Week 19, Project dissemination¶

Fab Academy Final Project Dissemination Plan¶

Project Summary¶

My final project is a playing card dealer. It allows for selection of number of cards and numbers of players.

Target Audience¶

The audience for this is lazy card came enthusiasts, as well as people that like to make projects to simplify tasks.

Dissemination Channels¶

This will be disseminated via my Fab Academy documentation site. I will include all design files, material lists and source code. Documentaiton on assembly will be included.

I anticipate further refinement after completion of Fab Academy. As I still have issues to solve, I want to make the project more polished before possibly publishing on sites like Instructables](https://www.instructables.com).

I see the current version of my card dealer as an initial spiral towards a more polished product. I can name several improvements and refinements I’d like to add.

Power¶

Currently driven by USB as a power source, it would be good to be battery powered

Card distribution¶

The card roller mechanism can be improved. In current version, sometimes multiple cards are distributed to a single player. I think there can be both hardware and software improvements.

For hardware, a stepper motor is limited in the top speed. While untested, I think a faster motor might be able to more reliably distribute cards. However, DC motors may not have the fine control which can be achieved with a stepper motor. A combination might be interesting to explore, where a stepper motor starts to eject a single card, which is then grabbed by a DC motor.

Additionally, for his final project, Magnus is working on a very interest mechanism to select cards with a servo motor.

For software, problems can arise when the roller is pushing multiple cards. A solution could be to roll forward enough to eject a single card, then roll backwards to retract any card which have started to eject prematurely.

Packaging¶

I’d like to make the overall device size smaller. The current case has a lot of empty space. Among other things, the PCB could be made much smaller. The current case width and length is largely based on having sufficient space for the PCB.

Shuffling¶

My ultimate goal would be addition of a shuffling mechanism prior to the dealing. Then, cards could be loaded into two sides of the overall device, shuffled together, and then dealt. My original thought included this, but I focused on dealing cards in my first spiral of development.

Licensing and Open Source¶

I am putting my project under the open source license CC BY-SA 4.0. Without the acronyms, this license is the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike. It allows for re-distribution and re-use of the work on the condition that the creator (me in this case) is appropriately credited, and that and any derivative work is made under the same, similar or compatible license. Redistribution can include commercial use, as long as the Attribution and ShareAlike terms are followed.

I chose this license because I’d like to open the possibility that others could develop further an open source card dealer.

Documentation Checklist¶

The final project documentation will include:

This will all be in place for the presentation of the final project.