There are several good Jeopardy/Game Show lockout buttons/buzzers, but none incorporate the timing rules of Jeopardy. I am learning about the Arduino and I thought that this would be a great project to practice with.
The rules include a question reading period with no timeout to reading the question. During this period, any player who tries to ring in receives a 250 ms penalty. When the question is finished, players have a five second window to ring in and a five second timeout to answer. After an answer timeout or a wrong answer, there is another five second window to ring in and the flow proceeds until a player answers correctly or all players have rung in and have answered incorrectly or the ring-in window has timed out.
Initially, I built my project on a solder-less breadboard. When I got the connections worked out I moved to a Radio Shack Universal Component PC Board with 780 Holes which I happened to have bought several years ago. My intention was to use as much from my junk box as possible. I recommend that, if you plan to make this, you consider using the MakerShield Kit from Maker Shed. It is more expensive but it will have the parts you need and save time.
I have not included a lot of detailed instructions on wiring the PC board, since I don't recommend that you use the same board as I did and the circuit is fairly simple. The circuit and the breadboard layout are included.
The rules include a question reading period with no timeout to reading the question. During this period, any player who tries to ring in receives a 250 ms penalty. When the question is finished, players have a five second window to ring in and a five second timeout to answer. After an answer timeout or a wrong answer, there is another five second window to ring in and the flow proceeds until a player answers correctly or all players have rung in and have answered incorrectly or the ring-in window has timed out.
Initially, I built my project on a solder-less breadboard. When I got the connections worked out I moved to a Radio Shack Universal Component PC Board with 780 Holes which I happened to have bought several years ago. My intention was to use as much from my junk box as possible. I recommend that, if you plan to make this, you consider using the MakerShield Kit from Maker Shed. It is more expensive but it will have the parts you need and save time.
I have not included a lot of detailed instructions on wiring the PC board, since I don't recommend that you use the same board as I did and the circuit is fairly simple. The circuit and the breadboard layout are included.
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Signing UpStep 1: Gather Materials
As I said, much of what went into this came from my junk box. I did have to purchase the push-button switches. The minimum parts list is:
1 Blue LED
1 Green LED
1 Red LED
1 Yellow LED
1 White LED
6 Pushbutton (Radio Shack Catalog #: 275-1556 or Catalog #: 275-1548)
6 10k Ω Resistor
4 220 Ω Resistor
1 Arduino (processor ATmega; variant Arduino UNO R3)
1 solder-less breadboard
jumper wires
In addition, if you want to go beyond breadboarding, you might need:
5 LED Holders (Radio Shack Catalog #: 276-079)
1 Project Box (I used a piece of sheet metal bent to a box size of 5"x8"x3", with wood ends. This size provided plenty of room.)
4 3.5MM Mono Male Plug (Ebay)
4 Panel 3.5mm Female Mono Headphone Jack (Ebay)
4 5" sections 1/2" PVC pipe
4 1/2" PVC end caps
20 gauge or 22 gauge ZIP Cord or Speaker Wire
1 MakerShield Kit (MakerShed)
or
1 prototyping breadboard
1 set Shield stacking headers for Arduino (Adafruit)
After I had built the project, I noticed some other projects which had used the MakerShield board with a solder-less breadboard on its top. This is a great idea because it allows you to easily put the project together and then reuse the MakerShield when you move on to the next project.
1 Blue LED
1 Green LED
1 Red LED
1 Yellow LED
1 White LED
6 Pushbutton (Radio Shack Catalog #: 275-1556 or Catalog #: 275-1548)
6 10k Ω Resistor
4 220 Ω Resistor
1 Arduino (processor ATmega; variant Arduino UNO R3)
1 solder-less breadboard
jumper wires
In addition, if you want to go beyond breadboarding, you might need:
5 LED Holders (Radio Shack Catalog #: 276-079)
1 Project Box (I used a piece of sheet metal bent to a box size of 5"x8"x3", with wood ends. This size provided plenty of room.)
4 3.5MM Mono Male Plug (Ebay)
4 Panel 3.5mm Female Mono Headphone Jack (Ebay)
4 5" sections 1/2" PVC pipe
4 1/2" PVC end caps
20 gauge or 22 gauge ZIP Cord or Speaker Wire
1 MakerShield Kit (MakerShed)
or
1 prototyping breadboard
1 set Shield stacking headers for Arduino (Adafruit)
After I had built the project, I noticed some other projects which had used the MakerShield board with a solder-less breadboard on its top. This is a great idea because it allows you to easily put the project together and then reuse the MakerShield when you move on to the next project.
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I wish I had more time to experiment but I don't see that happening for a while. Good luck if you are going to try & let me know what successes you have.
Move the player switches to the analog pins. This frees up contiguous pins for LEDs, See the forum answer at . There is a bad link in the answer to a button tutorial, which should be http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Button.
Actual changes should be, define MAX_PLAYERS as 6, TOP_SWITCH as 19. Move the player switches to analog pins A0-A3 and add switches to A4 and A5. Add LEDs for players 5 and 6 to pins 8 and 9.
It may be quite a while before I have a chance to test this, Let me know if you are able to try it and please, tell me if I got anything wrong.
www.projectsbykec.com/projects/electronics/quizgame
In mine, I tried to keep it simple and in a relatively small package. I like your timer display. I had wanted to include a timer display, probably LCD, but needed a ROUND TUIT.
As for the stand-alone property, if you leave the computer at home, mine can be powered by a nine volt battery. The computer display is not necessary.