escape room - show control system

2026 · SYSTEM DESIGN · INTERACTIVE · SHOW CONTROL

second iteration of the ritual table show control system.

three props. one operator. nothing breaks mid-game.

ritual table, radio, locker — running on a single Raspberry Pi 5, one Node-RED instance, one MQTT broker. the GM sees everything from one browser tab. the player sees none of it.

designed around one question: what does the operator need to trust the system completely?

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(01) ritual table

five RFID readers embedded in a wooden table detect placed objects, transmit JSON state over USB serial. Node-RED triggers QLab audio cues and QLC+ DMX fixtures in response. GM can force-activate individual placements from the dashboard if a reader misses a tag.

(02) radio

potentiometer on an Arduino Nano ESP32 maps to a zone-based state machine: five looping audio stations separated by static zones, simulating analogue tuning. semicircular dial gauge on the GM dashboard tracks knob position in real time.

(03) locker

Arduino controls a tongue-type solenoid lock (max energisation: 2s firmware hardcoded). triggered by hidden player button or GM dashboard hint. microswitch reports drawer open/closed state to dashboard for live monitoring.

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key decisions

· radio enters muted state on reset if dial is left mid-position — the GM shouldn't have to remember to reset a physical knob before each session.

· all props over wired USB serial. udev aliases (/dev/ritualtable, /dev/radio, /dev/locker) persist across reboots regardless of plug order — no surprises on show day.

· game clock colour-coded to game state: blue → green → red (final 10 min). player display and GM dashboard run as separate fullscreen pages — same system, two views.

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tools: Arduino · Raspberry Pi 5 · Node-RED · QLab 5 · QLC+ 5 · DMX · MQTT · OSC · WebSocket · USB serial · Linux udev