Close

the precursor device

A project log for Buzzer System for Trivia Events

A low cost wireless buzzer system to aide with trivia events.

k-gilbertK Gilbert 05/28/2016 at 03:460 Comments

When I first started this project a years ago I started with simple idea, I originally designed cases for switches and had wires connecting to shift registers that directly interfaced with a raspberry pi which displayed the number of the first user to press the button after the presenter pressed their button. This system was a mess of wires, which made it figuratively impossible to detangle.

Some images of the original design. first is the cases directly off the printer,

bottom of case, to be hot glued into top with wire running through hole.

Top of case

Next is the switches being fitted into the tops of the case, a wire is threaded through each of the bottom cases. A knot is then tied for stress relief, the cable is soldered to the switch, and the case is hot glued together, i only took photos of the first step.

Switches inserted into top of cases

Then the shift register board wired to the Pi

Because of the obvious flaw of cable management a revision was made intending to be debuted at this year's trivia event, this time I broke the switched down to groups of eight each directly connected to their shift register, the shift register was stored in their respective spool and wired together via removable cabling, the theory being that it was easy to separate the groups and untangling 8 is infinitely easier than the full 24. Unfortunately although it was completed in time for the event this year there were some shorts/bugs in it that made us forgo its use.

We are now 11 months away from the next time we will need it, best time to throw it out completely.

Discussions