Diamon Tesfay

Beau McAndrew

Quinton Graybeal

Final Design Report

Table of Contents:

1. List of Individual contributions to report

2. Problem Definition

3. Design Requirements

4. Conceptual Design

a. 3.1 Alternative Concepts

b. 3.2 Evaluation of Alternatives

c. 3.3 Selection of a Concept

5. Detailed Design

6. Performance Evaluation

a. 4.1 Main features and how they work

b. 4.2 Results of analysis, experiments, and models

c. 4.3 Manufacturing Details

7. Lessons Learned
List of Individual Contributions:

Collaboration in this group played a very key role. Nothing had any complications and

everything went smoothly as far as communication goes. People knew there roles and executed

them perfectly. Beau took the role of programming. He programmed most of the coding, with the

help of mentor Jeff Joseph, to ensure that the main focus of the project worked. Quinton took the

role of designing. He designed our website, designed the logo, and implemented big factors in

the design of our product. Diamon took the hardware role of the project. He built our prototype

and was in charge of making sure we had the necessary tools and supplies to move forward with

this project. As a whole, paperwork and calculations were done together. Without the

contributions from each person, this project would not have been done, without the collaboration,

this project would not have been anywhere near as fun or smooth as it is.

Problem Definition:

This group contains fun people and enjoy doing fun stuff. They love carnival games,

however, this group has all found that they can become boring after a while. The aim for this

project is to create a game that ultimately keeps players engaged and active. To do this, there was

an added twist that other games don’t usually have. Carnival games are fun, but they get

repetitive after a short period of time. To counteract this, a commentary system was added that

will incorporate funny and entertaining commentary. In hopes to revive dead arcade games, and

introduce a new addition to games in the arcade and carnival businesses. We hope we can market

this product and that carnivals or entertainment centers will be intrigued and buy into it.
Design Requirements:

For our design strategy it had to keep the standard carnival look, while trying to

incorporate our commentary. At first it didn’t matter if you could see all the wiring but as the

build process continued the realization came that it would look better if the wiring was hidden.

There was also a lot of discussion has to how the frame was going to look, Since the idea of the

wooden planks had been set into stone. It ended up being a box with a window that allows the

user to hit the characters. Towards the end of the design process, another realization had been

made that if brighter colors were used then it would catch the eye easier. So a bright blue and

bright yellow were the colors of the design. In order to keep the aesthetic look and the physical

workings of the game separate, the window was the only thing decorated. This worked out

because the window is most of what is seen in the game and it blocks out the wiring from view.

Below, a list of demands and wants had been brainstormed in the beginning in order to provide

ideas that should be incorporated in our final product:

● D-must be relatively cheap

● D-must be easily portable
● D-must be engaging
● D-must be playable by most people
● W-to be successful
● D-must be automatically triggered
● D-must be logical
● D-must be clear and loud
● D-must correspond with the game
● W-to work 100% of the time
● W-hopefully be able to branch off
● D-must be a single unit
● D-must have some sort of transmitter
● D-must have a computer to record sounds
● W-to be as small as possible
● W-cheap
 ● W-effective
● W-last long
● D-must be able to run from just a wall outlet
● W-to be completed before we graduate
● W-to manage it correctly
● D-must be somewhat cheap
● W-funding
● D-must be user friendly
● D-hardwaresetup shouldn’t require crazy tools
● W-software to be downloadable
● D- Must adhere to the Standard for Amusement and Gaming Machines
● D-Cannot be harmful to a person’s health ​in any way possible ​(don’t wanna get sued)
● D- Must be somewhat portable
● W-shouldn’t be too harmful to the environment (one of our little machines won’t be the
difference between global warming or no global warming)

Conceptual Design:
These designs all feature different aspects that we considered adding to our project. The top left
sketch was a 3d image made on Autodesk 360. This sketch had three characters and short, long
sides. The top right design has 4 characters, with faces on them. It has external speakers on the
outside and the frame is made out of fresh mahogany, and solar panels powering it, as well as a
computer. The bottom left sketch has a person providing the commentary. It has built in speakers
and three characters on poles. It is powered by a wall outlet. The bottom right sketch features a
frame made out of metal and built in speakers. It is powered by a computer and has three large
characters.

Evaluation Criteria:
1. Cost efficient ​.25
2. Easy to Manufacture ​.20
3. Availability of supplies ​.20
4. Lightweight ​.05
5. Works smoothly/engaging ​.20
6. Aesthetics ​.10
Concepts/Functions Design Concept 1 Design Concept 2 Design Concept 3

Switch with Individual Pedestals Attached on One Wood Characters on

Characters Axle ✔ individual axles

Programming/Power Outlets ✔ Generator Solar Power

Source

Speakers Concert Speakers Built into frame Speakers placed

outside frame ✔

Frame Wood ✔ Metal Wood frame (piece

by piece)

Commentary Live Commentary Get SFX from the Allow People to

Internet ✔ create their own

Decision Matrix​:
Evaluatio Weight Concept 1 Wt x Concept 2 Wt x Concept 3 Wt x
n Criteria 1 Val​1 2 Val​2 3 Val​3
Val​1 Val​2 Val​3

Cost .25 7 1.75 5 1.25 4 1

Efficient

Easy .20 9 1.80 7 1.4 5 1

 Build

Availabil .20 6 1.20 7 1.4 4 .8

ity of
supplies

Light .05 4 .20 9 .45 5 .25

Engaging .20 7 1.4 8 1.6 7 1.4

Aesthetic .10 9 .9 6 .6 5 .50

s

Total =1.0 7.25 6.7 4.95

Conclusion:
Building this matrix wasn’t very complex. It took a mixture of basic knowledge of this
product and its possibilities and simple math. However it was pretty effective in aiding the
decision which concept to pick. Each of the aforementioned concepts had some positives to it,
but also some negatives. So to counteract that, picking and choosing different aspects of each
concept to create a final design. The aspects chosen are indicated by the check marks above.
Believing that the combination of these different aspects give the most plausible concept to build
given resources and background knowledge.

Chosen Concept/ Winning Concept:

Concepts/Functions

Switch with Characters Attached on One Axle

Programming/Power Source Outlets

Speakers Speakers placed outside frame

Frame Wood

Commentary Get SFX from the Internet

Below would be our clear chosen concept put into its own decision matrix. .
Evaluation Criteria Weight Chosen Concept C Wt x Val​4
Val​4

Cost Efficient .25 9 1.75

 Easy Build .20 10 2

Availability of .20 9 1.75

supplies

Light .05 4 .20

Engaging .20 8 1.6

Aesthetics .10 9 .9

Total =1.0 8.2

Detailed Design​: section describes the design that appeared at the final performance evaluation.
New detailed drawings have to be prepared. Place these new drawings in Section 4.1 of Table
28.1, along with text describing the operation and main features of the final design. Describe the
overall design first, and then zero in on the details of special features. Include digital
photographs of your machine. To create Section 4.2, retrieve the results presented at the oral
design defense and add text. Section 4.3 is primarily a summary of the joining methods used.
The final design was created after hours of discussion and argument. The ability to communicate
allowed for good discussion and good decision making. The project began with the group
imagining the game as a bowling game that can detect when the characters are hit and make
commentary based on what happened. This idea transformed into a game in which a ball is
thrown at 4 targets and the targets fall over when the ball hits it. This concept was accepted for a
long time. However, when finalizing our design, the group decided that three characters should
be used and three balls were thrown. In order to win, one has to knock down all three characters
with the three throws.
The frame is ¾ inch medium density fiberboard. The side wall is 13 inches in length and
4 ½ inches tall. The back wall is 26 ½ inches wide and 15 inches tall. The window is 26 ½ inches
wide and 18 inches tall. The opening of the window is 22 ½ inches wide and 8 ½ inches tall. The
characters as seen from the perspective of the players 3 inches wide and 4 ½ inches tall. They are
wood boards that are sitting on 6 inch PVC pipe which sits on the axle. This creates a surface
area of 13 ½ inches per target and 40 ½ inches total. The back wall and window are on hinges
and can close when the game needs to be transported. They are held up by 13 inch dowels when
the game is being played. The axle is a 24 inch wooden dowel on which the PVC pipe can rotate
when the characters are hit. The characters when knocked over fall onto 2 ½ inch tall blocks to
minimize impact.
On these blocks is a piece of copper, which forms a circuit with another piece of copper
that is on the characters. Both of these copper pieces are hot glued on. The copper is soldered
with 18 gauge speaker wire that connects to the breadboard. When the two copper pieces from
connect, they close the circuit and create a circle of power from the breadboard. These copper
pieces serve as switches. A piezo transducer is wired from the breadboard and detects
movements in the frame. The movement in the frame allows the programming to detect that a
ball has been thrown. The piezo transducer is on the dowel slot in the back window to get
optimal vibration readings. The wiring all connects through the breadboard. The breadboard has
a 50k resistor in order to get optimal readings from the piezo as well as 10k resistors for the
character circuit wiring. A plastic shield protects all the wiring from the ball hitting it.
The programming is run through two different programs. The first program is Arduino.
The Arduino Uno board connects to the breadboard and through the programming reads whether
the circuits are open or closed. The Arduino programming communicates with the Processing
program and plays sounds due to the .minim library that was downloaded. It reacts to what
Arduino reads and triggers the sound. The sounds were downloaded from online as .wav files. It
is in a data folder under the Processing program.
Performance Evaluation:
 The project turned out amazing! Fifteen minutes prior to the presentation night, there

were multiple errors in the programming and the group was really stressed out. However, we

were able to fix the program and the game was amazing. The game worked about 95% of the

time and it was awesome. Only two problems arose. The first was that the piezo transducers

would occasionally pick up loud sound and detect it as a ball thrown. This was a problem when

the gym was loud, but the error only occurs once or twice. Another error that occured was when

two targets were knocked over at once. This was unexpected and there was no programming that

accounted for this so the game froze. Besides these two errors, the game worked really well and

was a huge hit.

Main features and how they work

The main feature of the game is the switch with the characters. There is copper on the character

and on the block on which the character falls on. When these two coppers touch, they close the

circuit created by the wiring. The closed circuit is detected by Arduino and is coded as a hit

character on Processing. The piezo transducer detects when a ball is thrown and then the game

evaluates whether or not a character has been knocked over.

Results of analysis, experiments, and models

The experiments benefitted the design process greatly. The experiment allowed the group to

realize that the characters should sit at 25 degrees. Also, it helped the group realized that wiffle

balls should be used as the thrown ball. These realizations allowed our game to run smoothly and

efficiently.

Manufacturing Details
The manufacturing took 12 hours of work outside of school. Multiple tools were used to

manufacture such as: a table saw, drill, screw driver, clamps, and wood glue.

Lessons Learned:

Over the course of this project a couple lessons were learned. Although most of the

design mistakes and mechanical problems were easily solved and didn’t really require much to

learn, there were several lessons we learned in the final stages. For example one problem was

detecting miss thrown ball. In order to solve this a piezo sensor was emplaced. It detects impact

of ball, indicating thrown ball. If no characters are knocked over, code assumes that a missed

throw has occurred Another problem was that the game too simple, not enjoyable enough

To counteract that, players have to bounce the ball, rather than throw it on a direct line in order

to make it funner. In addition another problem we ran into was hacky sacks don’t bounce very

well. So wiffleball were used and that was probably one of the best choices. And lastly the ball

can get stuck between the two copper switch, so placed was a sloped landing platform so that the
ball will roll out of the way. All though these may seem like not big problems it seems as though

these little projects helped solved a bigger one. Most of these problems occurred during the final

stages, feeling as if there is no solution. The bigger lesson learned was just to calm down and

approach everything the same. Knowing that you have partners to help, makes everything easier

and allows perseverance and push through problems.