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#1 SushiKitten

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Posted 19 October 2014 - 05:59 PM

Hey guys! So some of you know I've recently taken control of my university's anime club. In April, we usually do a Jeoparody panel at the local convention. To answer questions, we just use the hand method, whoever raises their hands first gets to answer the question, but when there's 9 or 10 participants and they all raise their hand at the same time, it's really hard to know who to choose.

 

So for next year, I wanted to make a set of 9 or 10 buzzers. I was considering modding the Staples easy button (or similar) to transmit to my computer, and from my computer I'll be able to see who pressed first. I could also set the time when the buttons can be pressed from my computer, so no one presses early. It'd also be cool to set a sound for each buzzer, for comedy.

 

Only I'm not sure how. Would bluetooth be the best communications means? I think I'd be better off programming my own PIC rather than getting 10 Arduinos, since they're much cheaper and I have the means to interface them myself. I'm also not sure about the program so I can interact with the buzzers through my computer. Any ideas?



#2 SpleenBeGone

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Posted 22 October 2014 - 06:35 AM

Do the easy buttons actually have a switch in them? If not, Sparkfun has a similar thing; https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9181

Or cheaper, actual emergency shutoff buttons, but they don't have housings. http://www.amazon.co...ushroom buttonĀ 

http://www.amazon.co...mushroom button

 

I think if you want to go wireless, bluetooth will probably be easiest. I'm thinking wired through USB (Or serial. >.>) would be easier.

Here's a few sites that may help you out.

 

http://www.almorale....IY-buzzers.html

http://www.almorale.com/buzzers.html

http://www.slammersy....com/index.html

http://www.upcquiz.c...ourn/buzzer.php


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#3 Guest_ElatedOwl_*

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Posted 22 October 2014 - 03:20 PM

I'm not sure you'd want to do it with bluetooth, if you're using the non low energy version you're limited to 7 devices, and afaik the low energy version doesn't timestamp packets so you couldn't reliably handle latency variation/corrupted packets (I don't know that the non low energy version does have the timestamps either)

 

Pretend you have two buzzers, A and B, connected host H.

 

A buzzer hit

A sends packet to H

B buzzer hit

H receives A packet, is corrupt, requests new packet

B buzzer sends packet to H

H receives B packet successfully

H receives A packet successfully

 

Doing it via TCP/IP would include a timestamp with the packet though, so you can reliably tell which one was sent first and not rely on what arrives first. But that would also require a wifi connection. (although I did find a paper here on time synchronization via bluetooth that is accurate enough to handle)

 

 

Doing it with a wired solution would be much simpler, honestly.



#4 gigatime

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Posted 22 October 2014 - 04:30 PM

errr.... I feel bad for asking this because it doesn't help you at all... but i really would like your anime list ;)



#5 SushiKitten

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Posted 23 October 2014 - 12:33 PM

I'm not sure you'd want to do it with bluetooth, if you're using the non low energy version you're limited to 7 devices, and afaik the low energy version doesn't timestamp packets so you couldn't reliably handle latency variation/corrupted packets (I don't know that the non low energy version does have the timestamps either)

 

Pretend you have two buzzers, A and B, connected host H.

 

A buzzer hit

A sends packet to H

B buzzer hit

H receives A packet, is corrupt, requests new packet

B buzzer sends packet to H

H receives B packet successfully

H receives A packet successfully

 

Doing it via TCP/IP would include a timestamp with the packet though, so you can reliably tell which one was sent first and not rely on what arrives first. But that would also require a wifi connection. (although I did find a paper here on time synchronization via bluetooth that is accurate enough to handle)

 

 

Doing it with a wired solution would be much simpler, honestly.

Yeah emo, you're right. I did a bit of research on it myself and it looks like a wired version would be much simpler. 

 

 

errr.... I feel bad for asking this because it doesn't help you at all... but i really would like your anime list ;)

Nah, don't worry about it, haha! http://hummingbird.m...iKitten/library It's not everything I've watched but it's a lot of what I've watched recently.



#6 gigatime

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Posted 23 October 2014 - 04:29 PM

Nah, don't worry about it, haha! http://hummingbird.m...iKitten/library It's not everything I've watched but it's a lot of what I've watched recently.

Whoah that website is awesome! signing up now.