The board game 'Slag in de Rondte' is played on a map of the Dutch Wadden Sea.
Sail to all isles (use of engine or GPS is not allowed) and return to Harlingen. Day and night. Fastest wins.
This project lights up the lighthouses (using real world characteristics)!
This repository contains MicroPython code to fade multiple LEDs independently.
Written for, and tested on, Raspberry Pi Pico.
The board game uses a day/night cycle of about eight minutes. Switch off your room lights when the lighthouses come on. And turn your room lights back on, when the lighthouses switch off. (note: an 'always on' mode is available)
Get started with your Raspberry Pi Pico: https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/getting-started-with-the-pico
For lookenspeepers, build this project and watschen der Blinkenlichten!
- Wire up your RPI Pico according to the Fritzing diagram below
- (optional: ground GPIO2 with a resistor to bypass the 8 minutes day/night cycle and be 'always on')
- Save the script 'slag-in-de-rondte.py' to your Pico as 'main.py'
- Restart your Pico
YouTube, the plain RPI Pico project:
After finishing part 1, install the LED's in the game board.
- Solder cheap speaker cable to the LEDs, to extend their connectors
- Gently punch holes in the game board at the 5 island lighthouses, and Harlingen Harbor
- Place the LED's in the board game (use the red and green LEDs at Harlingen Haven)
- Connect the LED wires to your breadboard as before (do not change the circuit, leave the resistors in place)
YouTube, the complete game board install:
The code uses Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) and async I/O:
PWMallows fading of a LED on a digital port.- the
uasynciolibrary allows for cooperative concurrent task execution.
Tested on a RPI Pico, using MicroPython 1.21.0.
Tip: check for MicroPython linting https://github.com/Josverl/micropython-stubber#boost-micropython-productivity-in-vscode
I wrote this code to learn Python. Please feel free to post issues on effectiveness, maintainability, style etc.
| item | quantity |
|---|---|
| RaspberryPi Pico H | 1 |
| LED white (5mm) | 5 |
| LED red (5mm) | 1 |
| LED green (5mm) | 1 |
| resistor 1kΩ | 7 |
| breadboard | 1 |
| hollow pipe tool 4mm | 1 |
| speaker cable (thin) | 3 meters |
A RPI Pico
costs about €6.- at Kiwi,
a breadboard (400 points) costs about €4.-.
A hollow pipe tool (Dutch: holpijp) is only needed if you want to punch holes in your game board, to fit the LEDs.
| pin | pin name | in/out | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | GND | ground | |
| 4 | GPIO 2 | in | disables night-and-day cycle |
| 21 | GPIO 16 | out 3.3V | LED Texel |
| 22 | GPIO 17 | out 3.3V | LED Vlieland |
| 24 | GPIO 18 | out 3.3V | LED Terschelling |
| 25 | GPIO 19 | out 3.3V | LED Ameland |
| 26 | GPIO 20 | out 3.3V | LED Schiermonnikoog |
| 39 | VSYS | 5V | LED Red + Green Harlingen |
CAUTION:
Drawing too much power from the board may damage the board.
Thus use resistors to drive the LEDs.
For tinkering only. Use at your own risk.
If you want to 'separate the controller from the power', you can add a PCA9685 in the mix.
The PCA9685 (a servo driver) has it's own power, can be controlled using I2C, and supports PWM.
I picked one up for €8.-. Possibly more on that later.
Feel free to contribute, in bite-size PR's. :)
Please be nice!
Sound? Listen in on VHF Brandaris. :) To all board players, seamen, skippers, schippers and Schiffer: Fair winds and following seas!