Seeking advice on bingo flashboard upgrade.

[bizzybody]

The local BPOE Lodge has an ancient BINGO flashboard that keeps having electrical issues. Most of the problem is due to its super simple 1 to 1 wiring between the console and the light board. It's identical to the one in the attached image.

The board has 80 #1820 BA9s 28 volt lamps. 75 are switched, 5 are always on to light up BINGO vertically down the left end. The switched matrix is thus 5x15.
That means a minimum of 77 wires if there's just one ground line and the 5 BINGO bulbs use a common positive.

To control the number 1 through 75 bulbs there are 75 holes the caller inserts the balls into as they're drawn, so there's 75 switches. I haven't had a chance yet to look it over real close, there may be some additional switches on the console.

So what I'm looking for is a setup that can handle at least 75 simultaneous switch ON inputs, translate that to data that can be sent out a much smaller cable (like USB) to another device capable of controlling 80 individual LEDs.

Price is most definitely an object, after looking up the cost of bright white LEDs those alone are going to cost nearly $100. I think a $5 RasPi Zero (no WiFi) could handle the lights easily but that's extreme overkill in capability. The price is great though. Could add some fancy stuff like animations such as scrolling BINGO with a button for the caller to push when someone wins. If there was a lot of money available I'd want to go with RGB LEDs for color fades but no way this bunch of folks will spring for that kind of cost.

[lilshawn]

100's of white led's can be had on the ebays for a couple bucks. i would just go with some wide angle 5mm LED's and use one for each number. i'm sure it will light up just fine

an arduino mega has enough inputs and outputs (53) if you do a switch/lamp matrix and is easy enough to program to do what you want with about 15 lines of code... and only cost about 15 bucks. and there are lots of 5x15 LED matrix projects for arduino out there.

throw in a power supply and some cabling and i'll bet you could retrofit this with a new modern setup for $100

[bizzybody]

That can handle 75+ simultaneous ON inputs?

What about simplifying the link between the console and the light board? That's the main reason for doing anything to it, to replace that brute force and bulky 1 to 1 wiring with a digital data signal.

[PL1]

That can handle 75+ simultaneous ON inputs?

What about simplifying the link between the console and the light board? That's the main reason for doing anything to it, to replace that brute force and bulky 1 to 1 wiring with a digital data signal.

For that many individual simultaneous inputs, you might want to look at using two AT90USB646 AVRs with 46 inputs each as USB encoders.
- There might be another board out there that can handle a comparable number of inputs, but I don't recall ever seeing one.
- Alternately, you might be able to use 4 or 5 smaller AVRs plugged into a USB hub.

A RasPi should work as the brain.

I'm not sure what type of circuit lilshawn had in mind for controlling those 5mm LEDs, but addressable LEDs arranged in a matrix would only need 3 wires (or 4 with a clock line?) to individually control 75+ lights.
- Operating voltage (Due to the current draw, you might need to power the LEDs from a separate PSU.)
- Ground
- Data line

You might also need an Arduino Pro Micro as a buffer and stable clock for controlling the addressable LEDs since some require more stable/precise timing than the RasPi can provide.

Here's an animated display that Sjaak did with 8 daisy-chained strips of addressable LEDs.

You can do this, although it might be a little bit slower with neopixels.



I used LPD8806 LED strips and an arduino.

The main problem I see with addressable LEDs is putting out enough light to make the numbers visible from the other side of the room unless you use more than one LED per number.  i.e. #1 uses LEDs 1-4, #2 uses LEDs 5-8, etc.

How large are the numbers on the current light board? (X" x Y")

*** Cue the obligatory feature-creep and spending other people's money part of the thread.     ***

Considering how much time/effort it would take to use the original input mechanism and rewire the lightboard, it might be worth the investment to consider upgrading to a new system, except for the ball tumbler/dispenser.

Change the lightboard to a video display using a cheap widescreen TV or projector like this one. (they were on sale for around $25 several months ago)

Write/download/buy software to handle the inputs and output display(s).
- Caller might want a small display to confirm what's going on without looking over their shoulder.
- This software has a pretty decent layout (selectable win pattern, current call, last call, grid of all calls), but terrible color design. 


If you roll-your-own software, the inputs can use your choice of a 5x15 matrix encoder for inputting the calls (B, I, N, G, O on the left + 15 column buttons along the bottom) and several dedicated admin buttons (win pattern select, reset, next call, bingo, and an "oops" button to undo a wrong call or a mistaken bingo claim) and/or mouse clicks on a GUI.
- You might also consider using a 6x15 matrix with the top row used for win pattern select, assuming that 15 patterns is enough.


Scott

[bizzybody]

The numbers are 4". I looked up the lumens for #1820 bulbs and they're 20 or a bit over. Can't find figures for millicandela (mcd) or lux for the incandescent bulbs, or lumen ratings for many LEDs.

What about one of the I-PAC USB arcade interfaces by Ultimarc?

[PL1]

What about one of the I-PAC USB arcade interfaces by Ultimarc?

More convenience, more money.

IPac2 - 32 inputs - $39
IPac4 - 56 inputs - $65
Ultimate I/O - 48 inputs, 96 LED outputs - $99
PACLED - 64 LED outputs - $59

Sorry, but there don't appear to be any easy, cheap, off-the-shelf options for modernizing the existing control panel and light board.

Looks like this project will involve tons of research, lots of custom code and/or a very different approach to the hardware like using video display(s) and a keypad for entering the numbers.


Scott

[bizzybody]

This looks to be useful, super simple, and free. https://wildgoosechase.net/technology/bingo-display/

Mirror a laptop's display to a big TV and there it is. Since the whole thing is in an HTML and a CSS it should be possible to change the fonts, colors, and sizes. Open in a browser and hit F11.

Now if I knew about javascript I could add a pattern display, a 2 digit counter etc. Just expanding the height to fill the display height would be useful.

Still going to be looking into modernizing the old hardware, but they might be swayed towards picking up a used flatscreen and a laptop.