Retro Horse Derby Game Board with Neopixels showing Reaction Game Status

Fri 2019.01.11

Hi Mike, it appears you @matencio have solved the login issue. Great!!

"the large number of CS students at Louisiana Tech University more and intro the Espruino board to them as well. Spread the wealth."

Welcome to the Espruino community Louisiana Tech students, and I'm sure @Gordon will be thankful also!

"Unlike a pinball machine with only a single player, everyone plays at the same"

To clarify, does this mean there is a separate two lane pinball like frame for each player? (yes?)

If yes, a problematic issue exists. How to multiplex the switches (18 x 2 = 36) and decode them at the microcontroller. If three SPI ports are used, there are around four available pins remaining.

"couldn't one switch be used to advance the lights two or three lights depending on which of 2 switches is activated instead of using 5 switches?"

Yes. Array element index offset

"can the lights in the final stretch be programmed to advance one light using the same switches"

Yes

"Is it more efficient to cut the string, add three lengths of long wire to start the string for those players at the start instead of backwards coding them?"

This would be my recommendation, although I haven't tried this myself. It might be that the data line will have to be shielded, but only if the length causes an issue. More in later posts.

"Can the Espruino handle that many players?" (ref 18)

Will require lengthy discussion. If all (24 x 18 = 432) sequential Neopixels could be separated into two or three strings, then one Espruino device (Pico or WiFi) with three hardware SPI pins %should% be able to handle sending the data. Memory management and array size will be critical here.

"Can I use a power supply like . . . ."

Question: How many lights will be on at the same time? If less than ~40, a simple $5  5V2000ma wall wort/phone charger should work fine.
I've pushed the limit and have run my meter strip of 60 full on for four hours without smoke! ;-) Kids don't try this at home.
(40 neos x 60ma ea = 2400ma total, beyond the rating)
Neopixels did get warm but wall charger surprisingly cool.

I found this link of a carnival game that is similar to what I remember from fifty years ago, but

https://hanfordsentinel.com/features/nostalgic-carnival-game-makes-one-final-appearance/article_f1a2a497-669e-51c7-86eb-bce1393bd6e1.html

had mechnical horses rather than a light board similar to this:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/154389093453558191/

Brings back a memory of when my brother and I, around age 10-12 were at a carnival (IN) watching one of these in action. Both of us were in back looking at all the clicking relays and advancing horse mechanism, fascinated instead of watching the players shoot the ball and who would win. Interestingly, both of us started careers in Electronics, then on to Software. It was around thirty years ago, I saw (WI) the last of the mechanical but did see a lit board like the one you possess.