eHome Digial Tools

I'm working on a program that plays dartboard games. This is software that is simular to what you see at a pub. It is touchscreen based, and will be runable from eHome. It will connect to an electronic dartboard that has been converted to work with it. At this point I'm about 20% finished with it. Most of the design is done and I have a 301 (x01) plug-in for the game system in the initial creation phase. I've converted a dartboard to work with it too. Once I get further along, I'll take some screenshots of the hardware and software.

OK - I am hazy on this. How is it going to work?

I've opened two dartboards already and they both use the same system for detecting a "hit". Both use a round (the shape of the board) matrix membrane that is exactly like a keyboard. I've taken a broken (missing keys) keyboard from work, ripped out the control interface (so it's just a USB cable to a small circuit board) and I'll solder the outputs from the dartboard membrane to the inputs on the circuit board and then plug it into the touchscreen.

When a dart hits the board it will essentially push a key on the keyboard and the program just waits for keypress events.

Cool! I dunno about throwing things near my touch screen, though!

I guess you need 62 inputs?

Looks like others have tried this, but the contact time from a dart is too short to generate a keystroke. Have you seen otherwise?

Really? I looked around and didn't find anything, send me a link!!

Just in the testing I did, it shouldn't be. Try pushing any key on your keyboard as fast as you can. You cannot miss. All I've done so far is removed the dartboard matrix and hook it into the keyboard controller interface and plug that into my laptop to see if when I pushed on the contacts, if it would register a keystroke, which it did. When I get home tonight I'll just position it behind the darboard again and throw some at it to totally make sure

Yep seperate 62 keystrokes. I could find a key for each one if I use the keypad. But I would rather use a base set of 21 keys and map them as standalone, shifted, and ctrl'd. It's going to take a bit of work to do that, but I think it will be easier to use in the long run.

This is also the plastic dartboards, not a bristle. I haven't wanted to spend the money on an electronic bristle board.

Linky...

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/off-topic/22375-help-hardware-hack.html

Oh noes.. Hmm.. Well I guess I'll just have to try and find out. Seems that the problem only is in the keyboard controller, not the dartboard. The keyboard controller needs to see the signal for a certain amount of time. So that could be different for each keyboard.

Dad since you were an electronic engineer so long ago, is there something you could hook up to a wire that repeated the signal for a certain amount of time?

Wait...

Dad?! Is that JakeBullet?

Engineer?! No way!Me too!

Called MMV's (monostable multivibrators), you may need 62 of them puppies!

Maybe one of the MAME input boards would be better...

http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html

You would need the I-PAC4 to get over 56 inputs, though, and that would require using the Shift input somehow.

[quote=
electronic engineer so long ago[/quote]

Dad? yep, thats me. Tony meet Thraka, my oldest. Quite a programmer himself. (in fact he wrote the script engine class you use so well.)

hhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmm... More like an electronic tech.
But! That was like 52 ex-wives ago!!!! but I like to think of it in ice ages... then it was only 1

Now I am just a code monkey living in a 2nd world country struggling to get the internet turned on!
Wishing I had hot water, a Wendys triple hamburger and a PIZZA!!!!!

Nice to meet you, Thraka!

Nice to meet you too Tony. Though I've been looking at your screenshots via Jake's emails for awhile

Bah yeah it doesn't register :(:( Sucks!! I actually have an IPAC 4 but that would require PS2 input and the SHIFT, i'm not too sure. I just found out too that the board I'm using for testing registers each SECTION of the board seperately. So I have to link the two sections of a single score, doh!

I think building out the monostable multivibrator would be a bulky task wouldn't it? i'm trying to look up on how to buy one but I cannot find them. I wouldn't need 52 of them would I? I would just need one for each input to the keyboard board right? Like the matrix from the dartboard is in two parts, one part has 6 inputs and the other 10. I need one of these hooked to each input then the output of that circuit to the input of the keyboard board.

Correct?

building one should not be to bad. Do a search for 'monostable multivibrator kit'
maybe Tony can point you in the right direction.

What you have is a typical switch/keypad matrix...

http://www.rentron.com/serkey16.htm

http://www.avr-asm-tutorial.net/avr_en/keypad/keyboard.html

You can't add an MMV to a matrix and you can't use a matrix with an IPAC4.

Here are some other options to peruse...

http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade_input.shtm

I wonder if a joystick would suffer from the same problems?