Introduction: Arduino Quiz Game With Led Strip for Score and Two Buttons

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Two teams answer questions by pushing their button.

They can score an amount of points equal to the random number of lights lit on their button.

This requires some strategic choices and luck. When the teamscores meet on the large led strip, they can take away points from the other team. First one to the other side wins!

There is also a secret party-mode for music rounds or after the quiz.

The quizmaster can manually add or substract bonuspoints.

Supplies

  • Arduino Nano 5V (clone)
  • 5 mall arcade buttons (team A, team B, Correct, Wrong, Reset)
  • small 7seg display
  • Optional: Nano V3.0 3.0 Controller Terminal Adapter Expansion Board
  • 5V 2A power supply (I use a USB powerbank or wall outlet)
  • telephone cable (4 wires. But you can use any wires)
  • WS2812B neopixel strips with 144px/m (lengths: 5px, 5px, 48px). The main strip can be as long as you wish.
  • R470 Resistor (optional. for safe communication between neopixels and Arduino)
  • 1000mF capacitor (optional. for safe communication between neopixels and Arduino)
  • 3.6mm wood for lasercutting
  • (hot) glue
  • 3D printer (for buttons and optional led diffuser)

Step 1: Lasercut the Console

Go to your local makerspace/fablab/... to lasercut the console box on 3.6mm wood (I used cheap multiplex)

Use this .svg to cut.

I'v added some small extra pieces to make glueing everything together easier.

It's not a tight fit, so you will probably need woodglue.

Glue everything together. I left the bottom open. But you can easily cut an extra piece of wood to close it.

Step 2: Cut the Led Strip

Cut the 1 meter (144 leds) strip in pieces of 48, 5 and 5 pixels. Use the rest for other projects.

Try to cut in such a way that you have enough metalic padding to solder your wires to. It's not super easy to solder on the pads. Use flux and a magnifying glass.

If you want to build your own console, you can use a strip as long as you wish, instead of the 48 pixels I used.

Step 3: Assemble the Circuit

Solder everything together.

For easy access, I use an Nano terminal adaptor expansion board. It's sturdier than a breadboard but more flexible to change or damage than soldering directly to the arduino nano.

I used these digital pins:

  1. /
  2. btnPlus (to judge an answer as being correct or to give team B bonuspoints)
  3. btnMin (to judge an answer as being wrong or to give team A bonuspoints)
  4. bntB (arcade button for team Blue)
  5. btnA (arcade button for team Yellow)
  6. StripB (5 led strip on button Blue)
  7. /
  8. StripC (48 pixels led strip for showing the score)
  9. btnR (Reset button. Hold to reset the game)
  10. StripA (5 led strip on button Yellow)
  11. DIO 7SEG (to 7segment display)
  12. CLK 7SEG (to 7segment display)

Optional but advised

  • Add a R470 Resistor between the neopixel input and pin8.
  • Add a 1000mF capacitor between + and - of your power supply to prevent ledstrip from overcharging.
  • Use screw terminals. This way it's easier to repair without soldering if someone pulls to hard on the wires and something breaks.

Step 4: 3D Print the Buttons

Print with at least 15% infill to make sure the button can take a hit.

I used regular PLA on my Ender 3.

Step 5: Glue Everything Together

Console

  1. Glue or screw the nano expansion bord to the inside of the box.
  2. Glue the led strip on the extra, long, piece of wood you lasercut.
  3. Glue that wood to the small pieces you lasercut
  4. Glue the small pieces to the back of the top-plate of the console. This way their is room for the wires from the led strip to go inside the box.
  5. Optional: Add a plastic (plexi) diffuser above the leds.
  6. Drill small holes for the wires.


Button(s)

  • After soldering wires to the arcade button and the small led strip
  • Glue the led strip at the back of the top of the button.
  • Get some small 2mm screws and screw the bottomplate to the button.
  • If need be: glue the wires to the button so they can take some pulling when the game gets... intense.

Step 6: Upload Code

Open the Arduino sketch directly in the Arduino web editor here.

Upload to your Arduino Nano.


Disclaimer: the code is commented and works flawlessly. But it's probably not the most neat code ;)

It's easy to read and to adjust. You can remove the random points system, the ledstrip on the buttons and go for the standard 1 point per question.

Step 7: Game On!

  • The quizmaster asks a question (duh)
  • Both of the teams can answer by pressing their button. But beware! You can score or loose the amount of points equal to the number of leds lit on the button. This changes randomly every second.
  • Will you answer as soon as possible? Or will you wait for 5 points if you think you know the answer and the other team does not?
  • When a team answers, the points they can win/loose are colored in green/red on their side of the score-ledstrip.
  • Meanwhile... the other team has had plenty of time to push their button for the maximum of 5 points.
  • The quizmaster decides if correct or wrong.
  • If the first team gets it wrong, the other team can answer and so on.
  • The score a team can score with the current question is displayed on its side (left/right) of the 7seg display. The number closest to the middle of the 7 segment display gets to answer now.
  • The quizmaster can adjust scores by pressing the 'correct' or 'wrong' button if no team has pushed their button.
  • short press 'wrong' to add 1 point to team Blue (on the right)
  • long press 'wrong' to substract 1 point from team Blue
  • short press 'correct' to add 1 point to team Yellow (on the left)
  • long press 'correct' to substract 1 point from team Yellow
  • The quizmaster can press the reset button to cancel any buttonpresses from the teams
  • Long pressing the reset button for 8 seconds resets the game
  • SECRET CODE: 3x Reset, Correct, Wrong. This combination triggers a party-mode with RGB LED GALLORE ^^ As seen in the small movieclip.

Step 8: Possible Upgrades

Some possible upgrades:

  • Add a DFplayer mini and mp3 sounds.
  • Game over animation in the color of the winning team
  • Add a microphone and let the leds react to music
  • Make a square version for 4 teams. Each team starts in a corner and gets points towards the corners of 2 other teams.
  • Make some room in the console to store the buttons and a powerbank. Keep them in place with magnets or rubberbands. Good for taking it with you to the game night.
  • Any suggestions? Let me know in the comments!