A humble request for help - Electronic Cricket Scoreboard

[AlexWizard]

Hi all,

First off I apologise if I've broken some board etiquette by just coming on here and asking for help immediately.

I'm looking to build an electronic cricket scoreboard.

The design I have in mind is something like this

**broken link removed**

I'd also like to control it remotely, ideally with a remote with an LED display mimicing the larger scoreboard.

I've studied other threads and have some basic ideas. My electronics knowledge is fairly basic and basically I'd like some advice on

1) Whether this is a realistic project for someone without significant electronics experience.

2) Any elementary introductory info on the project i.e. if you were going to teach a shaved ape how to do this what would help him (if he could read).

Thanks

 

[Sceadwian]

1) Whether this is a realistic project for someone without significant electronics experience.

Not really no, especially since you want a remote. Further explanatation on exactly what your electronics knowledge and general education level would help to judge if it's over your head.

2) Any elementary introductory info on the project i.e. if you were going to teach a shaved ape how to do this what would help him (if he could read).

After you explain your experience we can figure better how best/if we can help you.

Many users here (myself included) would help with walking you through things gradually as long as you can tough out the teaching methods and don't mind putting your nose to the grind stone so to speak, much of what you want to do is not excessively complicated, the main exclusion is the remote, but that can be addressed later.

Almost forgot! We need to know how much money you are willing to spend on this and how much time you have to complete to complete or/are willing to work on it.

 

[scoreman]

Hi Alexwizard

I made an electronic scoreboard from scratch - my previous electronics was for A level nearly 50 years ago and we had valves then, its a lot simpler these days
First I decided not to bother with the 1st innings runs (just chalk them up once)
Over the last 6 months I built about 3 prototypes refining the system each time - you need to decide the scope of the project / how will it be powered in the real world / even how portable (very or just put in the shed after a match / what about waterproofing)
1) Are you going to build a transmitter or write a pc program to send the data via a USB port (fairly simple - plenty of examples around)
2) Transmission - I suggest its two way (one way was a pig never knew if data got there)
3) Receiver / controller - plenty of processors choose one and practice there are free languages / compilers around just a little practice
4) Decide on the physical size / type of LEDs (you can buy quite big ones - I built mine from scratch) - there is a chart on the internet done by someone relating to size v distance
5) Also look around at basket-ball scoreboards for ideas

Don't assume you will get it right first time it is an iterative process read and look for examples - plan in advance, try it out - amend plans
use small 7 segment displays to get the programs working

I had problems with getting the brightness of the final LED digits correct and found this forum very helpful