week 3: embedded programming

soldering session with Anthony and introduction to Arduino

Since I was admitted to the class later I had asychronus office hours with Anthony that he explained to me step by step

and then the led blikning

last code was about testing the buttons

falling block dodge game

Once I was comfortable with these individual testing functions, I wanted to combine them to make a game. Using the knowledge gained from the button, LED, and display experiments, I structured a simple game framework. I started by defining the player and obstacle entities, including their positions, sizes, and states. I then implemented the player movement, using the buttons to move the player block left or right while constraining it within the screen boundaries. Following that, I developed the obstacle spawning and movement logic, where obstacles fall from the top of the screen at a fixed speed and reset once they leave the display area.

Next, I implemented collision detection between the player and obstacles using axis-aligned bounding boxes, which allowed the game to detect a “game over” event accurately. I also added a scoring system, incrementing the score over time and displaying it dynamically on the screen. Finally, I integrated all the elements into a main loop that reads inputs, updates the game state, checks for collisions, and redraws the player, obstacles, and score every frame.

I did use ChatGPT to clarify certain programming approaches and optimize code structure. By incrementally building on small, verified functions, I was able to transition from simple tests to a fully functioning interactive game, demonstrating both my understanding of the hardware and my ability to translate that understanding into code.

Arduino Falling block dodge game




#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 

// ---------------- Display ----------------
#define SCREEN_WIDTH   128
#define SCREEN_HEIGHT  64
#define SCREEN_ADDRESS 0x3C
Adafruit_SSD1306 display(SCREEN_WIDTH, SCREEN_HEIGHT, &Wire, -1);

// ---------------- Touch mapping ----------------
const uint8_t TOUCH_PINS[6] = { 26, 2, 27, 1, 4, 3 };
const int IDX_U = 0;   // up (unused)
const int IDX_D = 1;   // down (unused)
const int IDX_L = 2;   // move left
const int IDX_R = 3;   // move right
const int IDX_A = 4;   // restart/start
const int IDX_B = 5;   // pause/resume

uint16_t touch_baseline[6], touch_thresh[6], touch_value[6];
bool touch_now[6], touch_prev[6];

// ---------------- Player ----------------
int playerX = 60;
const int playerY = 55;
const int PLAYER_W = 8;
const int PLAYER_H = 8;

// ---------------- Obstacles ----------------
struct Obstacle { int x, y, w, h; };
#define MAX_OBS 5
Obstacle obs[MAX_OBS];

// Game state
bool running = false, paused = false;
unsigned long lastMs;
uint32_t score = 0;

// ---------------- Touch ----------------
uint16_t touchReadOne(uint8_t pin){
  pinMode(pin,OUTPUT); digitalWrite(pin,LOW); delayMicroseconds(10);
  pinMode(pin,INPUT_PULLUP);
  uint16_t c=0; while(digitalRead(pin)==LOW && c<8000){ c++; }
  return c;
}

void calibrateTouch(){
  for(int i=0;i<6;i++) touch_baseline[i]=0;
  for(int s=0;s<24;s++){
    for(int i=0;i<6;i++) touch_baseline[i]+=touchReadOne(TOUCH_PINS[i]);
    delay(5);
  }
  for(int i=0;i<6;i++){
    touch_baseline[i]/=24;
    touch_thresh[i]=touch_baseline[i]+10;
    touch_prev[i]=false; touch_now[i]=false;
  }
}

void updateTouch(){
  for(int i=0;i<6;i++){
    uint16_t v = touchReadOne(TOUCH_PINS[i]);
    touch_value[i]=v;
    bool p = touch_now[i];
    if(!p){ if(v>=touch_thresh[i]) p=true; }
    else { if(v+6ox)&&(pyoy);
}

void drawPlayer(){ display.fillRect(playerX, playerY, PLAYER_W, PLAYER_H, SSD1306_WHITE); }
void drawObstacles(){
  for(int i=0;iSCREEN_WIDTH-PLAYER_W) playerX = SCREEN_WIDTH-PLAYER_W;

  // Timing
  unsigned long now = millis();
  float dt = (now-lastMs)/1000.0f;
  if(dt < 1.0f/60.0f) return;
  lastMs = now;

  // Move obstacles
  for(int i=0;i SCREEN_HEIGHT){
      obs[i].y = -8;
      obs[i].x = random(0, SCREEN_WIDTH-obs[i].w);
      score++;
    }
    // collision
    if(collide(playerX, playerY, PLAYER_W, PLAYER_H, obs[i].x, obs[i].y, obs[i].w, obs[i].h)){
      running = false;
      display.clearDisplay();
      display.setCursor(20,20); display.println("GAME OVER");
      display.setCursor(10,35); display.println("Press A to restart");
      display.display();
      return;
    }
  }

  // Draw
  display.clearDisplay();
  drawPlayer();
  drawObstacles();
  display.setCursor(0,0); display.print("Score: "); display.print(score);
  display.display();
}