2023-12-08 09:30:00.000
DEMO DAY! This is the last day before our senior project is behind us! Everything went amazing (which was actually a huge surprise considering the whirlwind that was yesterday) except for the fact that Nami couldnt be there. We missed him greatly :(. BUT NOW WERE DONE!
The first picture is of Jake and Kyle in their lab coats, ready for the day to start, and the second was a screenshot of some people in the room hiding from the monster haha, we set up a zoom call so we could see the inside of the room.
2023-12-07 23:24:03.118
Kyle and Jake spent pretty much all day in the senior hardware lab trying to finish up the senior project. Nami fell ill and was unable to stay and help, which was super flipping sad because we all wanted him to be there and to be able to participate with us :(. But, were getting close! Tomorrow is the last day!
2023-12-02 08:14:13.123
Jake had the idea to make a different puzzle with a keypad that will allow the players to increase the amount of game time that they are allotted. There will be math equations spread throughout the room and if they players input those into a special keypad box they can get more time! The combos for the keypad have been included below as well as Kyles contraption to let us open the auto boxes with only one 12 volt power supply. Safety third, children!
2023-11-28 15:10:80.123
WE FOUND A SECOND CRT!! This is so exciting, Kyle is going to pick it up tomorrow morning, but now we dont have to use our professors monitors at all! Plus, this one has a speaker, so we can just use the audio from that instead of trying to hook up bluetooth speakers. So awesome! Kyle also made some ID badges for us to wear on demo day and he printed some enclosures for the motion sensors so that people can actually be seen by the monster. Were making good progress, but we REALLY need to do a dry run!
2023-11-25 10:31:41.812
Over the past week we have been working on finishing up the puzzles that we had almost working and have really been trying to get a dry run in because we have to start testing the room before we run it on demo day! Jake did get the plugboard puzzle working, and Nami got the game clock displaying on the monitors, which is AWESOME!
Link to a Video of the game clock on the monitors!
2023-11-17 11:01:44.772
Kyle recorded a hint for one of the puzzles that we are going to be putting on a tape. It just essentially repeats a number combination over and over that, once put into a puzzle that Kyle made, will open a puzzle box! A pic of the puzzle has been included as well.
2023-11-15 14:03:51.043
Today we got together to write a first draft for our final project pitch! If you would like to read it just expand the little dropdown below this. Kyle also designed a new clock mount for the motor because we needed to add a rotary encoder and it didnt fit on the original motor.
Have you ever done an escape room? (For the sake of this example we are going to say that the person asking doesn't know what an escape room is) That's okay! Essentially, an escape room is an interactive puzzle experience where you are “trapped” in a room until you are successfully able to solve all of the puzzles and escape. Normally, the puzzles used in escape rooms require physical contact with the object that you are trying to open: a combination puzzle, a lock and key, or a cabinet or drawer of some kind. What makes our escape room unique is that all of the modules can communicate with each other over WiFi. This allows us to place puzzles physically distanced from the boxes that they open, have certain events trigger changes in multiple devices at the same time, or even give hints dynamically based on which puzzles have already been solved without having to actually speak to the participants in the room.
Many of the puzzles that we have in our room have been created ourselves using Arduinos and our own electronics. Some examples are a puzzle that requires you to correctly position four potentiometers, a safe dial that requires a correct combination to open, and two RCA plugboards that you have to connect using the correct cables. As mentioned before, all of these puzzles can communicate with each other over WiFi, which allows them to tell other components if they have been solved, how much time is left in the escape room, and what state the room is in. Making a wide variety of puzzles gave us the opportunity to write code in a variety of languages, work with lots of different physical circuits, and figure out how to connect them all. Our project focused more on the wide variety of areas that are included in Computer Engineering rather than diving deep into one or two of them.
Another fun detail about escape rooms is that most of them are tightly coupled to a theme of some sort. For example, some rooms set up the escape as some sort of escape from prison, while others just help the players recount some sort of mystery while inside. Our escape room is designed around analog horror, specifically the event of Y2K and how many people feared the collapse of computer systems as they transitioned from 1999 to 2000. We have done our own voice acting and recorded them to cassette tapes to help make the room feel more immersive. This is what players will receive as they enter the room. It is a classified note from one of the scientists about the experiments that they have been running in the room and a tape recording that players will place into a tape player to learn about their first hint and the predicament that they have found themselves in. We are really proud of our room and hope you are able to escape! Do you have any questions?
2023-11-14 12:35:23.018
Today we presented a progress report on how far we've gotten along this project! Kyle 3D printed the bust that Nami designed and it looks great! Kyle also 3D printed frames for the potentiometer puzzle and designed one for the dial puzzle as well. He has also written a first draft for the memorandum we have given to the players that is an optional reading for tips and world building. Nami has gotten a converter that will allow us to convert HDMI to RCA and connect our mini PC to the old CRT TV we have! He has also gotten stickers that will tell players which objects are not a part of the escape room and speakers that will play stereophonic sound and ambience. Jake has gotten the box PCBs to work, wrote up a first draft for our pitch, and has gotten the server and TV to work with each other!
2023-11-07 14:12:07.942
Kyle has finished the potentiometer puzzle with LEDs and it works like a charm! It’s a great way to use computer engineering concepts to design something interactive for the player. Nami has finished up code that will allow us to play any video we want with a press of a button on the keyboard for the mini PC. With some further work, we can get this to work wirelessly with an ESP module. He has also finished the model of the bust using the 3D scan we have gotten earlier for a future puzzle. Jake got a rotary encoder for the clock working along with finishing the dial puzzle code and tweaking the tape player.
2023-10-31 23:59:99.999
Happy Halloween! Kyle is sick again, though after some talk about a rotating wire puzzle, he has begun prototyping a potentiometer puzzle that will be cool and easy to implement. Nami with the mini PC figured out a way to use the python-vlc plugin to play videos whenever we desire. Nami has also edited and uploaded a ton of videos that can be played on the CRT monitors that will achieve tons of atmosphere for the game. Jake got the dial puzzle to work with the LEDs and has also gotten the tape player to work wirelessly and play any audio we want using an SD card. We also got the box PCBs in!
2023-10-24 06:34:11.179
Since last week was fall break and the professor could not meet with us the week after, we reconvened three weeks later after our mid-term presentation. Jake has been working on a really cool PCB that will be used for the box circuits. Kyle worked on the RCA puzzle being functional alongside designing logos for that PCB. Nami had been tinkering with AI art to get something cool to design our poster. The mini PC also had some issues with the OS installed on it being corrupted, though after some tinkering around we managed to get it to run with Windows 11 and ready to be worked on!
2023-10-03 21:48:10.139
Today we did another presentation for a mid-term progress report. We got the lock box to successfully open (with a great solenoid noise) wirelessly using a clock and while we didn't get any footage of that working by itself, you can see the box that we set up! We have also been donated a mini PC that will be very useful in getting the displays on the monitors set up.
Link to a video of the box opening2023-09-23 21:48:10.139
Big moves made over the last week! Kyle has printed more servo mounts that fit really well onto the motors. He has also got a way for us to play through speakers using an MJduino alongside printing out a frame for the RCA puzzle! Nami decided to look into 3D scanning to create a bust of one of the players for the room. Initially he tried to use a phone app but it had some holes in the final model, so instead we went to the Marriot Library's 3D printing and scanning services to get a great model (although it still needs to be cleaned up a bit before printing)! Jake found a way to get a clock reset mechanism going with slot interrupters that will allow us to keep track of the start and end of the game cycle (1 PM - 12 AM). He showed this off on a video (on a paper plate 😆)! Jake also added a dial puzzle and got it to work consistently.
2023-08-22 12:22:03.719
Kyle has created code to have a solenoid and servo fire at the push of a button, which will be used for the latch control. Jake has created an admin control panel for us to be able to manually control the game alongside polishing command receiving. Nami has mapped out an ending for the players that'll be sure to give them all one last scare!
2023-09-05 09:52:13.017
This week we reintroduced our project in a presentation alongside delivering a project plan for the rest of the semester. Kyle has printed out mounts for the motor to create the latch, but will need a little bit of revising to fit perfectly. Nami finished code for a stepper motor to tick for the clock and Jake has made even more progress on the communication with ESP modules and now they communicate (though still needs some cleaning up)!
2023-08-29 17:01:44.772
Kyle printed some prototype latches that we will use for locking mechanisms in the escape room, meanwhile Nami recorded the first draft for the first tape to use in the cassette player. Jake has also made some progress on the ESP modules and will keep working on the communication aspect of the project in the next couple of weeks.
2023-08-22 12:22:03.719
This was our first meeting after the summer! We did talk about a few things over the summer and Kyle built some boxes, but we didn't really work on our senior project during the summer. This meeting was to help us catch up with each other and so that we were aware of what everyone else was going to be working on. Kyle is going to be doing some hardware work to try and get some relays working for the solenoids, Jake is working on the wireless connectivity portion, and Nami is going to start trying to get an encoded stepper motor working for the player clock (as well as do some voice acting for the first tape that players will be listening to).
2023-05-04 16:25:80.281
We finished our final presentation paper today! The semester is officially OVER! If you're curious, a PDF of our document is linked below, feel free to check it out! But yeah, mostly we just talked over discord today and wrote a bunch on that paper.
Also, we have included a few images of our initial design for the room layout, as well as a few other things that are cool and might be interesting to look at.
Initial Room Layout
Lock Mockup
Door with Locks
Door open
2023-05-02 12:15:30.297
Today was our final presentation day! Nami was sick, so he drew up some cards to help the audience know when to "Ooooh" or "Aaaaaah" for our presentation. We talked about what our project was, how we are planning on implementing it, and what things we've learned up until now. We also gave a basic timeline that we are going to be following for the forseeable future.
2023-04-20 9:15:90.201
Kyle was out today, so it was up to Jake and Nami to finish up the prototype and present it to the class. Some minor adjustments were made to the initial design that Kyle had developed, and Nami finished up the rest of the code that allows each of the buttons to trigger an interrupt and toggle the "forward" or "backwards" movement of the clock.
2023-04-18 8:58:23.822
Today we got a lot of progress done on our prototype that we are hoping to present in class on Thursday. This included getting the motor to work, testing to see if it would actually spin the clock how we are hoping it'll spin, and brainstorming how we are going to get both of the buttons to work with the Discovery 32 board we're using for ECE 5780.
Also, Kyle is going to be out of town on Thursday when we have to present, so he went back into the senior lab and jerry rigged the motor to the back of the clock using hot glue, popsicle sticks, and duct tape.
2023-04-8 8:58:23.822
We actually went to an escape room today! It was super fun, we didnt end up getting out (apparently the escape percentage is like 16% for that room, which we didn't know before we started, but it was still fun!) and the guy that was working there gave us the answers when we had already failed and also showed us a room that they were currently constructing! It was super fun, and we got food after.
2023-04-04 1:05:22.902
Our meeting today was mostly about the project proposal and what we were hoping to demonstrate to the class on demo day. For this demo, we are hoping to display a working clock that, when either a "fast forward" button or a "reverse" button are pressed, the clock will spin accordingly. Furthermore, we would like to have a terminal that shows what time our clock is currently set to so the computer knows what time it is. This functionality is central to our project, and getting this done early will give us a jump-start for our final senior project.
On a secondary note, we also talked about when we are going to pick up the CRT displays from the surplus store (Nami and Kyle are going to go grab them tomorrow), and we planned a visit to an escape room on Saturday so we can have a better idea as to what kinds of puzzles would be feasable for our participants to solve.
2023-03-23 11:31:03.291
Today we talked with our professor about our plans regarding our project and he gave us ideas about what we could potentially do and what course of action we could take that would (hopefully) give us the most success. We talked about communication protocols, monitors, the clock, the showcase that we will be doing for this class, and what he can do to help us. It was a super useful meeting!
We also went on an adventure today! We hiked up to the Campus Surplus store in search of old tube monitors and we found some! The two we are hoping to get are both Sony and they are identical, which would help us keep a uniform astetic for the room.
2023-02-27 16:30:11.836
Today we talked about the monster and how we planned to icorporate horror into our escape room. We also talked about various puzzles that we could include (just ideas, nothing concrete) and what we would like to do for the windows.
2023-02-24 13:15:39.496
Today we met to finish up the initial website design and layout, as well as discuss how to describe out project on the home page. We were supposed to also test a tape recorder/player we intend to use for this project, but the shipping was delayed.
Seperate from the page management, we also discussed some overarching concepts on how we want time to work in our escape room. As of now, we plan on having many clocks in the room, tuned to seperate "times" Some will use the game clock (real-time timer for the escape "count down") and a universe clock (analog or digital display, this is the clock pertaining to the actual story of the experience). On this topic, we also discussed a few ideas to employ in next week's class presentation.
2023-02-03 11:56:03.719
This meeting was to help us decide on what our project was going to be. We talked about a lot of potential options, including a reactive flower pot, a sandwich building game, and the escape room (which was what we ended up going with). We also began brainstorming ideas of things that we could include in the room a well as puzzles that might be fun for the participants to solve.