With the Duo Pop Popper USB receiver built based on the Pro Trinket, it is now time to install the Game Show Software on your PC or Mac and start using the poppers for play. The figure above shows the game show presenter classic software we used on the Mac to test our USB receiver. We have also included a You Tube video (below) of the game show presenter software being used with the Duo Pop receiver. This video was created by the Game Show Presenter developer so you can see how the USB receiver interacts with the game show software.
We first tested our modified IR USB receiver to make sure it was receiving and sending the corresponding keystroke based on the popper color. Using the TextEdit program on our Mac laptop, we could see keystrokes being generated as we pressed the different poppers. We programmed the Pro Trinket LED to light when it received IR transmissions from the poppers. This shows up as a red glow within the Duo Pop receiver case as shown in the picture. When initially plugging in the USB cable, the Pro Trinket is delayed emulating a USB keyboard due to the Bootloader. In this mode, it flashes red letting you know you can upload a new sketch if desired. After this mode, it should stop flashing and be ready to receive popper responses.
We programmed the red popper to generate a 1 keystroke, the yellow popper to generate a 2 keystroke, the blue popper to generate a 3 keystroke, and the green popper to generate a 4 keystroke. We then started the Game Show Presenter Software and validated responses from the poppers. We have included a game show presenter template below that you can load to test your poppers once building the receiver. The team names are based on the popper colors in our template.
There should be enough range on the poppers to use them in a small classroom setting if you can split the classroom into different groups. Have a designated person from each group assigned to press the popper if that particular group wants to answer based on the game. You can also just have four students at a time use the poppers for small group competitions. This project is also great for a game show night at house parties (especially around the holidays). Either way, you now have an inexpensive wireless game show popper system for keeping students engaged in the classroom or at home! Have fun with IR popper decoding and V-USB programming using the Arduino and Pro Trinket! Follow us on Twitter if you like these type of projects @iTapArcade and make sure to follow @adafruit for their excellent tutorials!
Page last edited September 08, 2014
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