Hey guys,

I'm trying to come up with a fencing scoring machine for saber. The rules that this machine must obey are quiet simple and explained in the attached ASM. I believe I can do must of the design except the timing part.

I basically need some kind of clock for the wait and lockout inputs. After states 1 or 2 has been reached, there must be a time for the other fencer to light up before getting lockout (120 milliseconds). Once lockout becomes true, whichever lights when up must stay on for an additional 2-3 seconds.

Thank you

 

Is this right: G makes contact with R, R still has 120ms to respond to G before lockout. If R fails to respond, "he" is locked out & G's light comes on for 3 sec, after which all lights go out??

 

Maybe a start? A G touch pulse triggers timer B for 120 ms, during this time if no G timer pulse is received, timerC is triggered for 3 sec, lighting light J & blocking R touch at AND gate F. If two touches are received during a 120 ms period from G & R, timer I is triggered for 200ms or if a light is desired for 3 sec. which holds timers C & H in reset. Time to throw darts.

 

We have had several threads dealing with just this subject, where the op left happy and a circuit in his pocket. I strongly suggest a through search.

 

Is this right: G makes contact with R, R still has 120ms to respond to G before lockout. If R fails to respond, "he" is locked out & G's light comes on for 3 sec, after which all lights go out??

That's right. Thanks for your response. The 555 timer is the device I was looking for.

Bill, I did search for similar threads and I didn't find one.

 

Update

I got the main part done using a CPLD to hold the states, a 1MHz oscillator for clocking, and 2x 555 timers. Now, it comes down to designing the input circuit. A bit of knownledge about saber fencing is require to understand what I want, but I'll do my best to describe it.

Let's consider FencerG and FencerR. Each fencer has a weapon and a lame (electric mask and glove assume to be part of lame). The rules are:

1.) weaponG makes contact with lameR --> SaberG is 1, otherwise 0
2.) weaponR makes contact with lameG --> SaberR is 1, otherwise 0

3.) weapon to weapon contact does nothing...
4.) lame to lame contact does nothing...
5.) weaponG to lameG and weaponR to lameR does nothing...

I came up with two designs but in both cases one rule doesn't satisfy. Look at end of page1 and page2 (don't mind the flowchart). Design 1 (bottom page1), lame to lame contact creates a current. Design 2 (top page 2), same weapon to lame contact produces a current.

Thanks.

 

What is CPLD? My take is R saber is supplied with current limited voltage, say a 9V supply ,PS, with 1kΩ between PS & saber,S.limiting current to ground to 9mA. G lame connected to ground with 10kΩ. A touche? by R would then give an 8V pulse. Saber to saber gives no output & lame to lame ,no output. Same set-up with G&R. What is the white light on scoring box for? Any sound effects?

 

Possible solution for R saber,S, to R lame,L. A PNP transistor translates RS signal to ground based, inverted as input to AND gate, which is normally high. When RS contacts ground or a lemay AND input goes low, AND out is inhibited including own lemay, hopefully satisfing #5.

 

What is CPLD? My take is R saber is supplied with current limited voltage, say a 9V supply ,PS, with 1kΩ between PS & saber,S.limiting current to ground to 9mA. G lame connected to ground with 10kΩ. A touche? by R would then give an 8V pulse. Saber to saber gives no output & lame to lame ,no output. Same set-up with G&R. What is the white light on scoring box for? Any sound effects?

Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD) which in this case I used it in the form of a state machine controller. I made a truth table out of the flowchart and with that I made VHDL file with all the logic equations. The design is all logic except for the 2 timers that I used. In the design attached, Q's are the states, TriggerL is what sets off the lockout timer, TriggerW sets off the Wait timer, W is the output of the Wait timer, L is the output of the Lockout timer.

I also extensively modified the previous flowchart. I'm attaching the new version below. I don't have any sound yet, but I will add a buzzer soon. Don't worry about the white light, I haven't done it yet. That's for when the saber is unplugged from the circuit.

I'm having a hard time understanding your last post (I'm not so experience with analag circuits). I'll take a more deep look and answer back later.

Thanks for your prompt response.

 

Possible solution for R saber,S, to R lame,L. A PNP transistor translates RS signal to ground based, inverted as input to AND gate, which is normally high. When RS contacts ground or a lemay AND input goes low, AND out is inhibited including own lemay, hopefully satisfing #5.

I'm assuming this circuit must be implemented for both electric players in the same way. I see how this circuit could satisfy #5, but now if the is a simultaneous touch (GS to LR and GR to LG), wouldn't the AND gate for both cases return false because the transistor makes the signal RS and RG ground?

Also, why did you add a 10.0 us filter way on the bottom?

 

GS to LR & RS to LG simultaneous touches would = no score & no 3 sec. lockout. The 10 μs delay is a reminder that it is unlikley that inputs to the AND gate willnot arrive together due to logic delays & distributed capacity; hopefully 10 us will swamp out the differences.

 

GS to LR & RS to LG simultaneous touches would = no score & no 3 sec. lockout. The 10 μs delay is a reminder that it is unlikley that inputs to the AND gate willnot arrive together due to logic delays & distributed capacity; hopefully 10 us will swamp out the differences.

Bernard,

I do need simultaneous touches to be registered. If GS to LR & RS to LG happen at the same time, inputs SaberG and SaberR should be 1.

 

Why the 120ms grace period then? What is the timing tolerance on simultaneous? Guess I do not quite understand the requirement.

 

Why the 120ms grace period then? What is the timing tolerance on simultaneous? Guess I do not quite understand the requirement.

The grace period is needed because let's say Red scores, then Green has a window of 120 ms to light up his light. After that time period, Green gets lockout and no matter what its light won't go on. In saber there are rules of priority, in other words, if you are on the attack and both lights go on, then whoever had priority gets the touche. Is rarely the case where both fencers hit at the exact same time.