Camp badge proposal

[Charles Yarnold]

Hello all,

I know there has been some talk into what could be done about the camp badge, but I wanted to give my fresh proposal of what it could be rather than alter other specs and designs.

1. While looking at other camp badges, it seems that most of them end up being modified into being used for other purposes. Or just left in a draw once the event is over.
2. Arduino - say what you like about them, but they are a great way to get people introduced to physical computing
3. Lasertag, how can you not love that.

So my idea is this:

A badge that can also be used "out of the box" as an arduino, that has the same header socket layout that would mean that the badge would be useful long after the camp was over. This would keep the badge compatible with arduino shields out in the wild!

To make this more than just a thing that has potential, how about including on the badge (either as part of the main pcb, or as a shield) the components you need to turn emf into a massive game of laserquest! We already have people at the London Hackspace working on open lasertag, it would be simple to make a version of this that would work for the camp.

So in short, its an arduino, that lets you play lasertag during the event, and means every attendee gets to take home a arduino...

Thoughts?

Sol

[SamLR]

If it's possible to cover the cost HELL yes

(still want to create insane zepplin lasertag gun ship)

S

[Jannette]

Hello,

would the http://r0ket.badge.events.ccc.de/ a starting point for the badge?

x Jane

[Elmar mc.fly Lecher]

Am 21.05.2012 10:14, schrieb Jannette:
> Hello,
> would the http://r0ket.badge.events.ccc.de/ a starting point for the badge?

If you want to use the rocket or get teh nads on the plans i can contact
you with lilafish. thats the girl doing those rockets.

Pre-organisation time is around 3 month usually....


mc.fly ...

[Charles Yarnold]

Sure, but it breaks the main arguments of my proposal.

[Jasper Wallace]

We know someone who's built boards with the LPC1343 before and i pointed
him at the r0ket stuff, i don't know where hes got to tho, Yuan? Hello?

--
[http://pointless.net/] [0x2ECA0975]

[Charles Yarnold]

From my point of view the LPC1343 is a bad choice as it not so universally supported compared to arduino, its much more likely to "rot in a draw" after emf than giving someone an arduino to use.

[Matt Lloyd]

I too much prefer the adea of an ATmega328 based board, 

We could also look at the ATmega32u4, this is the chip thats going to be used on the new Arduino Leonardo boards

so will be compatible with the IDE when they release the update and has on board USB for more interesting hacks

'RepRap' Matt

[Mike Pountney]

Hey Sol,

If you're stuck for time, the BuildBrighton zombie badge isn't that far away from what you describe for a lasertag system: IR sending, receiving, RGB LED. It's not an Arduino, but is based on an ATtiny45. We've also used it for an MCU programming workshop with a USBtiny programmer (which can be made for a couple of quid - http://hackaday.com/2010/12/14/make-your-own-minimalist-avr-isp/).

It wouldn't take much to tweak the game code to be more lasertag, rather than zombie curse spreading - and one of the nice elements already written is the 'who has seen who' download code, which can be morphed into a scoring system.

The badge kits are about £3 in parts, and we've still got a bunch (200ish iirc) of the mk1 boards kicking about.

Regardless, the game code is up on our github - it should be portable to Arduino code fairly easily:

https://github.com/buildbrighton/buildbrighton-ir-badge

HTH,

Mike

[Charles Yarnold]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the link, will check them out!

We have had open lasertag on the back burner for a while at the london hackspace, we arn't too far off of usable kit!

[Jannette]

Arduinos and r0ckets are products that have been developed out of the need to play with technology. Both running on license that makes them to a non-gated community (1).

I guess it is up to the people that make, what to do with the badges.

Arduino branding is so great that they even received a lot of cheaper copycats(2). Where the r0ket followes up in its form very much a design done by Antenne for the 22C3 (3)(maybe because the space ships represents an attraktive idea).

Both could serve as a platform and being used for other purposes including catching dust in a cupboard.

I would make the decision which technology to pick depending on availability (hello Raspberry Pi) and the effort of the community that is involded in developing the platform further.

x Jane

1. Arduino: Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license

http://arduino.cc/en/Main/FAQ

r0ket

http://r0ket.badge.events.ccc.de/software?rev=1311195483

it has roots in the OpenBeacon projects, which has a firmware sources and hardware schematics that are available under GPL license

Ordering one source per product (I am sure than what I list below):

http://www.pollin.de/shop/dt/ODE4OTgxOTk-/Bausaetze_Module/Bausaetze/Microcontroller_Experimentierplatine_r0ket.html

UK: 39.90 € + 10.50€ UK delivery price per single unit

(2) Freeduino board (an Arduino Duemilanove-compatible board) 

http://www.nuelectronics.com/estore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=14

(Antenne Springborn) http://antenne.springborn.net/

[Benjamin Blundell]

I had thought of badges a while ago and my conclusion is +1 to Charles. I can easily see this not being done if we start thinking about CCC badges and all the rest; I've seen it happen on soooo many hackspace projects. Ambitious is one thing, but actually completing a badge is the most important thing in this case. This is something that goes against the general attitude of the space (from what I've seen) but I think with the laser tag almost done, this extra push will see two projects finished and that way, we'll have something cool that everyone can share in. I have seen and played with the rocket bades and tbh, they aint as noob friendly as an arduino. If you need me to help solder or laser cut cases Charles, do let me know and I'll be right there.

B

[Benjamin Blundell]

My only concern Charles would be the cost. How low can we get it down?

B

[Yuan]

Regarding the LPC1343 stuff, Charles has contacted me about my plans for the badge; at the time I proposed it, seemed to be objection to using the LPC1343.  I had been ready to go ahead and design something and approach ARM and NXP for sponsorship, however there seemed to be no cohesive action on the sponsorship front, and people didn't want me to contact anyone for sponsorship money until there was an Official sponsorship document.  I meet with NXP's application engineers and community reps last week during an event in which a team I was part of was sponsored by them, and that would have been a perfect opportunity to discuss sponsorship.  I think these companies would be interested in sponsoring a badge, they were pretty happy to know that we weren't using any microcontrollers from their competitors, and sponsorship would really help towards the budget.

I did design and sell Forebrain, a low-cost LPC1343 board: http://www.universalair.co.uk/control/forebrain which does have its own noob-friendly libraries.  The schematics are available and the libraries are BSD, a good starting point for an LPC1343 board since it's designed to be minimalist, and if people wanted it, at the moment there is no specific license attached to the hardware, if people want I can slap an OSH label on it as long as nobody minds the somewhat lack of documentation.

In any case, there are good arguments for and against LPC1343.  I am leaving that decision down to the group, and if you do choose the LPC1343, I would be pleased to be able to help with the design, and if desired, I can make use of some of the resources and contacts of my company for fabrication and assembly.