Electronic products exam June help

[Jesse]

I will be taking the electronics products GCSE this summer and was wondering if anyone would be able to help me out. I am having a large amount of trouble trying to get a circuit drafted up for a pinball game where every time the ball involved reaches the bottom it hits a switch and turns off one of the led's which signify a life lost. This needs to happen 3 times before all of the led's turn off and when the user has lost all of their lives, the led's need to potentially flash for 5 seconds before resetting. I have an idea of how the design will be set out and I understand that a counting system is probably needed. However, my knowledge is limited at the moment, as we have finished school and have to create this independently before the exam.
It would be greatly appreciated if someone could help me out.
Thanks.

 

[CocaCola]

Certainly you gained some knowledge in the class before they tossed you out into the world to do this project?

There are a few counter chips in the 4000 series that will be of use...

http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/components/cmos.htm

And flashing can be done many ways, that is documented all over the place...

Lets see what you come up with and go from there...

 

[Jesse]

I have a knowledge of electronics but I need to make use of either: astable, monostable, bistable or PIC circuits to do this project, any ideas? Cheers

 

[CocaCola]

Google 555 or learn how to write code for a micro...

It's dead simply for a micro to do the entire thing, it would be my choice, but you have the learning curve of learning to program... It also doesn't teach you much about electronics in general

I HIGHLY doubt anyone on this forum is going to do your homework for you, you will likely get tossed bones and pointed in the right direction once you show that you are actually trying...

Also if you have any other design parameters it's probably best to disclose them so no one waste time...

 

[JOHNNAB]

good luck

I will be taking the electronics products GCSE this summer and was wondering if anyone would be able to help me out. I am having a large amount of trouble trying to get a circuit drafted up for a pinball game where every time the ball involved reaches the bottom it hits a switch and turns off one of the led's which signify a life lost. This needs to happen 3 times before all of the led's turn off and when the user has lost all of their lives, the led's need to potentially flash for 5 seconds before resetting. I have an idea of how the design will be set out and I understand that a counting system is probably needed. However, my knowledge is limited at the moment, as we have finished school and have to create this independently before the exam.
It would be greatly appreciated if someone could help me out.
Thanks.

Need more info.....is there a time limit per pinball?

link removed

 

[jackorocko]

Need more info.....is there a time limit per pinball?

link removed

do you know how pinball works? When you lose the ball down between the little batter things, it leaves you with one less ball launch. So the scoreboard normally keeps track of this. I will assume that the OP is looking for a similar approach.

I am with coke man. This is really simple for a micro. But even as a discrete circuit the individual parts are not all that terribly involved. Instead of counting down, you could "strike out", if that makes it an easier.