Plant / City circuit

This is an updated version of the plant circuit.
The DS2408 data sheet recommend 470 Ohm instead of 220 Ohm in series with the LED Does it matter? Also the plug isn't exactly the one we use. The order on the 3.5 mm plug should be GND - OW - VCC counting from the plastic on the male plug to the tip of it.

And here is an idea of how to do the physical layout:

Software control

Today we have running lights controlled from a Java program and it works to connect and disconnect both the DS2408 I/O device and the USB-adapter.

I found some documentation about storing device IDs in a XML-file along with classification and we'll probably use this since it's nice to keep that data out of the code. That way it's easy to keep track of what DS2408 is supposed to represent a factory, what is supposed to be a nuclear power plant and so on...

Next on the todo-list is to dwelve further into how to control the bits on the DS2408. Now the code alternates the state but I want to set the state instead. Also have to figure out how to read the input bit connected to the wire that can be connected to the main power grid (+5).

It all seems quite doable right now!

Iteration III, Prototyping report

Here is our report for iteration III.

Interesting report

This paper by Nicolas Villar talks about a lot of things, but I was fascinated by the use of a "surface network" for the Dallas 1-wire we use, look especially at pdf page 81-84 (page number 63-66). It's a soft surface that you connect things to by driving "spikes" into the self healing rubbery material.

I don't think we can use this because of time constraints and the fact that we need three wires, not just two as they use, but it would have let us get rid of the 32 slot restriction and would look really cool!

New architecture

We now sucessfully have tried the Dallas 1-wire bus via a USB-adapter (ds9490R). The bus is hotpluggable so one can add and remove components and detect what is connected. Each component has a unique ID-number so everything can be identified. We will use this system to detect what power plants and factories that are connected.

One cannot detect where something is connected though, but we will solve that by dividing the bus into several spokes that can be connected and disconnected by means of a DS2408 that is a 8 port I/O port that drives 6 reed relays (will post a schematic for that later, but the basics is described here - see the switched network section). This way one can loop through the spokes and detect what is connected to each of them.

A new schematic for the powerplants and factories is displayed here. The IC DS2408 drives 5 LEDs and reads if the GRID-pin is connected to Vcc - in the game this is equivalent to connecting the power plant/factory to the main power grid, thereby getting or using power.
(The cities are actually wired the same way, they just don't have a plug, they are hard wired.)

Prototype v 0.1 and usability test no1

We had our first usability test on 18th , 19th March with one kid and three participants in our group. During usability test we needed to test our first version of tangible Swedish map and game rules which is base on scenario.

All plants and factories were made with different shapes, colour, given cost value and producing/costing different amount of energy. We had to change numbers and values several time to figure out what is the best value. Only cities are fixed on map and there are lots of socket on the map where user can build power plants, and factories.

During usability test each participant try to reach to the goal that given by scenario.First usability test was with a kid and he enjoy the physical layer of the map and game. Only one participant reach to the given goal and others lose the game because lack of money.

Plants and its production

each nuclear plant... produces

http://www.nea.fr/html/general/profiles/sweden.html