Saturday, April 25, 2015

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Working Prototype

Here is my working Prototype

It is hard to get a good picture of the displays.





The clock on the left is counting down.  The button on the left is lit indicating which player is on the move.  I will try to post a video soon.


Making all of the wiring cables, and soldering everything to the perf board took a lot more time than I had expected.




Saturday, April 4, 2015

Plastic Prototype Enclosure


It is time to move off the breadboards and into the prototype in a box phase.   I bought a plastic storage box for about $4.  It is made from polypropylene which is easy to cut.  I drilled 1 inch holes in the bottom for the two lighted switches, and cut a large rectangle in the side for the displays.


This box is much larger than the final wood version will be.  The wood version will be shaped much more like a Chronos; a bit wider, lower and narrower, with a sloped front for the displays.  I also plan to use mechanical plungers instead of the buttons, but this will work for the prototype.  These buttons have an LED inside that I will use to indicate who is to move.  The sides of this box are transparent, so I won't have to open the box to show off the electronics inside.

Next step is to make wiring harnesses for the displays.  The headers on the displays have male pins spaced 0.1 inches.  This page has instructions for building the wiring harness.  Since the displays only use 12 of the 16 pins, and they are in groups of 6, I will likely use two 6 pin housings for each display.  I can get all the parts at the local electronics shop.

More pictures to follow.