Saw a cool game a while ago, and found some old code. There was no schematic, so I had to reverse engineer it using the Arduino code. This one uses a Micro Pro.
Build a working version, now I can use this as base to create other games. But first i’m going to rebuild it so it can use Wifi and uses a Lipo Battery. Making it usable without wires.
Rotary – set angle/speed (Press resets)
Blue – toggle angle or speed ( was rotary press )
Green – select digit to change
Red – Fire
Led – not completely working yet, shows color of player Wil be changed to addressable leds with more functions (Player color, energy warning and more)
Last week I bought an old Bornhack Badge. I thought it needed a display.
Using a SSD1306 display, and Circuitpython I made this.
( Wooded thingy contains an RFID chip ( Part of my player ))
Library and files needed:
font5x8.bin in root of filesystem ( just google for this file )
copy of adafruit_framebuf.mpy in /lib
copy of adafruit_ssd1306.mpy in /lib
Code: (midway some pixel examples, just uncomment)
import board
from time import sleep
import busio
from PN7150 import PN7150
import adafruit_ssd1306
import math
import adafruit_framebuf
if True:
# Fast 400KHz I2C
i2c = busio.I2C(board.SCL, board.SDA, frequency = 400000)
else:
# Regular 100kHz I2C
i2c = board.I2C()
WIDTH = 32
HEIGHT = 8
buffer = bytearray(round(WIDTH * math.ceil(HEIGHT / 8)))
fb = adafruit_framebuf.FrameBuffer(
buffer, WIDTH, HEIGHT, buf_format=adafruit_framebuf.MVLSB
)
nfc = PN7150(i2c, board.IRQ, board.VEN)
display = adafruit_ssd1306.SSD1306_I2C(128, 32, i2c,addr=0x3c)
assert nfc.connect()
print("Connected.")
assert nfc.modeRW()
print("Switched to read/write mode.")
display.fill(0)
display.show()
#display.fill(0)
#display.text('Hello', 0, 0, 1 )
#display.text('World', 0, 10, 1)
#display.show()
# Set a pixel in the origin 0,0 position.
#display.pixel(0, 0, 1)
# Set a pixel in the middle 64, 16 position.
#display.pixel(64, 16, 1)
# Set a pixel in the opposite 127, 31 position.
#display.pixel(127, 31, 1)
#display.show()
while True:
display.fill(0)
display.text('Waiting for card', 0, 0, 1 )
display.show()
assert nfc.startDiscoveryRW()
print("Waiting for card..")
card = nfc.waitForCard()
assert nfc.stopDiscovery()
print("ID: {}".format(card.nfcid1()))
id = card.nfcid1()
display.text(id, 0, 10, 1 )
display.show()
sleep(0.5)
Not sure about display i2c address? Use below code
import time
import board
import busio
# List of potential I2C busses
ALL_I2C = ("board.I2C()",)
# Determine which busses are valid
found_i2c = []
for name in ALL_I2C:
try:
print("Checking {}...".format(name), end="")
bus = eval(name)
bus.unlock()
found_i2c.append((name, bus))
print("ADDED.")
except Exception as e:
print("SKIPPED:", e)
# Scan valid busses
if len(found_i2c):
print("-" * 40)
print("I2C SCAN")
print("-" * 40)
while True:
for bus_info in found_i2c:
name = bus_info[0]
bus = bus_info[1]
while not bus.try_lock():
pass
print(
name,
"addresses found:",
[hex(device_address) for device_address in bus.scan()],
)
bus.unlock()
time.sleep(2)
else:
print("No valid I2C bus found.")
While attending Bornhack 2024 in Danmark, I came up with the below fun ideas.
Using Python and OpenCV, I made some funny webcam hacks.
Note: My laptop webcam is very bad, a better webcam should give you a more stable result.
First, a virtual workspace flipper. Just using my head movement to flip through my virtual desktops. (Turning left and right)
Next, an image viewer. Using your head movement up, down, left and right to control the image. Note : this is not the same movement as above. This won’t use rotation of your head!
Although there are bad hackers (black hat), the term hacker is being used to describe people who are using technology alternative or even hack food and drinks. Create something new or improve. Mostly using computers, but think of it in a broad way. Programming, 3D designing or printing. Learning new things.
We (me and my girlfriend) went with Bigred (and his girlfriend) and Tyrone. Both good old friends.
With Bigred I made a mini C64 Badge in the last few months. With Tyrone I started coding 6502 Machine Language again. (Planning to release a demo at X2025)
Old badges I boughtExplaining my compile pipeline to TyroneSoldering bus manipulatorCampsite
Stuff I did there:
Programming demo parts (Sprite multiplexing, Music Sync)
Made some demo graphics
Programmed some shaders
Circuit Python hacking on the Badges, no new one this year 🙁
Soldering my Bus Manipulator
Python to generate SIN tables (acme output) !byte $CA,$FE,$BA,$BE
Coding 101 with Tyrone (Acme pipeline, Git and MircoPython on his MCH badge)
Drank too much
Slept too short
Removing gallons of rain water from Tyrone’s tent.
Mini shader in GLSL language
After a week of hacking, we went for a short holiday in Denmark.
Visiting Viking Museums, Old cosy towns, WWII bunkers, the Beach and more. Driving back to the Netherlands, we visited the only surviving VII-C U-boat in the world. (Same as I 3D printed for the Uboot game)
The lone surviving example, U-995, is on display at the Laboe Naval Memorial located in Laboe, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
I’ve connected the rotary encoder directly to the zero. Although many websites state that you need pull-up resistors, there is no need. Just use the internal pull-up resistors in the Pi.
Example code
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM) # Use BCM mode
GPIO.setup(self.24, GPIO.IN, pull_up_down=GPIO.PUD_UP)
GPIO.setup(self.25, GPIO.IN, pull_up_down=GPIO.PUD_UP)
NOTE: Between 24 and 25 is a GND connection
Besides USB HID below XT, C64 and Amiga connectors will be emulated
Testing the first keyboard. It is the 8085-SDK hex matrix keyboard.
It is running on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2, without X server. So the images are displayed using the framebuffer. Also the touch data is read using evdev and the raw devices.
Todo:
HID part
Add a rotary button for the selection of the different Keyboard Layouts
Improvement keyboard matrix calculation to find out which key is being pressed.
Code to control AT/PS2 computers directly using GPIO pins
Add a controller to use Raw controlling of matrix pins ( 6502 C64 hardware for example )
import select
from math import floor
import sys
slot = 0
keysname=[["F","E","D","C","vect-int","reset"],
["B","A","9","8","GO","Single-Step"],
["7","6","5","4","Exam-reg","Subst-mem"],
["3","2","1","0","Exec","Next"],
]
keysnames=[["F","E","D","C","vect-int","reset"],
["B","A","L","H","GO","Single-Step"],
["PCL","PCH","SPL","SPH","Exam-reg","Subst-mem"],
["3","2","1","0",".",","],
]
for path in evdev.list_devices():
device = evdev.InputDevice(path)
if evdev.ecodes.EV_ABS in device.capabilities():
break
else:
sys.stderr.write('Failed to find the touchscreen.\n')
sys.exit(1)
while True:
r, w, x = select.select([device.fd], [], [])
id_ = -1
x = y = 0
for event in device.read():
if event.code == event.value == 0:
if id_ != -1:
yy = floor(( x - 600 ) / 700)
xx = floor(( y - 1377 ) / 226)
if yy < 4 and yy >=0 and xx < 6 and xx >= 00:
if slot == 1:
print(keysnames[yy][xx])
else:
print(keysname[yy][xx])
elif event.code == ABS_MT_TRACKING_ID:
id_ = event.value
elif event.code == ABS_MT_SLOT:
slot = event.value
elif event.code == ABS_MT_POSITION_X:
x = event.value
elif event.code == ABS_MT_POSITION_Y:
y = event.value
I came up with a simple matrix calculation
Pressing the 4 corner keys gave me x and y. I took averages for min and max reading. I don’t need pixel-perfect reading, and I noticed values between 960 and 3080 vertically. We want 960 – 3080 into 4 blocks, but the middle should start @ 960.
So 3080/3 = about 700 700 / 2 = 350 block 1 starts 350 sooner than 960 is ~ 600 Upper key y coords = 600-> + 700 Next is 1300 -> + 700 converting to whole numbers using floor gives me: floor(( y – 600 ) / 700) NOTE: My x and y are rotated
Example using coordinates 1600, 1600 floor(( 1600 – 600 ) / 700) = floor(1,4…) = 1st row (from row 0,1,2,3)
"If something is worth doing, it's worth overdoing."
