Playtesting Part 2 - Final Project Step 5

In preparation for playtesting we needed to make a power source that would be stronger than what our computer could provide. We found a power source that is 5V 20amps, we calculated that we would need at least 5V and 12amps. To use the power source we cut the end off of power cord, stripped the wires and attached them to the power source and then attached power and ground wires that would provide power and ground to the breadboard and Arduino. In this configuration we needed to make sure to attach the Arduino to the breadboard bus lines using the Vin pin and remove the 3 volts connection from the Arduino (and computer) — in this way power would come directly from the power source and not from the computer at all.

We also prepared the our words for playtesting. We chose 16 words that the group would be able to represent. We tried to chose words that we different from eachother. We used sticky notes to make our temporary “word wall”.

We playtested our project in class using only 2 strips of neopixels (30 pixels all together). We also made a temporary top for the control panel out of cardboard.

The biggest problem we ran into during playtesting was that the NeoTrellis was having trouble staying on for more than about a minute. Jeff took a look at the control panel and suggested that once we soldered together the breadboard we probably wouldn’t keep running into this issue.

Simone and Dan playtested the project. It was interesting to hear how they communicated. Dan gave illustative, subjective feedback (as opposed to saying something like the top left is red he would say something like “I am feeling David Bowie”). I am super excited to continue to see how people communicate through this experience! Every partnership will use our project in a different way.