Since my air hockey table got ruined I wanted to take the fans out of it to mess around with. I decided to take the little 8 digit led things out to. Now I want to maybe be able to connect it to my pc with a usb or something so does anyone know what model/name or anything about this might be?
On the back of this main board it says HX-CR-2.1 but I could not find anything on google.
[IMG]http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii185/Ratboy18/Airhockey/1.jpg[/IMG]
And on the back of this it says NS0409-DC
[IMG]http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii185/Ratboy18/Airhockey/2.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii185/Ratboy18/Airhockey/3.jpg[/IMG]
figure out what each of the pins do, you may need to create another chip that controls the HID commands and plugs into the main PCB, plug that into a USB port a [url=http://www.kadtronix.com/usbhidapi_usr.htm]start writing drivers/software[/url]
You would probably have an easier time buying an Arduino and programming it with that.
[QUOTE=robmaister12;21274881]figure out what each of the pins do, you may need to create another chip that controls the HID commands and plugs into the main PCB, plug that into a USB port a [url=http://www.kadtronix.com/usbhidapi_usr.htm]start writing drivers/software[/url]
You would probably have an easier time buying an Arduino and programming it with that.[/QUOTE]
Thanks. Do you know where I can find or maybe make a connector from the chip to my pc?
[QUOTE=Ratboy14;21275951]Thanks. Do you know where I can find or maybe make a connector from the chip to my pc?[/QUOTE]
It's not that easy. Your computer won't have any idea what is it or know what to do with it. It's a completely different system to your computer.
[QUOTE=cosmic duck;21279443]It's not that easy. Your computer won't have any idea what is it or know what to do with it. It's a completely different system to your computer.[/QUOTE]
Unless the hockey table runs Windows.
[QUOTE=Wiggles;21279521]Unless the hockey table runs Windows.[/QUOTE]
Whose doesn't?
Instead of endlessly trying to figure out whatever chip it uses and a method of controlling it, I would scrap the PCB and attach the displays to some form of microcontroller.
bit of a derail but is there any tutorial into micro-controllers?
You should probably head for AVR microcontroller if you want to program them in C or Assembler.
Here's a tutorial I found, can't say whether it's good though: [url]http://www.avrtutor.com/tutorial/thermo/welcome.php[/url]
Here is one that is more about electronics itself and setting up the microcontroller itself, and how to put code onto your microcontroller, but it doesn't say anything about programming it: [url]http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/tutorial_info.php?tutorials_id=57&page=1[/url]
Just hit me up on steam if you need any more informations on that.
Also OP: it's not like you can connect USB to everything, you need a microcontroller to adress each led seperately and control them. Then you need a chip that translates USB signals into UART signals. All around you would have to spend around 30$ to create a little device that could communicate with it. Not to mention the time it takes to figure out how everything is controlled and learning to code for microcontroller.
This sounds awesome, I wish I knew electronics. Although this stuff kinda motivates me to study for engineer
I thought that the controller could connect to the pc but I guess not. I can still use the led figure 8 things with a different microcontroller type of thing right?
[QUOTE=Ratboy14;21283919]I thought that the controller could connect to the pc but I guess not. I can still use the led figure 8 things with a different microcontroller type of thing right?[/QUOTE]
That's a microcontroller printed onto the PCB itself, and then sealed with ceramic (the black dot). If you manage to find out what microcontroller it is, you could buy a programmer for it and program it, but it's most likely you won't find it, or it'll be really expensive.
What you could do is buy a microcontroller development board (~15$), a programmer for it (~20$) and desolder the 7-segment displays.
But you won't get any benefit out of all that really.
An Arduino would probably be a better start for him, though you probably need some type of shift register.
[QUOTE=Ratboy14;21283919]I thought that the controller could connect to the pc but I guess not. I can still use the led figure 8 things with a different microcontroller type of thing right?[/QUOTE]
Try an Arduino.
[editline]12:00PM[/editline]
Actually, you can get LED Controllers for Arduino for like 8 bucks.
If you're interested in computer controlled electronics you could get something like an Arduino and dive straight in, however I recommend against this as most beginners tend to get quite confused because they have not studied the theory properly.
You should start from the beginning with simple circuits and components like resistors, capacitors and diodes.
I suggest you start reading [b][url=http://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/electricCircuits/]Lessons In Electric Circuits[/url][/b] a free ebook by Tony R. Kuphaldt.
There are also a number of free circuit simulators around which you can play around with such as [b][url=http://qucs.sourceforge.net/]Qucs[/url][/b], [b][url=http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/#Spice]LTspice IV[/url][/b] or the excellent [b][url=http://www.falstad.com/circuit/]Java Circuit Simulator[/url][/b].
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