You are tasked with creating a hardware device to play Tetris in the browser. We have provided some pre-programmed boards that handle most of the electronics and coding, but you will need to build the physical interface.
You must choose a target user and scenario for whom you're making your device.
- Assemble the electronics and see how they work with Tetris. Try playing it on a computer and make sure you get the button presses you expect, but don't feel the need to edit the code at this point. See the table in the Operation section for what the buttons are supposed to do.
- You may find that your computer behaves funny when you plug the device in. The device is trying to press the down arrow regularly, but you can turn that off by either turning the potentiometer all the way down or by disconnecting the potentiometer.
- Come up with a target user and scenario for whom you're making your device. Spend about 10 minutes coming up with this.
- Build the enclosure using the tools in the Prototyping Lab. Cardboard and hot glue is perfectly fine, but feel free to stretch a little and try using the lasers or any other tool in the main area. Making a basic lasercut enclosure only takes about 20 minutes, even with no experience.
- Test your prototype, in other words, play Tetris.
- Make your prototype better based on your test. Consider trying out one of the challenges in the Extra Credit section.
- Raspberry Pi Pico main board (yours will have less green blocks)
- Micro USB cable (not pictured)
- Switches
- Potentiometer
- Anything you can find in the Prototyping Lab
The button wires go into the green terminal blocks with two holes. It does not matter which end goes into which hole since these buttons are not polarized. You will need to depress the square on the top of the green terminal block to let the wire slip in.
The potentiometer wires go into the green terminal blocks with three holes. The black wire needs to go into the center hole, but the other two can be placed in either side hole (but not the same one!).
| Pin | Keystroke |
|---|---|
| GP2 | Left Button |
| GP3 | Right Button |
| GP4 | Up Button (rotate the piece) |
| GP5 | Spacebar (drop the piece)* |
*The code loaded on the device does not implement the spacebar button. For information on editing the code, click here. To achieve high scores, you'll need that functionality.
The potentiometer (knob) controls how fast bricks fall by "feathering" the down button. If the potentiometer is not wired, this feature will be deactivated.
- Fabrication
- Lasercut and heat bend a controller.
- 3D print your controller. (very hard, but doable with the faster printers)
- Electronics
- Find a different button to use with the board in the Prototyping Lab.
- Use something other than a real button as a button.
- Coding
- Implement the spacebar code.
- Implement a series of commands instead of just one button press. For example, pressing the button connected to GP4 could send several rotation commands instead of one.
- Edit the potentiometer code to have the blocks fall faster or slower.