This is my second attempt at making tutorials to create laser taggers. A lot has changed in terms of the Arduino library managements since my first tutorial, making things easier for the maker. The code in the previous tutorials had many errors, and hopefully many of these have now been ironed out. A shopping list…
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This should take about 30mins to 1 hour to complete When designing the laser taggers, I wanted to avoid exposing the USB port for firmware uploads, as this would expose the port and could easily be damaged. Additionally, I didn’t want to disassemble the tagger each time I needed to test or modify the code.…
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This tutorial should take approximately 30 minutes. To facilitate easy navigation of the code, it is essential to keep it organised from the outset. We will achieve this by utilising the Arduino tabs. In the Arduino software, there is no need to code additional links to the various tabs (files) as they automatically connect. However,…
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This tutorial will take approximately 30 mins. One of the most popular displays for electronics projects is the one on the right-hand side. It typically requires the creator to connect around 10 pins to operate. This not only consumes a significant number of pins on the development board but often leads to difficulties in making…
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This tutorial will take approximately 30-60 mins. What the Addressable LED light strip does The LED light strip operates using three wires: the positive wire, the ground wire, and the data wire. The data wire allows each light to be programmed individually. Each individual light features a Digital In (DI) and a Digital Out (DO).…
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This tutorial will take approximately 30-60 mins. Why a web interface? A web interface on the ESP32 allows values to be easily changed through a web interface. It means the player name and the team colours can be changed. Now there is a LED strip, the strip colour should change as the team colour changes.…
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This tutorial will take approximately 30-60 mins. Why dedicate a whole post to game variables? The reason is simple: game variables shape the way taggers operate. Every laser tag system functions differently, reflecting the priorities of its designer. When developing our laser taggers, we can either start from scratch with our game specifications or design…
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This tutorial will take approximately 30-60 mins. There is a problem You may have noticed that when you restart your ESP32 development board, the settings do not persist. Once power is removed from the memory, your playerID and teamID revert to their default values. This means you would need to change them every time the…
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This tutorial will take about 60-90 minutes Chip variations There are two versions of the JQ6500 sound module: the original JQ6500 and the newer, enhanced HW-890 module. Although both modules have the same pin configuration, they differ significantly in how WAV or MP3 files are uploaded. The JQ6500 requires additional software for file uploads, while…
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Time: Approximately 60 minutes We have successfully implemented the display functionality; however, we will now enhance it by adding additional game information, such as health, ammo, player name, and the remaining time in the game. Timers The game utilises several different timers, implemented using non-blocking code. While a countdown timer could be created using the…
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