Hardware Maze

Inspiration

We were inspired by the simple mazes with rolling balls. We wanted to combine our interests of hardware and software.

What it does

The maze is connected to the step motor and can tilt left or right. An Android app controls the motor through Bluetooth connection with the Raspberry Pi.

How I built it

We programmed the Android app using Android Studio. The Raspberry Pi contains a Python module that searches for Bluetooth connections using a UUID. The step motor is connected to a shield that connects with the GPIO pins on the raspberry pi. The phone pairs to the Raspberry Pi using Bluetooth connection and the Android app has 2 buttons that control the motor when pressed.

Challenges I ran into

Finding the best way to send data from the app to the Pi was a challenge because there were so many choices. We tried IR blaster, then cloud service, and finally Bluetooth. However, we were unable to establish a successful connection from our app. Given more time, we could probably solve this problem.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We are proud that we were able to put together the hardware and the maze. We were able to connect to Bluetooth with a third party app, which was pretty exciting. In our own Android app, we were able to create working buttons and we almost got the Bluetooth to work.

What I learned

We gained some experience with Android Studio, Raspberry Pi, and BlueTerm. We learned about Bluetooth connections.

What's next for Hardware Maze

We could work on getting the app to work, and once we do that, we can make a better maze out of better materials. We can also improve the UI of the app.

Built With

• android-studio
• python
• raspberry-pi
• step-motor