Basket Ball MicroBit
Basketball with Micro:bit
Team Members: Kamlin Subido Dunn, Emilio Palomares, Ricky Madrid Quiles, Eddy Granciano
Our goal / Early design phase:
Using micro:bit our team wanted to create a basketball game, inspired by those found in arcades. We first began our design process by creating sketches of possible design ideas. We decided cardboard was the best material for us to use because it was accessible and easy to cut and shape.
First prototype:
Our first prototype consisted of a cardboard backboard, hoop, two LEDs, and a holder for the microbit and breadboard.
A challenge we faced while building our prototype was finding a way to consistently and accurately make the microbit display the player’s score. We used shaking the Micro:bit as an input that would increase the score displayed on the microbit screen. This however was a problem because when the ball contacted the backboard, whether or not it landed in the hoop, would increase the player score. Another problem we encountered was lack of a means of returning the ball to the player. Our hoop was closed at the bottom, which made it so that the player would have to manually grab the ball each time to shoot again.
Final product:
Our final product aimed to solve the major problems in our prototype by using a limit switch as an input in place of the shake function on the microbit, as well as removing the bottom of the hoop, and implementing a ramp to return the ball to the player.
Adding a lever system into the hoop that would activate the limit switch was a more reliable way of tracking player scores. We also decided to add supports to the backboard which allowed it to stand on its own and make it more visually pleasing. The use of LEDs more or less stayed the same and were used to add visual effects.
Code:
Testimonials:
Vincent: "Interactive, fun, and innovative!! I'm so excited!!!"
Jessica: "Super fun, matched the carnival game thee and was inventive."
Ryan: "As a fan of basketball it was very accurate to an actual Jump shot, pretty fun!"