projectnotions.com

Summary

April/May 2013
Kenny B.

Jeopardy style games are popular for their ability to create excitement and to be a learning aid at the same time.  One initial problem when thinking of setting up a Jeopardy game is "What to use to know who answers first."

We made our first DIY electronic "voting" or "first to respond" circuit about ten yeas ago.  A director of a summer camp wanted a new setup, and it seemed to be the perfect opportunity to update the design and perhaps use an Arduino controller for implementing the logic.

After a few hours of perusing the web for updated ideas, we purchased the "Lights and Sounds Buzzers" by Learning Resources for evaluation as the buttons. We used an Arduino to implement the "first to respond" logic and control the lights/buzzers and LEDs.

This design also keeps track of the order in the cases where multiple teams hit their button, so 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place is known.

We were pleased with the end result and it was enthusiastically received by the summer camp director and counselsors.  We'll see how it holds up in it's first "field test" in a few weeks.

The links to the right provide more details on parts, modifications, and code.

This was a fun project.  Best wishes in your search for the "perfect" Game Quiz controller.

Kenny B.

Quiz Game controller in lights test mode

A "Quiz Game" do-it-yourself controller based on an Arduino contoller that implements a "first response" monitor.

Navigation for Quiz Game Controller

• Description
  
• Circuit Diagram
• Video
  
• Code
  
• Parts List
  
• Web Resources
  

Frequently Asked Questions:

• Do you sell an assembled kit?
  Answer: No, I'm sorry we do not sell an assembled project.
   
• Can you modify the project to have more buttons?
  Answer: The project as described here uses most all of the Arduino IO pins for 1) detecting button press, and 2) Activating the buzzer light and sounds.  Some have modified the project to use buttons only for detecting a button press.  On examining the source code, it should be a straight-forward modification to add additional buttons and give up the buzzer "lights and sounds."  A different button would probably be a better choice in that case.
  
  
• Is the source code in the web site complete, it appears to be "cut off" when I download it?
  Answer: It may look like the code is truncated, but several people have told me that it  only looked truncated, all the code is there.