was that I am an idiot. Went to USB control because many of the things I worked with in the past were easier and better that way. There are RFID readers for the Arduino that also work fine the Raspberry Pi and it turns out that hooking them up is just a matter of plugging in cables in a few pins. Also some of them even have Python libraries already created. So the reasons I bought the USB RFID reader were erroneous -USB was not the only to get easy to install/easy to programme hardware. I plan on buying one of these modules and selling my USB reader. That means I just have to power the Pi, so no problem. Also, many of them work with the Raspberry Pi Zero, the cheapest thing out there.


    FallNAngel, I know that overall it is true, it is overkill. Issues of cost and ease of use cannot be ignored though. Cost is in practice zero when I use a board I have around not doing anything else and that is usually a Pi. Being able to use Python makes things so much easier. However, I sometimes think I should use an Arduino or Teensy or somesuch for a prop just to force myself to experience and learn it. It might put me in a better position to avoid overkill all the time in the future.

    I am not married to the sound idea, but I found battery powered speakers and thought it adds minimal power and brought it one more step to a wow factor.

    As for the lights, no, a tiny, single LED bulb is not enough. Just like you were worried about not hear anything over the battle going on I wanted players from far and away to know that a flag is a certain colour. Also one of my design goals was to make it look and seem like a flag. The electronic flags would be big, illuminated flags. A LED strip is the only way I found so far to get light all over the insides of my plastic flags and their plastic poles. I can forgo most of the superficial stuff on other props, but the flags have to have a bit of of a wow factor to their appearance when turned on. Originally they were to be built for a charity game so the idea was to impress the players with the new gadgets. Make them more likely to donate and come back the next year. Was unable to do it on time for that, but I still want to make a glowing flag design not just a machine that tracks who pushed a button.

    I really looked into it and studied photos showing the tree density at my favourite fields, etc. WiFi is just not enough. For non Flag projects the fact that the ESP8266 can be both a client and access point at the same intrigues me. Synapse modules are basically me going the RF communication route. I am pretty close to giving up on them though. Might try LoRa next. In fact, thanks to you suggestion I found some very cheap LoRa modules on Aliexpress.

    If I felt like it I can kill the sound, but the fancy lights are necessary and controlling them is hard, so I think for the flags it is Raspberry Pi units for now still. This conversation is making me think about doing more research again just to see if there is just as a good a way with Arduino or similar. Also, it makes me think more conciously of what I had in the back of my head for a while -the next prop should be Arduino based.


    As for my new RFID approach, I already have 6 RFID tags that I really like. They are 3cm discs with a hole in the middle. However I am having trouble finding a reader that connects to the GPIO pins and is a small unit and does the format of these discs. They are 125khz EM4102. Plenty of 125khz readers, but none that do EM4102. Looked at RDM6300 but one vendor (Canada Robotix) told me it only does EM4100. It would be a shame to rid of these so easy to mount into props tags but it looks like I will have to sell them with my reader. Focused on 125khz because of the discs I have, but if I cannot used them then I use the common RC522 modules as there are many tutorials for them and they are quite cheap. (They are 13.56Mhz.)

  3. #13
    pewpewpew vijil's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    New Zealand
    Posts
    491
    What's cell reception like where you are?
    https://www.instagram.com/vijil/
    I draw guns and spaceships and bunnies

  4. #14
    Insider Davros's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    Halifax, Nova Scotia
    Posts
    482
    I see where your question is going.

    Once I heard about a product called Electron from the company called Particle I looked into machine to machine (M2M) communication and GSM modems. Still seriously considering it. Checked cellular coverage maps for the fields I would probably use these items at and they are covered in general pretty well, but are on the edges of the coverage maps for GSM covered by products like the Electron.

    I have made cellular calls from the parking lot of the two fields most likely to use the flags. In general, living in a low populated area I would not be surprised if cell service did not extend to most fields around here but I think I am covered in most cases. Have not thought about that option in awhile, maybe I should email some field owners and ask how service is there. Sure they would, sure they made a bunch of calls from the field over the years if they have coverage.

    So to answer your question, "decent-ish". I realize that is not a word.

  5. #15
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Posts
    9
    Quote Originally Posted by Davros View Post
    I see where your question is going.

    Once I heard about a product called Electron from the company called Particle I looked into machine to machine (M2M) communication and GSM modems. Still seriously considering it. Checked cellular coverage maps for the fields I would probably use these items at and they are covered in general pretty well, but are on the edges of the coverage maps for GSM covered by products like the Electron.

    I have made cellular calls from the parking lot of the two fields most likely to use the flags. In general, living in a low populated area I would not be surprised if cell service did not extend to most fields around here but I think I am covered in most cases. Have not thought about that option in awhile, maybe I should email some field owners and ask how service is there. Sure they would, sure they made a bunch of calls from the field over the years if they have coverage.
    The problem you're going to run into with a lot of your ideas is simply power. The rPi Zero takes a 2A draw; if that's persistent, that's a *LOT* of power for a remote device; adding in cellular capabilities isn't going to help.

    Quote Originally Posted by Davros View Post
    So to answer your question, "decent-ish". I realize that is not a word.
    Clearly it is a word, you just used it.

  6. #16
    Insider Davros's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    Halifax, Nova Scotia
    Posts
    482
    There are a few reasons I did not go cellular communications from the start. As I said I am now thinking of looking into it to see where it is at, but I am not seriously going down that road yet or anything. Desperate to get long range communications working so when Vijil brought it up I just thought about its utility, the power thing slipped my mind. You are right that is allot of extra power when I am using allot anyway.

    It might get bad enough though that I have to and I guess I will have to get a second, very large capacity battery. Obviously not ideal. It is one more reason to try and get the alternatives working.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •