Playing Card Suit Indicator! Euchre! Pinochle!
Introduction: Playing Card Suit Indicator! Euchre! Pinochle!
In this Instructable, I will show you how I made my accelerometer based card game suit indicator. The inspiration behind this project was my family's love for the card game of Euchre (similar to Pinochle). In short, Euchre is a trick-taking card game played most commonly with a deck of 24 standard playing cards (9's, 10's, Jacks, Queens, Kings, Aces, and Jokers). Normally there are four players, two on each team, and the goal of the game is to win as many tricks as possible and be the first team to win with 10 points.
At the beginning of a new hand, "trump" is called and this dictates the card suit that will "trump" or "supersede" other suits during the round. It is without fail that multiple times per round someone seems to ask the dealer "So what is trump?" (essentially wanting to know what card suit will beat the other suits during that round). Rather than having the dealer reiterate the trump suit multiple times, I decided to create this small position based card suit or "trump" indicator that displays the current suit for the entire round.
Once a hand is dealt and trump is declared, all the dealer has to do is rotate the device to the indicated suit. The LCD screen will display the trump suit for the rest of the players. No worries if the dealer cannot see the LCD screen because the back of the device has a painted suit that is the same as what is displayed on the screen.
This was a fairly quick and simple device to make and can be implemented in essentially any game that requires a specific card suit to be known. Follow along if you would like to make one!
Supplies
Electronics:
* Adafruit 1.54" 240x240 Wide Angle TFT LCD Display
* Arduino Pro Mini 5V
* Lithium Ion Polymer Battery 3.7V 500mAh
* 3 Axis Gyroscope and 3 Axis Accelerometer Module
* LiPo Battery Charger Circuit
* Pololu 5V Step Up Regulator
* 16gB microSD card
* Small electronic slide switch
Other:
* 3D Printer (Optional)
* Black PLA Filament (Optional)
* Black, White, and Red Acrylic Paint with Paint Brushes
Miscellaneous:
* Soldering iron and solder
* Electrical tape
* Flexible 28 AWG wire
* Hot glue gun
Step 1: Euchre! Rules and Gameplay
Euchre may seem complicated from an outsiders perspective however it is fairly easy to pick up and a lot of fun to play once you get the hang of it!
Many websites and Youtube tutorial videos do a great job of explaining the rules if you are interested in learning how to play. I will link some below.
* Video How to Play Euchre
* Website - Euchre instructions
As mentioned, this device does not have to be used for Euchre. 267
It really can be used for any game when a card suit would need to be displayed for the players!
Step 2: Schematic and Wiring
I began with first deciding on what components I wanted to utilize for this project. I knew I wanted to keep the overall size of the project fairly small so as to sit on a card table on not take up a ton of space. I ended up choosing an Arduino Pro Mini 5V as the microcontroller for the project as it was small and had enough pins to drive the LCD display and accelerometer. Speaking of the display, I ended up choosing the 240x240 LCD display because it was square, good for wide angles which was ideal for this project, and had the ability to display color. Finally, I found a small 500mAh LiPo battery to power the device. I was unsure how long this would hold a charge with the LCD screen constantly running but after initial testing it easily powered the device for a few hours.
I sketched up a wiring schematic to incorporate the main electronic components as detailed in the picture/schematic pdf. I initially tested the LCD screen and accelerometer using an Arduino Uno but converted to the Pro Mini for the final product. Follow the wiring schematic for how to properly wire up your device!
I will note that I added the Pololu 5V step up regulator towards the end of making this project. The internal 5V regulator on the Pro Mini was unable to take the 3.7V input from the LiPo batter and appropriately power the screen. Adding this regulator was inexpensive, took up little space, and allowed for the device to work properly. 267