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PaperclipPerfector  7mo ago (text post)   3717 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 3, 2024

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Maybe a computer mouse or something like an NES controller for playing retro games? Alternatively some kind of optical scanner that can read barcodes/QR codes for data retrieval.

Maybe a computer mouse or something like an NES controller for playing retro games?

Doable, though I'd need to step up on 3d printing for anything usable for the longer term. Retro gaming's a lot more hit or miss than I would have expected for a lot of the teenagers I get, though.

Alternatively some kind of optical scanner that can read barcodes/QR codes for data retrieval.

Barcodes is possible. QR codes are rough: either you're using a prebuilt module for the heavy lifting and just spits out a boring (usually UART) stream, putting a RaspPi in a box, or you're throwing camera focus and bulk memory management and illumination all in at once on a microcontroller project.

Displaying changing QR codes on ePaper or oled displays aren't too hard. Dunno if that's anything students would useful.

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