his week, our team focused heavily on final integration, testing, and polishing the user experience ahead of our final demo.
One major focus was verifying and validating the capacitive touch grid. We systematically tested all 81 squares and conducted limit tests to uncover any potential issues. The grid generally performed well, allowing for continuous use over 30-minute sessions. However, we encountered occasional issues where some intersections would get stuck in a “constantly touched” state. About half of the time the system self-corrected, but the other half required a full reboot. These issues occurred approximately five times over 25 tests. As a result, we are prioritizing crash-proofing the system by implementing a method to reset the MPR121 sensors without rebooting the entire setup.
In parallel, we focused on software updates and improving the user experience. We resolved a bug where error messages lingered on the screen longer than intended, and we implemented a new hint feature that highlights relevant rows, columns, or 3×3 boxes depending on the hint phase. These changes make gameplay feel smoother, more intuitive, and user-friendly. We plan to continue refining the interface and gameplay to polish the final experience.
On the hardware side, we finalized construction of the enclosure. After assembling and positioning all electronics, we measured and laser-cut the top surface, creating 81 individual openings for the touch grid and a dedicated space for the external numpad. Since the laser cutter struggled to fully cut through the material, manual finishing was required. Additionally, we adapted the software to address communication issues between the MPR121s and the Raspberry Pi, which arose after integrating newer gameplay features. We adjusted the code to properly map touches to the selected cell and ensure smooth interaction between the hardware and software.
Heading into the final week, our focus remains on full system integration, robustness improvements, final gameplay refinements, and preparing for our final demo.