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Experimenting with a DIY RFID Table and Broadcast Overlay (4 Viewers)

I've had some unexpected dr. visits over the last several months, including an urgent appendectomy last Wednesday, so it's been slow going on this project.

After I got the China RFID cards I did some work on the web side to allow new decks to be added to the application (scan a card, enter the suite and rank, save to mongodb).

Also, today, I've been doing some research on how to work the RFID antenna into the PCB design and got some of the schematic done for that. This part is waaay over my head but we'll get there (lots of learning and reading to do).

In the next few weeks I'm hoping to put the custom cloth T_Chan so generously provided to good use by making a new table mock up - need to grab the ply, route out the antenna areas and wiring channels, etc. and get some new padding.
 
Amazing project. I hope you keep the health and motivation to keep working on it. Wish you the best !
 
So.... the kids are back in school as of yesterday and I have Wednesdays off. I'm hoping to get back to this project some now that I'll have some blocks of kid-free hours. It might be just picking off the low-hanging fruit easy stuff, or maybe I'll jump back in balls deep. Who knows, I can be flakey :LOL: :laugh:
 
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eightyWon said:
coming to grips with my mortality
Click to expand...
I ran into the cancer monster a few years back. People going through treatment either have this "what have I done with my life" experience or a "what should I do with my life if I survive" experience. Going toe-to-toe with death, I guess that is reasonable. Nobody would fault you for re-prioritizing projects.

I however, didn't. A few friends came in to help with set-up when the treatments had sapped all my strength. A number said "we understand if you want to cancel". I wouldn't. The month of treatment was easily the worst I have ever felt but I continued to do the things that brought me, and those around me, joy.

Sadly, we all will die. Do things you enjoy, and don't waste your time with the inevitable.
 
Hi - I'm new here - saw this thread somehow and was stoked that this is a newish thing. Would love to help with development and testing. I do a lot of linux/docker/kubernetes/node.js work for my day job so I may be able to help get this thing off the ground
 
Yo, any update Im super intrested. I am looking into RFID and its super expensive so I was thinking about doing just the river.
 
Everything continues to come back pretty normal and the docs aren't worried so I'm not either ;)

No real updates on this project lately. Thinking about making my code on github public if there's interest (was going to wait until it was mostly finished but eh).
 
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I've been working on refining the design of my RFID reader circuit/PCB in the last 2 weeks.

There were a number of mistakes and/or wrong assumptions in the design along with stuff that just needs to be verified/worked through. I'm still in the process of doing that.

This first beta version is going allow for just 1 antenna. It's a big step up in complexity from what I've done in the past.

Once version 1 is working, I'll approach multiplexing with a goal of hopefully allowing up to 16 antennas per device, meaning (also hopefully), just 1 device per table. I'd prefer to avoid having to figure out how to make devices linkable.

I haven't done any actual work on the software side, but I've been really getting into golang for both other personal and professional projects, so I'm thinking about switching from away from a MEAN stack for the front end to go. The resulting application would be way more light-weight and easier to install and manage.

Hoping to keep the steam going because I know a lot of folks were excited about this one. I am too, just a motivation thing :)
 
v1 schematic submitted to /r/printedcircuitboard for smarter people to review :cool

JOjxndp.png
 
Well, my review thread has been viewed 1.7k times and no one has shit on the design or said it'll rip a hole in time and space so...

Started on initial PCB placement and some light routing:


6Ml5IZx.png



Thinking ahead, I was initially going to assemble the board myself like I did my BBQ thermometer board but I've been reading more about fab houses who do assembly too and it doesn't look like too bad of a deal. I have a DIY reflow oven but considering the price of Chinese assembly (pretty cheap) my setup and soldering skill, I think I'm going that route.

Downside is each revision might 2-3 weeks to have a board in hand, upside is it's assembled, I won't accidentally swallow lead (at least from this project), AND I can use smaller components without fear of having to hand-solder them or rework them which is a big plus.

Placement and routing should only take a solid night of work but I'm slow and bad at it so prolly looking at two weeks. This is the stage, too, where I have to verify parts availability and re-re-review the technical details (packages, cap and resistor values, etc.), so it's a bit of a slog but kinda fun as the board takes shape!

The best part is when the board finally arrives and you plug it in and it smokes!
 
So, just to understand a bit, are you still using the pepper c1 or are you sort of designing something close to it? How many antennas do you plan to use with this version? Good luck
 
LaBestiole said:
So, just to understand a bit, are you still using the pepper c1 or are you sort of designing something close to it? How many antennas do you plan to use with this version? Good luck
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I'm trying to design my own RFID reader because of the limitations of the pepper C1 (limited to 8 antennas/board, no WSS client mode, no SSL-secured WSS) plus just for the fun/challenge/learning.

v1 of my board will only support 1 antenna. It's basically a proof-of-concept to makes sure I can get the RFID bit working. Once v1 is working, I hope to design v2 to allow up to 16 antennas with the idea being that should support a full 10-person table off one board (one antenna at each seat, other 6 for board and muck spots).

-

Progress!:

oetvbcA.png


jaGxtJx.jpg


(hopefully Tommy doesn't mind the little easter egg)
 
Well, for better or for worse, the order is in:

Cq2uvDh.png


Final render of v0.1:

3bBFMNj.png



There's one part that the manufacturer didn't have in stock but digikey and mouser have a ton of them so I don't think it'll be a roadblock, just need to wait for the fab shop to get them in and then we're off to the races! I hear around a 10 business day for production and shipping and then we can see if it blows up!

Then firmware...

Once I have the board(s), verifying the ESP32 works and takes programming won't be hard, but depending on the availability of Arduino libraries for the RFID chip, there may be a few weeks at least of programming to get the firmware working to test that part.
 
Still doing stuff while I wait for a few of the components to come in at the fab shop (might still be a few weeks).

I've started researching and designing v2 of the rfid reader. Early stages but going well. I'm taking extra time to do it right this time in various ways.

I've also started working on a redesign of the frontend in go instead of node/angular as mentioned before. Making good progress here, too.

Been spending some time considering from a UX perspective how everything will flow and work.

Given you've got the hardware installed in your table and you're plugging it in for the first time, what needs to be configured and how does that work and look?

When you're ready to broadcast a game, how does connecting the hardware to the frontend work and look?

How about feed security (outside of obvious SSL/TLS but operationally)?

Lots of things I'm brainstorming on right now in terms of the design of the whole package.

I would love to hear what your ideal solutions look like as well as what features they include.
 
Late to this party. I have to say the power of this project is that I am 100% not interested in anything like this for any game I would be involved in but I am 110% fascinated by this project and can't wait to follow all the continuing twists, turns, and updates. You should get some sort of PCF medal. They do give out medals here don't they?
 
How do we feel about the name "WholeCast"?

Like a play on the fact that we're casting "hole" cards but it's the "whole" package, hardware, software, etc?

I don't really like it but I'm struggling with a name
 
MeridianFC said:
Late to this party. I have to say the power of this project is that I am 100% not interested in anything like this for any game I would be involved in but I am 110% fascinated by this project and can't wait to follow all the continuing twists, turns, and updates. You should get some sort of PCF medal. They do give out medals here don't they?
Click to expand...
I'm pretty much the same here. PCBs and coding are so far over my head despite my otherwise well rounded technical knowledge. But I'm fascinated watching people try and solve an interesting problem. I have no desire to do this for my home game, but the DIY stuff here is always really interesting.

Good luck with this project! Excited to see how it comes together!
 
Still waiting on the fab shop for v1 of the RFID board. Not unlike cards mold chips, dealing with the Shenzhen time difference is fun and every change takes pretty much a full day.

Here's a dumb little demo of some concepts I have in mind for a page the dealer could optionally use to control stuff related to a game broadcast:


This isn't what a final version would look like, I'm just working through some ideas/concepts.

In this video we see a shot clock, tap/click to start, tap/click to pause, long tap/right click to reset. Time will be adjustable in settings menu.

Also is the concept of the dealer moving the button at the start of a hand so positions can be correctly displayed on the stream by player names.

Eventually we'll design for both mobile and desktop.

Other things I'm going to test on the "dealer" interface is buttons to fold specific hands, reset the whole hand, and input actions at a tap for players (check, bet, raise, fold).
 

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