Introduction: Lets Play Jeopardy! (with or Without Programming)

"What is the captial of Venezuela?" the Jeopardy! host asks.
The fourcontestants frantically sift through all the trivia in their brains, searching for the answer. Suddenly, Joe knows the solution. But as he reaches for the pushbutton, John suddenly discovers the anwer. Just milliseconds behind Joe, John smacks the button. A human judge would never be able to distinguish the true winner. But, your wonderful DIY Jeopardy! set provides the justified resolution and Ding! the LED corresponding to Joe illuminates.
"Caracas." Joe replies confidently.
"Corrrrrecto!!!" the host replies, "You have just won a gazillion dollars!"


Today I'm going to show you how to make a DIY Jeopardy set! This doesn't require programming, but if you happen to have a Arduino lying around, then go to step 1. For those of you who don't, go to step 3.

**take a look at this (awesome) simulation of the Jeopardy set! This will get you an idea of how the thing is going to work. First, if have Google Chrome, then open this up with it. It works best that way because if you use Firefox or something, the Arduino might look a little albino. Click the "show in viewer button". Then click the play button in the top right corner of the picture to start the simulation and click it again to pause it. Try double clicking on any of the buttons to see what happens. You'll notice that the green LED (it's actually supposed to be a buzzer and the resistor corresponding to it should be 33 ohms) will light up for half a second and the red LED corresponding to the button will illuminate. If you click any buttons after that, the same LED stays on and none others illuminate. This means that the circuit will recognize which button was pressed first.
http://123d.circuits.io/circuits/118420-arduino-jepardy#
**
Special thanks to 123d circuits! You guys rock!

Step 1: The Arduino Way (bill of Materials)

These are the materials if you're the person who has the Arduino lying around. If not, then go to step 3 instead.

-Arduino UNO (duh)
-Piezo buzzer
-Breadboard (singular)
-(4x) pushbuttons
-jumper wires
-(4x) LEDs (make them different colors if you want)
-330 ohm resista
-33 ohm resista
-(4x) 10k resistas
-9V battery

Step 2: The Arduino Way (schematic and Breadboarding)

Setup up the hardware according to the schematics
Then upload the code at the bottom of the page to the board. Test it, and if it works and you're happy with it, then, Congratulations! I guess you're done!
Just press the reset button on the Arduino after each question.

Step 3: Git the Materials

All the materials listed should be available at Radoishack.

-(2x) 74HC32 logic chips (the ones with OR gates)
-(4x) 555 timers (the quantity depends on how many contestants you want to be able to participate... Remember, more doesn't hurt!)
-(4x) pushbuttons (quantity depends on contestants)
-(4x) LEDs of any color (quantity depends on contestants)
-330 ohm resistor
-(5x) 10k resistors (amount of contestants + 1 = quantity of 10k resistors)
-SPDT switch
-Two breadboards (one must be fullsize)
-0.22uF electrolytic capacitor
-0.1uF ceramic capacitor
-(4x) 0.01 ceramic capacitors (quantity depends on contestants)
-5 Volt Regulator
-Jumper wires
-9V battery

Step 4: Schematic and Breadboarding

Setup the components onto the breadboard according to the schematics. Once you get it working, consider these add-ons.

-Place a 555 timer wired in monostable mode (produces a high output for a given amount of time when trigger voltage goes low) and connect them to the output of the pushbuttons. Connect a piezo buzzer to the output pin of the 555 timer. This makes it beep once if any buttons are pressed.

-Make the pushbuttons into separate little modules that use IR to remotely communicate with the "judge" module. If you would like to do that, take a look at my other instructable "Arduino+Picaxe='robot' umpire!". It's the same idea except that you don't have to place the emitter modules in a glove or base. Also, it only has two "players". To include more players, look up the command "irout" for PICAXE and change the Sony code that will be sent. So player1 would have a Sony code 1 sent and maybe player2 would have a Sony code 2 sent and maybe player3 would have Sony code 3 sent. You will also have to change the code for the Arduino. I just going to be a jerk and let you figure it out yourself! ;)

If you're happy with your little set here, then you are done my friend! You can immortalize it on a perf board and make it nice, if you want.