RonM9

You're welcome. Happy to hear that you plan to build it. Looking forward a picture and tails of your experience.

Thank you very much for the acknowledgement. This did take me months to devise, develop and refine; and now I look forward to others making, using and enjoying it.

I am glad to have been of help. Thanks for the photo.

Great discovery. I would not have expected so much leak current thru a 3.6v Zener when only pulled 'up' to a ~3.1v supply. I can't verify it now, but It appears that I cut at the connection between R3 and the '5v' line then put a 0.7v drop diode between them. This then eliminated the leakage, with 3v battery use, thru the 3.6v Zener (that you noted during sleeping) and still provides a logical high level at PB3 when needed. Note: my battery+ is connected to the '5V' pad (& the USB-5vRegulator supply is cut).As wired my unit does not need any jumper to program it. I simply add in the coin battery when the Arduino IDE is ready to connect for downloading.I'll update the document to clarify, sometime soon.

Thank you for your feedback.Regarding the use of the mini-LED-Game-Platform, I do feel that physical interaction is key to learning.I hope you get a chance to put one together, and see how fun to work & play with they can be.I do enjoy mine. Ron

You're welcome. Thanks for sharing the picture.Let us know what kind of results you end up getting.

You are right. Thank you.

Thank you for your contribution to the maker community.I have made up some jumpers like this. They can be very handy and helpful.I see that you have completed the "Electronics Class". That's super.If you want to create even better soldering joints, you can by improving your soldering knowledge and skills. May I recommend that you check out these:Steps 3&4 of https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-solder/and steps 3-5 of https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Solder-Basic-Soldering-Guide/I hope you'll find these helpful.Best to you and all your efforts, Ron

Thank you very much. I did try hard.

I think, that with a DC motor and no intervening electronics, you can reverse the two batteries in one of the packs and the connected wheel will turn in the reverse direction. So this can be done, without any rewiring, to get the wheels to turn the same way, reverse both of them or have them going in opposite directions to see how it then behaves.

Cool ! Looking forward to hearing about it. (I expect it will take a fair amount of time to acquire the components)

Hello,Please review this Instructable for a "Featured" status:https://www.instructables.com/id/Mini-STEM-LED-Gam...I have reviewed the "Featured" guidelines and have updated and improved my instructable accordingly.Best to you & yours, Ron (RonM9)

Hi Saadland. Sorry for the late response. I have been on vacation.Thick wires is perfectly fine, so long as you can solder it where intended without making an unintended short to adjacent traces.I think the solid 24awg would be easiest to use.Stranded wire (made of several thin wires) is ok to use; but make sure it is twisted tight, else its effective length may be other than as measured. Soldering the thin wires together (tinning the wire) is recommended.

Well, I have finally managed it. . .In support of Kids (& other novice) creating an LED game device and getting to know how to program games for it, I just published this Intructable:https://www.instructables.com/id/STEM-Game-Platfor...Once kids can program this simpler device they should not have too much problems programming up games for the devices that you built.

In support of Kids (& other novice) creating an LED game device and getting to know how to program games for it, I just published this Intructable:https://www.instructables.com/id/STEM-Game-Platfor...

By the way, I would be surprised if that PCB antenna module, you link to, actually gives near 2.5 db gain.

I think buying any commercial 2.4GHz antenna which you can connect to (you may have to solder cables together) which has sufficient gain (dbs) for you might be the best way to go. There are may to choose from on eBay.eg: https://www.ebay.com/itm/123714993592You of course could simply try replacing the PCB on the unit found in your link with two wires (~30mm each) soldered on the coax's shield and center conductor, at right angles. But this, at best, ought to give you 2.5 db of gain.

I don't think I can answer your questions very well. I do not have a schematic of the nRF24L01+ module.I suggest you acquire a nRF24L01 module for examination, as well as search for a schematic online.I believe the type of antenna on the PCB is a variant of an Inverted-F antenna.

Hi Po, The dipole antenna consists of two wires. One element (wire) is connected to a capacitor (which in turn connects to an IC). This is where the original onboard printed trace antenna was connected. The other wire element is soldered to the ground plane on the opposite side of the PCB.The old antenna trace is disconnected by way of a trace cut, along with a cut disconnecting a trace which ends up going through a feed hole to the ground plane on the back side. Review the text of the section "Step 2: Modifying the Radio Module" and photos in this section, especially the first & second one.

I take it that's your ATtiny programmer on the left and game console on the right.Is that a 3D printed base for your game console I see ?

Matters concerning "LadderGames4" are taken up in the text and comments of https://www.instructables.com/id/4-Button-Games-Us...

I am assuming that LadderGames4 fails due to lack of space for an ATtiny85, Please see Step 3: Game Play.Lemans is large so you'd have to replace all 4 games with it alone. The code space of the ATtiny could probably handle a sketch with the remaining 3 games you mentioned. I would first checkout the operation of these games using "Menu_16Games.ino" running on an Arduino MCU which supports 32K bytes of program space. Then strip that sketch down to compile and run the games of interest on an ATtiny85, or cut the game(s) out and host them in "LadderGames4.ino" where you may need to resolve some dependencies. Looking forward to hearing of your success. Best to you and your efforts, Ron

Well, that puts a smile on my face :~} Thanks.I noticed that to use a separate MCU dev board you connect jumpers to the 8 pin socket. That's fine, but I realized I might not have sufficiently pointed out that I had separate header pins for that purpose (see updated photo in step#1).Either way has its issues, awkward use of a chip socket or adding difficulty wiring & soldering in a small area of socket pins.Have you made and used external hand-held plunger buttons? They seem to add to the excitement. Are you aware of my latest project which utilizes this hardware? See the 'April 2018' update at the end of the instructable.

The good news is you didn't break it, as it still works, be it poorly.Focused Visual Inspection is your Best tool. First simply look at every detail of the board very close up (with magnification and good lighting) to see what you see. Have no expectations.You may find something unexpected. Perhaps there is a small clipping of a wire strand or micro solder splatter. If nothing is discovered, further inspect the two cuts (refer to first image in step 2) making sure they are complete, have nothing in them and that soldering has not bridged them. At the mounting point of the front antenna element verify that the solder didn't make a short to adjacent points or across the surface mounted component there (a capacitor). Make sure that capacitor didn't get unsoldered from the board on either sid…

The good news is you didn't break it, as it still works, be it poorly.Focused Visual Inspection is your Best tool. First simply look at every detail of the board very close up (with magnification and good lighting) to see what you see. Have no expectations.You may find something unexpected. Perhaps there is a small clipping of a wire strand or micro solder splatter. If nothing is discovered, further inspect the two cuts (refer to first image in step 2) making sure they are complete, have nothing in them and that soldering has not bridged them. At the mounting point of the front antenna element verify that the solder didn't make a short to adjacent points or across the surface mounted component there (a capacitor). Make sure that capacitor didn't get unsoldered from the board on either side. Check that your solder joints aren't "cold" ones, else there will be added resistance which will be bad for proper impedance matching. Let me know what you find.

Hi, I am happy to hear that you have done this project.This is apparently not an uncommon problem. For help with this, please see my post of 2016-01-18 below.Looking forward to hearing of your further success; Best RonPS: You may find that you're interested in checking out my other projects.

I would expect it to work, given noneeded traces are cut. But impedance matching of the load to thetransmitter output may be off enough to significantly loseperformance; due to the change in the transmission lead wires (thosetwo short parallel wire sections you have eliminated). To optimizelead-in dimensions for high frequency transmission is a challengerequiring sophisticated setup and instruments. Often the best we cando is minimize heat production while maximizing transmitted signalstrength through trial and error. If you are not getting added heatbetween the antenna and the drive circuitry and you are gettingsatisfactory performance, you're pretty much good to go, else rethinkit.On the other hand, consider using oneof these mini units:http://www.ebay.com/itm/1Pcs-Mini-2-4G-NRF24L01-2…

I would expect it to work, given noneeded traces are cut. But impedance matching of the load to thetransmitter output may be off enough to significantly loseperformance; due to the change in the transmission lead wires (thosetwo short parallel wire sections you have eliminated). To optimizelead-in dimensions for high frequency transmission is a challengerequiring sophisticated setup and instruments. Often the best we cando is minimize heat production while maximizing transmitted signalstrength through trial and error. If you are not getting added heatbetween the antenna and the drive circuitry and you are gettingsatisfactory performance, you're pretty much good to go, else rethinkit.On the other hand, consider using oneof these mini units:http://www.ebay.com/itm/1Pcs-Mini-2-4G-NRF24L01-24L01-M-wireless-transceiver-module-1-9-3-6-V-/141976853993 These board have two feed through holes where the antenna appears tostart. Which makes me believe they placed these, by design, such thatif you cut off the on-board antenna you will have the proper outputmatching impedance up to that point. I would try one of these andattach the dipole antenna directly to those holes (with old antennaout of circuit). If you do so please let us know what sort of resultsyou obtain.

Good job. Your wire, quite apparently, works fine. Solid wire is normally strongly preferred; so that the whole of your conducting material has one length (unless you want a broad frequency range like with an FM receiver).The diameter of the antenna wire has a minor effect on the antenna's resonate frequency and load impedance, so fine tuning the structural dimensions could be of some value.Larger diameter antenna elements do improve to some degree the band width of the frequency response, making it a little less valuable doing additional fine tuning. On the other hand the thicker wire may be harder to work with or easier to break off.

Theoutput of the ESP8266 is apparently 50 ohm impedance (read fullyhttps://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=314904.0)and hopefully so is the antenna (at 2.4GHz) that you are going to connect.Given that is the case, you can use a length of 50 ohm coax to connect them,rather than parallel open wires who's impedance would be hard todetermine. (for some short 50 ohm coax:www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=rg-316+rg-8x+pigtail) The RG-8x will likely be easier to strip and solder than the skinnyRG-316. I look forward to hearing of your successes with your modification.

Sembot,Making PCB prints for these circuits is great. Thank you very much.Did you check out the 3D print out I did to form a game console? (see Update above)I am not fully sold on doing a tutorial. I know I don't have time this summer. Maybe later.Note that any one game (I suggest: Tug_a_War or PingPong from Menu_16Games.ino) can be renamed as the function “void loop()” and delete the other games as well as the then unused sub-routines and global variables. There would then be no menu operation and instead that game would automatically run. The resulting sketch can be used as a guideline for developing a new game. I have already provided a fair amount of comments in the code, with the intention of helping others create new games. In the future I can respond to specific questio…

Sembot,Making PCB prints for these circuits is great. Thank you very much.Did you check out the 3D print out I did to form a game console? (see Update above)I am not fully sold on doing a tutorial. I know I don't have time this summer. Maybe later.Note that any one game (I suggest: Tug_a_War or PingPong from Menu_16Games.ino) can be renamed as the function “void loop()” and delete the other games as well as the then unused sub-routines and global variables. There would then be no menu operation and instead that game would automatically run. The resulting sketch can be used as a guideline for developing a new game. I have already provided a fair amount of comments in the code, with the intention of helping others create new games. In the future I can respond to specific questions.Which of the above 16 games do you like best?Ron

Fantastic, I am happy to hear that you and your mother are benifiting from my efforts.

That's great to hear, about your success with your mesh network. Is there a related instructable? I am happy you enjoyed, found useful, this instructable.

Sarah, I have now created a full 16 game version, in the Update section above. It does include a game to challenge the players understanding of binary operations; inspired by you, for your boys. Also included above is an operating manual describing all the games.

Thank you for the added information. It's always great to have other contribute.That said, I know there are some that I have not directly acknowledged their posts; I want them to know their sharing is appreciated.

OK, I have attached a new software sketch,combining all 12 games, to the instructable:https://www.instructables.com/id/4-Button-Games-Using-One-Analog-Input/I'd like to hear back when the boys gettheir unit; and later feedback from them as users.

Sarah, I enjoy your interest in my project and enthusiasm for electronics in general (salvaging LEDs etc.).The binary encoding approach would be impractical with this hardware; partly because momentary buttons are used and not toggle or side switches which hold their state. I plan a two tiered selection (group 1-4 & game 1-4 of that group).an ATtiny-328 (Nano-3) has enough resources for all twelve games and probably enough for 4 more. I will put together the code combining the 12 games and test it this week. I can't hardly imagine coming up with more than 16 games using such a simplistic display. But just the same, it can be a rewarding challenge.You can 'message' me with any questions. Ron

It sounds like I have reinvigorated you. Great, that makes me happy. Did you have any (one line display) games I don't have covered?