Other Software > Developer's Corner
Dice analyzer machine project
mouser:
I clearly need help with the hardware design and manufacturer.. any engineers here willing to give it a try?
Let me summarize the basic kinds of approaches we've discussed:
* Camera on bottom looking up, with a tumbling/rolling container above. Notes: We don't know how far away the cheap raspberry pi camera will have to be to focus. We don't know how hard it will be to ignore background when facing up and looking at the sky (as opposed to looking down on a single color base). There needs to be an easy way to insert and remove dice.
* Camera above a container that spins to tumble (think a die bouncing on a roulette wheel).
* Camera above a container that is "tapped" in different places from below to bounce die around.
Any other options?
To summarize the technical goals:
* Good lighting so the camera doesn't see shadows, and has a predictable background behind dice.
* Simple to ensure reliability with tens of thousands of die rolls.
* Reasonably cheap/easy to build (i suppose this is least of our concerns).
* Easy to add/remove dice.
mouser:
I've decided to write up a little paper on the project, if for no other reason than to get it out of my system and remember the important parts so i can come back to it when i find someone willing to do the hardware -- and i guess i'll open source the code while i'm at it. I'll upload both when i get a first draft of the paper done.
I'm still interested in matching up with someone who might be interested in creating the hardware (maybe as an advanced school project?).
mouser:
So, the $10 dice rolling machine ordered from amazon arrived today, made in china, shipped from germany (i will never understand the economics of this stuff).
At first glance it seems to work pretty well at creating a random die roll.
Deozaan:
So, the $10 dice rolling machine ordered from amazon arrived today, made in china, shipped from germany (i will never understand the economics of this stuff).
-mouser (February 05, 2016, 01:46 PM)
--- End quote ---
Agreed. I can buy something from a website for $0.80 and get it shipped from China with no additional shipping costs/fees.
How is that even possible? :huh:
I suppose maybe the gizmo for $0.80 only costs $0.02 to produce (in mass quantities) so they make quite a large margin of profit to pay for shipping, etc.?
mouser:
Considering beaglebone instead of raspberry pi..
Though i do like the easy availability of camera and touchscreen for the raspberry pi, so i think probably that's still the best way to go.
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