Okay, so first off, I am by no means an engineer. I took a couple EE classes back in college and retained just enough to understand the basics. If you choose to help me... please speak as if I'm a child.

I have a problem, that I believe can be solved. I would like to create a box with 31x2 lights on it. Lights will be in pairs a green light and a red light. So, imagine a big box with 62 lights on it, in pairs of 2. These pairs of lights indicate a computer station. A student sitting at the computer station may press the green light or the red light which should send a wireless signal to the big box that will then light up the corresponding light. I would also like to make it so that when the teacher presses the light that is currently lit, it sends a signal back to the student box (which only has 2 lights on it, red or green) and turn the light off. My problem... I know know what parts I'm looking for or what they're called. I've read up on RF transceivers which transmit and receive data which sounds like what I need since the 31 student boxes with the 2 lights/buttons will both send and receive information, same as the big box for the teacher.

Student Box (x31)
-2 LEDs (one red one green)
-2 Buttons (pressing the button, lights up the corresponding light on the student box and sends a signal to the teacher box, lighting up the corresponding light)

Teacher Box (x1)
-62 LEDs (31 red, 31 green, in pairs - matching a student box)
-31 Buttons (corresponding to each student station, when pressed sends a signal to student box to turn off student box light whether it's green or red, also turns off light on teacher box)

If this doesn't make sense, I can try to explain... but I'm having a hard time finding a better explanation.

Thank You!

 

The concept is simple but the implementation, not so much.
You want two-way RF communication between each of the student's devices and the teacher's and that's not a trivial matter.

The easiest may be to have a PI computer in each box, such as the PI Zero W for about $10, which has both Bluetooth and WiFi for two-way RF communication.
The hard part is learning to program the computer to do what you want and how to interface it to the controls and lights.
But there are a lot of user sites and information on the web about using the PI computer so those would be a good source for help with your project.

 

Crutschow, thank you for the reply. I've looked into that and I just might go with that option. However, I am trying to keep costs down. If this is successful and works as intended once built then I may need to implement this in multiple classrooms.

I was thinking maybe if I dropped the ability to send a signal to the student boxes, but instead the student boxes ONLY send a signal to the teacher box then do you think I could use something like this? AMAZON UCEC XY-MK-5V / XY-FST 433Mhz Rf Transmitter and Receiver Module Link Kit for Arduino/Arm/McU/Raspberry pi/Wireless DIY(6-pack)

It wouldn't let me post the link.

I should note, I already have an Arduino, one of the past generations ... name starts with a D... I'm thinking that maybe I can use the Arduino in the teacher box to interpret the signals sent from the student boxes.

 

Can more than one student push a button at the same time?
If so, what do you want to be the result?