Sweet Mary mother of god!!! Pong Clock

[ChadTower]

That tutorial will cost you substantially more than $100.

Jamma has a good point... not many programmers know hardware, and vice versa.

[skippy]

I really want one of these.

[Stingray]

Its a little computer, with 16 wires to attach stuff to.

I made up the rest.   

Uggg, me Programmer, not hardware guy... 

I can see how a program could be flashed to that chip, but what kinda board would you need, and how would you integrate a power supply/display screen with it? Enquiring minds need to know...

Even a know-nothing dumbhiney like myself is interested in learning more.

-S

[ChadTower]

http://cgi.ebay.com/FUJITSU-FMW5201M-PENCENTRA-200-32MB-TABLET-PC_W0QQitemZ6825465441QQcategoryZ18792QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


And simply write the small app... that really can't be that hard, you could totally fake the game and no one would notice.

[Jabba]

http://cgi.ebay.com/FUJITSU-FMW5201M-PENCENTRA-200-32MB-TABLET-PC_W0QQitemZ6825465441QQcategoryZ18792QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


And simply write the small app... that really can't be that hard, you could totally fake the game and no one would notice.

Cool! the guy is in Toronto.. I looked for completed listings to see what something like that has gone for in the past? I wonder what the retail price is from Fujistu? There must be some cheap knockoff made (clone).

Its controlled by Windows CE.....

[ChadTower]

Uh, that's cheap because it's old...

[RayB]

For the person who wanted a screensaver... I'm working on it:

http://www.sporeproductions.com/wip/pong_clock.html

This is as far as I had time to get today... I am downloading the video of the clock right now so I can see details such as does the ball move up into the area were the score is shown? And obviously, it's not showing time yet...

[quarterback]

For the person who wanted a screensaver... I'm working on it:

http://www.sporeproductions.com/wip/pong_clock.html

Whoo hoo! 

I didn't particularly want a screensaver over anything else, it just seemed like it would be the first "home version" developed because: (a) people outside of this forum would be interested and (b) it could (potentially) just pull the time information from Windows clock.

Looks like a good start RayB!

it shouldn't be that tough for some enterprising programmer to come up with something like this as a screen saver or flash animation.   I'll probably have to wait for that version

[walls83]

is it going to be a clock?  Its looking great so far. 

[SteveJ34]

Here's a link to the author's website...

http://burovormkrijgers.nl/index1.html

....which indicates a screen saver version is to be released in December 2005 and production models shortly following in January 2006.

[quarterback]

Here's a link to the author's website...
http://burovormkrijgers.nl/index1.html

....which indicates a screen saver version is to be released in December 2005 and production models shortly following in January 2006.

Huh?  The design place who invented the pong clock are actually putting out a screen saver version next month???  That's wierd.   

Like I said, I only suggested "screen saver" because I've seen other clock-screensavers and figured that somebody could whip one up.  I certainly didn't expect Buro Vormkrijgers (an award winning Dutch design studio) to make screen savers before even producing the wall clock version

Where on that page did you read that?

[versapak]

Here's a link to the author's website...
http://burovormkrijgers.nl/index1.html

....which indicates a screen saver version is to be released in December 2005 and production models shortly following in January 2006.

Huh? The design place who invented the pong clock are actually putting out a screen saver version next month??? That's wierd.

Like I said, I only suggested "screen saver" because I've seen other clock-screensavers and figured that somebody could whip one up. I certainly didn't expect Buro Vormkrijgers (an award winning Dutch design studio) to make screen savers before even producing the wall clock version

Where on that page did you read that?

Go to:

Portfolio=>Browse=>Miscellaneous=>Pong Clock=>3 & 4

3 mentions production beginning in 01-06
4 mentions screen saver available 12-01-05

[quarterback]

Here's a link to the author's website...
http://burovormkrijgers.nl/index1.html

....which indicates a screen saver version is to be released in December 2005 and production models shortly following in January 2006.

Huh? The design place who invented the pong clock are actually putting out a screen saver version next month??? That's wierd.

Like I said, I only suggested "screen saver" because I've seen other clock-screensavers and figured that somebody could whip one up. I certainly didn't expect Buro Vormkrijgers (an award winning Dutch design studio) to make screen savers before even producing the wall clock version

Where on that page did you read that?

Go to:

Portfolio=>Browse=>Miscellaneous=>Pong Clock=>3 & 4

3 mentions production beginning in 01-06
4 mentions screen saver available 12-01-05

Code: [Select]

The screensaver of this pongclock will be made available to the public from the 1st of december 2005, to allow you to customize your computer with this unusual but amusing time piece.
Sweet!   Ray, you gonna' beat them to the punch ?

[RayB]

GAHH! That's in two days! I'm sooooo busy! Let's wait and see if the screen saver is free or not. If they charge for it, I'll finish mine and give it away. Otherwise ....

[Stingray]

Let's wait and see if the screen saver is free or not. If they charge for it, I'll finish mine and give it away.

You're the Microsoft Internet Explorer of Pong clocks.

-S

[NinjaEpisode]

Here's a link to the author's website...
http://burovormkrijgers.nl/index1.html

....which indicates a screen saver version is to be released in December 2005 and production models shortly following in January 2006.

Huh? The design place who invented the pong clock are actually putting out a screen saver version next month??? That's wierd.

Like I said, I only suggested "screen saver" because I've seen other clock-screensavers and figured that somebody could whip one up. I certainly didn't expect Buro Vormkrijgers (an award winning Dutch design studio) to make screen savers before even producing the wall clock version

Where on that page did you read that?

Go to:

Portfolio=>Browse=>Miscellaneous=>Pong Clock=>3 & 4

3 mentions production beginning in 01-06
4 mentions screen saver available 12-01-05

A more direct approach:

http://burovormkrijgers.nl/docs/pong.html

[GGKoul]

I so want one!!!
-----------------------------------------------------------
Pong clock

[ChadTower]

...for $49.95.

[MameMaster!]

I emailed them asking for price in USD.

[Stingray]

[quote author=MameMaster

[Ed_McCarron]

Even a know-nothing dumbhiney like myself is interested in learning more.

Well, you have this little chip.  Provide it 5 volts.  They have a carrier board that has the voltage regulator on board, so you just plug in a 9v battery or one of those 'brick-on-a-rope' power supplies from your calculator.

You write a program (in a pseudo-basic kinda language) that tells the inputs or outputs what to do.  For example, my clock program looked like this back in the beginning:

Set up variable space
DataP  CON 0   ' Data pin to Displays.
Clock  CON 1   ' Shift clock to Displays.
Latch  CON 2   ' Moves data from register to output latch.
Minute   VAR BYTE   
Second10   VAR    BYTE
Second1    VAR    BYTE
DispMin    VAR BYTE
DispSec10  VAR    BYTE
DispSec1   VAR  BYTE
Timer      VAR    WORD
Setpoint   VAR WORD

Initialize the counter

Setpoint=180

For-Next loop

FOR Timer = Setpoint to 0

Do some modulus math to break seconds down into 3 digits for the display

Minute=Timer/60

Second10=(Timer//60)/10

Second1=(Timer//60)//10

This part was tricky.  Using the numbers for the 3 different displays, clock the data out on a single pin (DataP-Pin 0 as defined earlier) as 24 bits, with the clock pulse on (Clock-Pin 1).  When done, strobe (Latch-Pin 2) and the displays update.  The displays

LOOKUP Minute, [191,134,219,207,230,237,253,135,255,239], DispMin
LOOKUP Second10, [191,134,219,207,230,237,253,135,255,239], DispSec10
LOOKUP Second1, [191,134,219,207,230,237,253,135,255,239], DispSec1
SHIFTOUT DataP,Clock,MSBFIRST,[DispMin,DispSec10,DispSec1]
PULSOUT Latch,1

Since all that only took 50 ms, wait another 950 ms before nexting back to the beginning.

PAUSE 950

NEXT

END

You get commands like IN to read the status of a pin, OUT to turn on/off an output, and a lot of other basic-type commands.  Theres a few more like CASE that seem to be swiped from C.

Depending on what you want to drive with those outputs, you need some kind of interfacing circuitry.  For 120v lights, I just use a solid-state relay with a 5v input.  To control a solenoid (think Q-Bert's knocker - something needs to interface a fairly high current solenoid with the 5v logic signal from the PCB.  A hefty transistor will do the trick.

Theres all kinds of sites out there on these critters.  They are sweet for anything that needs to react to something.  Not the most powerful processor, and they tend to be kinda slow in the overall scheme of things, but, hey, you can do some neat stuff for relatively cheap.

The displays I used were some surplus things from sports clocks or something.  Got 'em for like $10 a digit.  Heres the finished project:

[Stingray]

Wow, that's cool. I have this Monaco GP marquee and all of the LED readout stuff that goes behind it.



I'd love to wire it up to just display random numbers that change now & then. Sounds like this would be the thing to use for that purpose. Not that I have any clue as to how to go about it. Thanks for sharing.

-S

[Buddabing]

Meh. There's just a PC under there and a LCD screen. For all we know they wrote the application in Visual Basic.

I'm with Ed, I'd like to see the Basic Stamp version, with circuit and software.

Edit: Hacking Billy Mouth Bass. Now THAT was impressive!

[Jabba]

I never knew Billy had sexual relations with Monica Lewinski 

[walls83]

so is the screen saver version released.?

[Stobe]

My first thoughts on making this a wall clock would be taking a working flash version, and using a TV out card and Windows dual display.  Send just the flash program to the TV out port, which could be s-video's to one of those cheap 7" LCD screens like you use in cars for DVD players.

It's obviously reliant on the PC always running, but I'd wager a lot of us have a PC somewhere that is always running (or 4, lol)

-Stobe

[ChadTower]

Windows boxes are not stable enough for that.  The last thing I want is something that's supposed to be as no brainer as a clock that I have to reboot every second day.

[versapak]

Seems the screen saver release date was changed, from being the 1st of December, to the less specific in December.

[Stingray]

Now's your chance Ray, you can still finish yours first!

-S

[Jabba]

Windows boxes are not stable enough for that.

[ChadTower]

Just build it on a minimal linux kernel.

[Stingray]

will take a crack at something this weekend...

I knew I made you the Minister of Scientific Crap for a reason. The reason is that I was really drunk at the time, but looks like it all worked out in the end.

-S

Edit: Stoopit #$%* bb code.

[ChadTower]

Dude, I never said I would take a crack at this.

[Jabba]

will take a crack at something this weekend...

I knew I made you the Minister of Scientific Crap for a reason. The reason is that I was really drunk at the time, but looks like it all worked out in the end.

-S

Inside 

[Jabba]

Dude, I never said I would take a crack at this.

Dude, lets not start talking about your crack now

[ChadTower]

Yrmom buys my crack.

[Stingray]

Stoopit $%#* bb code doing what I type instead of what I'm thinking.

-S

[RayB]

Now's your chance Ray, you can still finish yours first!
-S

Anyone know where I can get the corect PONG sound effects or a simulation I can sample it from?

[ChadTower]

Use 2600 Pacman sounds like nearly every movie with videogames in it.

[Stingray]

Use 2600 Pacman sounds like nearly every movie with videogames in it.

LOL! That actually would be pretty funny.

-S