Hey all, just wanted to ask you guys a question.

I recently took apart a "Press your Luck" portable game toy, and I need help with what I should do with it. It isn't really valuable or anything, so yeah I can go nuts with it.

What it looks like (assembled):

Oh, and I forgot to mention, I accidentally disconnected the wires going to the battery's, as well as several other things (should be able to notice in the pictures up ahead).

(sorry, I can only show you the back of the board. Other picture is too blurry

Screen w/ components.

Disconnected speaker.

What I want to do is somehow connect to my computer, but I don't know where to solder or anything.

Thanks.

 

Your computer is in the process of writing it's Last Will and Testament.

Seriously though, trying to interface something like that to your computer as a first project would more likely than not wind up rather disastrously. You would need some fairly expensive test equipment just to figure out what the game's signals are.

It's a good idea to start out with projects that are pretty simple, and then work your way up to more complex projects. It's not something that you can do overnight; it takes time, and there are a lot of basic things to learn.

Just connecting up an LED to a battery for the first time can be a challenge to figure out what current limiting resistor you will need to make the LED bright, but not burn out.

 

Your computer is in the process of writing it's Last Will and Testament.

Seriously though, trying to interface something like that to your computer as a first project would more likely than not wind up rather disastrously. You would need some fairly expensive test equipment just to figure out what the game's signals are.

It's a good idea to start out with projects that are pretty simple, and then work your way up to more complex projects. It's not something that you can do overnight; it takes time, and there are a lot of basic things to learn.

Just connecting up an LED to a battery for the first time can be a challenge to figure out what current limiting resistor you will need to make the LED bright, but not burn out.

Ah, thank you. Any ideas in mind for what I could experiment with?

 

Sure, have a look in Bill_Marden's blog - he has lots of ideas in there:
http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/blog.php?b=378

Pick something that looks interesting, but doesn't involve lots of parts.

Some parts you might find at a local electronics store. If you're in the USA, you might find a Radio Shack not far away. They don't stock many components anymore, but you can still find some useful items there.

There are also places online that you can order parts from. Digikey.com is hobbyist-friendly; they will ship SMALL orders via USPS 1st class, which can save you money. Mouser.com is another top distributor.

It's easy to get carried away and order too much stuff. It does make sense to order a few extra parts, just in case you break some of them while you're trying to hook them up.