AirHockeyScoreBoard

As most air hockey players have probably noticed by now, there are some issues with the current air hockey score board set-up. Namely:

• Goal detection is unreliable
• The score board occasionally hangs
• Some other minor annoyances

And, most importantly, we didn't build it ourselves!

So it's about time we solve all of this by building our own version.

I (smeding) have started some design & building work, but feel free to contribute in any way you can, of course.

Current design

<img src="/old/scoreboard.png" alt="the schematic" width='1024 />
[/old/scoreboard.sch|gschem schematic file]

The current design is based around:

• An AVR microcontroller
• Four VacuumFluorescentDisplays, driven by shift registers and open-collector drivers
• A buzzer for audio feedback
• Two switches for control
• Two phototransistors for goal detection

Notes:

• The AVR in the schematic is an ATMega328P but a smaller one may also be sufficient
• I have never worked with optical sensors before so the current design may be a bit too simplistic in that regard. Comments are appreciated.