I hope I’m posting in the correct area. I’m trying very hard to repair/create a random light generator to fix an old “Love Tester Arcade” Basically, you place a coin in the slot and depress a handle and 12 lightbulbs randomly illuminate for approximately 15 seconds until only one light is left illuminated indicating your “love capacity”. Originally, they were EM driven with leaf relays and bells. In the 70’s they changed over to circuits. I have a picture of exactly what I need but I just can’t find it and don’t know if there may be something out there that I could easily use. I don’t have any experience making any type of circuit board and was really hoping there might be some sort of pre-made device that might work. I’m lost at this moment. Any help would be appreciated.

 

A micro would do this easily, or if you want to make an analogue type using a 556 clock, and couple of cd4017 couters , and a timer for delay..

 

A micro would do this easily, or if you want to make an analogue type using a 556 clock, and couple of cd4017 , and a timer for delay..

When you say a “micro” I just don’t understand. Without being too much of a PITA to you is there anyway to explain this to me in simple terms so that I could possibly create this myself. I am very mechanically oriented and can build basically anything but I’m not an engineer and have never built any circuit boards. Thanks for your help and reply.

 

A microcontroller, like Arduino, Pic , Raspberry pi etc,, you would need to learn a bit of programming for the particular device you want to use.

 

When you say a “micro” I just don’t understand. Without being too much of a PITA to you is there anyway to explain this to me in simple terms so that I could possibly create this myself. I am very mechanically oriented and can build basically anything but I’m not an engineer and have never built any circuit boards. Thanks for your help and reply.

A micro is a small computer that is programmed to do whatever you want. There are several outputs that you could use to control the lights.

Arduino is one such platform. It comes with software used to program the micro with your code.

The issue is controlling the lamp power with the low power the micro (or even a stand-alone circuit) uses. Depending on how the lights are powered (voltage and wattage), different solutions are possible.

I’d recommend a module (pre-built) called about a ”relay board” if the light power requirement falls within the relay specs.

So no, there likely isn’t a pre-made solution, but perhaps if you can code (or know someone who can), there is a modular solution that only requires a few wired connections.