Adabot needs your help, Doctor! It's time to operate!! It takes a steady hand to remove the game pieces!

You can build this fun, classic game using a Circuit Playground Express to react whenever your hand isn't so steady and your tweezers bump the edge of an opening. You'll build the board, and then program the Circuit Playground Express using CircuitPython or MakeCode to test the capacitive touch pads for contact.

A tip of the hat goes to Maker Camp for their inspiring project using the Makey Makey board.

Parts

To build this project you'll need the parts below, as well as a computer for programming and uploading code to the Circuit Playground Express.

Materials & Tools

In addition to the parts listed above, you'll also need:

• Small cardboard box, such as an Adafruit shipping box
• Metal tweezers
• Color printer with white paper or cardstock
• Hobby knife or scissors
• Glue stick
• Scotch tape
• Small Philips screwdriver

Print the Board and Pieces

Use a color laser or inkjet printer to print the file linked here onto a piece of white cardstock. Be sure to print without any image scaling so that the parts will align.

Add Copper Tape Contacts

The copper tape is what we'll use to detect errant tweezers touches, by running it around the edges of each incision hole. Each tape site will be connected to the Circuit Playground Express via an alligator clip lead.

Add Circuit Playground Express

You'll now add the Circuit Playground Express by fastening it to the board with four medium screws and nuts.

Connect the Alligator Clips

Follow the images here to connect the Circuit Playground Express capacitive touch pads to the copper tape tabs.

Next, we'll program the Circuit Playground Express in CircuitPython, or you can skip ahead to program it with MakeCode.

The key feature of Operation is that the lights and buzzers alarm whenever your tweezers touch the edge of a hole. We've connected the copper tape at each hole to a capacitive touch pad on the Circuit Playground Express -- now we want to code the board in CircuitPython to react.

CircuitPython Setup

To get started, you'll want to set up the Circuit Playground Express for use with CircuitPython by following this guide. When you're ready, and can upload code to the board return here.

Adafruit really likes using the Mu editor to edit the CircuitPython code. See this guide on loading and using Mu.

Code

You can copy the code here and then paste it into Mu. Save it to your Circuit Playground Express as code.py

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2018 John Park for Adafruit Industries
#
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
#
# Adabot Operation Game
#  CPX, alligator clips, copper tape, tweezers, surgery, and fun!

import board
import touchio
from adafruit_circuitplayground.express import cpx
# import time  # uncomment if testing raw read values

cap_pins = (board.A1, board.A2, board.A3, board.A4, board.A5,
            board.A6, board.A7)
touch_pads = []
for i in range(7):
    touch_pads.append(touchio.TouchIn(cap_pins[i]))
for touch_pad in touch_pads:
    touch_pad.threshold = 3500  # adjust value to fine-tune touch threshold

MAGENTA = (10, 0, 10)
VIOLET = (5, 0, 15)
BLUE = (0, 0, 20)
CYAN = (0, 10, 10)
GREEN = (0, 20, 0)
YELLOW = (10, 10, 0)
ORANGE = (15, 5, 0)
RED = (20, 0, 0)
WHITE = (3, 3, 3)

COLORS = [MAGENTA, VIOLET, BLUE, CYAN, GREEN, YELLOW, ORANGE, RED, WHITE]

cpx.pixels.fill(WHITE)

while True:
    for i in range(7):
        # uncomment block to check the raw touch pad values
        # print("raw %s value for pad " % i)
        # print(touch_pads[i].raw_value)
        # time.sleep(.5)

        if touch_pads[i].value:
            # print("Touched %s" % i)  # uncomment for debugging
            cpx.pixels.fill(RED)
            cpx.play_tone(660, 0.7)
            cpx.pixels.fill(COLORS[i])

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# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2018 John Park for Adafruit Industries
#
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
#
# Adabot Operation Game
#  CPX, alligator clips, copper tape, tweezers, surgery, and fun!

import board
import touchio
from adafruit_circuitplayground.express import cpx
# import time  # uncomment if testing raw read values

cap_pins = (board.A1, board.A2, board.A3, board.A4, board.A5,
            board.A6, board.A7)
touch_pads = []
for i in range(7):
    touch_pads.append(touchio.TouchIn(cap_pins[i]))
for touch_pad in touch_pads:
    touch_pad.threshold = 3500  # adjust value to fine-tune touch threshold

MAGENTA = (10, 0, 10)
VIOLET = (5, 0, 15)
BLUE = (0, 0, 20)
CYAN = (0, 10, 10)
GREEN = (0, 20, 0)
YELLOW = (10, 10, 0)
ORANGE = (15, 5, 0)
RED = (20, 0, 0)
WHITE = (3, 3, 3)

COLORS = [MAGENTA, VIOLET, BLUE, CYAN, GREEN, YELLOW, ORANGE, RED, WHITE]

cpx.pixels.fill(WHITE)

while True:
    for i in range(7):
        # uncomment block to check the raw touch pad values
        # print("raw %s value for pad " % i)
        # print(touch_pads[i].raw_value)
        # time.sleep(.5)

        if touch_pads[i].value:
            # print("Touched %s" % i)  # uncomment for debugging
            cpx.pixels.fill(RED)
            cpx.play_tone(660, 0.7)
            cpx.pixels.fill(COLORS[i])

Code Breakdown

Libraries

Here's what's going on in the code. First, we import the board, touchio, and adafruit_circuitplayground.express libraries. These give us the commands we need to address the board and it's capacitive touch pads, as well as the NeoPixels by using the cpx commands.

(Note that the time library import is commented out, you will uncomment this if later you decide to check your raw touch values, which is covered later.)

import board
import touchio
from adafruit_circuitplayground.express import cpx
# import time  # uncomment if testing raw read values

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import board
import touchio
from adafruit_circuitplayground.express import cpx
# import time  # uncomment if testing raw read values

Lists and Touchpads

Next, we'll create a list of the board's cap touch pins and initialize them as touchio touch pads. And, we'll set the touch threshold to 3500. This can be tuned later.

cap_pins = (board.A1, board.A2, board.A3, board.A4, board.A5,
            board.A6, board.A7)

touch_pads = []

for i in range(7):
    touch_pads.append(touchio.TouchIn(cap_pins[i]))

for touch_pad in touch_pads:
    touch_pad.threshold = 3500 

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cap_pins = (board.A1, board.A2, board.A3, board.A4, board.A5,
            board.A6, board.A7)

touch_pads = []

for i in range(7):
    touch_pads.append(touchio.TouchIn(cap_pins[i]))

for touch_pad in touch_pads:
    touch_pad.threshold = 3500 

Color Lists

We'll create a set of variables for different colors and their values. Then, we'll create a list of those colors called ... COLORS. This way we can associate an index number for each touch pad to a color in the list.

MAGENTA = (10,  0, 10)
VIOLET =  ( 5,  0, 15)
BLUE =    ( 0,  0, 20)
CYAN =    ( 0, 10, 10)
GREEN =   ( 0, 20,  0)
YELLOW =  (10, 10,  0)
ORANGE =  (15,  5,  0)
RED =     (20,  0,  0)
WHITE =   ( 3,  3,  3)

COLORS = [MAGENTA, VIOLET, BLUE, CYAN, GREEN, YELLOW, ORANGE, RED, WHITE]

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MAGENTA = (10,  0, 10)
VIOLET =  ( 5,  0, 15)
BLUE =    ( 0,  0, 20)
CYAN =    ( 0, 10, 10)
GREEN =   ( 0, 20,  0)
YELLOW =  (10, 10,  0)
ORANGE =  (15,  5,  0)
RED =     (20,  0,  0)
WHITE =   ( 3,  3,  3)

COLORS = [MAGENTA, VIOLET, BLUE, CYAN, GREEN, YELLOW, ORANGE, RED, WHITE]

NeoPixel Fill

We'll then fill all of the on-board NeoPixels white with this command:

cpx.pixels.fill(WHITE)

The Loop

Now that everything is set up, we have the main loop of the program. What happens here is that we'll iterate through each of the seven pads, checking to see if their value is above the threshold. If it is, we fill the NeoPixels red, play a buzzer sound, and then fill the pixels to the color associated with that pad.

while True:

    for i in range(7):

        # uncomment this block to check the raw touch pad values
        # print("raw %s value for pad " % i)
        # print(touch_pads[i].raw_value)
        # time.sleep(.5)

        if touch_pads[i].value:
            print("Touched %s" % i)
            cpx.pixels.fill(RED)
            cpx.play_tone(660, 0.7)
            cpx.pixels.fill(COLORS[i])

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while True:

    for i in range(7):

        # uncomment this block to check the raw touch pad values
        # print("raw %s value for pad " % i)
        # print(touch_pads[i].raw_value)
        # time.sleep(.5)

        if touch_pads[i].value:
            print("Touched %s" % i)
            cpx.pixels.fill(RED)
            cpx.play_tone(660, 0.7)
            cpx.pixels.fill(COLORS[i])

Threshold Tuning

Note the section in the code above that is commented out. If you uncomment it by removing the leading pound symbols (#) you can watch the raw touch values being printed in the Mu REPL or other serial terminal connected to your Circuit Playground Express. Watch for the typical values when not being touched and then the values when they are touched.

If, say, the pads typically read around 2000 but then shoot up to 4000 when you touch them with your tweezers, you could set the threshold to 3500.

With the code uploaded to the board, you're ready to play!

If you'd prefer to code the Adabot Operation Game with MakeCode, this is the page for you!

Getting Started with MakeCode

If you're new to MakeCode, head to this guide to get started. Once you're able to upload MakeCode to your Circuit Playground Express, return here.

Operation MakeCode

The key feature of Operation is that the lights and buzzers alarm whenever your tweezers touch the edge of a hole. We've connected the copper tape at each hole to a capacitive touch pad on the Circuit Playground Express -- now we want to code the board in MakeCode to react.

On Start

First, we set all the pixels to white, with the set all pixels block from the NEOPIXEL category.

Then set the capacitive touch threshold on all pins to 1000 with the button pin A1 set threshold 200 block found in the INPUT category.  You can adjust this value as needed in case your tweezers aren't causing the copper tape and alligator jumper wire antennae to trigger!

Per Pin Block

The rest of the code is very simple! We're going to create an on button A click block from the INPUT category and then change it to on pin A1 down. This is how you can test a pad for a capacitive touch event.

Inside this block we'll set the pixels red when the pad has triggered, and then play a tone. Finally, we'll change the pixels to a unique color, in this case, magenta.

Simply duplicate this block six times, changing each one to use a different pad from A2-A7, and adjusting the colors. That's all there is to it!

Click this button to open the live MakeCode session in your browser.

To play the game, plug in the battery pack and then turn it on. Load the pieces into their holes. Then, with a steady hand, try removing each piece using the tweezers! If you touch the sides and the buzzer goes off, your turn ends! See who can collect the most pieces.