Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
54 # Tabletop Fantasy Football
 Nicholas Goo
Parthiv Adimulam
Raahil Parikh
 Xiyue Zhu design_document1.pdf
other1.pdf
proposal1.pdf
Team Members:

Parthiv A.: parthiv4

Nicholas G.: ngoo2

Raahil P.raahilp2

## Problem

Fantasy football is popular, but the apps require a ton of commitment. You need to set up a league, coordinate a draft with a bunch of people, manage your roster all season, and stay engaged for months. It's hard to just casually play with friends.

Say your friend visits on a Sunday during football season. You both want to watch the games and compete head-to-head right now. But starting a fantasy league means league setup, player selection, and a whole season commitment. There's no way to just pick up and play for an afternoon.

Plus, fantasy football is completely digital. You're checking scores on your phone, watching your team on an app. There's no real, shared experience with your friends. Two people sitting together can't actually feel the competition happening between them. Other solutions like LED scoreboards show data but don't let you interact with them, and board games with static scoring need manual updates and don't connect to live sports data.

## Solution Overview

We're building a battery-powered tabletop fantasy football system that lets you play casual head-to-head matchups instantly, without any app setup or season commitment. Two friends can just place cards on a board and compete for an afternoon without league coordination or long-term commitment.

Place NFC-enabled physical player cards on the board to represent your lineup. Start a matchup. The board pulls live NFL stats over Wi-Fi and updates scores in real time. The microcontroller processes the NFC reads to identify which players are placed and where on the board. RGB LEDs react to scoring events with color changes and pulses. Audio alerts go off for touchdowns and big plays. Brightness adjusts based on score changes.

Want to play tomorrow with different players? Swap the cards and start a new game. No app, no league setup needed.

## Solution Components

### Main Control PCB Subsystem

A custom PCB will tie everything together. A microcontroller with Wi-Fi will process NFC data, manage the display, handle the game logic, and talk to a backend server for live NFL stats. The software will debounce NFC reads to make sure we're getting stable player identification and not false reads. Clock crystals, programming headers, and support circuitry will all be on the board instead of using dev boards.

### NFC Subsystem

NFC tags embedded in the player cards. An NFC reader integrated into the PCB detects which cards are placed on the board and where. Position zones map to roster slots like QB, RB, WR, TE, etc. The software maps detected cards to actual player IDs and checks that lineups are valid before starting a matchup.

### Live Sports Data Backend

A backend service connects to an NFL or fantasy sports API to pull current player stats. The system calculates fantasy scores using configurable scoring rules (PPR, Standard, Half-PPR, custom). Player updates get sent to the board regularly. The backend also tracks matchup state and tells the board when scoring happens.

### Display Subsystem

A screen shows current scores for both players, the quarter/time remaining, and key player stats. Updates in real time as NFL games progress and players score. Simple and easy to read during gameplay.

### Visual Feedback Subsystem

RGB LEDs integrated into the board or on player card positions. LEDs change color or pulse when a player scores, gets injured, or other events happen. Brightness scales with total team score or match intensity to give feedback about the game state.

### Audio Feedback Subsystem

A speaker plays sounds for touchdowns, field goals, and major events. Audio alerts signal the start and end of matchups and notify players of scoring updates. Adjustable volume so users can control how loud it gets.

### Power Subsystem

The device runs on external power. Voltage regulation provides stable power to the microcontroller, NFC reader, LEDs, display, and other components.

### User Interface Subsystem

Physical buttons or controls let users start matchups, swap player cards, and adjust settings like brightness and volume without a phone. If we have time, we could add Bluetooth on the microcontroller to enable an app for customizing color assignments, scoring rules, and other settings.

## Criterion for Success

The project will be successful if it can:

- Reliably identify and locate NFC player cards on the board.
- Validate lineup configurations and prevent invalid matchups from starting.
- Fetch live NFL player statistics and calculate fantasy scores based on the configured scoring system.
- Update and display scores as NFL games progress.
- Produce visual feedback (LED color changes or pulses) in response to scoring events.
- Produce audio alerts for touchdowns, field goals, and other major events.
- Allow two players to set up and start a matchup in a reasonable amount of time.
- Operate reliably for extended periods of gameplay.
- Control LED channels independently and show color transitions between events.

Monitor for Dough and Sourdough Starter

Jake Hayes, Abhitya Krishnaraj, Alec Thompson

Monitor for Dough and Sourdough Starter

Featured Project

Team Members:

- Jake Hayes (jhayes)

- Abhitya Krishnaraj (abhitya2)

- Alec Thompson (alect3)

# Problem

Making bread at home, especially sourdough, has become very popular because it is an affordable way to get fresh-baked bread that's free of preservatives and other ingredients that many people are not comfortable with. Sourdough also has other health benefits such as a lower glycemic index and greater bioavailability of nutrients.

However, the bulk fermentation process (letting the dough rise) can be tricky and requires a lot of attention, which leads to many people giving up on making sourdough. Ideally, the dough should be kept at around 80 degrees F, which is warmer than most people keep their homes, so many people try to find a warm place in their home such as in an oven with a light on; but it's hard to know if the dough is kept at a good temperature. Other steps need to be taken when the dough has risen enough, but rise time varies greatly, so you can't just set a timer; and if you wait too long the dough can start to shrink again. In the case of activating dehydrated sourdough starter, this rise and fall is normal and must happen several times; and its peak volume is what tells you when it's ready to use.

# Solution

Our solution is to design a device with a distance sensor (probably ultrasonic) and a temperature sensor that can be attached to the underside of most types of lids, probably with magnets. The sensors would be controlled with a microcontroller; and a display (probably LCD) would show the minimum, current, and maximum heights of the dough along with the temperature. This way the user can see at a glance how much the dough has risen, whether it has already peaked and started to shrink, and whether the temperature is acceptable or not. There is no need to remove it from its warm place and uncover it, introducing cold air; and there is no need to puncture it to measure its height or use some other awkward method.

The device would require a PCB, microcontroller, sensors, display, and maybe some type of wireless communication. Other features could be added, such as an audible alarm or a graph of dough height and/or temperature over time.

# Solution Components

## Height and Temperature Sensors

Sensors would be placed on the part of the device that attaches to the underside of a lid. A temperature sensor would measure the ambient temperature near the dough to ensure the dough is kept at an acceptable temperature. A proximity sensor or sensors would first measure the height of the container, then begin measuring the height of the dough periodically. If we can achieve acceptable accuracy with one distance sensor, that would be ideal; otherwise we could use 2-4 sensors.

Possible temperature sensor: [Texas Instruments LM61BIZ/LFT3](https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/texas-instruments/LM61BIZ%252FLFT3/12324753)

Proximity sensors could be ultrasonic, infrared LED, or VCSEL.\

Ultrasonic: [Adafruit ULTRASONIC SENSOR SONAR DISTANCE 3942](https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/adafruit-industries-llc/3942/9658069)\

IR LED: [Vishay VCNL3020-GS18](https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Vishay-Semiconductors/VCNL3020-GS18?qs=5csRq1wdUj612SFHAvx1XQ%3D%3D)\

VCSEL: [Vishay VCNL36826S](https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Vishay-Semiconductors/VCNL36826S?qs=d0WKAl%252BL4KbhexPI0ncp8A%3D%3D)

## MCU

An MCU reads data from the sensors and displays it in an easily understandable format on the LCD display. It also reads input from the user interface and adjusts the operation and/or output accordingly. For example, when the user presses the button to reset the minimum dough height, the MCU sends a signal to the proximity sensor to measure the distance, then the MCU reads the data, calculates the height, and makes the display show it as the minimum height.

Possible MCU: [STM32F303K8T6TR](https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/STMicroelectronics/STM32F303K8T6TR?qs=sPbYRqrBIVk%252Bs3Q4t9a02w%3D%3D)

## Digital Display

- A [4x16 Character LCD](https://newhavendisplay.com/4x16-character-lcd-stn-blue-display-with-white-side-backlight/) would attach to the top of the lid and display the lowest height, current height, maximum height, and temperature.

## User Interface

The UI would attach to the top of the lid and consist of a number of simple switches and push buttons to control the device. For example, a switch to turn the device on and off, a button to measure the height of the container, a button to reset the minimum dough height, etc.

Possible switch: [E-Switch RA1113112R](https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/e-switch/RA1113112R/3778055)\

Possible button: [CUI Devices TS02-66-50-BK-160-LCR-D](https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/cui-devices/TS02-66-50-BK-160-LCR-D/15634352)

## Power

- Rechargeable Lithium Ion battery capable of staying on for a few rounds of dough ([2000 mAh](https://www.microcenter.com/product/503621/Lithium_Ion_Battery_-_37v_2000mAh) or more) along with a USB charging port and the necessary circuitry to charge the battery. The two halves of the device (top and underside of lid) would probably be wired together to share power and send and receive data.

## (stretch goal) Wireless Notification System

- Push notifications to a user’s phone whenever the dough has peaked. This would likely be an add-on achieved with a Raspberry Pi Zero, Gotify, and Tailscale.

# Criterion For Success

- Charge the battery and operate on battery power for at least 10 hours, but ideally a few days for wider use cases and convenience.

- Accurately read (within a centimeter) and store distance values, convert distance to dough height, and display the minimum, maximum, and current height values on a display.

- Accurately read and report the temperature to the display.

- (stretch goal) Inform the user when the dough has peaked (visual, audio, or app based).

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