The Selleck Striker ready for action.

Lisa about to show it who’s boss.

Beer pong!

That’s a lot of facial hair.

I used the nailgun with some trim nails to tack two layers onto the striker. It can probably use some trimming on the corners, but it will do the trick.

First I cut the copper tubes to length, drilled each end cap and JB-Welded 1/4″ phono plugs into each one. Then I soldered model rocket ignitors to the phono plugs’ contacts inside the caps. The gray boxes are aluminum project boxes with phono jacks installed in one side. These will be mounted to the back of the Selleck head, but for now they were a good way to hold each cap as I was soldering. I then assembled the tubes to the caps and used a little electrical tape to hold them together.

I cut each 8″ x 9″ sheet of flash paper into strips (across the short length),

folded all the strips in half together and twisted them loosely,

then stuffed the whole thing into the end of the tube.

Done!

The photo is deceiving… that thing is almost four feet high.

reset button – Before a new contestant hits the striker, the reset button clears the LEDs, then checks the difficulty setting and applies any changes. It’s a SPST, switching 5V from the Arduino to one of its analog input pins. High on the pin = reset.

play/demo switch – Demo Mode plays a scrolling LED effect, Play Mode waits for a change in the pressure (like a hammer strike!). This is a SPDT (though I could have just used a SPST) switching 5V from Arduino to one of its analog input pins. High on the pin = Demo Mode, low on the pin = Play Mode.

difficulty knob – Just a 100K potentiometer that sends 0 to 5V to one of the analog input pins. This will allow us to adjust how much force is needed to get to the top.

score display – This 3-digit numeric LED display will show the “score” of the strike. I’m still not sure how I’ll calibrate it, but the idea is that you get a finer resolution score than the 0-50 LEDs in front. I’m thinking of having this also display the “difficulty” setting when you twist the knob.

striker connector – This is an RJ-45 connection for the striker portion, so that the two halves aren’t permanently tethered to each other. I’m only using three of the eight conductors.

audio out - This 1/4″ mono jack will send sound effects and other audio to the sound system.

Also note the the three Arduinos in the bottom of the photo. The Mega on the right will handle the LEDs and input elements, the NG in the middle drives the 3-digit LED display, and the Duemilanove with the wave shield on the left plays the sound effects. They’ll be communicating via their serial ports.

It’s a loose interpretation…

For testing, a simple cascading loop runs through the (first 16) LEDs one at a time:

const int ledCount = 16;    // the number of LEDs in the bar graph
int ledPins[] = { 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17 };   // an array of pin numbers to which LEDs are attached

void setup() {
  // loop over the pin array and set them all to output:
  for (int thisLed = 0; thisLed < ledCount; thisLed++) {
    pinMode(ledPins[thisLed], OUTPUT);
  }
}

void loop() {
  // loop over the LED array:
  for (int thisLed = 0; thisLed < ledCount; thisLed++) {
    digitalWrite(ledPins[thisLed], HIGH);  // turn on the LED
    delay(20);                             // wait
    digitalWrite(ledPins[thisLed], LOW);   // turn off the LED
  }
}

The backboard is 8 feet tall, made with extra 1x and plywood. I drilled and countersunk holes in the front for the LEDs to poke through, and left some slots in the 1x cross-pieces for the LED wiring. I built a little “backpack” compartment for the electronics, and primed and painted everything white.