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Need help designing hockey scoreboard circuit(s)

Arthur Yasinski

Jun 23, 2015
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Jun 23, 2015
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I have very basic knowledge of electronics, and could use the assistance of experts to come up with the best approach to designing a hockey scoreboard. I have stumbled on to the Maxxtronics kits, and since my expertise with circuitry may be lacking, I am leaning towards kits that are foolproof and that provide the functionality vs building it from scratch myself. :)

Here is what I had in mind. There will be two discrete elements to the scoreboard:
  • Controller - I plan to have a controller housed in a keyboard enclosure, which will house the specific circuits, any small LED displays for the operator, and the necessary switches
    • I anticipate needing 4 circuits for this: 1 timer/countdown circuit with 4 digits that will count-down from 20:00 to 0:00 with an alarm/horn sounding at 0:00; 3 counter/count-up circuits with 1 digit...one for home goals (0-9), one for away goals (0-9), and one for the period (1-4)
    • this will include a power supply
  • Scoreboard - the scoreboard will be a big external box (4' x 3') that will house the digits for the scoreboard, and any necessary segment drivers or the like
    • The clock would be 4 x 9" LED digits (MX037); the two goal counters would each be 7" LED digits; and the period counter would be a 5" LED digit (MX035)
    • I believe I will need 4-digit seven segment driver (MX008) for the clock portion, and 3 seven segment drivers (MX007)...unless the circuit kit includes the drivers built in
    • this will also include a power supply
  • I plan to connect the controller and the keyboard with a series of 8-wire Ethernet cables
My questions:
  • is there a simpler solution to what I want/need?
  • are there other kits like the Maxxtronics kits that would provide me what I need?
  • The only timer kit I saw was 6-digits; does anyone know of any that are only 4 digits?
  • The 9" digits are ~$30, which I think is pretty cheap for a 7-segment digit; anyone know of any cheaper?

I am open to any/all suggestions and feedback, and really appreciate the time and thoughts in advance.
Arthur
 
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