Car Click-Off - Personal Project (created for High School Computer Club)

Project Dates: Aug - Nov 2023

Description

• A two-player rapid-fire clicking game featuring a car that rides along a wooden track
• The car is equipped with two opposing fans, each controlled by a button; the faster the button is clicked, the faster the fan spins
• When the car reaches one end of the track, the game stops and plays a victory fanfare with a flashing LED
• The game was displayed at our high school’s club fair and later donated to our Computer Club

Materials & Tools

Mechanical:

• Wood planks
• Kebab skewers
• Screws/nails
• Pinewood Derby car
• Gorilla glue
• Masking tape

Electrical:

• Arduino
• Breadboard
• L298 Motor driver
• Wire (jumper & spool)
• Resistors
• Pushbuttons
• IR LEDs & phototransistors
• LEDs & Buzzers
• Heat-shrink tubing
• Batteries & battery holders

Tools:

• Arduino IDE
• Miter saw
• Drill
• Soldering iron
• Wire strippers

Methodology

• Cut, drilled, and assembled an elevated 2ft wooden track and car with openings for the fan motor wires
• Linked button click rate and fan speed using millis() to determine click rate, and PWM and an L298 motor driver to control motor speed
• Engineered IR tripwires at both ends of the track to trigger the winner’s LED and buzzer
• Taught myself to use a miter saw for the woodwork, and coordinated two friends who wrote the C++ code