If you have ever watched a TV quiz show you have probably seen contestants trying to press a button in order to win a chance to answer a question. The contestant’s quick reaction time results in some kind of light and/or sound indicating victory. This is a practical way to choose the next focus of the game’s activity and it adds a bit of excitement to the process. So when my company's holiday party planning committee decided to have a trivia contest I decided to build a quiz contestant lockout system to add an extra dimension of fun to the festivities. This would help the planning committee’s mission of creating some entertaining activities for the event.
The minimum requirements were to have a system with multiple buttons that contestants press for a chance to answer a question. The first one to press the button would lock out the other contestants. The system would need to have a simple way to quickly identify who pushed their button first. And finally the system would need to be reset for the next round.
Considering the venue of the holiday party (an upscale wine bar) I felt that the contestant buttons would be one of the most important features. They needed to be hefty and able to withstand abuse by hoards of “beverage enhanced” partygoers. Fortunately I had encountered a really good contestant button candidate while visiting the local office supply store. Staples’ “Easy Button”, as made famous in their humorous ad campaign, is available in their stores. This device is a palm sized button modeled after the one seen in the Staples commercials. It is battery operated with a speaker that says “That was easy” when the button is pressed. It is well made and the ideal shape and size for use by a quiz contestant.
Given that the button is a self-contained electronic device I was confident that I could open it up and extend the switch functionality to the system I was building. The $5 cost was reasonable for the quality of the item. Plus Staples is donating the proceeds from the sale of their Easy Buttons (up to $1,000,000.00) to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. So, planning to build a system that would allow four contestants to play at once, I grabbed four of these and left the store feeling good about my purchase for a number of reasons.
Now that I had the contestant user interface worked out I needed to decide how to implement the system functionality. Due to time constraints this needed to be done with material I already had. This turned out to be an Arduino Uno, one of Adafruit’s Proto Shield kits and some miscellaneous parts. This intro section includes a picture of the completed system that I dubbed the “Quiz-O-Tron 3000” (QT3K for short).
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Signing UpStep 1: Tools and Materials
If you are new to microcontrollers or curious about controlling electronic devices with the Arduino, you may find this instructable helpful. In addition to some background info and explanations, I have included information in some of the steps that may provide you with techniques that can be used for other projects. I’ll discuss some alternate uses for the hardware built for this project later. But for now, here is a list of the tools and materials that were used to create the QT3K.
1 – Arduino ( http://www.arduino.cc )
1 – Adafruit Proto Shield for Arduino ( http://www.adafruit.com )
4 – Staples Easy Buttons
4 – Metal project boxes
1 – Plastic project box with aluminum panel
1 – 9V DC power source (battery, AC adapter, etc.)
20 – Red 5mm LEDs
21 – 3/16” rubber grommets
20 – Rubber feet
20 – 330 resistors
4 – 10k resistors
4 – 2.2k resistors
4 – PN2222A transistors
4 – 1.5k resistors
4 – 15k resistors
4 – 10uF electrolytic capacitors
4 – LM555 ICs
4 – 8 pin DIP sockets
4 – DB-9 female & chassis mount hardware
4 – DB-9 male & chassis mount hardware
4 – DB9 M-F cables with at least 4 straight through conductors
1 – panel mount momentary pushbutton switch
4 – perf boards
hookup wire
heat-shrink tubing
Velcro
solder
soldering iron
screw drivers
nut drivers
needle nose pliers
small hand files
Dremel tool
Dremel drill bits, cutting wheel and cutting bits
power hand drill
standard drill bit set
440 screws, nuts, washers
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int maxPins = 4; // Max number of pin sets
..to this...
int maxPins = 3; // Max number of pin sets
...and you should be good to go.
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for the temp button did you solder the leads to the terminals of the button?
because i dont want to go spend alot for easy buttons, is it possible to run a temp switch (one similar to a arcade game button) instead without inserting any resistors?
-Ryan
and you are right about the PWM circuits. I was thinking that a RGB LED could be used to give an indication to who chimed in first, second, what have you could be illuminated with a corresponding color, and the first responder could get the rainbow effect
of course, I believe this wold entail replacing the 555 timer with a ATmini with the proper code, that could be triggered by the MCU.
once again, great work!
and the Arduino is pretty there is also the notion of of having a scoreboard, perhaps one on each slap unit. but I'm thinking we would be approaching a Arduino unit or just a custom PCB with a Atmega in each base unit
I would be interested to learn about your version. Keep me posted.
Please can you give an approximate cost in dollars of this project. Also, you only listed where the arduino and the shield can be purchased, can I assume that everything else is available at radioshack. This is a really impressive instructable and I admire the fact that you've laid it out so elegantly. Thank you for your time.
I mocked up the project using my arduino but then transferred the 328 to a perfboard arduino that cost about $7.
Bought 1 project box for the brains at radio shack for $3.
A handful of LEDs.
A spook of telephone wire for the hookups between the buttons and brains. ~$7.
Also you could go cheaper on the connectors (or go without) between the buttons and base station.
I think that was it. So you could get away with spending possibly under $30.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Perfboard-Hackduino-Arduino-compatible-circuit/
www.adafruit.com
I'm starting to get things prepared for this build, even attempting to use the suzo/happs buttons if possible like masterhibb. Thanks in advance
They're more expensive than the Staples buttons, but they've got a much nicer feel to them, and they are still built to stand up to abuse (since they're designed to be mashed on hundreds of thousands of times at an arcade). They also have the added benefits of coming in multiple colors, and having a built-in light so the whole dome can glow when the player buzzes in.
Thanks for the post!
the project is great! and i want to build it. My dad made the suggestion that why use the 555 time module at all?
Can't the software make the transitor go on and off so that the led's also go on and off ?? Then you don't need the whole 55 time thing and you could adjust the blinking speed as wel! plus it'll be less expensive to build and less time consuming.
Any ideas? I'm going to try this out for myself, but b4 i do i'd like to know if this is at all possible?
You certainly could do as your dad suggests and have all the LEDs blink in a programmable pattern. I used the 555 circuit because I have a ton of them laying around and the circuit allowed me to easily implement LEDs that blink with an alternating on/off pattern. Plus I plan to add sound effects to that 555 circuit board so I just want the microcontroller to send an on/off signal.
Let me know how your version works out.
Thanks!
RoysterBot