Electronics > Beginners

Cowboy Fast Draw Timer ?

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Bartty:
Hi all I am new so would like to introduce myself. I have pretty much no knowledge at all about building these type of projects, I can wire a plug, have built a very simple receiver as part of a Radio Ham Novice project and have been Licensed for quite a few Years now. Can solder reasonably well, know that LED's only light up One way round (or used to, might have changed now?) can fiddle with 12v car electrics and know how a multi meter works. So pretty much a novice.
I would like to build the above timer, put out a message on my Radio Club board and there was a suggestion I looked here. There is a rather neat Arduino One on Youtube but the last activity from the presenter was 2 Years ago and there was a comment asking for the code but no reply to it so presume that is a dead end.
That One ran automatically, there were 4 flashes from a LED, then the Led came on and a timer started till a Pezio detected the hit, displayed the time then went in to the next 4 flash cycle etc. That would be great.
I was wondering if it could be done with a Pi more easily as it is cleverer than an Arduino? Ideally a switch to start, a delayed start, lets argue between 2 and 10 seconds (presume it would be programmable?) a microphone or switch to hear or sense the bang and a timer to display time?
Not sure how simple or complicated my request or description is, never tried anything like it so looking forward to some help :-) pretty sure all the bits are out there, firstly need to know if it can be done on a budget, I could pay around £500 for a commercial One. And if it is a sensible first project.
Grateful for any advice. Thank you, Chris.

ogden:

--- Quote from: Bartty on November 01, 2018, 11:19:21 am ---I was wondering if it could be done with a Pi more easily as it is cleverer than an Arduino?

--- End quote ---

No. Pi is not for beginners, it's way more complex than Arduino, also huge overkill for particular project unless you want it to be more like TV-connected game. You shall look for Pi only when Arduino is not exciting for you anymore - if I can say so.

Richard Crowley:
This is fundamentally the "game show" scenario where you sense which contestant hits the button first.  There are dozens/scores of these kinds of circuits/code out there.  It is pretty simple even for Arduino, and vast overkill for RasPi.

Not clear whether by "Fast Draw" you actually mean pulling a pistol out of a belt holster and pulling the trigger vs. simply hitting a pushbutton switch (etc.) first?

With the kinds of modular, board-level products available on Ebay, etc. it would be pretty easy to even make wireless "pistols" that an Arduino could sense "first-activated".  Actually, you wouldn't even need an Arduino as the "game-show" circuits were very frequently implemented with more primitive logic gates/flip-flops, etc for decades before Arduino ever came along.

Bartty:
Thanks for very quick information.
To clarify, this is to time blank fire single action cowboy guns, not a button press or arcade type guns. Although i expect a button press could easily be replaced by a microphone or other sensor?
Essentially it is a competition between 2 shooters to see who is quickest.
This would be a simple (and cheap) way for me to practice at home, on my own.
I have no idea about coding or how to code, pretty much need to start from the bottom. Did do a bit of program stuff at College but that was 45 Years ago on a ticker tape type thing.
Thanks, Chris.

rhb:
The Arduino really is the way to go.  It was initially created  precisely for people like you for exactly this sort of task.

The program amounts to a few lines of code.   Send a pulse to a piezo sounder and start a timer.  When the ADC detects a spike on the line connected to a microphone stop the counter and display the time.

You probably won't find an example that does exactly that, but you'll find examples of all the steps.

Very likely you can build a prototype over a long weekend or several evenings.  I suggest you get one of these:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Elegoo-EL-KIT-001-UNO-R3-Project-Complete-Starter-Kit-with-Tutorial-for-Arduino/183356902121

It has everything you need.

Button to start piezo timer
piezo sounder
FET microphone
4 digit 7 segment display

You can get the just the stuff you need cheaper, but the Chinese stuff is wildly variable, so stuff bought separately may not match the instruction pinouts, etc.  This has the advantage of it comes with a good set of tutorials (at least it looks good, I've not  tried working through it).

In the unlikely event that you run into trouble, a note posted on the bulletin board of a secondary school or some other location where kids hang out offering to swap the spare parts for a working unit should turn up a teenager who would be quite happy with the deal.  Especially if you let him practice his quick draw during testing.

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