A buddy of mine recently picked up one of those table hockey games (where you slide the players back & forth and twist the handles to spin them to hit the puck) dirt cheap and is rebuilding the thing almost from scratch. He has gutted the thing and is only planning on using the most basic componants and replacing/upgrading everything else. Now he has hit a bit of a snag. Neither he, nor I, are terribly good with electronics and while the game had a scoreboard built in that he is going to use, he wants to add a countdown clock and is not sure what he needs or how he needs to put it together. Here is what he is looking for:
I need a clock for the score board, that simply put will start at a pre-determined time say 5 min. then count down to 0.
when the clock hits 0 it needs to turn on a light and keep it lit, the reset to 5min, count down to 0 again
light a second light, then count down one final time to 0, signal a sound and a light and stop.
then have the ability to reset and start the whole process over again.
would like the ability to choose how long each period is, if at all possible.... as 5 might be to long.
recap:
Start button
count down from 5 *signal light*
count down from 5 *signal light*
count down from 5 *signal light AND horn/sound*
Reset
I also require a simple chip for the goal lights that will place a delay on a led light where when signaled it will light up for about 3 seconds and then turn off.
Any tips, tricks, advice, diagrams, ect... would be greatly appreciated.
Microcontroller, possibly with a separate real-time clock module to handle the timing... Driving a timer display either directly or through an LED driver.
Or you could do it the old-fashioned way: use a 555 timer chip to generate a 1Hz waveform, use it to feed decade counters and/or BCD counters paired with 7-segment LCD drivers... Throw in some one-shots to handle the signal lights and sounds...
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It doesn't sound particularly difficult (using one or more microcontrollers). But I am unavailable for new projects for the next three weeks. If the matter is still open by then, you may want to contact/PM me.
Sparky wrote:There is one time missing from the list, how long to keep the Light on, before starting the new 5 min count down.
Or do they want the light on time to be included in the first x units of time during the next 5 minute count down.
The idea is that each light would stay on until the whole thing reset. So the timer starts at five minutes gets to zero and the first light goes on and stays on. The clock counts down again to zero and the second light goes on and stays on (so two lights are now on). Then the clock counts down one final time and when it hits zero the last light goes on and an audio chip is triggered to make an airhorn-esque sound.
I'm not sure if he wants the lights to just stay on until he manually resets the system or if they would just all stay on for something like thirty seconds and then auto-reset.
Another quick question, power for the unit will be AC or batteries? Does he want the signal lights to be light bulbs (AC night light size or the chandelier size bulbs) or LEDs.
Sparky wrote:Another quick question, power for the unit will be AC or batteries? Does he want the signal lights to be light bulbs (AC night light size or the chandelier size bulbs) or LEDs.
He is intending to use LEDs and likes the idea of batteries to make it nice and clean and able to move around wherever without looking for a plug.
That's great it can be done pretty easily in a microcontroller or with a 4541 clocking a 4017. I'll have to think about how to stall the 4017 after the final light is reached. And a way to turn on the horn circuit (the on signal from the 4017 would leave a horn going for good).
The mircorcontroller would be minimal chips and handle the goal lighting as well.
If you want to get nuts and do it in CMOS, you'd be using binary 7 segment displays and you can employ the the 4078 8 input NOR gate chip inhibit the count at zero. You'll have to get the CMOS Cookbook and figure it out for yourself. The 4078 has a pin that goes high only when all 8 inputs go low which only happens at binary zero. You'd employ some binary counters for the 7 segment displays and a counter like the 555 to drive the whole thing. I did a countdown two digit clock in CMOS for a M41a pulse rifle. It was challenging for me. It started at 99, counted down with the trigger and stopped at zero until you took out the clip and slapped it back up to reset at 99.
It'd be so much easier to get a Parallax BS2 and the programming booklet and the little board that loads the program in the chip. That'll be a challenge too, but a more manageable one. Don't do CMOS unless you're a glutton for punishment, you could succeed but you'd prolly fail a few times first.
