Final project¶

My final project concept is a playing card dealer. I considered other ideas, see week 1 writeup for the other considered ideas. Sketches for the card dealer follow.

Background¶

I frequently play card games, particularly with my daughter. She does not enjoy shuffling and dealing cards. She has shown me products on Amazon that can shuffle and deal cards. Using that as inspiration, I will make a card dealer.

Features¶

Two halves of card deck loaded onto platforms
Human dealer sets # players and # cards into input interface
Automatic dealer activated
Gears at top of dealer push card halves into a chamber
These halves are pushed simultaniously and interlaced (shuffled)
After shuffling, dealing begins
Based on # of players, shuffler rotates to set positions
At each position, a single card is dealt
Repeat until # cards reached

Workplan¶

There are several steps which are likely to be difficult. Consequently, the project will be broken into distinct steps. Each will further the functionality.

These are conceived to be developed in three steps. Key points are noted for each step.

Card distribution
1. Ensure that the mechanism distributions a single card at a time
2. Test a variety of cards (sizes, coatings, age, and more)
Card dealing
1. Put the card distributor on a platform that can rotate
2. The rotations need to stop and set positions
3. These need to be repeated for the numbers of rounds
Card shuffling
1. Add to the dealing mechanism
2. Could be developed independently of the steps above
3. Needs to shoot cards concurrently so they interlace
4. A perfectly interleaved Faro Shuffle would be ideal, though not a necessary requirement