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100 point pockets on a model H skeeball machine

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WindDrake:
The P10 connector is just a huge switch ladder, everything is in parallel. The board only understands how to increment 10 at a time, hence the score switch ladder on return to ball stackup. The nice thing is, this makes it simple to work with.

The hard way would be adding a new ramp in the machine with 5 more switches to pass by on it's way to the original 5 switches.

The easy and modern way to do it (Though overkill!) would be to have a dumb IC (555, etc) drive those lines low repeatedly (possibly through a FET if you are worried about isolation, sink ability, etc), or you could take a relatively user-friendly Arduino, whatever that TI one is, BASIC Stamp, etc, and have it pulse the line low 10 times whenever one of it's input pins is driven low (by your new 100pt Switch). Again, probably through a FET for safety.

SavannahLion:
I would try an ATTiny or an Atmega only because I picked up a few blank PCB's on the cheap. I have the programmer so its well within my capabilities to spend money to catch something on fire. But the OP might not want to spend the money for a populated board for an Arduino nor spend the time learning the programming language/syntax.

A 555 is a good choice. They, and the needed components, can be found at Rat Shack or equivalent making assembling the parts easy, albeit a little pricey. There are a billion ways to build such a circuit. Now that I think about it.... wouldn't a simple RC circuit do the job? Build  a set of four RC circuits each with a variable resistor to adjust timings?

WindDrake:
You could use an RC circuit network, but you'd still have to have it driving a Transistor that's Emitter-Ground, as the line's active low. Also, RC Circuits make my head hurt, I don't understand analog quite that well.

Easy way would be using two 555's or a 556 (555x2!), one in Monostable, one in Astable, and set up the timing for 5 pulses to come across in say.. 20ms or so (You'd have to mess with the timing!). Ok, so, not real easy, but cheap! Probably just a couple of bucks. You'd also have the issue if you hit the thing back to back, if the ramp is too sharp, you run the risk of restarting the Monostable 555 in the middle of it's operation, so you'd end up with some number less then 5 pulses, possibly.

Personally? I'd spend the $25 and use an Arduino or clone (Pro Mini, 5v), and set that one up to drive a Transistor for your pulses. That way, you can have the Arduino buffer it's pulse count, so that even if you stack balls back to back, it'll just keep pulsing till it's emptied it's buffer.



SavannahLion:
WindDrake, you're forgetting to account for the abilities of the OP. (S)He may not have the ability, tools or even the desire to deal with the software side of any programming language, regardless of the reason. It may sound bizarre to you or me, but there are people out there that think a word is what goes into a sentence.

The ideal answer is to figure out what the OP is capable of and go from there. I would also opt for a microcrontroller (though I would rather go with a Tiny or whatever is the cheapest controller I could source) but that may not be within the capabilities of the OP.

That said, there are discussions and diagrams all over the internet like this that do it sans 555 or a few that can do the trick with modifications using a 555 series IC. Here's one using a 4049.


--- Quote from: WindDrake on May 18, 2011, 11:34:23 am ---Also, RC Circuits make my head hurt, I don't understand analog quite that well.

--- End quote ---

Um.... RC's are kind of a basic building block of a lot of circuits. ??? Like a voltage divider, you kind of have to deal with them eventually. Try reading the schematic of a TTL circuit from 1979. Some people actually think the * is a single bit buffer :laugh2:

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