The Future

Thanks to everyone who has expressed their excitement and enthusiasm for the projects Dustin and I have been working on. The Zombie Sensor, NOMAD and the Echo Base are all projects we're committed to and extremely excited about.

Unfortunately the processor we have been working with, the Atmel ATmega328u (the one used in the popular Arduino Uno series) just doesn't have the horsepower and specs we need. The vision we have for everything is bigger than what this processor can handle.

PROJECT UPDATES

Even thought it's been quite here on my blog, I've been busily working on updating all of my projects
- which has been actually pretty intense. So I'd thought I'd take a quick timeout from coding on the Arduino to bring everyone up to speed.

ZOMBIE SENSOR - This project has been known as the FERAL IR SENSOR - it will get a formal name change soon.  Last summer the "Mark I" version was used extensively at TagFest. I've been working on some updates to help improve upon the "Mark I" and it's looking really nice. I'll be making an announcement soon about this, along with a video to show off what's different.

Back To Reality

TagFest was an absolute blast. The Feral IR Sensor was a huge hit. The picture above is us using the sensors for one of our many night Zombie games which worked really well.

TagFest or Bust

We've been busy getting our devices ready for TagFest which starts on July 19th in Eugene Oregon. At the event we'll be demoing all three gadgets, the Echo Base, Feral IR Sensor and the Nomad.

The Echo Base microcontroller is giving me troubles - I'm hoping to have this fixed in time. I'm looking forward to the interesting games these devices will give us.

The Feral IR Sensors are running perfectly. I'll have 30 units on hand for us to play test and perhaps even sell at the event.  Very much looking forward using these at night for those dark Zombie games!

And the NOMAD, portable hosting station, will also be making it's first public appearance. The picture here is the current design. I'll hopefully have time to take pictures. Look for updates after the event. Exciting stuff!  

Status Update

While I've made a lot of progress with ECHO BASE, I still have quite a bit of work still to do on the software, as well as experiment with some hardware modifications.

The biggest issue is that the LTAR beacon triggers the Echo Base - not good.  The beacon signal on the LTAR is longer than the LTTO's beacon so my method for filtering out beacon noise needs to be modified.  I'm not too sure how long this will take but it's at the top of my list...

IT'S ALIVE!!!

I found these push lights on sale for a dollar each so I bought a couple thinking it would make a great housing for ECHO BASE - and they're perfect! Check out the video...

New ECHO BASE schematic

Here is a quick new schematic. This was done over at UPVERTER...

Echo Base Schematic

I'm putting this out here for feedback from anyone.  Here is the current schematic for Echo Base - along with a parts list.

Two Steps Back

Well a little setback.  It appears that the Echo Base software is not quite finished.  I found a couple of bugs and am attempting to squash them. The base's lights are not performing as it should.  At first I thought it was a power issue. Unfortunately it's BOTH power AND software. 

Echo Base now "IN-DESIGN"!

I'm glad to report that the software prototype of the new ECHO BASE device is finished.  I have a fully functional ECHO BASE on a breadboard with no attached computer or Arduino dev board.  It works great!  As you can see by the picture it's running off of a 9-volt battery.  I'm not sure if I should stick with that or use a 6-AA battery tray.  The AAs will last longer, I'm sure, but it's good to know it's functional like this.

When It's Good To Wait

Thanks to Niteraider for posting this question/suggestion in the forums...

The healing part should definitely be limited, though. It would take away from the gameplay if players kept returning to their base to be re-healed. Is there any limitation to the healing planned or set?

At first, I thought I wouldn't be able to come up with anything - or if I did, it would be too complicated. But I played around with the code a bit more today and found a way to discourage teams from "abusing" their base's healing function. 

Echo Base Code Updated

I was able to improve the code for my Echo Base mod.  Now MEGA-TAGS and shotgun blasts can do multiple damage or healing to the base.  This should make it easier to take out a base - one well placed 3 or 4 point mega shot should knock it out, thus neutralizing a full strength Echo Base!

Parts ordered!

I finally pulled the trigger and ordered a bunch of stuff from MOUSER.  These parts will allow me to begin the design process for ECHO BASE as well as prototyping new projects.  I anticipate my shipment will get here next week.  So until then I'll be working on other aspects, such as experimenting with enclosure designs and sourcing Muriatic Acid to make my own PCB here at home.