ECE 477 Digital Systems Senior Design Project Rev 9/12

Homework 4: Packaging Specifications and Design

Team Code Name: Hex Me Baby Group No. 3

Team Member Completing This Homework: Ryan Pawling

E-mail Address of Team Member: rpawling @ purdue.edu

NOTE: This is the first in a series of four “design component” homework assignments, each of which is to be completed by one team member. The body of the report should be 3-5 pages, not including this cover page, references, attachments or appendices.

Evaluation:

SEC DESCRIPTION MAX SCORE

1.0 Introduction 5

2.0 Commercial Product Packaging -

2.1 <Product #1> 10

2.2 <Product #2> 10

3.0 Project Packaging Specifications 20

4.0 PCB Footprint Layout 10

5.0 Summary 5

6.0 List of References 10

App A Project Packaging Illustrations 10

App B Project Packaging Specifications 10

App C PCB Footprint Layout 10

TOTAL 100

Comments:1

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ECE 477 Digital Systems Senior Design Project Rev 9/12

1.0 Introduction

Hackers of Catron is an electronically enhanced version of the popular Settlers of Catan board game. Game setup will be automated, placement of physical pieces on the board will be tracked, and resource trading will be handled through handheld devices. These enhancements to the game will make the game easier to set up and play, resulting in a much improved gameplay experience.

While the economy is handled via a web server, most of the game takes place on a physical game board. Catan is composed of nineteen hexagons which fit together to make up the board. Rather than making the players build this board themselves, simply turning on the game can randomize the playing surface. To accomplish this, each hexagon will use LEDs to designate its resource type. The LEDs are mounted to the surface of the PCB, and a sheet of frosted acrylic is placed above to disperse the light. Dividers will be used to represent the borders and separate the light between the hexagons. Hall Effects will be mounted to the surface of the PCB for the purpose of detecting the magnetic game pieces. It is important that the distance between the PCB and frosted acrylic is optimized such that the pieces are easy enough to detect without interfering with adjacent sensors.

The board also requires space beneath the PCB in order to house the Raspberry Pi, power supply, and pieces. The side panel will include manual buttons and switches to turn the game on/off, reset, and other functions we may realize we need in the future.

2.0 Commercial Product Packaging

In this section, two commercial products are analyzed for positive aspects and whether their beneficial features can be implemented in our design. The designs selected are Dungeons & Dragons Computer Labyrinth Game and The Generals. Unfortunately, these games do not have a strong resemblance to ours since neither implements a board lit by LEDs or proper piece sensing. Finding a board game with either of these qualities proved to be quite difficult.

2.1 Commercial Product #1 - Dungeons & Dragons Computer Labyrinth Game

Figure 1: Dungeons & Dragons in Play (left) and in Storage (right)

The Dungeons and Dragons Computer Labyrinth game consists of a board for several creature pieces, players, and walls [1] . This is comparable to our board in that we place road pieces around the borders of the tiles.

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ECE 477 Digital Systems Senior Design Project Rev 9/12

There are many positive aspects to this packaging design that could be used for our project. First of all, the game pieces fit neatly inside a tray which slides in and out of the package. This idea is planned to be implemented in our own design by having an opening side to store a small container full of game pieces underneath the PCB. Also, the D&D package incorporates a grid where wall pieces can snuggly snap in, as well as indentations for the other pieces. This would be a great feature for our road pieces. Unfortunately, without access to plastic molding, it may make our design too complicated to implement. If we can find access to a tool that can cleanly cut indents into the acrylic, it would be great to have depressions for our pieces to prevent slipping and sliding during play. Finally, this design incorporates space along the edge for auxiliary buttons. It would be useful for our project to have power, reset buttons, and dice roll display along the edge of the board. This may be taken into consideration later, but for now our design will place these features on the side of the package.

Negative aspects of this package include having to manually press each tile and the use of plastic molds. Our design uses Hall Effect sensors such that pieces can be detected without physically pressing buttons. This implementation is much closer to the natural way of play. The surface of the board also has a very claustrophobic and cluttered feel.

Our project is unique in that each tile will be lit by an LED projecting into frosted acrylic. This is for the purpose of identifying each tile’s resource and allows the game to randomize the placement of these resources. Pieces can be placed along the edges, corners, and center of these tiles. Each tile is a hexagon rather than square shape. As a whole, Dungeons and Dragons uses a pretty effective packaging scheme with several features that we may try to emulate.

2.2 Commercial Product #2 - The Generals Electronic Strategy Game

Figure 2: Initial Setup of The Generals

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ECE 477 Digital Systems Senior Design Project Rev 9/12

The Generals is a strategic game like chess or Stratego [2]. It is similar to our package since it uses a flat grid surface to maintain pieces and electronics examine piece movement.

The positive aspects of this package are its sleek clutter-free design, thin board, and ease of construction. We will also use a minimalistic approach for our design. Our board uses a similar simplistic flat surface made from a sheet of frosted acrylic. This will make construction easier and lend an overall appealing look. The thin board is not an option since we need space below the PCB for the raspberry pi. A simple design like this would be much easier to construct from basic materials and tools.

The negative aspects of this package are there is no way to keep the pieces from sliding, no internal storage, and lack of durability. Our design intends to use depressions in the acrylic if possible to help keep pieces from sliding. The sides and base will be made from wood to ensure durability of the board.

As a whole, The Generals packaging design is pretty dissimilar from our own but its simplistic approach can be emulated by our design.

3.0 Project Packaging Specifications

The following constraints must be met for the package design to be successful. These constraints will dictate the packaging specifications. First of all, a large, flat playing surface is required. This will ensure that the hall effect sensors have enough distance between them in order to correctly differentiate between pieces and reduce piece detection false positives. This will also ensure that our board can accommodate the size of our physical playing pieces. The design must also have a short distance between the PCB and playing surface. The hall effect sensors have a range of about 1.2 cm (or ½ inch) for our chosen magnets. This constraint must be met if we wish to accurately detect the pieces. We must also have a semi-transparent playing surface. The game uses RGB LEDs under each tile to signify the type of resource that the tile has [3]. The surface should allow LEDs to shine through and disperse light while still obscuring the view the PCB below. Additionally, the design requires opaque dividers between the resource tiles. This will reduce bleeding of the LED light between tiles. Finally, we will need some additional space underneath the main playing surface. This space will contain the raspberry pi and also a storage chest for the game pieces.

The design will use a hexagon shaped board which is about 2 ½ inches thick. This will allow plenty of space for the raspberry pi and game pieces. The PCB will be cut into a hexagon shape and sit on a shelf about ½ inch below the surface. The surface will be cut from a 0.118 inch sheet of frosted acrylic [8]. Below the surface we will use several plastic white dividers to separate the tiles. These dividers will be tall enough to occupy the space between the PCB and acrylic surface. The space will be constrained by both the Hall Effect sensor range and the height of the 7 segment displays. The exterior of the design will be made by cutting pieces from a thick sheet of acrylic or some other plastic.

One of the sides will be mounted on a hinge so that the board can be opened. This will allow access to the pi where a monitor, keyboard, etc can be plugged in for easy debug. Also the base of the PCB will be exposed, and headers should be available to plug into and reprogram the

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ECE 477 Digital Systems Senior Design Project Rev 9/12

micro. The PCB and acrylic surface can be lifted off of the sides so that we can go back and solder a faulty connection or flywire a broken section. The side of the board will have several cuts for a barrel DC power supply, on/off roller switch, and a reset pushbutton.

4.0 PCB Footprint Layout

This section explains the choices for the selected footprint choices most appropriate for the design. Each of these choices was printed to scale and tested to fit with our physical components.

The Atmel AT32UC3B064 microcontroller is available in several TQFP and QFN packages [4]. I selected the TQFP64 footprint from the atmel.lbr library since our microcontroller is surface mount and TQFP uses leads, making it much easier to solder.

The Austriamicrosystems AS1116 7 Segment Driver fits the QSOP24 footprint from the maxim.lbr library [5]. This driver is also available in TQFN but we figured that a narrower chip would be easier to route on the PCB and easier to solder since we only have to line up two sides.

The Omron W2RF004RM RGB LED Driver uses a TQFP26 package [3]. The footprint was custom designed since a footprint with the same characteristics could not be located in the eagle libraries. The TCS20DLR Toshiba Hall Effect Sensor uses an SOT-23 package which was also custom designed.

The Kingbright DC56-11EWA 2 Digit 7 Segment comes only in a through hole package called DA56 [6]. This footprint was easily found in the display-kingbright.lbr library.

The Cree® PLCC4 3 in 1 SMD LED comes in a PLCC-4 Package [7]. The P-LCC-4-3 footprint was selected from the led.lbr library since it is designed for an RGB led and fits the dimensions. It should be noted that the pad numbering is different from what is given in the LED datasheet and the footprint should possibly be modified to prevent confusion.

The PCB size requirements depend on the size of an actual Catan board. Since our design intends to be of the same dimensions or slightly smaller than a regular Catan board, the dimensions of the PCB can be calculated using the hex tile dimensions. The size of a Catan board is 15.625 in x 14.875 in (400 mm x 380 mm). The area is approximately 232 in2 (152000 mm2).

5.0 Summary

In summary, the packaging design must meet certain requirements in order for our game to be playable. It must have a thin enough surface to detect pieces. The surface must be big enough for the sensors to differentiate between pieces on the board. The surface itself must be translucent in order for the LED light to disperse. These constraints dictate that our board must resemble a design similar to that in appendix B. There are still a few aspects that could end up modified as the design runs its course, but these core criteria must always be met.

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ECE 477 Digital Systems Senior Design Project Rev 9/12

6.0 References

[1] Board Game Geek, “Dungeons and Dragons Computer Labyrinth Game,” [Online]. Available: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4746/dungeons-dragons-computer-labyrinth-game [Accessed 2 2 2013].

[2] Board Game Geek, “The Generals Electronic Strategy Game,” [Online]. Available: http://boardgamegeek.com/image/756547/the-generals [Accessed 2 2 2013].

[3] Omron, "LED Control IC W2RF004RM," 8 2012. [Online]. Available: http://components.omron.com/components/web/pdflib.nsf/0/A59093552C8ED1C186257A5D0077B1D2/$file/W2RV004RM_0812.pdf [Accessed 4 2 2013].

[4] Atmel, “32-bit ATMEL AVR Microcontroller,” 1 2012. [Online]. Available: http://www.atmel.com/Images/32059s.pdf [Accessed 4 2 2013].

[5] Austriamicrosystems, AS1116 LED Driver IC,” [Online]. Available: http://www.ams.com/eng/Products/Lighting-Management/LED-Driver-ICs/AS1116 [Accessed 4 2 2013].

[6] Kingbright, “Dual Digit Numeric Display,” 3 2011. [Online]. Available: http://www.mouser.com/ds/2/216/DC56-11EWA-43385.pdf [Accessed 4 2 2013].

[7] Cree, “Cree® PLCC4 3 in 1 SMD LED,” [Online]. Available: http://www.mouser.com/ds/2/90/CLV1L%20FKB%201238-218261.pdf

[8] Evonik Industries, “Acrylite Satin Ice,” [Online]. Available: http://www.acrylite-shop.com/US/us/acrylite-sheet/satinice-satin-ice-df-8ww9w0k5tzz.html

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ECE 477 Digital Systems Senior Design Project Rev 9/12

Appendix A: Project Packaging Illustrations

Rendered Drawing

Measure Drawing

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ECE 477 Digital Systems Senior Design Project Rev 9/12

Material Tools Required Weight Cost

Frosted Acrylic Table Saw, Drill, Cement, Buffer 2.3 lb 17.70

Opaque Acrylic Table Saw, Drill, Cement, Buffer 7.3 lbs 67.77

Hinge Drill 5.00

Total Projected ~15 lbs ~$100

Function Part Package Footprint (mm2)

Dimensions (mm)

Count Total (mm2)

Hall Effect TCS20DLRLF

SOT-23 7.75 3.1 x 2.5 145 1123.75

7 Seg Driver AS1116-BSSTCT-ND

QSOP24 51.96 8.66 x 6 5 259.8

RGB LED Driver

653-w2rf004rm

TQFP26 81.765 10.35 x 7.9 7 572.355

Micro AT32UC3B064-A2URCT-ND

TQFP64 144 12x12 1 144

2 Digit 7 Seg

604-DC56-11EWA

DA56 487.325 25.25 x 19.3

20 9746.5

RGB LED 941-CLV1LFKBC7673673

P-LCC-4-3 8.96 3.2x2.8 38 340.48

MUX 595-SN74HC151PW

TSSOP 33.66 6.6 x 5.1 18 605.88

Total Area 12792.765

Appendix C: PCB Footprint Layout

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ECE 477 Digital Systems Senior Design Project Rev 9/12

To Scale Parts Footprint

PCB Footprint (not to scale)

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