So, with the help of one of the employees there, I used a sandblaster for the first time and gave the acrylic a really cool appearance. It looks way cooler in my opinion and I really wanted to achieve this look. That way, when the light shone through, the whole digit would illuminate, instead of just the individual lights. I wanted these diffusers, which the light would shine through, to have a frosted appearance. So, I went in with a bunch of wood and glue, and came out with something that slightly resembled a scoreboard? Anyways, I laser cut the front of the scoreboard out, along with diffusers made from clear acrylic.
So, I took a trip down to TheShop.build to laser cut all the parts. With the parts all bought, it was time to actually build the scoreboard. And besides an extra button for the horn and two switches for starting the clock and powering the controller, that’s it. To display info to the user, I added a 16x2 character LCD. To receive inputs, I made a 7 by 4 button keypad, which the user would use to control the scoreboard. The controller uses an Arduino MEGA and an nRF24L01 module to operate and communicate with the scoreboard. This power socket also ran the power supply that ran the Arduino and lights.
#Basketball timer clock install
A cutout was made on one side so I could install a power socket, as the horn required 120 volts AC to work. The sides were made from ½ inch wood, being six inches wide to allow the horn to sit. The scoreboard front was made from ¼ inch MDF, again being 2 feet wide by 1 foot tall.
#Basketball timer clock professional
And finally, I bought a Federal Signal 350 horn, the same one used in professional scoreboards, along with a relay to switch it on and off. To communicate between the scoreboard and controller, I used two nRF24L01 modules. To power the LEDs, I bought a 5 volt, 5 amp power supply, as the Arduino would not be able to supply enough power to the LEDs. I ended up changing these LEDs out for these WS2812B addressable LEDs for reasons I’ll explain later. I also bought hundreds of red and yellow LEDs to make the digits. I bought an Arduino UNO to be the brains of the scoreboard. Next, I ordered all the parts off of Amazon. It would also be made out of wood, which would make it lighter and easier to work on compared to plastic or metal. The scoreboard would be 2 feet wide by 1 foot tall, making it small enough to carry around. Once everything had been planned out, I then began designing it in Adobe Illustrator. Since it was a considerable investment, around $400, I had to ensure that the money I spent was being properly used and not being wasted. The first step to this project was planning it out. Here you can see the keypad, the screen, wireless module, switch, and of course, the Arduino MEGA. The front of the controller contains the more complex electronics. Inside the base, there is a power circuit to power the Arduino MEGA, as well as another antenna to connect to the scoreboard.
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