Electronic Craps Table

Objective Design a system to incorporate electronics into the game of craps to track bets and payouts while maintaining the interactive appeal of the game.

Electronic Craps Table Craps is a dice game played in casinos all over the world. In this game the players place bets against the casino on the outcome of the roll of two dice. The game is operated by three highly trained casino employees; two dealers and one stickman. A full table may have up to 16 players at one time. Background

Electronic Craps Table With a large amount of players, tracking every bet can be difficult and mistakes can occur. The pace of the game also slows down as bets are placed, paid out or collected. Background

Electronic Craps Table Currently there are electronic versions of craps used in casinos, but these machines are completely automated and play more like a slot machine than the traditional game of craps. Electronic Craps Machines

Electronic Craps Table This project is designed around two input stations and a main computer to track player action, the roll of the dice and automatically payout or collect bets. This design will be operated by only one dealer, increase the pace of the game and eliminate errors in over or under payments on placed bets. Design

Electronic Craps Table

The player station consists of an LCD screen and 11 input buttons. The six input buttons on the left navigate through the player menu and select bets displayed on the LCD. The three input buttons on the right are chip denominations used to enter the amount of the bets. The two input buttons on the bottom are used to clear and enter the player’s bets. Player Station

Electronic Craps Table The dealer station consists of an LCD screen and eight input buttons. The LCD displays the value inputted for each die by the dealer. The six input buttons to the left are used to input each die value after the roll of the dice. The two input buttons on the bottom are used to clear or enter the value of each die. Dealer Station

Electronic Craps Table A Raspberry Pi computer is used as the main CPU for the system. The player and dealer stations are connected through the General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) pins and the composite video port on the Raspberry Pi. Main Computer

Electronic Craps Table The software operating the game was developed using the C programming language. The program is split into four sections: gameplay, player bets, player payouts and hardware input. The gameplay section controls the flow of the game according to roll of the dice and calls the other portions of the program at the appropriate times. The player bets section controls the player betting stages of the game. The player payout section checks every bet after each roll of the dice and determines which bets are to be paid out or collected. The hardware input section integrates the input signals from the dealer and player stations with the rest of the program. This program utilizes the WiringPi library developed and copyrighted for use by Gordon Henderson. Software

Electronic Craps Table The electrical circuit for the player and dealer station consists of a pull- up resistor switch for each input switch. A 5.1 kW resistor is used to limit the current to the input pin to 0.65 mA and is placed between the 3.3 volt voltage source and the input pin of the Raspberry Pi. A tactile switch is connected in parallel to the input signal and then to ground and used for player/dealer input. Electrical Circuitry

Electronic Craps Table The circuit provides an input high signal to the input pin while the switch is open and an input low signal to the input pin while the switch is pressed closed. To address the natural switch debouncing that occurs within mechanical switches, a function was written to only input a low signal once as the switch is closed using conditional if else statements to check the previous and current state of the switch input. Electrical Circuitry

Electronic Craps Table The completed software program was tested by comparing its results with several online craps games. The pull-up resistor switch was tested with an oscilloscope and digitally with a written test program. The entire system was tested two different ways. The first method was similar to the software program testing with the assistance of an online craps game. The second method involved another person with experience playing craps and myself taking turns playing the game at both stations and checking the actual outcomes with the expected results. System Testing

Electronic Craps Table The system as a whole achieved the main goals of my project. It integrates an electronic system with the game of craps while keeping the player interaction of rolling the dice. The gameplay runs smoothly within the programmed software, while the hardware of the dealer and player stations provides the selected inputs for the system. There were a couple unsuccessful portions of the project. The magnetic stripe card reader was not able to be integrated with the software and the player station graphical user interface was not able to be successfully implemented in the system because of time constraints. Project Results

Electronic Craps Table

I would like to thank Dr. Stanislaw Legowski, Dr. Jerry Hamann, Vic Bershinsky and George Janack for their help and guidance with this project. Questions?